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            Sometime later, after many anxious pacing on Romeo's end, he passed out on a small cot. His jester hat dangled snoring loud and breathing heavy, probably from all the alcohol.

I sat in the corner of the cell with my backpack in my hands, feeling very aware of how numb my emotions were. It was a little concerning, considering how in touch I usually was with how I felt. I just knew the jump between Caito being Charon and seeing Ace and then leaving Ace had been far too fast paced for me to process.

Heavy doors creaked open from somewhere above, startling me as it banged closed. Reaching into my backpack, I quickly grabbed a piece of gum and chewed, hoping it would help some with this outrageously quirky outdated dialogue.

As the prisoners scrambled to their feet and the shadows of two tall figures filled the space between the two rows of cells, I felt the gum in my mouth thicken, my jaw wired close. I focused on the otherworldly creatures in armor stood in front of my cell, their faces concealed by black shadow, and the side effects of the gum wore off. I locked my bag and slung it quickly onto my back and tightened the straps.

"I'm guessing you two scary fellas aren't my welcome wagon," I said.

Helvius stepped between the guards with a slight smile. "Before you bring them up, do make sure they're both in cuffs. You never know what she's capable of. Or him, for the matter."

One of the guard's lifted their hand and the cell bars seemed to liquefy, rippling away to create a door for them to walk through.

The one guard marched to Romeo's sleeping form, while the second marched to me and grabbed my arm, hauling me straight off the ground and threw me into the wall without any care for how hard my head rattled from the impact. As I struggled underneath his hand on my back, he took out some sort of intricate device that looked a lot like Romeo's shackles that could deplete people of their powers. Fear speared through me.

"No! Get off of me!" I seethed, trying to shove him away. But when I went to shove him off my hand slid right through his gear like he was a phantom, and my eyes widened.

The guard pressed me against the wall and proceeded to shackle my ankles and my right wrist. I felt an odd sensation inside of me, like the power I had at my beck and call was now no longer there, as my arm fell limp to my side.

"I truly think you should let me sleep a bit longer!" Romeo shouted, and I looked over to see him being slammed against the wall and cuffed him. "I need my beauty sleep or else I'm utter chaos. Trust me, friends. Don't let this lean, stimulating body fool you. I can be quite unpleasant awakened on the wrong side of the bed!"

My guard shackled my other wrist, chaining my two hands together, before dragging us forcefully from the cell.

"Where are they taking us?" I shouted at Romeo, frightened by the creatures howling at us from the cells on either direction.

"Up to Hell's castle, if we're lucky," Romeo answered, dread pooling in my stomach. "If His Highness hasn't already decided our fate, that is. Otherwise, we'll just be tossed into the flames below us."

"Lovely."

"Damn, Helvius. Ever since I made that one small joke about him being the prince's bitch, that twisted elf has been out to get me. And then you pop down here with your big sparkly blue eyes, and he takes the perfect opportunity to end me."

"Quiet," Romeo's guard seethed, yanking on his chained hands so that he stumbled in his point shoes. "Or we'll muzzle you."

"Oh, joyous, one of you can actually talk," Romeo said cheerily. "Friends, listen to me. This is a huge misunderstanding. Don't you recognize me? I'm the prince's favorite jester. He laughed at my joke once, you know!"

"You mean when he cleared his throat?" replied the guard, and suddenly both of the shadowed men were chuckling.

"It was a laugh!" Romeo cried. "I know he laughed."

"I hope the prince skewers your pretty head onto a spike!" shouted a prisoner as we walked past.

"Oh, shut up Otis!" Romeo shouted over his shoulder. "I'll skewer your mum into my filthy cot!" Then he turned his head in my direction. "Respectfully, of course. Sorry, love."

Hauled up stone stairs, we entered a long dark hallway with torches. On either side of us were little cubbies in the stone walls where tall demons with weapons stood. They towered over us, so still it was as if they were mummified gargoyles. As we shuffled past them, their dark eyes blankly followed us, and it unsettled me tremendously.

A heavy door ahead gave a great groan, and we were dragged down another hallway into a dark, empty hall. One with minimal light and significantly colder than from where we came.

We walked a great distance in silence. I realized Romeo had stopped talking once we left the dungeon, so the only echoing this space was the sound the jangling of our chains.

There was something bone chilling about this place. Like the walls were alive but cold as ice to the touch. If ever a place were to be relentlessly haunted, it would be this castle.

Up ahead was a black door appeared. At nearly forty feet high, I had to crane my neck up to look at the top. I glanced over at Romeo as our guard's released us, realizing the slight tapping noise I'd been hearing had been Romeo's teeth clattering together.

Blood pounded in my ears as we strode into a shadowed colossal throne room. Pillars towered over us and to our left, massive windows with crisscrossed designs, but the glass appeared darkened and obscured whether it was night or day.

