Chapter 17

Hours, they had been there for hours. Una was terrified but that didn't stop her, she was banging on the cell doors, shaking them, screaming for someone to listen, to come for her. No one talked, no one said anything, but they were all terrified and she didn't need to read mines to know that.

She didn't have it in her to ask about Gus, every time she thought of him being alone her heart broke even more. She wanted to see him, to be with him and for them all to get out of her and she wondered if he got away if he wasn't captured - if he was going to find a way to free them.

"Let us out!" she shrieked, ignoring the pain in her foot and kicking the cell bars again. It was a horrible looking place, dripping with dirty water and the cell bars had rusted. It looked terrible and old, and different from any other place she had seen in Somnium and she still didn't know where they were or why she was here.

"We haven't done anything wrong!" she screams, gripping her hair and kicking the bars one more time. She didn't understand why the rest of them weren't doing anything, why Elysia was still sleeping, why Ferris was blankly staring ahead with no emotion with Delilah curled up in a ball beside him in order to get some heat.

She didn't understand why they were put in cells with each other except Elysia and Flynn. There were many other cells around them and she hoped it wasn't for more prisoners. Her mind was overactive, the adrenaline hadn't left her, and she just wanted out.

"Let us fucking out!" her voice echoed that time and she jumped when she felt a hand in hers and turned to see River. He looked helpless and he pulled on her hand for her to sit down, and as much as she struggled, she sat.

"If they hear you, then we're all done for," River finally said, a frown on his lips and his eyes filled with pain, "we aren't getting out of here, Una!"

"What the fuck?!" she screeched, "we aren't getting out of here if we don't try!"

"Don't you realise where we are?!" he exclaimed, leaning back into the wall and slumping down, "look around you, Una, where the fuck do you think we are?!"

She looked around her as though that would possibly help, as though she hadn't already taken in every corner, every inch of her surroundings, "...no," she choked out, "we aren't-"

"We are," River whispered quietly, squeezing her hand tightly, "Elphcoe's guards ambushed us, they captured us."

She shook her head, the fear bubbling in her stomach and the tears streaming down her cheeks, "did you get the book?"

"We didn't even get to my house," River murmured, "they got us before we even had the chance to transport. We thought you were safe, we thought you'd be fine but they...they were looking for you."

"What?!" she squeaked, her head falling onto the dirty stone bricks behind her. Her head was filled with possibilities as to why, but she couldn't think of it, she didn't want to think of it. She was scared, terrified, and cold.

"I don't know how he found out about you," River whispered, "but if we find a way out of here, we can't just scream that we've got out."

"Is there a way out?" she asked, taking a deep breath.

"We'll find one."

"What about Gus?" she choked out, wiping her tears furiously.

"...They took him, Una," he frowned, "but we'll get him back."

Her head fell into her hands, it was so much to process, and she didn't know how to. Her boyfriend had been captured, he could have a worse fate than her and she wished for him back, "if he's in more danger then we need to get out, we need to get him!"

She choked back the sob, running her hands through her hair. She was shivering, she wasn't used to it being so cold and she longed for the warmth, for her bed and to be back waiting for them to come home - for the relief she felt to be true, and for them to be finally happy that part of their plan was a success.

"We don't," her head lifted, eyes wide at the sound of Ferris' voice. He had been silent, still, his eyes on the wall across from him, on the tiniest window that was situated on the top of the wall.

She frowned at his words, eyes narrowed, lips apart, "what do you mean, we don't?! of course we do!"

She stood, trying to get closer to the boy and leaning against the bars of the door, watching him shake his head, his eyes filled with pain, "no."

Anger waved over her, eyes dark with fury and she couldn't help herself. She slammed her hands into the bars that created an echo of the clatter, shrieking, "what do you mean, Ferris!"

She almost pulled River's hand away when he reached for her but the look on his face told her to sit back down, so she did. She sat beside him again, and he was just as cold as she was, just as tired and confused and angry as she was but he could control it.

It took Ferris two minutes to finally speak, to finally talk and Delilah had lifted her head to listen to him, all of them waiting for him to speak, "it's his fault, Una...we-we're in here because of him."

Her heart dropped, the tears in her eyes, her head racing and River had tensed beside her at their best friend's words. She didn't know what to say, what to believe, what to do, and all she could force out was a tiny, "what?"

