Word Count: 1078

Recap: The skeleton laughed. "Haha. Ironic. That's where you are going now." he said, his voice gleeful. They were allowed about two seconds to wonder why he had said that when the doors burst open and a dozen rotting zombie-looking things came in. The four demigods looked at each other. "Run?" Adri suggested. "Run." They agreed and the ran towards the exits.

          As they dodged the draugr, they slashed at any that were unable to escape. Adri shifted the dagger from her right hand to left, so that she would be able to fight more comfortably. As she ran to the door, she didn't hear a draugr sneak up behind her. It latched its arms around her neck and pulled. She stumbled back but was able to catch her balance.

          She swung the dagger back and ended up taking the draugr out. She ran as fast as she could, determined to catch up with the others as she was lagging. When she was 6 feet away from the group, a draugr launched itself at her feet, effectively tripping her. She tried flying away, but the moment she went airborne, some meinfretr of a draugr launched its rusty axe at her. 

          The axe didn't chop her wing of but made a cut pretty deep. With a cry of pain, she fell to the floor, where two other draugr jumped onto her, burying her under a pile of rotten flesh. Alex was the first to notice. "You both keep going!! I'll get her!!" She veered off from Nico and Magnus and used her garrote to cut draugrs in half. She was about to slice the last one when four draugrs managed to sneak up behind her and tackle her.

          "Holy SON OF FREYA!! Get off!!!" she kicked at them but more just came and fell on top of both, Alex and Adri. Adri saw Nico and Magnus trying to come back. She instinctively knew that if they came too, the draugrs would overpower them and take them hostage or kill them. "GUYS!! JUST LEAVE!! WE'LL TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES!! CATCH!!" She yelled through the noise around them and managed to successfully throw the dagger of darkness to Nico. He caught it single-handed. And with a glance at Magnus, they held hands and shadow travelled away.

          Alex wiggled closer to Adri, so that she can shadow-travel them away, but she shook her head. "I don't know, but.. ugh.. I can't use my powers. Try shape-shifting." She groaned and managed to say. Alex tried shape-shifting, as Adri advised her to, but found out she couldn't. "Why can't I shape-shift?!?" Alex questioned, panic bubbling in her throat. 

          Both the demigods were left defenseless as their innate powers weren't working and their weapons were too far away to reach. Overpowered and defenseless, they were lugged along by the zombie dudes. Tendrils of smoke wrapped around their ankles and wrists and necks, as they walked to a cage made of smoke and metal, like prisoners.

          Upon closer inspections, they saw that the cage's bars had small serrations. Alex peered at them and gasped. "The bars are made from bone steel. They're deadly to demigods and monsters alike. Kinda like Stygian Iron and Celestial Bronze." "Oh my. They really do plan on killing us don't they?" Adri asked, looking at the zombies. They looked harmless and if it weren't for their rotten stench and rusted weapons, they would be too. It seemed like the only way they'd kill someone is by being unhygienic.

          "Enough talking!!" rasped the draugr closest to them. "We will not kill you. Yet. Or unless our mistress tells us too." he rasped on. Now, Alex and Adri didn't need a magic book to tell them that the mistress was Hel. Adri opened her mouth to say something when a draugr reached his hand in and slapped her.

          Adri's face was pure confusion and Alex's face was twisted with fury. She pushed her hand through the bars to hit the draugr when it snapped its disgusting fingers. Immediately, the bars closed in, leaving cuts in Alex's arm. "You son of a b- Aahh!!" As Alex pulled her hand out, Adri quickly set to work on her arm. She tore a bit of fabric from the inner lining of her gown and wrapped it tightly around the arm.

          "Don't move it too muc-" Adri never got to finish what she wanted to say as both, Alex and Adri felt a slight pain in their necks and fell limp.

          It was some time before they both regained their consciousness. Alex was the first to wake up. He looked around at the place where he was. It seemed to be a cell or dungeon of some kind. There was water dripping somewhere, the drip-drip echoing. Adri was slumped on his shoulder and her lip was bleeding from where the draugr hit her. 

          Alex tried turning his back but realized it wasn't possible without disturbing Adri. Not a second had passed since Alex thought of that and Adri woke up, terror in her eyes. Her gaze seemed unfocused as she scrambled to hold something that wasn't there. Tears streamed down her cheeks as Alex hurriedly woke her up. 

          "Adri, ADRI!! See, it's me, Alex.." he soothingly said as Adri looked around warily. Immediately, the moment she realized she was safe, she gave Alex a hug. She sobbed in relief. "You- I- There was this huge shadow looming over Magnus and Nico and when I tried calling out to them, the thing turned to me and made a gesture like holding its finger to its lips. And- Then- It did horrible things to them.. It ripped them apart, tissue by tissue and made me watch and had their detached heads say things they would never say." She cried some more before regaining her composure.

          "Sorry 'bout that." Adri said, wiping her tears. "That's fine. Since you're awake too, wanna check this place out?" Alex suggested. "Sure." Alex hopped onto his feet and when Adri tried to do the same, she stumbled before falling onto the other demigod. "I don't think I can walk. Must've hurt my ankle when the draugrs fell onto me." she said rolling to the side. "Probably. Can you summon your bag? We'll heal your leg." Adri nodded and made grabby hands at the floor, waiting for her bag to appear. But it didn't.

          "What??!! That isn't possible. I can always summon it." she frowned. "Maybe it's because your ring isn't there?" Alex pointed out. She checked and realized he was right. Her ring was gone. "Gods. We're stuck with no weapons." "I guess the only thing we can do is wait??" Alex said. Adri knew Alex wasn't someone who gave up easily, so to hear him, Alex Fierro, say that made her accept defeat. For now.