The Stolen Throne

Chapter Thirteen - Dreaming and Awake

Lucy looked around, she was in a dark chamber and there were chains around her wrists with the chain locked onto the floor. Experimentally, she pulled on them, but it seemed that she could not move any further than where she was.

Straining her eyes, she tried to peer through the darkness, but there was little light to see by and what she could see, she couldn't be sure she wasn't just imagining.

Drums began pounding for outside the room, making her jump as the noise deafened her. She sunk lower to the floor so that she could lift her chained hands up to her ears to block the noise. It seemed, however, that the closer she got the floor, the same distance away from her head her chained hands were.

Tears of pain dripped from her eyes as she continued to be deafened. There was nothing she could do; she was trapped. Completely.

And then, as soon as the drums had started they stopped. A small candle appeared in the centre of the room, lighting it a little, although not quite reaching the corners.

Despite the fact that her ears were still ringing, Lucy could hear faint dripping as if something was falling down the walls. Strangely, this time she got up, the chains allowed her to walk around. She used this opportunity to inspect the walls.

The faint dripping sound became louder as her ears recovered as she put her hand on the wall, then her ear to locate the noise. She could still hear the dripping and a faint splashing as whatever liquid it was struck the stone floor beneath her feet.

A wet droplet touched her hand and she sprung back from the wall to examine the substance. She pulled the chains as close to the candle as she could and managed to lower her hand. A large red bead of liquid starkly contrasted against her pale hands.

She had an idea of what the liquid was but couldn't be sure. Slowly, she lifted her hand to her nose and was met with a vague metallic smell. Jumping backwards, as if that would help get the liquid of her hand, Lucy pressed her back against the wall desperately wiping her hand on her tunic.

Her breathing became erratic as she thought, where had the blood come from?

She stopped breathing when a drop landed on her face. And then several more. On her shoulder, on the crown of her head, on her nose. She could feel the blood slowly sliding down her face as she sprung away from the wall. It didn't help, droplets continued to fall onto her and soon she was covered in blood.

She'd crouched down and covered her face with her hands to avoid getting blood in her eyes and mouth. Crying from fear of the unknown, Lucy curled herself up tighter into a ball.

A malicious laugh forced her head to jerk upwards to locate the noise.

"Look up, Luciana dear." Esmeralda's voice called as light emerged from every corner of the room, illuminating it until no corner was untouched by flickering candlelight.

Half from fear, half from curiosity, Lucy looked up. Two figures were rotating from nooses that were tied to beams on the ceiling. She could only just make out their faces and cried aloud when she realised who it was.

Esmeralda began laughing again before all the lights were snuffed out. Lucy covered her face with her hands, trying to get rid of the images of Alex's and her father's limp and bleeding bodies from her mind.

She scratched desperately at her skin once she realised the blood had been theirs, trying to get it off of her.

"Luciana..." Esmeralda whispered, "Oh, Luciana. Look up again, my dear. See what you will do. See what you will cause." Her voice dripped with sweetness, sweetness that Lucy knew was fake. Yet, she still looked up.