"Healers can do a lot of things," he said, eyes on the wall, "like shield their thoughts. I didn't know he could do that because...I thought his powers had left him, but he managed to do it. He blocked me from his mind."

"But you heard him," she whispered, eyes on him, "when he wanted to get back at you."

"Exactly, Una!" Ferris snapped, "he did that for his own enjoyment, he wanted me to suffer so he let me hear it. He just had the power to shield me from everything."

"No," she furiously shook her head, sharing a look with River. She was sure it was pain, she could feel pain, it was a tightness in her chest, a hurt in her heart.

"When we were captured, he didn't need to shield it from me. There are still things I don't know, stuff that he shielded still, but I heard his thoughts. He was taunting me, he knew I could hear him and he wanted us all to know. He's working for his dad." It was hard for Ferris to even utter those words and Una realised that when she could faintly see his hand curl into a tight fist.

She was numb, that was how she felt. It was all too much to process at once that she couldn't even think of half of it. The tears had dried, but she didn't know how to feel, her boyfriend, her Gus wasn't the boy she thought she knew, he wasn't the boy that said he loved her and wished to be with her.

He was a liar.

She had to lean against River, she couldn't bear the thought alone. She didn't know what to do, how to handle it, she was simply numb. Her eyes trailed to River when he jerked, and the pain on his face was more than evident, and her lips parted.

"You're hurt," she whispered, hardly a sound in the air but he heard her, and he turned to her with a shake of his head. She sat up suddenly, pushing herself in front of him, raking his body for any signs of a wound until her hand trailed to his arm opposite, to his hand that looked as though it had been dipped in blood.

He knew she had seen it, that she knew he was in pain and when she leaned forward for his hand he didn't stop her. It didn't take her long to realise that it wasn't his hand that was hurting, it was the wound he was holding with it, through the suit he was wearing there was a clear slash she could faintly make out through the blood.

"River," she whispered, wide-eyed. He was losing blood and if there was no way to fix it then he'd bleed out, it would get infected.

She looked around for something...anything that could help him, and she realised that she had to put pressure on the wound. She looked at herself, and it clicked. She pulled the jumper over her head, using every drop of strength she could possibly muster to pull it apart and rip it, the cold around her engulfing her bare stomach in goosebumps and the only thing shielding her being her bra.

She hardly cared about showing skin when someone's life was in danger, and if she could help in any way then she could. River had looked away from her, focusing on his bloodied hand and when it was too painful for him to take off his suit jacket, she did it for him.

The shirt he wore was slashed at the wound and she had to take that off too in order to get to it. She had no idea what she was doing, she used part of her jumper to clean the blood around it as best as she could, another part to place over it, hoping that because the fabric was soft that it wouldn't hurt any more than it already did and the sleeve of it to wrap it around and keep it in place. She bundled the rest of the fabric into the knot, hoping that it was enough for the blood not to seep through, but she could tell that he was still in pain, that it was still hurting, and she had to help him put his shirt back on just so that he wasn't freezing.

She sat back with a breath leaving her lips, jumping at the cold bars on her back. She didn't know if it would work, she knew that a wound needed pressure, but she didn't know if it was enough if she should be doing more to help him and he looked helpless.

She leaned her head back slowly, her eyes drooping with sleep, but she couldn't sleep, she could hardly think. All she knew was that they needed a way out, but she didn't know how.

Her eyes trailed to her legs when something pushed against it, and she realised it was River's suit jacket, he was nudging it towards her silently, his eyes closed, and she realised he wanted her to wear it, "River you need it more than I do."

He didn't speak but he shook his head, gesturing to the shirt he had on, and she realised it was because she didn't have anything, so without arguing, she slid it over her body, allowing herself to bask in the warmth of it for just a minute.

"We need to get out of her," she whispered, tightening her grip on the jacket, "Elphcoe has Gus now, if he told him what we were planning to do then he won't hold back when killing us."

"Why did he do this?" River choked out, "that's my question. I've known Gus all of my life, most of it anyway."

"Power," it was Ferris who spoke, and he spat it, eyes narrowed, "it's why Healers do anything, isn't it? they want the power, the feeling of reigning supreme. Selfish dicks."

