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her face were not for herself anymore but for the people in this hall. Only they weren’t people, not anymore. They had once been alive and breathing, perhaps at one time they had even been happy and loved before they entered this nightmare.
       Aria’s head spun, she couldn’t take everything in at once. It took her a moment to comprehend that they weren’t all humans, that there were also desiccated remains of vampires pinned to the walls, hanging from the ceiling, the rafters, and sitting at the massive table. The vampire’s faces had been pulled into macabre grins that revealed their pointed fangs while the human’s faces were warped into different expressions of torment and woe. A scream rose up into her chest and lodged itself there. She tried to keep it suppressed while her mind seemed to undergo a fracturing that left her barely hanging onto consciousness, barely able to function as her legs trembled.
       How they had gotten like this, she didn’t know. She assumed it had som ething to do with blood or lack thereof. Is this what happened when a vampire was completely drained? Did they become shriveled, somewhat preserved raisins? But why wasn’t their flesh rotting away? She realized she didn’t want to know the answer to that question, she suspected it was just as awful as the sight before her.
       The ones at the table seemed fresher. There appeared to be more fluid still left in their flesh. Their skin, though graying and wrinkling inward, still had some color to it. Then the eyes of the desiccated vampires moved as one toward her. Despite her every intention to appear as stoic as possible, to hold onto some semblance of dignity when it was being rapidly stripped away from her, Aria let out a startled shriek as she jumped back.
       The k ing released a low chuckle. “I see you like my handiwork; I have a prime spot at the table picked out for you.”    
       Cold sweat trickled down her neck and slid down her back. She was starting to realize she was only at the tip of the iceberg when it came to this man’s evil, when it came to the things he was capable of. All pretenses of dignity and stoicism vanished.
       She dashed to the side. The king hadn’t been expecting the movement, nor had he expected her to be as quick as she was. She sprinted forward, determined to at least attempt an escape as she dodged two guards. She was briefly reminded of the time she tried to allude Braith and Jack, she’d stayed free from them for longer than she’d expected, but she was drained now, weaker than she’d been then.
       She felt something rushing at her, a dark presence. She tried to switch direction, tried to get her body to move as fluidly as it usually did, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. Caleb hit her with the force of a sledgehammer. The breath was knocked from her as she tumbled head over heels across the marble floor before colliding with a chair, and one of the things in the chair. Dry bits of flaky skin broke off beneath her hand. Its eyes followed her as she scrambled backwards. If its gurgling, twitching movements were any indication, this thing was starving.
       “It seems that Merle is thirsty.”
       Strange noises filled the air; it took Aria a minute to realize they were coming from her. Merle’s jaundiced blue eyes rolled in his head as Aria was hauled back to her feet. She didn’t even care who held her, didn’t even care what they did to her, she simply yearned to be out of here. One way or another, dead or alive, she wanted free of this nightmare she had become entrenched in. She was losing it, she knew, but she wasn’t entirely certain how to keep it together anymore. Not in here, not with these monsters.
       Aria fought wildly against the king as he wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her back to the abomination named Merle. He seized hold of her still bleeding wrist, and held it above the thing as it issued eager, enthusiastic sounds. A single drop of