But from the walls came a soft bluish light that almost mimicked moonlight. It didn't seem to have a source, but it lit up the space enough that I could see there were people in here with us, people on the far sides of the room sitting a tables, talking quietly amongst each other. I noticed the outline of a woman's gown as she crossed into the light. It was red and Victorian in appearance. I let out a small gasp at the red sparkle of her eyes and the curled horns protruding from her head that dipped back as a nightmarish creature with no eyes hovered from behind her and suddenly clamped viciously down on her shoulder and ripped flesh from it.

Frightened, I stumbled back into Romeo.

"Best to look down in the court, love," Romeo murmured, his chained hands urging me forward. "Bunch of soulless animals, the bunch of em'."

We followed an intricate carpet with various shades of black and dark grays, leading to stairs that climbed higher and higher to a raised platform, where a menacing black throne sat ahead. From the top of the throne were intricate gold and black branchlike material that bled into the walls behind it. It climbed up to the ceiling. As we came closer, I noticed the black skulls embedded in the design, and a lick of fear darted up my spine.

"Say your prayers," the one guard snickered from behind us, before shoving us closer to the stairs leading to the throne.

Romeo's shackled wrists trembled. "Say your prayers," he mocked the guard quietly with a distain. "Good one, you clichéd boob."

I snickered a little under my breath and kept my voice low. "You say a joke like that, and the prince will definitely laugh."

"Clearly you have never met the prince. Wasted all my best on him already, I did. Every rational bloke I've met has enjoyed a good poo joke. Not him."

"Wow, he sounds like a real joy to be around."

He scoffed. "Maybe if I'm wearing a thick diaper."

"Is that what that smell on you is?"

Romeo chuckled. "You're a bit of a crazy arsehole for what you did back in the chambers, dear, but I have to admit you're marvelously fun."

An icy waft of air carried into the room, drawing my attention up to the ceiling. At first, I thought it was a chandelier above us with beautiful silver crystals, when moonlight shone off them, revealing their sharp-blade-like ends pointing down at us.

Romeo gave a sigh and leaned into me. "A fair warning would be to say the prince is bloody scary in the eyes and the teeth. Best not to joke directly at him, less' you hate where your head sits on your neck. Fairer would be to add that you're his type. Now I've got an oddly precise sense for these things of late, so trust me when I say he's drawn to intelligent women with backbone. But broaden those blue eyes and put on a good tremble anyway. He'll eat that right up, he will."

Shadowed guards misted through the walls on either side of us, a few of them appearing along the stairs ahead. They stood with stiff, rigid postures, like soldiers, their bodies heavily armored.

"I hear there's a loudmouth in my dungeons," purred a deep voice.

My heart slammed into overdrive as I noticed the throne was now filled by a hooded figure.

Romeo instantly dropped to his knees to the stone floor. I gazed around, realizing everyone had done the same, and reluctantly followed.

"Your Highness," Romeo said after a long stretch of silence. "There has been a great misunderstanding––"

"Stand up, clown." Death's deep voice cut again through the air like a sharp knife, carrying easily across the court. "You're staining my floors with failure."

Geez. What a ruthless bitch.

Romeo rushed to his feet, though not very gracefully, as he nearly collapsed onto me, and I had to lean my weight into him to righten his posture.

"I see you enjoyed last night's festivities," Death noticed. "Did you enjoy my liquor that you smuggled into your cell?"

Romeo's eyes bulged and he fiddled with his hands. "Regretfully, yes. I was a little stressed. And your liquor is most delightful..."

Death snarled a little, the low rumble of it like a warning.

"Apologies," Romeo said quickly, his whole body stiffening as he bowed his head to his chest. "Your liquor is most disturbing, my Lord."

You have got to be kidding me.

Neither expressing satisfaction nor discontent with Romeo's answer, Death's hooded head turned slightly in my direction. I felt a cold, uneasy awareness that he was sizing me up like a predator, even after he spoke to Romeo again.

"You are on your seventh strike, Jester, are you not?"

"Yes, my Lord," Romeo said.

"You aware this court has rules?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"And who saved you from the pits of hell, Petruchio?"

Romeo shut his eyes, his jaw shaking. "You, my Lord, and I am deeply appreciative of it."

"Then why the fuck," Death said, his voice booming across the throne room like the threat of chaos, "are you keeping spies from me?"

Romeo struggled to formulate a response, and I felt I needed to speak up.

"Where did you get that conclusion from?" The way Death's head snapped toward me made me want to pull my head into a shell like a turtle. "I'm not a spy. If I was, I wouldn't have asked to see you, and I probably wouldn't have gotten caught. My ankles barely crack when I tip-toe––"

"You dare speak out of turn?" Death snarled, his voice dripping with venom.

I licked my dry lips. "Um...yes?"

