"She is awake! Signal the Queen!"
Carrie woke up, laying on a cold hard floor. She checked her surroundings. She could tell from the lack of distortion and dizziness she was out of the nightmares. She could also tell that she was in a cell.
There was a cot bolted to the floor with a very shabby mattress and blanket, a bucket that Carrie assumed was a "toilet", three walls of cement and a fourth of metal bars, a window on the left and right walls and a set of manacles on her wrists. She realized escape would be easy.
Carrie waited until she got a sense for the guard patterns; there were none.
She stepped up to the bars. Placing her hands on the bars, she focused her fire within into a hot but small flame in her mind. She pushed it out of her body. Usually, this would conjure the fire she wanted. Instead, it came out of her wrists and into the manacles. She tried again, willing the fire to come out of her hands. The flames darted out into the manacles once again. She kept trying until she noticed the heat. Every time she released her magic, the manacles heated up on the inside. She knew she couldn't be burned but, if the restraints got hotter, the slightly uncomfortable feeling she had would probably grow.
"It's useless hot stuff." Came a weak voice from right window. "James?" Carrie whispered. She moved to the wall, peering through the grate.
James sat on his cot. A set of cuffs were attached to his wrists too, and small red welts marked the skin they touched. "James!" Carrie cried. "Where are we? What happened? Where was I?" A voice called out from the left side. "Ingrid's dungeon, we were captured and the Nightmare Realm."
"Aren!" Carrie cried, moving to the other window. "Wait, how were we captured?" Carrie asked.
"They bugged the whole damn island that's how!" Shouted James.
"Yes. They caught that we were there and turned on cameras. They sent people to follow me and you guys. Luckily I realized I was being followed before I led them to the camp." Aren said, proud of himself. "By the way are you ok? The Nightmare Realm can really break a person." Aren asked sincerely. Carrie shuddered as she remembered the horrors of that place. "I'm fine." Carrie replied. She thought back to Ingrid, the queen. In her nightmare, she asked Carrie to ask James about this mysterious Evangeline. As much as she didn't want to obey the horrible woman, she needed to know.
"James?" Carrie asked slowly. "Yeah, firebird?" James replied. "Who's Evangeline. Tell me the truth." Carrie said bluntly.
"Fine."
"Evangeline is, was, my sister. She was all I had left after we were abandoned. Mom never wanted kids and dad was a high up Stormae. You know what those pigs did to Faeries before the wiped them off the face of the Earth? Well, mom couldn't take it and abandoned Evi and I when I was thirteen and she was six. We were in foster care for five years before I got custody of her. I knew what we were so I wasted no time getting to the camp. But as soon as I saved enough for a flight, I returned home and found a note telling me that the Queen needed servants. I got to camp begging for help, but by the time we made a perfect plan, we found a drunk soldier in Manhattan celebrating how hilarious it was to him how the last hybrid slave they slaughtered tried to escape and failed."
James went silent. Carrie said nothing. Finally the guard that yelled for someone to signal the queen came back. "You are to be escorted to your room." The guard said without a hint of emotion in his pale blue eyes.He opened the door and grabbed Carrie's arm roughly.
"Carrie!" Aren called after her. As she was walked through the hall, she looked at all the other cells. In one, she saw two figures huddled together. One had blue hair. Carrie took a breath of air. I may not have magic, but a surprise attack would buy time..... Carrie thought to herself. She ran at her jailer, planting her foot against his back and springing up. He fell, smashing his face on the ground, then was pulled up by Carrie's manacles when she jumped. He fell face first again knocking him out. Carrie heard guards racing down the steps. She ran to the cell where she saw Eve and Odessa. She banged on the bars. Odessa turned around followed by Eve. "Carrie? No. No!" Eve cried. "It's ok. It's ok. I will get us all out." Carrie soothed. The guards got closer. "I will save us!" Carrie screamed as she was dragged away.
After being blindfolded by the guards, Carrie was led up a series of stairs. Eventually, she heard a door open and was pushed into a room and un blindfolded.
"Are you sure this is the Queen's wishes?"
"Yes. I know it is strange though."
She looked down at her hands. The guards had swapped her huge manacles with dainty silver bracelets set with rubies, garnets, topazes and other glittering gems that formed a flame on each bracelet. She glanced around the room. It was simple yet nice. Like a medieval castle someone updated. On the princess style bed, lay a folded heap of fabric. Carrie unfolded it, finding it was a lovely black dress with accents of silver and bronze. A note lay next to it. Wear this to dinner or someone will be sent up to put it on you. Was the short message. It didn't make sense? Why would Queen Ingrid be spoiling Carrie if she was planning on killing her?
