They All Stood Still

The Queen

Okay so I want to thank everyone for the absolutely amazing comments and I wanted to clear one thing up from a previous chapter. I know that Briar died, but I hated that she did so she's alive for this story 😝 I have written the next few chapters because I think I FINALLY know where this story is going. And I hope you all can forgive me for taking so long! Anyway, I love all of my readers and keep the feedback coming! 😘

Sabrina's POV

3 days.

That's how long I guessed we had been in this cell. It turns out there was a window, so I could see during the day. After Pan had left us with more questions than answers that first night, we hadn't had a single visitor.

From what we could hear, a guard was stationed at our door 24/7 and shift change was maybe an hour after the sun went down. Right after the crack of dawn every day, they slid a tray of food under the door with green colored mush that tasted just about as good as it sounds and a small metal cylinder with a little water. That was the only "food" given to us. We tried to spread it out over the course of the day, but there's only so much you can do with puke inducing slop that you have to scoop up with your hands.

I figured they were trying to weaken us to get us to tell them whatever they wanted when the time came for us to meet this mysterious queen. I can't say I'm surprised; it's a good tactic. I am surprised that it's working though. I am notoriously known for my stubbornness, but more often than not, I find myself drooling over the thought of a cheeseburger with fries or honestly even Granny's weird who-knows-what-their-made-of blue pancakes sounded amazing right then.

I couldn't voice any of this out loud to Puck, however; we were afraid they had hidden cameras in the cell and over these past few days, he had not gotten better. Because of this, we mostly didn't talk at all, worried that we would slip up and tell the enemy something that would help them. To save our strength, we mostly just sat across from each other in the farthest corner from the door, except when I was tending to his leg. At night, we laid down on the comfiest dirt patch and tried our best to sleep. It got so dark that I couldn't see my own hands, much less Puck, so I don't know if he got any rest but I sure didn't. It's like my body was on constant high alert, pumping with adrenaline, which is great when I need to fight or sprint a good distance, but to sleep? Not so fantastic.

Also, I was giving most of my share of food to Puck because of his leg. The only cloth we had was my pajamas and puck's jacket and jeans. I had ripped my pj's legs to make 4 bandages, which I rotated binding his cut. After cleaning it with a little water in the daylight, we could see it was a significant gash starting at the middle of his left thigh down to almost his knee. I asked him about it at one point, but he got mad and snapped that of course he doesn't know, he had blacked out just like me.

I didn't want to mention it, but the fact that his wound hadn't healed even in the slightest, worried me. He was a faerie and an everafter. It should just be a scar by this point, but in all honesty, it looked worse. The veins around the cut were bulging and dark green and it almost seemed to be infected; however, with nothing in this god forsaken brick tomb to help with cleaning the wound, there wasn't much I could do besides rewrap it and try to clean the rags with what little water we had. So, I didn't say anything.

That brings us to day three. As usual, Puck and I were sitting across from each other slipping in and out of sleep. He looked even worse today. I had changed the bandage on his leg maybe an hour ago and it already looked like the long since pink penguin fabric was soaked through with blood. I sighed and went to crawl over to the water to get another strip ready, when he made a whimpering sound in his sleep.

I had never heard anything like that sound come out of Puck before and it made me extremely uncomfortable. Sure, he was annoying about how bolstering he was, but it was so much better to hear him gloat about his bravery than see this sweaty, red in the face boy, so weak he could barely drink water when I held it to his mouth. I hurried over to him and felt of his head.

He was burning up.

I didn't know what to do. There was no medicine, no disinfectant, no cold baths to help his temperature. I didn't know where my family was; I didn't know where I was or how to get out. For the first time in my life, I knew nothing that could help me out of this tight spot.

I was entirely and completely helpless.

I put my hand to my own face and let out a strangled sob. I could feel the tears running down my face, but I couldn't stop them. It was like I had reached my breaking point.

Right then, the door slammed open and standing with her hands on her hips, was without a doubt, the queen.