I swear the entire room dimmed ever-so-slightly, and in my peripheral, shadows leaked down from the ceiling. Romeo looked around with widened eyes, confirming my suspicions.

"The way things were going with the rhetorical questions and those skulls decorating the wall behind you," I continued, "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had a turn, anyway."

"What is your name?" Although Death had clearly asked me the question, his hooded face was not even turned in my direction anymore.

I just stared at him; my voice trapped in my throat. What if this memory was more fragile than the others?

"I asked for your name, girl," Death repeated slowly, viciously.

Helvius appeared from nothing beside Death, his hands clasped behind his back. "Her name is Faith, my Lord."

"Faith?" Death's snarling voice had lowered to a husk. "You jest."
"I do, actually," I said, moving closer to Romeo. "I am here with a joke unlike any other, Your Highness. One that will make you laugh."

Death's hooded face angled in my direction again, but he didn't say anything. It was incredibly unnerving.

"In the result that you laugh," I said, managing to hide the wobble to my voice, "I hope to help a fellow fool on his seventh strike."

"You are making a great mistake, my lady," Romeo whispered to me.

"My jester does not need an assistant," Death sneered. "Least of all a random mortal woman wearing ugly rags."

These are your mother's clothes, I thought spitefully.

"I am not a random woman," I declared. "I'm an actress. One you hand-selected for your court. Or do you forget me like the many faces of mortals?"

Someone gasped from the court, and Romeo had a brief hacking cough that sounded a lot like, "Stop talking."

Death sat motionless in his throne, silent for long stretch of time again. "Speak your grand joke, then."

"What do you call Death's jolly stick when it hasn't gotten any sun?" I shouted, turning toward the court.

"The Pale Rider," Death answered without pause. "Precious mortal, I am neither pale nor jolly throughout my entire being. What a cringeworthy attempt at humor. Looks like your friend's seventh strike will land on a dick joke."

"So you admit to sunbathing naked?" I asked.

Death's hidden wicked gaze burned into me, and I could imagine the dark slash of his eyebrow with the scar arching.

"You just implied you're not pale anywhere," I said, "so you must sunbathe naked. Little weird for the Prince of Darkness to be sunbathing in light if you ask me. Aren't you embarrassed?"

Death cleared his throat and turned his attention quickly to a guard. "Get this ugly little pest out of my sight."

I put my hands on my hips. "Funny. That's exactly what women say about your jolly stick."

Romeo eyes widened, his face purpling as he pinned his lips together. A raspberry noise unleashed from his mouth, and he desperately covered the sound with his hand, but it didn't help much as he burst into laughter. Suddenly the entire court was uproarious with laughter as well, the sound echoing over the cavernous space.

Death stood sharply from his throne.

The room blanketed in silence.

His hooded head slowly scanned the width of the room, as if to dare someone to chuckle just one more time, before he started to descend the stairs.

With each step he took, I felt the doom of him coming nearer. As he moved in a languid manner, his hood slowly slid away from his face, his elegant cloak unraveling until it was a long, regal black cape behind him. The fabric draped over the stairs in black waves, as Death's sinful features were revealed. He wore a crown of bones on his head, and his longish black hair was pushed back away from his face, though some of his loose curls were lazily over his forehead.

He stopped about six feet from me. His almond shaped mismatched green eyes were thinly lined with charcoal, making them appear even more harsher, sinister, and otherworldly. Dark facial shadowed his angular jaw, which was clenched in pair with the glowering, frightening expression engraving his features.

I briefly studied his Victorian styled outfit and the regal layers of clothing he wore. His trousers fit his long legs perfectly without being tight. He was a far-stretch from Alexandru's farmer boy off-white tunic vibe and sophisticated tailored brother to future Death's more simplistic style.

"Well, Faith," the Prince of Darkness said at last. "I don't believe I laughed."

"Jokes that have a little truth to them tend to hurt a sensitive heart."

A small smirk curved one side of his mouth. "I think you'll find my heart is quite unlike your definition. Tell me, what are your sins?"

"My sins?"

"Only sinners arrive at my court." There was his undertone that seemed calculated and mocking, like he was already one step ahead of me. He kept gently trying to meet my eyes, so I stared carefully at his nose. "But I feel you are a puzzle, which leads me to believe you are here by mistake, or to pry. Either of which will unfortunately end in the same fate, as I am terribly, terribly tonight."

The way his sharp teeth poked out from his lips at the end of that sentence didn't exactly make me feel any more confident about getting out of this one.

"Ehem," Romeo said, carefully stepping forward with narrowed eyes. "Your Highness if I may chime in at the risk of my pretty head rolling across your morbid floors. I am but a fool, but I strongly feel a woman with a puzzle in her soul might be a rare sign worth exploring for you?"

Death's lip lifted in a snarl. "Go be a brick in the wall."

