𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔦𝔣𝔲𝔩 𝔓𝔞𝔦𝔫

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔉𝔦𝔣𝔱𝔶-𝔣𝔦𝔳𝔢

Panic Room—Au/Ra
𝔎𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔞'𝔰 𝔭𝔬𝔳

Drip drop.

Drip drop.

Drip drop.

My eyes crack open when I hear the repeated sounds of dripping.

The first thing I see is dark spots, clouding what is around me, followed by blurriness. For a few moments, I can't make out anything, but the blurriness clears soon after.

The first thing I see is metal. Metal bars all around me. They are rusted over with streaks of white all over them.

They look like claw marks.

My body wracks with a shiver when I recognize the claw marks on this cell.

Rhysand made these. When he was fourteen years old, the head teacher punished him with the cruciatus curse, and I saw him digging his nails into the metal bars as I was led to the back room to receive my punishment.

I lift my hand to my head and the throbbing pain returns. So does everything from last night.

My mouth falls open, and my eyes water. "No."

My hand comes up to cover my mouth and blocks the whimper of fear that I let out when everything sinks in.

Last night comes back to me in such a flash, it hits me like a Quittich player going eighty miles an hour. The acolytes, Kier, Rosier, Rhysand. Tom. Everything. Tom's betrayal, Kier's leg, and Druella's fear when she realized she wouldn't be able to save her brother.

And the pain in the back of my head when I was hit.

"Don't let them see you cry," a quiet voice whispers, and my head snaps to my left.

I see a little girl no older than nine in a black nightgown in the cell next to me. Her skin is pale and her hair is dark. But what catches my attention are her haunted grey eyes.

My eyebrows furrow. "Who are you?" I've never seen her before. If she went here, I would know her. I know everyone at this school, and she is too old to have just started here.

"You know me," she says, getting up from her position on the cold ground below her. "You just don't know."

My eyebrows furrow. "What does that mean?"

Her head tilts, and her brows furrow in what looks like sadness, but her expression quickly changes. "You don't have much time. You have to leave before they come for you. Before they realize that you're awake."

"How long have I been here?" I ask her.

"Just a few hours. They brought you here before the sun rose," she answers, and I nod, still trying to process the fact that I'm here after all I've done to get away from them. I've spent my entire life being hurt by them and the last year and a half of my life training to finally be free of them. I trained every day to fight them. I overcame being possessed by one of the most evil beings in this world. I did everything.