I awoke, drowsily, handcuffed to some medieval wall in a large dark room. I was still partially paralyzed from being tranquilized. I slowly turned my head and saw Duncan hanging next to me, and he was tranquilized also. "Duncan..." I said softly.

He breathed and I knew he was awake. "Go f*ck off." he breathed slowly.

I gasped and tears started forming in my eyes. "How could you?"

He turned his head to me and sighed. "OK, I didn't actually mean that. I was just kinda peeved that you tranquilized me."

"What?" I was confused. "I haven't seen you since the night at the arena."

"Uh, NO, you tranquilized me yesterday at the hospital."

"Uh, NO, I was also tranquilized."

His eyes widened. "By who?"

"It was weird, because it was me."

He laughed a bit. "You tranquilized yourself? Wow."

"SHUTTUP!" I kicked him.

Suddenly, a door opened and a figure stood there. A woman walked in with long blonde hair, wearing a long dark purple trailing robe-like dress.

I gasped. Ashlee.

Ash walked to a circular control table pockmarked with buttons and switches and monitors. I nervously looked at Duncan in fear, but he was just looking at his sister with no remorse or fear whatsoever.

"Well, well, well." Ash put her long-nailed hands on her hips. "What do we have here?"

"What do you want, b*tch?" Duncan asked.

"Oh, nothing," Ash swooned, "but revenge."

"Revenge?" I asked. "For what?"

"Both of you." Ashlee glared at Duncan and I. "Let's see the stats." She smiled smugly and stood in front of a sill fearless Duncan. "Duncan. My insignificant pain in the ass brother. You take my popularity away by becoming a famous teen fighter."

"What can I say?" Duncan bragged, "I beat people up every day in juvy, so why not practice it on professionals?"

Ash ignored his boasting then stood in front of me. "And Courtney. You date my brother then ditch him to go off to college at the age of 17."

"This was my only chance-" I started to say.

"Ah ah ah!" Ash interrupted, and I could tell she wasn't finished. "You break my brother's heart by finally revealing that you killed our dog Petey when he was six and that last month, you put his deathly ill, but recovering, grandmother out of her misery."

I was about to protest. I didn't even know Duncan when he was six! I didn't even know his grandmother was ill!

I was completely dumbfounded. I turned my head and looked at Duncan. He had his head a bit down, nad I saw a tear roll of his nose and his eyes turned to me. "You traitor."

Then I know why he challenged me and what was going on.

The fight.
The e-mail.
The dream.

Ashlee framed me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ash had given us ten minutes to say our goodbyes, because one way or another, one of us was not walking out of here alive.

The door closed and our handcuffs released. We fell to the floor and I started crying. Duncan wrapped his arms around me, not knowing what else to do. I allowed the hug, and I pressed myself against him.

I was in utter disbeleif. How could Ashlee do this to me? Wait...why was Duncan hugging me if a minute ago he hated me?

"Why are you hugging me?" I sobbed.

"I know she framed you." He let go of me and looked into my eyes. "I'm so sorry for everything I said and everything I did."

I threw myself into his arms again. "I can't beleive I'm going to lose you. Either you die and I lose you, or I die and I lose you."

"I know." He started crying again. I pulled out of his arm cradle, looked into his eyes, and kissed him. I felt something...an emotion. Our minds locked and I felt what he felt. Anger, rage, sadness, passion, and love.

He saw that I felt almost the same way, but out of my emotions, I was only sure that love and trust were true.

I couldn't beleive this. I trusted Ashlee for years and so did Duncan, and now she wants to rid of her brother? What do I make of that?!

Suddenly, the door opened again, and I pulled away from Duncan. Ashlee walked in. "It's time." she said and walked over and took Duncan out of my arms. She handcuffed him, then led him out of the room. "Bye bye!" Ash stood in the doorway, waving to me.

"Goodbye." I heard Duncan say in my head. I got up, panting, and ran to the door. The heavy iron door slammed shut, and I realized I was locked in. And I realized...this was how I was gonna die. Duncan was going to be tortured and I was going to starve to death in isolation.

Suddenly, I had a vision. It overwhelmed my entire being, adn it was so powerful that I held my head and moaned for air, becuase I couldn't breathe.

Ash pressed a button on a small control table, adn there stood Duncan, in the middle of the room, handcuffed, chains leading from them to the ceiling.

My dream.


Duncan's head was down, and he was shirtless.
Ash walked over to him and disappeared. Wicked laughter roared from the room and one by one, hot flashing slits crisscrossed his body, leaving blood trails. He screamed in pain, and then the chains broke.

I strained to breathe, and I moaned in pain. The vision cleared and I picked my head up. No...no, no no no! The dream! It was real and Duncan was dying!!!!

I stood up and started pounding on the door, hot tears dripping from my eyes. "PLEASE!!!" I screamed and pounded harder "LET HIM GO!!! PLEASE!!!!!"

Suddenly the door opened and Ash picked me up off the ground. "It's time." She hand cuffed me and led me to the same room. She stood me in the middle of the room where the single hotlight was. She stood at her little control table and pressed three small yellow buttons.

A light turned on on the left wall, and there was Duncan, his chest dried with blood, chained to the wall. He was straining to break the heavy iron chains, but to no prevail. Finally, he stopped, and hung his head. He was panting and sweating. He looked up. "Courtney!" He yelled. Ash pressed a blue button, and suddenly shockwaves from his handcuffs invaded his body liek knives through water. He screamed in pain, and I couldn't stand to see this.

"Hey Courtney," Ashlee called. "feeling a little...down?" she asked smugly and pressed a large white button. The hard clay ground around and beneath me started vibrating and crumbling.

I took a few steps backward, and with every step, a block of clay started breaking. I screamed and ran over to the wall where Duncan was at. I leaned on him in fear, and pleaded that this was a dream. But I knew it wasn't.