Claudia Finds Out

No Clue What To Call This Part 15

*Blood Warning*

Walking. 

In a shallow pond. 

It was up to Callum's ankles and everywhere he looked, fog greeted him like a cold blanket. He took another step and dropped. He fell for what seemed like an eternity before hitting the ground. Hard and damp. He got to his knees, spitting out blood. 

Callum stood up, brushing the back of his hand across his mouth, before shoving it in his pocket, not wanting to see the gore. He looked around before hearing a crack. He froze and turned.

The fog moved and revealed Rayla standing on cracking ice. In her hands was Zym's egg. The assassin's binding was tight on her wrist, her hand and arm purple. Her eyes were wide with fear and she clutched the egg to her chest. 

"Rayla." Callum breathed. 

"Callu-" Rayla reached a hand out before the ice shattered and Rayla plummeted. She screamed and Callum bolted forward. He searched the hole in the ice but found no trace of anything. Then the hole closed up, new ice shinning where the cold dark water once was. 

Callum stood, looking around frantically. He was losing her again. He called her name over and over and over before his eyes snapped open. 

It was a dream. 

Callum was laying down on a damp floor, blood matted in his hair. He lifted his head and grit his teeth against the searing pain. 

"Oh Callum! Your awake!" A sweet voice called. Callum looked around, the room spinning. 

"Rayla...?" He asked, his voice slurred. 

"No no silly. I'm Claudia!" The voice said again. Mild panic set into Callum's chest. He rubbed his eyes, smearing blood on his cheek. Wait, there was blood on his hand? Callum looked down to see a cut on his knuckles, glass piercing his skin. 

"Where am I?" Callum asked, not registering the pain yet. 

"In my cave." Claudia replied before the room slowly lit up Claudia stepped away from a warm fire, beckoning Callum to join her. Callum, with the support of the wall, stumbled over to the fire. There, the dark mage handed him a cup of steaming brown liquid.

Callum drank it, and the glass tinkled to the ground, his knuckles healing. His head stopped pounding and he could think more clearly. 

A single drop of blood fell from the roof and landed at Callum's feet. He looked down. Weird. The blood was purple. Then another drop fell. 

Claudia smirked. 

Callum blinked and then looked up, the panic in his chest rising. 

Rayla's limp body hung from the top of the cave, blood dripping from a deep cut in her side.