She gives him another smack, and still he doesn't wake up.

Well fuck her. Men are like animals, they only wake up when there is a reason to. Pity she didn't have food on herself or else she would of bathed herself in it to wake him up.

The simple action of lifting her hand to smack him caused her entire body to scream in agony. Each muscle, tendon, ligament and even bone hurt to even move. She got hit hard. Almost hard enough to knock some sense into her. It brought back memories of Ezra and herself falling over his cliff, but the ground did more damage than the water. And the water was hard itself.

Correction. Bone ground.

She fell and fell for who knows how long and had to have passed out after hitting the ground, because she woke up in another cave with a floor this time cascaded with many little domes of bone. She could tell some were human, and others seemed too eerily fabricated to look like human bones.

She was lucky she didn't penetrate a bone standing upright, like a guard she spotted a few meters away. The room was just as dark, with once again another narrow doorway with light peeking through. But she didn't go there just yet.

The cave is half the size of the upper portion, with a pool of bones as a floor. Dry, old and stained bones. It stank of acid and burning flesh. Not very satisfying to the nose, and it burned and dried her throat.

She could spot a few more bodies laying lifeless on their backs. She refused to look further, to test for pulses, or a flicker of eyelids or even a rise and fall of a chest. She refused. Some didn't follow her. She could already tell.

She only checked for Terrance. And he is alive.

His pulse is weak but there. He would probably feel the same, since they both survived a massive fall. She could already picture the amount of bruises on her body, especially on her back. Yellow and dark purple bruises. Now where was Ezra when she needed him? The damn idiot.

She gives Terrance another smack straddling his hips in the process, even though it took multiple breathes and teeth grinding, like a woman giving birth, to get to this point. Her lower back felt stiffer than an erection.

"Terrance you idiot! Wake up." She shook him this time.

She couldn't even check his pupils nor his skin which felt clammy and cool compared to the sticky hot air here— in the dark.

She palms his body starting at the back of his head and then pressing and going down the side of his ribs and back to search for any open injuries. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt nothing. But that still meant nothing, he could have gotten injured internally.

His mouth opens and Cleo leans down placing her ear over his mouth. He breathed warm air into her ear. She already felt a tiny bit better.

She smacks him again. And again and again. His head moved left and right as she did, she would laugh if the situation was different.

She smacks again. One big hard one. Her hand burns from the hard skin contact, but it utters a low groan out of him through his mouth.

"Terrance? Wake up!" She shakes his body.

She might understand why Genevieve never allowed her any healing lessons.

She grinds her teeth tasting sweat dripping from her fringe into her mouth. Her hair is plastered onto her head. It was that hot. The feel of Terrance's body beneath hers doesn't do any justice either.

He groans again, and Cleo could see his eyes flickering open. Slowly he started blinking, or even squinting if she could see correctly and looks up at her with slitted eyes.

"Miss?" His voice is groggy and sounded dry. She couldn't even summon water to offer him.

"What?" She snaps.

"You're alive."

"Obviously. I'm before you now aren't I? We survived a major fall Terrance can you stand?"

He looks in the position they were in, and she could of sworn she saw a blush creeping up his neck. After a huge and dramatic sigh made by herself and only herself she gets off him and settles down beside his head with her knees up and her ass digging into the bones beneath them.

He starts moving, groaning excessively as he tries finding leverage by lifting himself up but he couldn't and falls back down on his back again, breathing fast and hard. It sounded rugged to her. Meaning this fetid air could be poison for their lungs.

"I don't think I can move my legs."

Cleo gets on all fours before forcefully getting herself up. The reason she hoped for going fast was to end the hurt and pain before she could even begin to think about it— but it did nothing. A potent sting buzzed in her lower spine and all her muscles screamed with the movements she made. She needed to get plenty rest. Plenty for days to count.

She feels a wave of dizziness swirling into her head right after a hammering pain shook her in her skull. With pained movements she pats her head feeling for any open injuries then drops it after feeling nothing.

She groans and steadies herself by holding onto the damp slimy wall an arm stretch away from where Terrance lay motionless and wills the dizziness away. God's. Her head was pounding, like a hammering pounding of something trying to get through.

The bones crunched beneath her feet, when she looked down she calculated it could easily be shin-deep amount of bones laying scattered throughout. This could be the best day of the bones man life if he were here. Some bones she could feel broke beneath her boot suggesting that they years and years old. Perhaps even centuries.

"When you feel something Terrance see to the other guards, I'm not sure everyone is alive." She motions her head to the dead one laying with the bone coated in red stood standing erect out of him.

"I don't have the time to check on everyone. I'm going in now." She doesn't meet his eyes.

"What? Going where?"

"In."

"In where?"

