“I don’t know,” Carlo whimpered.

“Bullshit! You’re supposed to meet her here. Where the fuck is she?” Again, the same domineering, rough voice asked.

Regardless of how many times Carlo expressed that he did not know, the other guy seemed to think he was lying. As he failed to answer their questions, all I could hear was Carlo screaming in agony. They must have been torturing him.

I screamed inside my head, frustrated that I couldn’t do anything to help him. I couldn’t see anything. I could only hear. Another scream from him and I felt my whole body go taut. “No, leave him alone,” I cried to myself.

I felt so helpless. So useless, unable to save him. Them. The feeling of despair was a heady blackness. The weight of everything pressed down on my shoulders, and I struggled to take even a single step forward. Yet somehow, I kept moving. But every step cost me. The darkness grew darker; the pain became sharper; I began to wonder if things would get better. If things could ever get better.

And once again, I was pulled down and down, drowning in the feeling of helplessness and nothingness. I no longer struggled or tried to get back to the surface. I simply let myself sink deeper and deeper. I had caused them pain. I had cost them their lives. This suffering was nothing compared to theirs. Just like Bryan had said, I deserved this.

A loud sound shook me, and only when my eyes fluttered open did I realize it was only a dream. A terrifying dream, but it felt more real than my waking hours.

“For Hades’s sake, stop it!” An alarm was ringing incessantly, so I reached my hand out to the nightstand, finding the alarm clock and throwing it across the room without opening my eyes. One loud thump and the noise died.

Peace and quiet.

“Touchdown!”

“Shut up!” I yelled. Wait. I quickly sat up and there, sitting on the chair in the corner of the room, was Adrian.

“How did you get in here?”

“You should know by now that we all have your passcode.” He lifted his leg and placed his ankle on top of his other thigh. “A Pure Royal privilege: ask and you shall receive.”

I made a mental note to request a change the next time I passed those creepy ladies at the reception. Of course, I would have to tell my parents, but I’d basically been orphaned since arriving here, and I doubted that they even remembered the current password. I was convinced my parents had forgotten that they even had a child.

I threw a pillow at Adrian, which he successfully dodged. “What are you doing here?” He doubled over laughing and I threw another pillow at him. This time, it hit him straight in the face. “Ha! Take that!”