Max slowly came to consciousness. His legs had been badly bent from the fall, and his eyes were pierced by the radiant light from the shimmering chandelier that hung up ahead. Before he could move a muscle, he felt a tight squeeze lift him up on his right shoulder.

“Goddamn!” the man cursed. He had carrying on one arm the young-looking Max, and on the other, a giant silverblade. He strolled forward, burly in size, giant in stature. “Miss Ravenloft had better given me whatever the hell I want.”

“Wait up!” a girl cried from behind.

Max swung around almost dead on the giant’s shoulder. When his eyes managed to peek out properly, he could see, by way of which he was being carried, the woman that had followed behind.

In blonde bob haircut, a perfect-sized yellow dress that flowed to her knees, and a humongous metallic shield fit for the medieval era. On it, was the markings of a dragon with torn-scales, breathing what seems to be fire in a flying position.

“What?” Max said. The girl looked up. She smiled.

“He’s awake!” she said, running up ahead where Max couldn’t see. “He’s awake!” she said, again.

“Alright, alright! Damn…” the man said, trying to put Max down slowly. But instead of actually putting him down, the burly man threw him off like a soaked towel and Max flipped over, tumbling backwards into the floor.

Max had his back slammed against the hard marble floor, his eyes once again back up on the ceiling.

“Ouch!” he exclaimed. He could finally see some of his surroundings now, a little more closely than before.

The lights around him burned a bright yellow. Distinct, casting a tremendous shadow from the walls down to the marble floors, tiles that snaked all the way throughout the hall that he was in. From where Max was, down on the ground that he lay, he could see a giant portal that stood magnificently by itself. Taller than him, like the height of a truck, the portal was now seemingly shut down, with no winds or any transformative energy ebbing and flowing from it.

Was that where I came from? he thought to himself. The portal felt… special.

“Oh my god!” the girl yelled, rushing over to Max’s first concern. “You could've killed him!”

The man sighed. He walked over to Max,  who was lying down on the floor. The burly man wore a rather thin set of leather clothing, a giant pauldron that hung from his shoulders. On his back, pointing out downwards with a sharpened edge was a sword that threatened before the silver lights could have even be seen. The man also had a rather long beard, like a waterfall that spread out and down to his neck, but not as perfectly as he would have liked. Still, it was nicely trimmed, and that was enough.

The man  arched his back and snapped his fingers at him.

“What's your name?” he asked Max.

“Max,” he replied with a stutter. “Max Merc-”

“He's not dead,” the man interrupted. “Dead people don’t speak.”

Before Max could reply, the man had already walked away.

The girl on the other hand, crouched forward and checked Max’s thigh where the pain had come from when the burly man had thrown him.

Now with a closer look, the girl had looked prettier than when he had seen her the first time when he was on the shoulders of the burly man. Somehow, with the bob haircut, it just seemed like she was just a normal girl, but with a weird past behind her.

Wait, he thought to himself. Why am I thinking like this?

On her hands, a faint green glow emanated like a cracked glowstick. She was hovering them over his legs. Max started backwards.

“What the hell is that?!” Max exclaimed.

“It’s a cure. You’ll feel better after this, trust me,” the girl explained. A smile crossed her face. “I’m a doctor, by the way. Name’s Penny.”

“This does not explain anything at all.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Max felt, suddenly, like a tumor that was once there on his legs, slowly begin to go away, like the opposite of a tumor growing. Actually, it felt like he didn’t even have one to begin with. And it all seemed to stem from the faint green glow on Penny’s hands.

“What are you?” he asked, agasp by what he was watching.

“I told you,” she said. “I’m a doctor.”

The burly man that had walked ten steps ahead returned to them.

“We need to move. Miss Ravenloft would want to meet a Detected.”

Max’s eyes passed from Penny to the man. Miss Ravenloft? Detected? Where in the world had he ended up in? He tried to remember about what happened, but from the running and before, everything seemed lost. There were a few things he remembered. His brother. His parents. Something about running away, mustering up the courage to do so. He didn’t have it before. But now, everything that was there was somehow still there, except in all the wrong orders.