With a limp, she stands close to the entrance of the archway and tries looking through but only sees pillars and something fiery. The archway had have been a crack once, it was quite narrow— she'd have to slide in sideways to get to the other side. But looking through this arched crack she wasn't certain whether she'd make it out alive.

Why didn't she sleep with Jezio when she had the chance? Now she won't know how it feels, right before her death. And she should have taken more chocolate cakes before coming here as well.

"Through this crack. Once you're up, come looking for me. I don't want to be there alone."

She never knew she'd have to say those words.

After she squeezes through the gap in the rock walls, she takes in the big room before her.

It is about twice the size of the place above, with towering pilgrims holding the ceiling aloft, lining either side of where she stood. But these pillars were made from stone as was the floors, unlike the rock cave behind her. She wrinkles her nose finally knowing where the strong acidic smell comes from. She would make a mask out of her clothing but she gets distracted by what she is seeing.

There are plenty pools of liquid, hot red liquid, looking almost like fire— placed everywhere on the floor in between the pillars and adjacent to them, against walls, there was even one bubbling right before her.

When she looks down at it she could see the flames and smoke lifting up from it stinking of the strong smell that wafted throughout the room and to the cave behind.

The liquid splashed and moved like a party of animals, going wild. It left dark remains on the floor. She wondered whether the fire liquid came from below or whether it was dug up and created to be like this. But in no time, she could tell; the entire place would be flooding with the fiery liquid washing everything dead and gone. Even them.

Just how would they get out of here? Build a ladder till the top? They'd die from starvation before even reaching the middle.

But Cleo could already tell that they were underground, there was no doubt about it. And the surface was far above them. Way above. So she was already going to die anyway. Good for her.

With the flames washing over one another she could hear nothing behind her, but she hoped that at least a few of her guards would make it out alive.

So now what?

Should she take a bubble bath as her last days on Earth? The one to her right looked more pleasant. The flames hissed and purred to her almost. The sound of heaven. And the bubbles it made, made it looked like a delicious, hot, rich drink.

The walls are carved from smooth stone, dark gray, bringing a sense of coldness, almost heartless aura— reminding her of herself.

The ceiling above is made from the same gray icy colour, and high above— the space between the floors and ceilings was wrapped in smoke snaking around the room. It came from the bubbling pools, it evaporated up above in this windowless room. She wasn't even certain there were any doorways leading to anywhere else, it was just this. This was where it ended. Trapped within.

She sees another hole in the distance, looking like an empty pool with no fire liquid whatsoever inside of it.

She carefully walks around the pools careful to not step into the puddles that fell over the edges. From the flames alone she was already burning, scorching inside of her clothes sweating as if a pool of water spilled onto her. That's how she looked and felt. Her breathe was hotter than the flames drying her throat to the extent where her spit didn't suffice.

If this what the flames did, she supposes it wasn't a good idea to try and take a bath in one.

It is like a mirage in here. Through her wet scalding eyelashes it looked like water moving in the distance with every step she took.

Oh hell. She might just pass out.

Suddenly a boiling hot spot caught her in her foot, she winces and shakes her leg looking down at what happened. The lava liquid burned through her boot, a hole in it completely dissolving the leather, leaving her skin exposed. Even her sock burned away.

Her skin got minimal damage, just red around the edges at which she got burned. She looks towards the pool. It is hotter than she thought. She would have died long ago if she took a dip.

She finally made it to the only exposed hole with no fire liquid inside. It is also the pool right in the middle of the big room, and she could see it was the largest pool as well.

It was until she looked over the edge where she gasps and realized that it was far from a pool. It was yet another hole, with just darkness inside. It might even be deeper than the previous one they fell through.

She sees more of the dark, blackened mist, almost like soot flashing around in the hole, but once you're through it, it just looked like average mist. The transparent kind. The must swirls, and snakes like dark tendrils jutting all over the hole.

She looks up again, skimming the room, using the only light she had from the fire pools to glimpse for doors, archways, anything that could reason for this place. But she found nothing, except for this smoothed contained room. There was nothing else besides endless pools, and another giant hole in the ground.

She already told herself she wasn't going in.

Not again. Because this time, she won't make it out.

She hears scuttling behind her, very slightly over the heavy hissing of the fires she turned around to catch sight of Terrance in the arms of another guard. He looked sick, his skin is pale and ashen and both their faces gagged from the potent smells.

She attempts another swallow. It feels like swallowing a dry rock.

She walks closer toward them wiggling her toes in the exposed boat.

They were both sweating heavily — their shirts clinging to their bodies, as were their hair. She wrinkles her nose; men sweat and burn didn't go well with each other.

She meets Terrance's wide eyes as he took in the place before her, trying his best to show he could stand on his own two feet but the delicious chocolate-skinned guard could tell he couldn't, so he firmly kept a hold of him.

