Cellar Encounter

Sophia woke up sprawled on a stone floor with a hammering headache.

“Ugh… I’m never drinking again…” she mumbled sat up and looked around confused.

Sophia spotted iron bars in front of her. She immediately thought to be in another one of Kieran’s dreams, but it felt different and she could move her body. Behind the bars was a staircase leading upwards. Something rattled as she tried to raise her arm. There were shackles around Sophia’s wrist with strange symbols on it.

“Oh, you’re finally awake,” a woman’s voice said behind her, “That’s a relief. I thought they gave you something bad, because you weren’t waking up.”

Sophia turned around and spotted a young woman with blonde hair and bright blue eyes smiling at her.

“Want something to drink?” she asked and held out a cup for her.

Sophia’s throat was really dry, so she grabbed the cup quickly but paused before she drank.

“Don’t worry it’s just water,” the smiling woman said.

Sophia took a sip and didn’t taste anything off.

“Thanks…” she said after downing the water, “Where am I?”

“Inside a cell in some sort of basement I guess…” the woman who offered her the drink answered.

“I can see that… but where is this basement?”

“Your guess is as good as mine… I woke up in here just like you…”

Sophia looked around some more. Other than the blonde woman three other people were in the cell as well. All of them were women. Two of them were a bit older and the last one was still a child. The three of them sat in one corner huddled together looking very frightened. The blonde woman with the bright blue eyes seemed to be about Sophia’s age. There was no trace of fear in her expression.

“What’s your name?” she asked, “I’m Victoria.”

“So…” Sophia paused, “Silvia.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow and looked at her for a moment.

“Well, Silvia… It’s a pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances could be better,” Victoria said with a smile.

“Yeah…”, Sophia mumbled and tried to recall what happened to her, “Fuck… Did I really get myself kidnapped?”

“Seems like it…”

“Shit…”

Sophia rubbed her face in frustration.

“Don’t worry… we’ll get out of here,” Victoria assured her, thinking she was about to cry.

Sophia looked up with a very annoyed face.

“That’s not my worry…” she said and sighed.

“That’s… a bit unusual in this situation, no? What are you worried about then?” Victora inquired with a confused look.

“About what my… travel companion will say…”, Sophia said and then changed her tone to imitate Kieran, “The real world is not a game, stupid girl. I hope you learned your lesson.”

Victoria began to chuckle.

“Oh, you have one of those as well. Older guy?” she asked.

“Ancient…” Sophia replied.

“Yeah, they always think they know best and have this lecturing tone to them, right?”

“Right! And they are always so gloomy and doomy about the world. Especially when someone wants to change something…”

“Totally! They always go ‘That’s not gonna work’, ‘Nothing will change’, ‘Reality is not a game’, and so on…”

They both looked at each other for a moment and then began to laugh.

“How can you two be so chipper in this situation? Those criminals will probably rape us before they sell us off as sex slaves or something… Are you not afraid?” one of the two older women in the corner asked suddenly.

“Nah, my companion will come and get us out of here before that!” Sophia and Victoria said simultaneously with equal conviction.

Both looked at each other again and began to chuckle.

“Guess they have their good points as well, huh?” Victoria remarked.

“Mine has more bad than good… but he is reliable…” Sophia admitted, “Don’t tell him I said that, though.”

“Only if you do the same.”

Both laughed again. Sophia then stood up.

“I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of freeing me out of here though… So how about we get out of here ourselves?” she asked.

“And how do you want to do that? Sorry for assuming, but you don’t look strong enough to bend those bars… I certainly don’t am,” Victoria answered.

“Not all strength has to be physical.”

Sophia turned towards the bars, made a few gestures with her hands, and murmured a quick incantation. 

“You’re a mage?” Victoria exclaimed surprised.

Nothing happened.

“Fuck…” groaned Sophia and slumped to her knees, breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong?” Victoria asked alarmed.

“I… still am out of… magical energy after… I exerted myself… yesterday…”

“Guess we have to wait for help after all…”

“I guess so…”

Sophia sat back down, slowly catching her breath. Victoria gave her another cup of water.

“Thanks… there isn’t anything to eat here by any chance, is there?” Sophia said after drinking the whole cup.

“I’m afraid not, they only gave us two buckets… one with water and the other one for… something else…” Victoria said and pointed to one bucket in a corner of the cell.

“How lovely of them…”

Sophia’s breathing finally slowed down. She felt exhausted.

“Who’s gonna be first you reckon?” Victoria asked, “My guy or yours?”

“Mine for sure. I’m surprised that he isn’t here already lecturing m—” Sophia answered and paused as she remembered what she said to Kieran yesterday, “Shit… how long have I been here already?”

“I don’t know exactly… maybe half a day. It’s difficult to tell the time down here…”

Sophia looked at the mark on the back of her hand and tried pouring magic into it. Nothing happened.

“Wanna make a bet on whose is coming first?” Victoria asked with a cheeky smile.

“Sure… what’s at stake?” Sophia agreed.

“How about if the loser has to…”

Victoria’s smile shifted from cheeky to mischievous before she finished the sentence.