Choking woke me up. A knee pressed down on my chest preventing me from sucking precious air in, not that it would have mattered; two hands were squeezing my throat. No scream could escape my lips, not even a whimper for help. I grabbed at the hands, tearing my fingernails into them; anything to pry them off. I kicked at my unknown attacker but couldn’t get any power into it, they were too close and the angle too awkward.

It took concentration to use dark vision, but panic had already set in and my desperation for air prevented me from focusing on anything else.

My leg slammed down, hitting something soft. James moaned. I kicked him again. Please! It took him too long to realize what was happening but when he did, he cried out. His hatchet sparked into the rock wall above me, missing its mark. One of the hands blessedly left my neck and for a moment I was able to choke down some air, but at the same time my knife left its holster. I felt my attacker lash out with it and to my despair I heard it hit its mark. James made a sickening gurgling noise. The hatchet didn’t swing again.

Both hands were on my neck. The rough voice of Hendrick washed over me and I prayed he’d kill whatever was here. I couldn’t understand him, the lack of oxygen had my head swimming and I was walking the knifes edge of consciousness. Anger, desperation, and fear stronger than I’d ever thought were possible slammed through me one after the other, but I was beginning to slip.

A thread of hope kept me from toppling. I’m not dying now. I can’t die, I don’t die here. NO. But as the precious moments slipped by nothing came to save me. James hadn’t made a sound since my knife left its sheath. Despite that I knew I wasn’t going to die.

I tried using a blast of mana, reaching my hand out where I thought he was. It streamed out of my palm but all it did was light up the room blue, passing harmlessly through him. My vision had grown too blurry to see my attacker and tears blurred the edges. Hendrick help!

My hand crawled across the stone floor looking for something to save me grasping at air and knocking the lamp out of reach. I couldn’t find the knife either. Someone, please.

I couldn’t sustain the beam of mana, all the good it did anyway, and my hand fell to my side. At the same time my conscious slipped and the sensation of falling washed over me like I was leaving my body. As the last of my mana faded above me my vision grew dark.

I grew colder, egged on by the growing sensation of falling. My soul didn’t feel like it was in my body anymore, stretching me until something snapped.

I was dead. It was a fact, and facts were cruel weren’t they. This was the Aether, the place between life and death where one could travel wherever they sought to go. There was a place for my soul here and I knew how to get there. This too was a fact, but a soul could only know this when it entered.

Swirling mist surrounded me and all the colour had been leached from my body, though the world around me still held it. There were things were moving beyond the fog, and eyes peered out watching me. The whispers had come from these things, sprites with different forms. Some were like you’d imagine a fairy; others resembled no animal I had ever seen. I paid them no mind.

I felt no gravity here, no pain either. Because I was dead. I had hoped till the end someone would save me, but no one came. I wasn’t meant to die here. I was supposed to find some sort of magical power at the last minute. Some miracle, or saviour should have saved me. I’m destined for more.

No. Apparently not. Fate was against me there; I’d dug my own grave and refused to lay in it. I was meant to die there too. That fact I knew.

I seethed. I wanted more. Fate sought to end me here, but I wasn’t going to let it. Determined, I called out to all that was around me. Rock. Stone. Earth. It was all I had, and I reached out to

I called it. I commanded it. My anger formed in the manner of stone spikes attacking whatever had tried to kill me. It must do it. IT WOULD DO IT.

I commanded myself to breath in, I forced myself to breath in. BREATH DAMNIT.

Pain hit me first; thousands of needles burned through my lungs and my chest ached against the strain. A thumping, rushing sound deafened me. The second breath hurt more. My throat burned, my limbs groaned, raging at my attempts to move them. But I moved them. I felt the stones around me, the stones above me, the Earth that swallowed me whole. It was me. The thumping, rushing sound of my heart was flowing through it too. It was so loud. I commanded it to be silent. My ears rang, but I could finally hear my own breathing.

I pushed myself away, sliding my half dead body across the floor, kicking at whoever was still towering over me. My head met the wall first, and I desperately pressed myself against it gaining as many precious centimeters between us as possible. The room shuddered, the stone groaning with the rage in me. I willed it to be still.

Gradually the burning in my lungs subsided, and the ability to think returned. It took as long as it did the first time I’d tried to see in the dark, but sight finally returned to me. My mind refused to comprehend what had happened. James lay in the middle of the camp with my knife in his breast. He had pushed himself away from us but only made it halfway back to the sleeping bag. Hendrick was dead, held in place by stone above where I’d slept. Blood was streaming down each spike and had covered me in it too.

Panic took over my limbs preventing me from moving and hyperventilation caused my vision to blur. I needed to save James. Burning fire enveloped my lungs and it hurt to hold my breath. I exhaled, controlling the inhale, and began to crawl to James. Tears traced lines through the blood splattered on my face and my knees channels through growing pool around James. He was on his back, his head turned away from me.

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The lamp filled the room with light casting shadows over all of us. My dagger had bit deep into James’ chest staining his beautifully embroidered shirt red.

“We’re going to need to wash it James,” Hiccups made it hard to speak. cupping his head, I pulled him into my lap. His eyes were open and empty. “No…” My whole body was shaking and James…

“NO! You can’t be dead, please no. James wake up.” His body was a rag doll in my hands.

“Shake him anymore and his head will fall off.” Hendrick spat out blood. One of the veins in his eye had popped turning the white part deep red and blood stained all his teeth. His breathing was hard and ragged. He wasn’t long for this world. Spikes had pierced him in multiple places, three had bored through his chest, one reaching from the wall and two from the floor. Another had pierced straight through his leg.