"How are the others?"

To her surprise and relief, -Terrance replied. "They are coping. They're just readying themselves and tending to the wounded as we speak."

She nods even more relieved. She wasn't even certain so many would make it out alive after that fall.

"What is this place?"

She turns around to scan the massive room once again and opens her mouth to speak, "I-"

She gets disrupted by soft murmuring laughter. She folds the loose strands over her ears to listen more closely to the sounds.

Terrance speaks up, nearly frightening her to death. "Miss? What's the matter?"

She ignores him and listens again. There it was, more murmurs and whispers, several of them— giggling, speaking and-

"Do you hear that?" She is already searching the rooms for the source of their voices.

"Hear what?"

"The whispers. It sounds like a group of girls."

She could already see Terrance frowning behind her. "No, I hear nothing, perhaps it's the guards behind us in the cave."

Last she checked, her guards were male, and none had high-pitched voices like the sounds she was hearing.

She walks towards the giant hole once again slowly, trying to limit any sort of movement that might scare them. The only sounds she hears now was the crunching of ashes beneath her boots, Terrance asking her where she was going but not following, and the bursting of flames popping up in the pools she passed on either side of her, only steps closer to the empty pool.

She cups her ears, hearing the blood pounding in her ears in time with her heartbeat— both rapid and hard and loud. Sounding like the sea crashing onto the rocks, turbulent rough seas. The sweat chilled her to the bone this time. God's. She needed water. She was too dehydrated.

She lets go of her ears and looks down into the depthless black hole below. The arches of her feet digging into the edges of the stone hole. It was so hot the sweat ran off her nose and fell right into the cavity.

She is breathing hard, hot dry air. She wipes her forehead beneath her fringe, her fingers coming away with so much salt water that it could have sufficed as a glass of water were it not salty. She rubs it on her thighs, feeling the deep heat of her skin through her breeches, burning her body outside, but inside she was chilling.

Then the whispers were back; and she realized it was in her head. The sounds went through the one ear and left the other with none of it being identified and grasped. She couldn't make out what they were saying. It was too brisk and too much whispering at once.

What the  hell was going on?

She frowns and holds her head with both hands  closing her eyes. She might have gone mad, completely losing her mind. Coming here was a huge mistake. A bloody nightmare. Landon was right, just what the hell was she thinking?

That's the problem. She wasn't thinking at all. Her ego was too high thinking she could do this by herself. Well it also wasn't her fault that her partner left her; and now she was losing her mind. She might die from dehydration right here, right. But this is something else, her mind is falling apart already; causing her to disintegrate slowly from her head downwards and before they know, Cleo is nowhere to be found.

She has to get out of here now, she could feel herself quivering, telling her that her body was shutting down. She had to do something before she collapses, anything to get her people out— to not witness her dying.

"Oh my dear. It's too late for that now."

Her heart skips a beat.

She waits for her next heartbeat and then the next.

"I am speaking to you child."

She glances around the room, searching the unevenly stoned ceiling, pillars and the hole for any sign of movement. But the only movement was her guards slowly coming towards her. More have joined, with Terrance screaming her name over the flames, to not do it.

"Who are you?" She shouts like a mad person.

"What do you mean, 'who are you?'"

"Shut up Terrance!"

The whispers were back, giggling this time. She hits her ears, but the incessant buzz wouldn't go away. It sounded like a bunch of crickets in mating season squealing like crazy. It actually anguished her ears sending jolts of pain down the sides of her head and neck.

"The question here is, why are you here in my home?"

"Why can't you speak out loud?"

She laughs under her breathe. Her voice is rich and smooth, like velvet. It sounds like she was speaking out loud, but nobody else could hear except for her.

"But I am. Only you can here because you are an Elemental. These humans behind you are considered useless and pathetic. I suggest you get rid of them."

"You can see us?"

"I see everything within these walls child. Right from where you entered, to burning your foot to standing right before the Hole."

"So why don't you show yourself?"

"Miss? Who are speaking to?"

"A queen never shows herself, it lessens judgment."

So she is the demon queen after all. Cleo was beginning to suspect something else.

"Miss?"

Oh for goodness sake. Fucktard Terrance.

"She's in my head Terrnace. The queen like she calls herself-"

"I am the queen. Get your facts correct. Just so we are clear child, I don't appreciate visitors into my home with no invite. It's just plain disrespectful."

"Maybe you shouldn't send your visitors spreeing into the open then." She rolls her eyes starting to feel restless and excruciatingly hot.

Her guards she believes — behind her were most likely thinking that she has lost her wits; and she is suddenly speaking to herself like a mentally ill person.

"My visitors..."

