From the perspective of Evie
Credit to AlyssaJGross for the character of Katelyn.
Unbroken silence filled the cave. The dimmed torchlight flickered against the walls, almost taunting us with its illusion of freedom. The rotting wooden pillars loomed over us, figures from our nightmares in the distorting light.
Neither me nor Katelyn said a word; we just hung sadly from our shackles, listening to the repetitive drip of water onto the cave floor.
It was driving me insane.
The shadow keeping us here hadn't returned since I had first awoken.
I haven't managed to get to sleep since. The stale air stung my parched throat, and my knees trembled from exhaution. Yet whenever I closed my eyes, images of pain and violence flashed before my eyes - the Isle; Mal was dead; Maleficent infiltrating the school; Mal with the apple; those wolves; helpless as Carlos faced his mother alone; stuck in that stupid dimension; the burns and Jafar; my dissapearance; the shadow. But worst of all: not knowing if my friends are okay.
I jolted forward, my eyes snapping open as shivers racked my body, pumping oxygen into my lungs as fast as I possibly could.
Katelyn stared down at me, concern gracing her features. The baby blue hair framing her face was straggly and knotted, much like I imagine my own is, and all I see in her crystal eyes is pain.
She's close to giving in. I can see it.
I turned my attention to the shackles binding my wrists. They're old and rusty, but far from weak, as neither of us can get them to budge. They've rubbed my wrists red raw, sometimes to the point of bleeding. Therefore, the cuffs are both rusty, bacteria-infested, and splattered with dried blood.
The scary thing is, most of the blood's not even mine.
"..Don't.. Give in.." someone whispers in my ear. The voice was sweet and melodic, if quiet. I look up from the bloodstains, expecting the speaker to be the only other person in the cave with me - but Katelyn looks just as confused as I feel.
"What.. The hell was that?" She mutters. Her voice is harsh and scratchy from disuse and the lack of moisture. Now that I listen carefully, I can tell she was not the one to whisper in my ear.
I wondered briefly if it was simply my imagination, making me hear things that weren't said. But that idea went out the window when I realised that Katelyn's question proved she had heard it too.
When I came to the conclusion that someone definitely just spoke to me, I realised that someone else had to be in here with us. My head snapped around, searching the floor for any unfamiliar shadows.
Nothing.
"Did you hear that?" there was an alarmed element lacing Katelyn's voice. I raised my head, meeting her orbs of ice. Slowly, I nodded my head. Somehow, her eyes widened even further.
"This is bad.." She looks away, eyes searching the damp floor for something that wasn't there.
"What's wrong?"
She doesn't respond.
Time has passed since I heard the voice in my ear.
I couldn't say how much time, exactly, due to my sleep schedule being messed up, and the lack of natural light in the cave- but I knew it had been quite a lengthy amount.
Katelyn hasn't said anything since her 'this is bad'. I haven't managed to coerce her into saying anything else to me; she just stands there, helpless, eyes trained on the rocks, like a ragdoll. Unmoving.
Despite not having known her for very long, she is the only comfort I have in this cave. We are friends. And we will get out together.
So, as expected, it disturbs me greatly to see her like this.
Soon, the thoughts of the voice in my ear, and Katelyn's condition, are scraped away by pang after pang deep in my stomach. I double over in pain, feeling as though I've just had a fist buried in my gut. Breathing heavily, eyes squeezed shut, I lower myself to the ground, back pressed uncomfortably up against the face of the wall, smoothed by the ocean.
I heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps, vaguely familiar, though not belonging to Katelyn due to her inability to move more than a meter away from the wall we're chained to.
I feel something land on my head, not hard enough to cause any actual damage, yet still enough to cause pain.
The object bounces off my head and into my hands, then onto the floor.
I pick up the small loaf of bread.
It's reasonably small, and burnt on the bottom, but it's the most food I've had in days, so I quickly scarf it down.
When I finally turn my head to the shadow which threw it at me, I'm met with the first glimpse of this creature I've seen: dark ebony eyes- unmistakably human eyes, staring right back at me, glinting evilly.
