Giselle woke suddenly, struggling to figure out whether her eyes were closed or open in this disorienting darkness. She lay perfectly still, her breath rasping in her throat once before she silenced it. There was movement all around her, cries of pain resonated in the air. She was in an enclosed space, but where? With who?

She rolled silently onto her side, realized the floor was packed earth, the top layer slick with water. She took a deep breath through her nose and gagged with sickening realization, it was not water, it was blood. She blinked angrily, begging her eyes to adjust, but the blackness remained, a stubborn curtain beneath her eyelids.

She heard a noise, but couldn’t tell how far away it was. Footsteps, slow and shuffling, dragging something across the blood-soaked earth. She closed her eyes and held her breath. The thing began to speak.