Her voice trails off, her tongue slithering over the s sending shivers down her spine like sharp bolts, with her clothing suddenly feeling like sandpaper on her skin, rubbing and her brushing herself raw.

Cleo didn't like the way she trails off that way, and the queer whispers in her head became louder and much more prominent so she could finally make out one statement of — what has she done?. It buzzed in her head with each word they uttered, like chalk on a blackboard held at the wrong angle. It made her jaws hurt from the harsh teeth grinding.

In her honesty the one who did wrong here was this queen herself.

"You see the etchings too don't you?"

The question made her halt, with her guards behind her and Terrance coming to stand right beside her. Even through the tough facade he pretended to show, she could see the pain he is feeling from the fall through his eyes.

Having Elemental blood sure had it perks into healing faster than normal mundanes.

Cleo breathes shallowly, the pressure in her chest increasing a notch making it harder and harder to breathe.

She palms her chest, catching a glimpse of Terrance through her peripheral vision. She raises her chin and breathes through her mouth more easily.

"Are you the cause of it?" Her throat is groggy and drier than hard bread.

She clicks her tongue almost in time with the little whisperings speaking in between.

"My child. Of course I am. And you just made my life a whole lot easier."

She frowns getting frustrated and worked up with the irksome whispers. "What do you mean?"

The woman laughs so joyfully and deep Cleo could have sworn she saw the walls shaking as well as the dark pit before them.

"Why bother till the ceremony for your death? It can happen now, before you know it. I must say child, the amount of confidence you took into coming here makes you stand out the most amomgst all the Elementals I have ever met before. But coming here..." More tongue clicking, "You made a horrible decision."

"Why is that?"

She laughs again and before Cleo could ask what was so funny her tone changed from serene to immoral.

"It's time Cleo. Time you came to an end. Please meet your brothers and sisters."

Before she could once again interrupt the bitch queen again, a sound is echoed from the pit below; a scratchy and fidgety sound, like someone breaking into a house delving for the most valuable items in the house.

Without thinking she takes a step forward peeking over the edge immediately coming face to face with the bulbous and monstrous head of a demon— the eyeless and slitted nose beast couldn't look any more handsome.

It first claws its way out of the pit from against the side slowly crawling out the hole with its powerful arms and sharp talons scratching against the stone floor.

She takes a step back and Terrance immediately jumps in front of her with his sword out — not that the little piece of metal could do anything against it. The demon begins to snarl staying on all fours on the floor, inching slowly and closer to them. It's breathe stank horribly, like rotting old meat— making her think that their bones could be next to join the cave.

"Miss! What do we do?" Terrance is scared shitless, fearing for his life. She could see arms shaking unevenly with the sword in his hands.

But she didn't know what to do, the whispers were gone as if they knew Cleo hit rock bottom. As if they knew it was over for her, knowing that what Cleo has done was the worst blunder she had ever done.

"Aye! I didn't come for trouble take your animals away and perhaps we can bargain."

Shocked as she was the woman replied.

"Choose. Death now or later?" The richness of her voice made Cleo curl her toes inside of her boots.

Cleo groans and fists her hands summoning flames in them and her eyes were burning too, the acidity here made them tear as well. "Why do you want to kill me?"

She didn't reply.

Cleo turns around facing the rest of her team, "Head for the cave now!"

They were quick to head for it, walking past the pools still with their weapons bared, eager to get to safety.

She faces the front again, to the demon becoming more vicious. "You too Terrance."

He alternates between looking at her and the demon, not letting his eyes off the ever close demon. "You have lost your head! My job is to protect and that is what I'll do-"

"And save your last sappy words for your mother. Just go. Now."

She sends him an icy cold look. But she could see the hesitation behind his face, it took a few moments for him to give in, but the slouch of his shoulders and lost features made him clang the sword on the floor and left, as if they just broke up.

She faces the demon with her flamed eyes crawling faster now that Terrance was gone and raised onto his hind legs standing tall and proud raising a heavily clawed hand to most likely slice her in quarters. But she jumps back nearly falling into the pool behind her.

The demon comes again and again but she keeps side stepping it and avoiding those claws, before the demon could lift itself up she took the opportunity to hurl spheres of fire right into its chest, but as usual just deflecting off those scales tough as nails.

She has a mix of adrenaline and exhaustion in her body, not quite certain which one to listen to. But she really had to do this alone. There was nobody who could help her.

With her heart thumping irregularly fast and her vision seeing stars dotting around the giant demon before her, there was one last thing she heard from the queen.

Her lungs strained, she had to make out what she said from the loud blood rushing into her ears and her body slowly failing.

"Oh child. Please don't forget, I am Mother Earth."

Behind the demon, out sprang hundreds and hundreds more all heading straight for her.