Here's the next chapter. Sorry for the last one being so short.
Scathach and Joan of Arc waited until 11:30PM in Joan's car. As soon as they could see that all of the windows were dark, they silently made their way up to the castle's back door. Joan was silently thanking God for the fact that there was no moat. When they reached the large back door, Scathach stuck a metal rod, from the depths of the car's boot, and a bobby pin, from the depths of Scatty's pocket, into the lock. She jiggled the bobby pin around the interior while slowly pushing the rod to the left. After about two minutes, the lock clicked.
She whispered to Joan, "Lucky this is the only door in the house that doesn't creak"
"How do you know that?"
"Well, I did live here for seventeen years. I should hope that I would know that"
"Right" Joan realised.
The two of them slowly stepped through the large doorway and into the dining room. Scathach's sneakers were silent against the cold rock floor. They crept through the dark, cold rooms until they found the bronze door. The purple gem in the middle was glowing brightly, illuminating the room. Scathach reached up and tapped the gem. She engulfed the gem with her left hand and slowly whispered,
"Hekate"
The gem turned a vibrant green and the light that it emitted began to throb.
"'bout three minutes 'til we go" She estimated, removing her hand from the gem and letting the green light flood around the room.
"What'll we do when we get through?" Joan pondered, as she abruptly realised that they had no plan. They hadn't really expected that they would get this far.
"We'll do what we always do" Scathach answered
"Which is?"
"Wing it" She smirked
The three minutes passed and the gem stopped throbbing. It just glowed in the darkness. Scathach reached out and grabbed the large handle and pulled the door open. It let out a huge screech.
"What was that?!" Joan whisper-yelled
"Well, I did tell you that all the other doors were creaky" Scathach whispered back defensively.
The two stopped when they heard the heavy footsteps of Arde-Griemne in the direction of the stairs. They grew faster.
"Hurry!" Scathach said. Just as Arde-Griemne stepped into the room, Scathach gently pushed Joan through the portal. She turned back to face her sour faced father. He gave her that look. That look that made her feel like a freak. She pushed all of those thoughts to the back of her mind, saluted Arde-Griemne mockingly and let herself fall through the portal before he could stop her. The castle's dark stone walls fell out of Scatty's view and the cloudy red skies of Hekate's shadowrealm towered above Scatty as she fell through the air.
She fell to the floor of what looked like a cave. She was pulled to her feet by Joan, who was beside her. They glanced around and quickly realised that this cave was the one that they had camped out in while making their ways to the caves.
"Of course. Hekate never had much imagination" Scathach grumbled, trying not to be sick.
"Well, this won't be so hard, then. All we've got to do is find the cells and we'll go home"
Scathach was about to agree with her when she heard a laugh from behind her. The two of the spun around to see Hekate sitting on a rock, further into the cave's mouth.
"Humani, do you really think that? Do you really think that I would let you find the prisoner? No," She gloated, "I have a better prison for you, though. One that neither of you will EVER ESCAPE!" She laughed and the scenery around them changed. They were in a plain room with white walls. There was no door.
"This cell – this whole prison – runs off the energy of your fears. Many have died in here, leaving this running off their and your fears. If you don't die of starvation, you will go mad. You are ultimately doomed"
As Hekate spoke Scathach inspected the building. The walls were smooth and there were no doors or windows.
"In a few minutes, this room will have seen enough of your memories and fears, and it will turn into your worst nightmare" She looked directly at Scathach, and disappeared.
Scathach ran to the wall and leapt up, trying to touch the roof. When she did, she caught on to a small ledge and hung halfway up the wall.
"Er…What are you doing, Scatty?" Joan asked
"I'm looking for something. Anything. Something that will help before my nightmare begins" She said while letting go of the ledge and holding her ear up to the wall. After a few seconds she took it away with a disgusted look on her face. She had obviously not heard anything good.
"Why is it your nightmare in particular? Why not mine?" Joan asked curiously.
"I've seen this sort of cell in the Bahamas millennia ago. The inmates always died. Or went mad," she added "It basically makes the person's worst memories come to the front of their minds, so that they are replaying over and over in their heads. You see, there's this sort of scale. One side's the good memories, thoughts and dreams, and one's the bad. If there are more good memories, then this cell will show the good ones. If there are more bad ones, then it will show the bad ones. Now, you must have more goods than bads. I don't. Hekate doesn't want any good memories, so the cell is specifically showing my bad ones"
"Oh" Joan understood, but she didn't like it. She was about to say something when she saw Scatty double over in pain, trying to contain gasps. Joan ran to her side. Scathach felt all of her worst experiences come to the front of her mind. The time when Chulain died, when she was disowned by her family, when Everett abandoned her.
"It's started" Scathach whispered.