Romeo raised his cuffed hands and backpedaled with a theatrical, "Carry on! I am but a brick in the wall!"

Death slid his hand into his pocket and took a swaggering step toward me, invading my space. He was so large that his powerful frame filled my vision instantly, and my whole body tautened. Quite literally, considering the cuffs around my ankles and wrists had seemed to coil tighter.

"Lift your hands," he said.

My gaze wandered from his nose to his neck, how the high collar of his jacket didn't hide the black, wicked tattooed markings crawling up from beneath his clothes.

"I said," Death said slower, quieter, his voice neither kind nor cruel, "lift your hands."

Briefly gazing over at Romeo, who looked greatly worried, I slowly lifted my cuffed hands. My breath stiffened as Death's gloved hand reached into his regal cape, and I only could imagine what he was about to show me.

Never would I have guessed he'd produce a thorned stem between his gloved fingers. Black tendrils of shadow bloomed in intricate patterns as bloodred petals blossomed, forming a rose.

"For you."

Even as my fingers grasped the stem of the rose, the anxiety swelling inside of me would not let up.

"Roses are indeed beautiful," Death said, his gloved fingertips falling away from the stem as I held it on my own. "Although, I don't understand the mortal obsession with keeping them in vases. What is the desire for a rose, when from the moment it is cut, it is slowly dying?"

A sickly feeling suddenly crawled inside of me, and I realized I couldn't move my arms or my fingers as they continued to grasp the rose. Death's right hand, the one still his pocket, lifted and grasped my forearm, and I could feel the warmth of his palm as I realized he had taken off his glove. I watched in horror as pain started to radiate up my arm, black filaments dancing in my veins as the flower in my hand begin to rot from the middle.

Death leaned down to me, his mouth hovering at my ear. "I was told you spoke my name out loud," he whispered, his claws digging into my skin. "I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but you will be nobody anymore. Nothing but a dead rose."

A sob lodged in my throat at the sensation of wilting of dying rushing through me in an agony I'd never felt before. I couldn't scream, I couldn't breathe, and tears forcefully rushed down my face. The only sound I could hear was my own heart in my ear, the rhythm of pounding, pounding, slowing, slowing.

My entire arm was greying now, my hands trembling uncontrollably in the cuffs as I tried to reach my power, but my brain screamed for oxygen, but I couldn't seem to remember how to inhale, let alone tap into my strength and the panic of it all made it that much more difficult to concentrate. But there was nobody to save me in this realm. I was on my own. And as my heart suddenly gave a sharp pain, I knew I would die like this if I didn't save myself.

The cuffs around my wrists grew hot, branding my skin. I honed in on the rot crawling up arm, willing it to leave my body, my fingers curling inward from their limp state. Suddenly his power started to peel back. I felt the imaginary hold on my lungs let up as I suddenly regained the ability to breathe and inhaled sharply.

Death's talons dug into my skin, a growl escaping his mouth. "The hell...?"

My head trembled as I finally looked up at him, the sheer determination in me clouding over my fears of him seeing through me again. His catlike eyes were so close that I could see the exact moment his thinly slivered pupils dilated as he peered into my soul.

His expression wavered.

He released me as though struck by lightning, taking a step back, and then another. For a moment, I thought he might have recognized me. He looked down at his hand that had touched my skin, his fangs lengthening in his mouth, his eyes seething.

"You should be dead."

The room dimmed; the court remained hushed in puzzlement. When I tilted my head up, the ceiling crawled with dark amorphous shadows. They slinked down the walls, hissing and whispering, their sinister voices overlaying each other as some of them knocked members of Death's court to the ground in the rush.

One of the shadows launched itself across the floor on all fours and grabbed my wrist in a vice grip. I screamed, and my instinct was to light these shadows up like a roasted Christmas ham, but my hands were still cuffed. Another shadow latched onto my other arm, and a third gripped me by the back of the neck.

"Take her away," Death commanded, his catlike green eyes glowing, shadows spreading out from the shoulders of his cape in chaotic tendrils. "To a place where there is no light."

Suddenly I was being hauled backwards across the ground by Death's shadows and his guards, my thin leather Roman sandals sliding right off my feet as I went and the back of my heels burning from the friction of the ground.

As I was dragged away, writhing against the shadows, I looked ahead to find Death watching me, his expression void of any emotion.

My mind raced, his words repeating in my head.

To a place where there is no light.

Death's mouth turned up slightly at the corners before he turned and leisurely ascended the stairs back to his throne. The long fabric of his cape retreated into a cloak as his hood draped back over his head.

A heavy feeling of dread centered in my chest. Suddenly I understood the look in his eyes after he'd released my arm had not been recognition. Not in the way I'd wanted it to be, at least.

To a place where there is no light.

He knew my power.

****
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO *I just voiced this out-loud as I typed because I do that sometimes when I write (lmfao) and my dog was terrified*

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