His mocking face waivered under my glare. There were a million things I could rave at him. A million names he deserved. Instead I asked, “Why?”

“That damned fool even lectured you on it. Survival. I could easily dig twice the dirt you could, and without the dead weight I’d have two weapons plus all these rations. Dumb fucks even showed me how to cook ‘em.” His grin knew no remorse. “I would’ve spared you, had you not been so defensive of him.” Blood spurted though his teeth when he attempted to lift himself. Fear slammed through me but dissipated quickly, the spikes were too deep, and he didn’t have the strength to lift himself off.

“Damn bitch killed me.” He growled turning his sneer to me, “But you’ll die down here. You’re too stupid to survive this place.” My jaw set, and my fists clenched. For the first time in my life I felt I could kill a man and feel no remorse; nothing good held me back, instead a better, darker idea crawled through my heart.

James’ eyes were lifeless, and his face was twisted in pain. He deserved a better death than this, and a better burial than I could afford him. I propped him against the wall taking care with his broken leg. The twisted grimace he wore was stuck across his face despite my best efforts but closing his eyes brought some peace. A horrid squelch accompanied the dagger leaving his breast, it felt heavier in my hand and slick with blood. It came out dirty and took several passes before all the blood was gone; my shirt was just as soaked as it was. While saying my goodbyes Hendrick mocked and cursed us but the dead didn’t deserve an answer now.

My body moved mechanically. The scent of blood would attract the wolf, so I discarded my clothing, using it to mop up what had pooled near the entrance. The last of our water poured down my limbs washing away the blood. James kept things neat and orderly, making sure to pack away anything we used so the only thing I had to pack was the sleeping bag. With new clothes on I opened the entrance.

“Wait!” I glared back at Hendrick, “Kill me.” His taunting grin told me he was sure I’d give him a merciful death. A death he didn’t deserve. He would learn just how cruel I could be. I wasn’t going to die here, but he was. Slowly.

The great hall was empty, though it reeked of blood too. Behind me Hendrick was seething, taunting me to kill him, a hint of desperation entering his voice. I left him to his fate, after all, I wasn’t the one that chose this. As a final act for James I sealed the entrance to the camp stuffing all the rubble I could gather as tightly as possible. At the very least he wouldn’t be eaten.

There was no plan B. No second camp that to fall back too. Shock had numbed me and thinking hurt too much, so I didn’t. My legs moved automatically, through passage after another. The damp moist air and the cold cloying at my skin were all that accompanied me now. My stupidity had killed James. He was right, yet I didn’t listen. It was all my fault.

Something struck me from behind sending me to the floor. In my blind misery I’d let my guard down, walking in a daze right into a death trap. Hands gripped at my belt and grabbed me by the waist. High on adrenaline I sliced my dagger through the air behind me grazing my attacker. Blood coated my fingers where it touched the back of my head. My attacker was horribly thin and just as high on adrenaline as I was. His movements were sporadic, lurching too and fro, and he was laughing.

“Gonna kill ya, eat ya, lick ya bones clean,” One look in his eyes told you his sanity had broken down here. His horrific song urged me to run. My legs couldn’t move as fast as I asked them to careening me into the walls instead. The whole world was spinning, and I had no sense of up or down. The only thing that kept me from falling was my momentum, so I pushed myself faster, slamming into walls. Like a hound to the hunt he was able to chase me, my stomping sloppy gait easily leading him towards me.

The whispers of those creatures, louder than before, followed me through hell. Some were guiding me, others only mocked. I ignored them all. I couldn’t afford to be distracted. I thwarted fate once and tempted her immediately after. I wasn’t dying again. Never again.

The crazed man cut me off grabbing onto my arm in the process. Barely managing to throw him off veered down an unfamiliar corridor. I needed to hide from him, but found it was impossible to control my movements enough to run quietly. He was right on my heels, nearly grabbing me at every twist and turn. I spun around another corner finding myself running down a strait hall. None of this was familiar.

Ahead of me a closed Iron gate stood vigil, blocking the path. My vision shook when I slammed into it but in the process the latch bent allowing me to reach through and unlock it. I stumbled in, my legs threatening to give out under me. My body had reached its limit and could go no further. I faced my attacker only then realizing why he was so easily following me. The lamp was still on.

A self depreciating laugh bubbled out of me. It was just as insane as his. “I really am stupid aren’t I.”

The man stopped just outside the door, savouring what he was about to do to me. My grip on the dagger weakened, the edges of my vision were closing. Concussion. Id heard about them… Somewhere.

“Oh lassie, you’re mine now lassie, no where to go~” His sing song voice sent shivers involuntarily down my spine.

Golden eyes appeared in the shadows to the far end of the room. Sluggishly, my gaze turned from the man about to kill me to meet the strange sight. The prisoner entered the room, but I was only vaguely aware of his presence now; my attention had been captured by the eyes that met mine. They were just as desperate as I felt, and a familiar insanity sparked in them.

A black shadow departed from the far edge of the room smoothly stalking on silent paws. The man in-front of me had crossed half the room eating me with his eyes but his hand never reached me. The wolf bit into the man, breaking his neck in the same graceful manner it had every other prisoner I’d watched it kill. He hung limply in its jaws while it considered me.

I was too dazed to fear it, my chest was empty of emotion, and the last of my energy left me. My legs gave out first. I struggled to get back up, but they no longer served me. My consciousness was the final thing to betray me obscuring the wolf from view.

Doug. I smiled, the last thing I’d ever do.