Artemis' Nightmare. Told from her POV
The dream starts off with me in a dark room. It looks like an old cell, one you'd see in the pirates of the Caribbean movies. Made with bricks and bars. Windows barely big enough to even let sunlight in.
I'm not sure why I'm here. Or how I even arrived. There's nobody else here. I try to take a step forward, only to realize my hands are chained to a wall. There's bruises covering every inch of my pale skin. The pain finally hits and I cry out, screaming from the previously unknown injuries.
Who would do this to me? Why?
A hooded man walks in, key in hand. He opens the door and walks over to me. I finally get a glance of his face. I know this face. He's been following me around in my dreams for years. Always a different scenario. But he always has the same goal, to kill me.
He whispers to me, "Artemis. So glad to see you again." I don't have the strength to respond. He yanks me to his side after undoing my chains.
He leads me to a bigger room, it's circular. Perhaps an abandoned tower? It's made out of the same dark bricks the jail cells were made out of. The ceiling is nonexistent. The bright sun shines into my eyes, blinding me for a moment.
I trip over one of the rocks, not having much strength to balance. "GET UP!" He screams at me. Demanding I follow his orders. - He leans down and slaps me, knocking me harder to the ground.
I give in and stand up, my entire face scraped.
He presses against a small lever. It opens the floor, revealing that there's lava below. The air rushes to me, heating up every pore in my skin.
He grabs me once more, bringing me to a wooden plank that's suspended over the lava. He picks me up, hooking the chains around my wrist to the hooks nailed to it.
My legs are dangling against the emptiness. The bottom of my feet start to burn. My heart's racing faster by the second. Is he finally going to win? Is he finally going to end me?
He quickly leaves the room, returning a few minutes later with three more humans. They're all bruised and beat up as I am.
One of them looks to him. Wait, I know that face.. I know that woman. It's one of Wally's parents.
The other two women aren't that hard to guess. What's his family doing here? What do his family have to do with him?
I catch onto the pain of the chains, the metal digging into my skin. It's tearing my wrists apart. It hurts to the point that I can't even scream out. There's no strength.
He chains Wally's family to their own planks, 15 feet away from where I am. They dangle in the same way as I do.
Minutes pass, and the pain for me grows. I wish it would just end already.
The hooded man leaves once more. No, no.. he doesn't have more victims does he? Is it my family, too?
He returns a while later, a tall, scruffy man in his arms. I don't recognize the man at first. He's too beat up to recognize.
The hooded man drops the male, his body sprawling out against the floor. And suddenly.. it clicks.
"WALLY!" I scream. Tears covering my face. My heart's breaking into a million pieces. I can't breathe. All I want is to escape and get Wally to safety. Him, and his family.
What did he want with - I stop my thoughts.. I know what this is about.
The hooded man looks down to Wally, yelling at him. "Come on, Boy. Make your decision already." Just as I thought..
Noticing the look on Wally's face. He can't make a choice. The hooded man throws him to the floor, kicking him once he hits the ground.
I call out, trying to do anything I can to stop him. "DON'T!.. Leave him alone. - I know what this is about." My lungs are fighting for air, the pain is too much. I'm starting to black out as the blood from my wrists drains to my chest, and dripping off my legs into the lava pit.
"Don't hurt Wally or his family." I pause, trying to suck in as much air as I can. "Just kill me. Get this over with. No more games."
The cloaked man doesn't hesitate, he paces over to the lever that belongs to my plank. Pressing his fingers against it.
He stops. Turning to look at Wally. He grins before speaking once more. "She hasn't told you, has she?"
No.
No.
No. He can't do this.
Wally looks up to him, he doesn't understand what the cloaked man means. He doesn't want to waste a breath on getting to the point.
"She's pregnant, Wally. Four months." He lightly chuckles. Wally pushes himself around on the floor, turning to look at me.
Regardless of the distance I can feel his glare. His heart's full of pain. It's like I betrayed him by keeping it from him.
No, He wasn't suppose to tell Wally!
Why? Why? WHY?
All I wanted was to save his family. To be the hero.
That IS what heroes do, right? Sacrifice themselves for others?
I can't make out the words Wally speaks.
—-
Within seconds of his words, the chains of his family are released. They drop down into the burning fumes.
"NO!" I scream.
This wasn't suppose to happen!
The floor closes and my chains finally release. I'm greeted by a loud thud as I hit the floor. Unable to move.
It feels as if every bone in my body is broken.
Wally runs over to me, as fast as his broken body will let him. He kisses me.
I'm drowning in my own tears. Fighting with my lungs to yell at him, "Why did you do this? they were suppose to live. Not me."
"I was suppose to die.. not them." I repeat.
Wally stares at me, unable to respond with his words. He moves closer to me and places his hand on my abdomen.
~And then.. I wake up.