So it's true. This person is human.
It's shadowy lip curled in disgust.
"That was disgraceful. Your mother would be appalled."
What?!
"You... know my mother?"
The shadow looked down at me. "Better than you know," it sneered.
I stared up into the eyes in shock, but they just rolled, and the shadow turned away from me.
"Has she awoken yet?" It addressed the girl chained beside me. Katelyn glared back at the monster, hate shining in her blues. "Even if I did know what the hell you were talking about," she spat, "I wouldn't say a word." The shadow remained still, staring at the girl before it.
Then it raised its hand.
Thwack.
I flinched away at the harsh sound of skin on skin.
But when I looked back over, I saw not Katelyn clutching a sore cheek, but her forearm blocking the impact. And judging by his expression and lack of words, Shadow was just as shocked as I was.
Katelyn pushed her arm into his, forcing them both round until his arm was back at his side.
"Don't," she hissed. "Even try and put your hands on me."
Silent fury blazed across Shadow's face at Katelyn's words, but he didn't respond.
The Shadow took a step towards Katelyn, staring her down.
"I'll be sending someone else in again later," he said aggressively. "Behave, and talk, and I may let you get away with what you just did." He snarled at us, and with a sweep of his swirling cloak of shadows, he left the cave.
<><><>
It took approximately three hours for anyone else to poke their nose into the cave.
That's three hours too long.
But when someone finally did, it wasn't who - or what, rather - I was expecting.
Rather than another shadow, a teenage boy walked into the cave.
Well, I say 'walked', but it was more like 'snuck'. The boy snuck into the cave.
Said boy only seemed to notice that we were in there with him when he was in the main chamber.
Surprise flashed across his features, before they settled into his natural resting face.
The boy before us looked vaguely familiar. I don't know what it was, there was just something about his ruffled brown hair and muddy eyes. He was dressed in a red and black attire, which was again uncannily familiar for reasons unknown, and his posture suggested that he was not a stranger to thievery.
It didn't occur to me that this boy was suspicious, or that he was sneaking, which he wouldn't have to do if he was allied to the shadow keeping us here.
Instead, my initial thought was that he was the person the shadow was going to send into the cave, to look for their 'something'.
For whatever reason, the boy completely ignored us both; his head whipped around in search of any other people, before he quickly scampered over to where Katelyn was chained.
Of course, hoping that he would free her was all but wishful thinking. She looked at him expectantly, but he just ignored her, again, and placed his palm flat on the wall by her head.
He ran it down the wall, feeling the surface, presumably searching for something. And he found it.
Digging his fingers into a crack in the wall, he tore of a large chunk of grey stone, uncaringly disgarding the wall on the floor.
I couldn't actually see what had been revealed, as I was chained too far up the wall to be able to crane my head in order to properly see.
Katelyn, however, wasn't, and a look of complete shock and bewilderment flashed across her face.
But judging by her reaction, and the soft smirk of delight on the boy's face, it was something big.
The boy carefully reached into the opening he had created, and when he pulled his hands back out, cradled in them, was a lamp.
The lamp was again, familiar. Traditionally shaped, with a rose gold base and lid, and a silvery sheen running down its sleek body.
The boy grasped it in his hands as if it was a prized possession, or a cherished heirloom, before pressing it to his chest.
It wasn't an affectionate gesture towards the genie I assume is hidden within the lamp, though. It was more possessive, as if claiming the being inside as his property.
The boy made to leave.
"Wh- wait!" Katelyn called out. He turned around, and raised an eyebrow. "Please. Don't leave us here."
The boy rolled his muddy orbs, and started towards us. But as Katelyn held out one of her shackles for him to undo, he instead opted to reach to the floor.
He hefted the panel torn from the wall, and waved it at us mockingly, as if saying goodbye.
Then he left us in the slowly dimming cave, without another word.
Not that he had said anything in the first place.
The light winked out, and we were plunged into darkness.
End of chapter.
Chapter 1 of book 3! Yay! Excitement.
Who is the boy?
Who is the shadow?
How does the shadow know Evil Queen?
Have a think.