"Was it all an act?" Una asked, feeling the numbness sweep away and the pain return to her heart.

Ferris finally let his eyes waver from the wall, and turned to Una. He could see her face struck with so much hurt that he was angrier, furious, livid, she didn't deserve this, any of this. Gus didn't deserve her, he deserved to rot.

No matter if he had been his friend, his best friend, he wasn't anymore. He was nothing but a selfish boy wanting power and turning against everything he had in order to get it.

"I don't know," Ferris said truthfully. He didn't know anything, his head was muddled when he thought of it all and it hurt, he had an ache in his heart, filled with pain and sadness and Una was hurt too.

She crawled over to River, sitting beside him again and letting him lean on her instead of having to hold the weight of himself. It was silent again, Flynn was sleeping, so was Elysia and Una didn't know how but she knew they were trying to dream away their pain and she wished she could do the same thing.

"How did it happen?" she asked, taking a deep breath as he shifted his weight to her, "why did they hurt you."

"They thought you were with us," River said, he wasn't as weak as he was with the wound still pouring out blood but he didn't know how long it would take until the makeshift...thing gave way and the blood seeped through again, "I suppose if Gus was in on it he must've thought we would've found a way to bring you with us and he didn't have time to tell the guards otherwise, or that's what it seems like now, so they took us.

They demanded we tell them where you were but none of us talked - not even Gus. So, they started asking us one by one. I was the first they asked and when I wouldn't tell them they punched me, demanding I tell them but I didn't, so they brought out a blade and slashed me.

When they realised I wasn't going to tell them they were ready to kill me when Gus stepped forward, he said he'd tell them so one of the guards took him away, I suppose now it didn't matter if he told them or not, they'd know anyway.

We thought that by them taking him we were free, we could try and get him back, get you out of there but they surrounded us, I was on the ground and they pulled me up. All of them shouting stuff about you dying, about them taking you, about Elphcoe. I wished to kill them, but our powers had been depended.

They're still weaker, it hurts to use them." He pointed to Flynn who was sleeping, "he would have been in pain transforming into that lion, but he did it because he knew he would be feared, that they might fear him enough not to mess with him."

She was silent for a few moments, staring at her friends. She was worried that Elysia hadn't awoken at all and Flynn being in pain was sending worry into the pit of her stomach. Her head was stuck for plans on getting out, if Flynn shifting was going to keep him in pain then she didn't want to put him through that, there was no way to know of a way out and if they used their powers, she didn't want it to cause them any more pain than they all were already in.

"If we just managed to get out of the cell then we could take it from there," she frowned, eying Delilah.

"She won't be able to transform," River sighed, "not only is she terribly weak, these bars are keeping her from doing it."

"Elphie really thought this one through, didn't he?" she growled. River didn't say anything, and she knew she was getting weaker, so she moved him, his head lying in her lap and his back on the ground so that at least there was no way for the blood to pour out of him.

"I want to know how," River said, "how Gus did it, how he could have turned into the monster that his dad is so much that he could laugh with us and be with you and not care about what he'd be doing in the future."

"I wish I knew," Una's eyes had wavered to the window, pain aching her heart again with every thought of Gus, she couldn't help it, help but think of him. It was all a lie, the words he spoke to her, whenever they were together.

The double meaning behind him being with her that day had a triple meaning, every other time had a double meaning. She thought of the night she danced with him, it was so genuine, so him, so fun that she could hardly believe it, hardly believe that he would do that after everything they had been through.

"Una," River whispered, and she snapped out of her thoughts, looking down at him. He slowly reached for her hand, uncurling her fingers from the fist she had formed. He kept his hand in hers to show that he was there, that regardless of Gus not being him, and the fact that she couldn't be with her friends, he was still there.

"I can't think of this," her eyes had glazed with tears and part of her couldn't believe where she was, it didn't feel real. Everything happened so suddenly that she didn't know what to make of it, she hoped it was a nightmare as much as she knew it wasn't and wished that she was back with Gus on that night under the stars, or at the beach talking to River when he wasn't hurt, and he was telling her stories.

The days that she was happy, the days that she enjoyed and could remember with a smile.

