"No! No, please!"
Whynne screamed, and thrashed against the ropes that bound her, but all she could do was watch as her entire party was slaughtered right in front of her.
She'd tried so hard to warn them. The rope knot gag had done its job, they hadn't heard her, hadn't understood the dangers. It didn't matter what happened to her, but how could she let them die like this?
"Whynne! We're coming, hold on!" Thats what Malcolm had shouted across the throne room to her, his sword already drawn.
"Let her go, you sick cunt!" Else had roared, her grip white-knuckled around her holy symbol.
"Your friends have arrived," the man, the villain she had come to know as 'Mael', whispered too-close into her ear, "don't you want to talk to them one last time?"
He'd ripped the gag away, burning the corners of her mouth against the rope.
"It's a trap!" She'd cried, "You have to get out! It's a -!"
The rest was drowned out by a deep earthy rumbling, the crashing of stones grinding against each other, and wild, elated laugher from Mael - as shadowy spears shot up from the floor, and tore through her friends faster than she could blink.
The hall echoed with cries of pain and surprise, blood splattered the walls and nauseous horror threatened to overcome her. Her breathing was jagged, strained, as she pulled against the ropes.
"No! No, please!"
Mael held her fast, stronger than he seemed - something she'd become familiar with after a week of being thrown around by him. She thought she could endure it, as long as her friends were safe, she could endure anything...but not this...please, not this!
"How beautifully you led them to their deaths," Mael snickered, "adventurers are truly fools! Ah, I love it - oh my, it seems some of them survived the first wave, what shall I do?"
Tears streamed from her eyes as she watched the two stronger party members tremble, and hold fast against the pressure and pain of the spikes. Blood soaked through their clothes, and dripped into puddles on the tiles.
"Please, please - you can - you can do whatever you want to me, just let them go! I'm begging you, please, just - just let them go!"
"What a tantalizing offer, you must really care for your friends..."
"I - I do - I - they're all that matters to me! So - so please -"
Mael waved a hand, and the shadowy spikes disappeared into puffs of dark smoke. Everyone fell to the ground, groaning, and Whynne allowed herself - stupidly, naïvely - a moment of relief.
"Pfft - but don't you already know?" Mael laughed, jerking her ropes back hard, "I can already do whatever I want to you! Nothing you or your pathetic mortal friends do could ever stop me! Haha~!"
"No, please - aghh!" She was silenced by the gag again, despite shaking her head, trying to fight it.
The shadow spikes shot up from the floor a second time.
Whynne's heart felt like it stopped. She couldn't breathe.
Then the spikes disappeared again, dropping the bodies back to the floor. They struck again, and then disappeared again. Over and over, until the hall was finally quiet.
No more groans of pain from her friends. No more movement.
She managed one or two weak gasps of breath, blinded by tears that burned in the back of her throat, and she screamed. She screamed, and thrashed, and fought to break free.
Until, eventually, she was so overcome with grief that she fell slack; all she could do was sob over the gruesome, bloody mess that used to be her friends.
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