The sun was shining through the window glass, a burning orange light that reached to the floor. Sundance wasn't screaming anymore but there was no comfort brought in the silence. Eve tried to reach him but the coil of wire holding her wrist refused to allow it. The bruise-colored welt became purple and black after minutes passed. Caleb would laugh if he saw. He would mock and insult her intelligence. Caleb's muscles were weak but his words were strong. They would hurt.
Sundance was covered in sweat, looking more comfortable than he did before, but Eve couldn't think, couldn't structure a decent thought. She couldn't get out from here. She couldn't do anything about the condition he was in.
Sundance coughed, rolling onto his side. Eve glanced at him, confused, helpless. She reached out her hand to him but she wasn't close. Eve stretched her fingers again and stared at Sundance, quiet and commendably fighting.
"I can't use my spells. I guess I'll have to escape this some other way…"
The darkness in Sundance's head was indescribable, overwhelming, a home without windows or freedom. Sundance couldn't see or feel anything through it. He couldn't conquer it but he knew he wasn't supposed to. Ophelia's spell wasn't meant to be an easy defeat.
Sundance couldn't move the wall or break it. He was desperate for a spell, for anyone, for the life extradited from him but he had nothing.
"Eve, I need Eve…I need a spell." Sundance insisted, pulling another hand over the wall. It felt hollow, flat, like the surface of a rock. "I just can't get out of here without my spells."
Sundance sighed, sliding down the wall to his knees. He punched the floor again, again, again.
"There's no way I can survive this without a spell. I don't understand this." It felt like the walls were closing, suffocating him in his mind, locking him in. "I can't–I…I'm doubting myself. I can't doubt myself here."
Sundance unknotted his fists, extending his hands across the floor. It was brief, a quick sound, but he could feel the rocket of a pulse underneath his hand, an anxious heart. A voice in his head reminded him that it was his. Sundance clenched his fists, determined.
"By leaving me in here, Ophelia will have the win in no time." Sundance confirmed, putting his fist in his hand. "I refuse to let her. I'm not just going to sit here and let her play with my head. I won't surrender, I'll succeed. Caleb and Ophelia won't get the satisfaction of seeing me humiliated."
Sundance crossed his legs, Lotus-style, and took to his mind but it was filled with impossibilities. He put a hand on his forehead, rubbing.
He found memories instead of a strategy, minor ones. Familiar faces and voices, people he loved, people he would remember, were projected into his memory bank. He couldn't share them, not from where he was, not from the darkness, but they provided him with the truth he needed and propelled him back into reality when he thought the light in him was lost.
"Ophelia isn't the only one with special abilities. She'll never know what's coming." Sundance nodded at his statement. "She should've never underestimated me."
Sundance closed his eyes, alive and invulnerable in his mind. When he reopened his eyes, he found a sharp glow of light, one that entered through the darkness and overfilled it with brightness, which temporarily blinded him. Sundance squinted and raised a hand to it.
The light burned his hand as he reached for it and Sundance flinched, closing his eyes again. The burning and the pain diminished but it didn't fade out entirely. Sundance smiled, finally understanding his method of escape.
"Eve? Eve? Can you hear me?"
Eve opened her eyes after she heard the voice. Her vision took a moment to readjust but she saw Sundance, alive and awake, stretching. His eyes were tired. One of his hands was burned.
"Sundance, you're okay." Eve answered, astonished, glancing at Sundance's burned hand. The burn wasn't severe but it would need care. "How do you feel? Your hand–"
"I'm okay, it hurts a little. Ophelia's Primando spell is a fatal one, almost inescapable." Sundance answered, nodding at Eve's question. "It feeds off the target's anxiety by going after a traumatic memory or insecurity or fear to invade the mind and bring fatal psychological damage to the target but I think you know this."
Eve thought back to Ophelia's spell striking her, bringing her an old argument between her and Caleb. It wasn't anything traumatic but she vaguely remembered the darkness. Sundance fought it successfully when she couldn't.
Sundance turned back to the window. "Her spell is powerful but it has downsides, too. All spells do. I couldn't think through it. Ophelia chose a memory, not that I can confirm that, and poked at it until the darkness sucked me in. It wasn't really a memory. It could be true, it couldn't be. Ophelia's spell is meant to make the target believe reality exists in the sickest nightmares. Had I believed, I wouldn't be here…but I didn't and I'm here." Sundance informed. He lifted his hand in the direction of the sun, squinting. "I didn't have a life-bending experience. I think anyone who can survive it isn't a victim but if you don't put up a fight, you are."
Eve slowly climbed to her feet and leaned her back against the wall. She snapped the coil of wire holding her wrist a few minutes prior to Sundance's reawakening. "Sundance, you did great with Ophelia's spell but we can't stay here. We need to get back to what we came here for."
Sundance analyzed Eve skeptically. "We should wait for the others."
"We don't have time for that."
"Yes, we do." Sundance insisted.
Eve sighed, exasperated. "Don't argue with me, Sundance."
"I'm not arguing with you, I'm trying to make you see! We can't do this alone. We need our friends. I don't know what Caleb said to you while I was out but you need to understand–"
"Caleb didn't say anything to me! Leave him out of this!" Eve screamed.
Sundance frowned. "Why are you turning on me, Eve? We're not enemies."
"I'm not turning on you, Sundance! I'm treating you how I'd treat anyone else! We don't have time to wait for anyone. The time we're using to argue right now, we could be looking for Caleb and I could be–" Eve said, glancing away from Sundance like he was deliberately being a nuisance. "You wouldn't understand."
"Yes, I would!" Sundance shouted in retaliation.
"No, you wouldn't! You're too young. You don't know anything! I can't talk to a kid that knows nothing about me!" Eve yelled.
Sundance was paralyzed into silence, his mouth twitching, looking sad and offended. "If...if I know nothing about you, Eve, who does?"
Eve glared at him, silent, and started walking away without providing an answer. Sundance's eyes were shining as he watched her. He shook his head, following his partner. The damage was done.
Short chapter, I know. I'm getting back into the swing of things. The focus will be off Sundance and Eve and see how everyone else is faring without them. R&R!