“Who are you?” Max asked the burly man, who turned back to shoot him a blank stare.

“I’m,” he said before stopping himself. “Right, you’ve never been here before. I’m Markus. Change the ‘k’ where the ‘c’ once was and you’re good to go.”

“Alright. And where am I?”

“You ask too much questions. Unfortunately for you, you’re stuck in a place you don’t belong, a place where you will never get out from, so here’s two things I need you to get right,” Markus said. He held up the first finger. “One, don’t ask so much questions. It’s good for us, good for any of your party members that will soon travel with you. And it’s even better you don’t start asking questions in front of Miss Ravenloft, do you understand?”

Max didn’t, but he nodded anyway. He wasn’t going to risk a punch to the face, judging by the way that Markus had looked at him. It wasn’t nice.

Markus raised a second finger at Max. “Two, you do everything we tell you to, until you don’t.”

Max couldn’t help it. “Everything?”

Markus sighed. “What was my first point?”

“But I’m going to ask questions anyway. I need to know certain things.”

Markus nodded. He couldn’t quite get it through this kid’s head, but maybe time will get him working like clockwork. Time got it working for Penny, for him, and for the rest anyway.

“Get up on your feet. We’re going to meet Miss Ravenloft now.”

The glow on Penny’s hands disappeared. “You’re fine. You should be able to walk.” She turned away.

Max caught that small glimpse of beauty when she turned away. The way her hair moved, the way it just covered the right bases of her face. The way-

Markus gripped his shoulders, and now Max was up and standing.

“Walk with me,” Markus said. “We already took a long time doing nothing. Miss Ravenloft is expecting you.”

Max nodded. He remembered certain things again, and one of them being to listen when you needed and to not question what you didn’t want to know the answer to. But was that really the truth? To not know why he was here, in this dark-lit hallway with a blaze on the walls and a certain death looming overhead him?

It was just like everyday, or the everyday that he used to know. Now it’s no longer everyday, unless he decides to keep his mouth shut and keep walking.

Keep walking, he thought. They may want something from you, he thought. But, what would they really want from me?

Markus lead Max down a bunch of stairs until they finally came to a grand double door made of polished wood and silver handlebars. The double door was ornate in nature, but when Markus had walked toward it when he told Max to stand behind, a rough shimmer appeared. Markus closed his eyes and placed his hand, balled into a fist, into the door.

The door snapped open. The shimmer flashed once, and the door pushed wide and inwards. The light inside shined like the sun, and all Max could see was a scarlet carpet that lined all the way up a bunch of smaller steps onto a throne. Beside the throne, was a woman in a black dress. The dress fit her tightly, or as Max said to himself, a little too tight. The woman walked over to a man that bowed at the foot of the steps.

Markus pulled Max aside, his voice softened. “Remember the two rules that I gave you.”

Max nodded.

Markus wasn’t quite convinced. “I need to hear you say it. Say that you remembered it.”

“I remembered it,” Max said, with no less conviction than he had when he found himself in another place entirely. He gulped as the three of them continued to walk towards this grand hall of a room.

The woman placed a sharp grip on the man’s neck. Her eyes turned white, and a dark presence that looked like a blight on her body slowly stretched out and consumed the rest of arm until it reached her fingers. Then it attached to the man’s neck, crawling and wrapping around him.

“Please… ma’am…” the man could hardly speak with the tendrils pulling tighter and tighter. His eyes looked upwards, the light shining down on him. The woman smiled.

“Failure is never temporary,” the woman said.

SNAP. The blight snaked its way back from the fingers, back under the sleeves of the woman. The man tumbled, the life force sucked out of him, tumbling down onto the floor.

The woman took a deep breath and snapped her fingers. “Guards,” she said, “take this filthy sight away from me.”

Two guards in heavy-plated armour rushed out from the sides of the hall, and carried the dead man away into a darkened room.

“Now,” she said, turning away and towards Max, Markus and Penny. “What do we have here?” She grinned darkly at the trio.

Max gulped. There she was, he thought. In all her dark, deceptive glory, there she was.

Miss Ravenloft.