But the first one she remembered with pain.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Three days. River had tracked how many times the sun had gone down and then risen through the tiny window. The guards came once a day with meals for them all which seemed to be leftovers of what the residents of the castle had eaten, and with every bite savoured, they were growing weaker.

The guards hardly came, throwing their meals at them and leaving before they could say anything else, but Una had to inform them, say something. River was getting weaker and weaker with his wound and she was sure it was a miracle that the blood hadn't yet seeped through.

She was growing weaker too, with hardly any food and little water, she was in pain - her stomach sharp and sore with the lack of food she needed, and she hardly ate any of the food sliding into her cell, giving most of it to River because he needed it more and when he complained the first time she didn't say anything about it, instead told him to eat it quickly and shut up.

She wondered if that's why they did it, why they put her in a cell with River who was wounded - because Gus knew she'd help and it would make her weaker for whatever sick and twisted events were sure to come. She knew they weren't going to stay in here forever, there was no point in thinking that way because they had been taken for a reason.

Regardless of if they'd die before they retrieved them, there was no way out.

The cells looked idiotic, flimsy and weak but the metal was strong, and she had tried slipping her hand through the bars but they stood tightly together that she was helpless. She was scared, too, for her friends, for the fact that Elysia woke to eat when the bars of her cell rattled and then she'd sleep again, hardly caring about anything else she forced herself to sleep as much as she could.

Flynn tried to shift again but the magic of the cells was weighing him down, he was too weak now to transform into anything that could rip them to shreds if they neared him, but that didn't stop him from trying every hour, and Una was heartbroken watching him try with pain on his face and evidently on his body.

Ferris told stories to Delilah, she needed the sanity. She was probably the strongest out of all of them, she was in Una's eyes, but she was too terrified to function. She needed to have someone and having Ferris' voice was keeping her sane.

"Three days," Una whispered, she could hardly keep her eyes open. She barely slept and when she did she woke from nightmares of facing Elphcoe, a faceless vision in her dream that was hazy. There were dreams of Gus, too, ones of him throwing her in the cell instead of the guards and laughing at her as she grew weaker.

She didn't know if the nightmares were worse or her reality.

"How long do you think we'll be down here for?" she whispered, eying Elysia who was sleeping. She wished she could do that, wished she could forget the present and not wake up with a new nightmare to mess with her mind.

"I don't know," River frowned. She was running her hands through his hair softly as he lay with his head in her lap, the wound was still evident, and it was still painful and if he got any weaker then she didn't know what would happen.

He was trying to hide his pain from her and she told him not to, that the wound was deep that his pain was more important than how she felt. They started calling it the dungeon because that was what it felt like, the cells were their prison and she was glad there were no other prisoners except them.

She heard screams sometimes at night, loud blood curling screams and she didn't know where they were coming from, but they kept her up, she wondered what was happening - if Elphcoe decided to kill some poor innocent person he had falsely accused of his own benefit and thinking of that made her sick.

"If you sleep you'll gain strength," she whispered looking down at him, "if you don't then you're going to get worse. You hardly sleep, River, and its' not helping that."

She traced her hands over her jumper, for the most part, it was dry, and she didn't apply any more pressure. She still had the bit of fabric she had used to clean it before and wondered if cleaning it again would protect him more from infection.

"You need sleep too, Una," River whispered, his eyes were drooping with every word he spoke, and he didn't know if it was wrong to bask in the feeling of her fingers on his scalp. It was something different from the pain, something he could focus on instead of the throbbing on the side of his stomach, something he could fall asleep to.

"I'm fine."

She was far from fine, she was so far from fine that the very thought of it was laughable. She couldn't describe how she felt because too many emotions made up how she felt. Pain, sadness, fury, betrayal, heartbreak, weakness, she couldn't think of it or she'd break down.

"You're not." It was hard for River to speak but he spoke anyway. The sun had gone down for the third day leaving them and her eyes had drooped with his own, she was terribly stiff and aching in more places than one but taking her own advice could help as much as it could help him.

"Go to sleep, River," she whispered. His eyes fell shut and he didn't protest, and just to feel something other than pain, she leaned down, and she kissed his forehead, "goodnight."

She woke herself from another nightmare and a headache and River still sleeping with his head on her lap. She had tried not to move so she wouldn't move him, but he was stirring in his sleep when she jerked awake and through the window, she could see that it was morning.

