The floor was cold. Oh, so very cold.

Pewdie stood. He was in a castle, not Brennenburg, but a new, unfamiliar place, roomy and claustrophobic, bright and unwelcoming. A moment's bliss passed quickly and Stephano was again on his mind. As he started to walk, the towering walls seemed to move with him, swimming and morphing and giving him a headache. He knew his lantern was out but it turned on anyway. He stared at it for a moment, confused, but decided to roll with it. A glitch, he thought it. One in his favor.

Pewdie stopped and looked about him at the living walls, the ghost lantern. Why he wasn't freaking out he didn't know. And why he didn't freak out when a strong hand found his shoulder, he didn't know either.

He turned to look behind him. None other than his lost best friend. Pewdie gave a sigh and fully faced Stephano. "Where have you been?" Pewdie said, mimicking a past dialogue. "I've looked everywhere for you."

Stephano grinned. "I know you have." He placed that same strong hand at the Swede's waist and bent down slightly to look him in the eyes. Pewdie reacted with a raised eyebrow. "Thank you."

Not knowing what to do, Pewdie took a step back, not breaking eye contact. "You're… welcome, I guess. It's your fault for getting lost. How did you find me anyway?"

"That doesn't matter." Stephano took a step towards him. Pewdie's thoughts - and heart - raced. He'd never felt anything before, why now? What was happening? This was all too strange.

Stephano appeared to have read his mind. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice soft. Pewdie didn't respond, just looked at his feet. A thick silence followed, the kind where you can hear every little thing, your breathing, your heartbeat. Pewdie felt his heart pounding in his headphones, like the bass drum in a song.

He heard Stephano laugh and his head perked up. "I know exactly what you're thinking," he said. "You're wondering if this is real or not."

Pewdie nodded.

"Let me answer that for you." The walls started moving again, faster, more threateningly, and before Pewdie had time to respond, the Frenchman whipped out his sword and ran it through Felix's stomach, a blank expression on his face.

And then Pewdie woke up.

Pewdie sat up lightning-bolt quick, panting and shaking, and threw the green patterned covers off of him. His eyes were as wide open as humanely possible, maybe wider, and he looked around to make sure he was awake; a dresser to his right, promptly looted and still open; an empty closet across from him; and a wooden door, ajar and still intact. He sighed. What a nightmare.

He couldn't pull his mind away from that look on Stephano's face. Not the one at the end. That expressionless face bothered him, yes, but the hand on his waist, that smile… He was both surprised and somewhat disgusted by the feeling it caused in him. He couldn't shake it off.

Deciding to deal with that later, he planted his feet on the ground next to the bed and took out his lantern. I KNEW this thing was empty, he thought defiantly. He hung it on his belt loop and peered out of the room into the corridor ahead. Humming along to a dubstep song he had stuck in his head, Pewdie exited his rest stop and strode down the hall. There were only a few dim torches lighting his way forward, and from what he remembered, every other door in this hall was locked. Locked or barricaded.

The hall opened up into a large central room, bright from a circular skylight set into the dome ceiling. An unusually immense fountain spouted bloody red water underneath the skylight, so that it gleamed as it fell. There were no doors, nowhere to proceed, but the place was relaxing, albeit otherwise useless. The whole place was so cold, not just the atmosphere, but the actual temperature was below freezing. Throughout the whole castle, he had to battle the cold in just a T-shirt. His headphones helped, though. The fountain water was warm, and Pewdie didn't mind the strange color. He got down on his knees in front of the fountain and dunked his nearly frostbitten hands into the water. As he did, a faint growl reached his ears. He whipped around, jerking his hands out of the fountain as if the rippling water had triggered the monster to attack. Searching desperately for somewhere to hide, he ran in a circle around the fountain before realizing he was practically dead meat. He heard the growl again and panicked a little more. But it never got louder. Confused and trembling quite badly, he stood up straight. Upon feeling and hearing the rumble again, he jumped, but then his senses told him he wasn't in danger after all. He slapped his hand to his forehead; he was simply hungry. He hadn't even noticed. Well, not until it nearly scared the pants off of him.

Trying to slow his breathing back down, Pewdie did a double take as he spotted a little vial across the lengthy room, and walked over to where it lay. He laughed aloud; the contents were bright pink. At a first glance, there seemed to be no label, so instead of drinking it to cure his hunger, he decided it best to play it safe and keep it for later. Sliding it into his pocket, he sighed. There's no food in this whole damn castle, I bet, he thought sadly. A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.