Forever and a Day - Merlin X Reader - Red Shoes

n i n e

This is such a weird chapter and it's very choppy so I'm really sorry.

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I woke up to the sounds of metal clanging. A light above me flickered and activated a headache so strong it felt like someone had been pressing their thumbs into my eyes.

"You're awake," an unfamiliar voice said.

I moaned uncomfortably as I adjusted my body. I opened my eyes fully and whimpered as a pain I've never felt before surged around my body. I looked around and found myself in a room I've only seen once in my life. 

The dungeons. 

My vision blurred and I attempted to sit up but exhaustion wracked at my body, the chains around my wrists and ankles digging uncomfortably into my flesh.

"Take it slow, Y/n... they gave you a sedative. You're not gonna be able to do much and you can faint again."

I ignored the burning desire to cry and continued to force my body to sit up.

"Why did they do that to me?" I groaned out. "Help me, please."

I felt so weak and my voice dripped with desperation. 

"I'm in a cell, too, so I can't..." 

Metal scraped against a surface of something as equally hard and the voice pulled their body towards the bars of the cell. A face I've seen multiple times came into view.

"You work in the kitchens," I began bluntly. "You snuck me a slice of cake once."

"You remember..." the boy mumbled more to himself than as a response to me. 

I shifted uncomfortably as I leaned against a wall.

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"A couple of hours, I guess."

I stared at the spot I once laid, the memory of that Troll standing over me with a smug grin and hammer flooding my mind as my eyes raked over a tiny puddle of my dried blood. 

"I'm going to die down here, aren't I?" I whispered as I stared at the scarlet color on the floor.

"No," the boy said. "I tried to poison Dartmouth's soup and I still haven't been killed."

I laughed despite the pain it brought me.

"How brave," I said before coughing.

"Maybe after we're out of this mess you can make me a knight," the boy said, grinning. 

"If we get out, you mean," I said bitterly. "Once it's Midnight I'm as good as-"

"A statue made of solid gold."

I blinked at him in utter amazement.

"Yeah, everyone knows about your curse now. Your mum kind of let that cat out of the bag."

My stomach plummeted and I felt light-headed again.

"That's why he knocked me out and gave me sedatives? So the coward could wait me out? I knew he was pathetic but I didn't think he'd be so desperate as to-"

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. If I hadn't been so tired and weak, my anger would have turned this place into an ice skating rink in seconds. My mother told me he knew something I just didn't know that it was about my curse. It had all made sense. The moment I walked through that door, they had one objective. 

I walked into a trap and I didn't even see it coming. My mother even tried to warn me and still, I had ignored the cues. I had been stupid to think that Dartmouth would give in so easily.