She was back with Gus during their road trip, on the night they had danced together and spent the night wrapped up in each other bringing in the morning with pleasure, except it didn't get that far. They had returned to the car and he drove her to the castle, dragging her by her hair into the dungeons and throwing her in there whilst he laughed at her for ever thinking he would do that with her.

She felt exhausted, worse than before she had slept. The nightmares took it out of her, but she didn't know if she was glad that she woke up to morning or sad that she woke up at all.

"Don't think that Una," Ferris said. It took a long time for her to face him, to look over at him and see the pain in her eyes.

River was staring at her, listening to Ferris' words and wondering what he was talking about. He wondered what she was thinking but he had a feeling and he took her hand, squeezing it as tightly as he could.

"It's going to happen whether I like it or not," she said. She was duller than he had ever seen her, bags under her blank eyes and a frown almost permanently placed on her lips, "I don't want to give that man the satisfaction of doing it himself, so why not just do it myself."

"We have a chance at getting out!" Ferris exclaimed.

"Oh, we do?!" she snapped, "then why the fuck are we all just lying around?! What fucking chance do we have, Ferris? We're all weak, we're all dying! Any chance we ever had left us the first night!"

"You were the one who said we wouldn't get out if we didn't try!"

"Does this look like trying to you?!" she couldn't shout even if she wanted to. She gestured around her, to Elysia sleeping - to Delilah pacing their cell, to Flynn faced away from all of them, to River's wound, "we have nothing, Ferris."

"River would have died three days ago if it wasn't for you," Ferris said, gesturing to the wound that she had covered up, "that is something Una, you hadn't given up then and now look at you."

She was ready to reply, to bite back something about him dying would put him out of his misery but she bit her tongue when she heard a noise. The clang of armour from the guards sounded around the corner and she straightened herself up.

She changed her stance, eyes sharp and head held high. She would never give them the satisfaction of thinking she was weak if she was going to die she would die in feigned confidence. She couldn't show herself trembling because of someone so sick.

She thought that they were going to take her, she could hardly see them as they walked, and she kept her eyes narrowed and the scowl on her lips. River tried to sit up but she pushed him back down, if the blood rushed to his wound too quickly it could make him worse.

The small metal tray slid under the cell and she scowled at the guard as he placed it in the cell, eyes to slits and she growled, "he is wounded, he needs help."

He didn't listen at first, instead, he picked himself up from the ground and she huffed, "didn't you hear me?! he's dying!"

The guard turned, looking down at River on her lap and then to her through the shielded mask over his face and with a voice low and terrifying, he spat, "then he'll die then, won't he!"

She had given up her fear and with anger in her eyes and a rock in her hand, she hurled it at the guard, flipping him off when he turned to her. She picked up another rock, looking him dead in the eye as she threw it through the air and hit him on the arm.

He was angry too, and he opened the cell roughly, kicking River off of her and dragging Una to her feet by her hair. She yelped but that didn't stop her kicking and harsh curses were thrown his way, using her free arms to punch the exposed skin that she could see.

She even went as far as to spit at the mask and he shoved her roughly against the wall. The pain stung her back and the guard didn't care about her lack of clothes when he punched her stomach, throwing her to the ground with one force and kicking her.

"You try that again, and you'll be dead." He spat at her next time, the clang of metal sounding through the dungeons when he pulled the cell door over and as he rounded the corner with the rest of the guards, she lifted her hand and flipped him off once again.

"Una he could have killed you," River groaned, wincing with every move. He knew that the guard kicked his wound on purpose but much like Una, he was too stubborn to show that he was in pain, only letting his guard down since they had left.

She pushed herself up with much force, wincing herself and shuffling over to him with as much strength as she could. She pulled the small metal tray with her, helping River sit against the wall and telling him to eat.

"You need it, Una," he whispered, breathing a sigh as the pain throbbed and she shook her head, falling onto the bricks behind her, "Una eat it."

"River," she snapped, "just fucking eat it, will you?"

She wrapped his jacket around her tighter, and he moved closer to her, allowing her to put her head on his shoulder, and without much protest, he halved the food on the plate and made sure she ate some of it.