AN: I know these first few chapters are very short. I promise when the weekend and my birthday and various things are over – they will get longer and longer.

Sadie was just trying to drift into an uneasy sleep when she heard footsteps outside the door, very light footsteps which could not belong to any of her captors. Slipping of the rock she was curled on she padded across the dungeon, the cold floor rough against her bare feet. The footsteps stopped outside her door. Dropping to lying on her stomach Sadie scrabbled against the food hatch finally managing to get it open. Looking out through the small grated gap she saw the boy from before standing in the hallway just outside the door. He was alone and appeared to be unsure about something.

Turning around he started when he saw her. Tipping his head on one side he surveyed her for a moment. Frowning in thought and opening and closing his mouth several times as though trying to speak but not quite managing it. Eventually he slowly lowered himself down so he was sitting cross legged on the floor beside the door. Looking down at the small grate behind which she lay. His expression was of childish curiosity now, though an underlying hint of his earlier confusion was still evident.

"You should not be here" Sadie commented without thinking as she leaned her chin on her hands and looked up at him through her lashes.

"I know, they told me never to go through the big door" the boy absentmindedly replied as he reached out one small hand as though to touch her before bringing it sharply back to his side and folding his arms instead "they never told me it was a dungeon."

Sadie almost laughed, in an semi hysterical fashion, at how ridicules this all was. She was lying on the cold stone floor of a dungeon, in more pain than she had ever been in, in her entire life, talking with a strange boy who looked like her cousin about the house rules of the woman who tormented her. But somehow it was a moment of comfort in her traumatic life "so why did you? Go through the door they told you not to ... aren't you scared of them?"

"I do not like being told no ... even by them" the boy simply replied with a shrug and a half smile as he looked across her face at the bruises and cuts, before adding in a matter of fact tone "you look so sad."

"I used to ignore my pa when he told me no – now I am here" Sadie whispered as she shivered and cuddled up tighter in her thin dress. It was so cold in the dungeon though the boy looked snug and warm in his own winter clothes. Sadie envied him for that if nothing else. The cold made everything hurt that much more – almost as though it had been planned that way.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked moving closer to the grating and lowering his voice he added in a slightly worried tone "are you going to be one of them?"

"One of what?" Sadie asked in confusion her voice still soft and quiet. She almost thought she knew what he meant but she wanted to make sure.

"The Mord' Sith" the boy clarified matching her own level of volume with a hushed whisper of his own "the woman in red ..."

"I don't know ... maybe" Sadie replied carefully, her voice wavering slightly, as she considered the idea of what that might offer her, of what it might entail "if it will make my pain go away then maybe it will be alright ... I mean it would take my pain away wouldn't it? I could be free again? Right?"

"I won't make the pain go away" the boy began in a strange tone before he heard a loud bang of the dungeon door opening closing and scrabbled to his feet "I got to go!"

Sadie watched the boy leave, resting her chin on her hands, her eyes moist with lingers tears. She then shut the food hatch and crawled away from the door. Hastily getting to her feet when she realized how lucky she had been the rats had left her alone during that exchange. Crawling back onto the rock she curled up again and resting her head against the wall thought about what he just happened. What had the boy meant? More importantly who was he? She had not seen any other children except for him. She was in the dungeon all alone. Though one of her tortures had mentioned she might be getting company soon Sadie thought she was lying.

But later that evening another little girl was indeed bout into the dungeon. She was silent as they carried her in and dumped her on the floor, never speaking a word as they insulted her and kicked her, or making a single sound. The Mord' Sith left and the girl crawled over to a corner and wrapping her arms around herself stayed there. Sadie attempted a smile but it came out more as a grimace. The girl ignored her anyway. Looking down at the ground Sadie went back to thinking about her visitor. She hoped he had not been caught and punished for coming down into the dungeons. He looked so much like Robbie ... she could not imagine those women hurting him.