Tam P.O.V 

"HELP HELP!"  a girls voice was calling out from the darkness. I charged in-

"I'M COMING BIANA!" 

"TAM-" 

And then the voice was gone and I heard screaming, terrible screaming and I tried to run forward and to save her, but I couldn't move. I looked down and saw my feet tied to the ground with horrible, black ropes that were the same ropes that had held me against the wall in the cave. 

I couldn't move, I could only listen as the screaming got worse. I tried to cover my ears, but suddenly my hands were pulled and tied with the ropes too and the screaming and the crying kept on going and I just stood there, doing nothing. 

And then, they stopped and somebody with a dark cloak and a single white eye threw a dead, and bloodied Biana, arms twisted at unnatural angles at my feet, and they laughed, and I screamed and I still couldn't move...

And then they brought Linh over, and I was forced to hear my sister's screams, her voice pleading for help, for me to come, and I couldn't... I couldn't....I couldn't. And then her voice stopped yelling, and the room fell silent again. The same one threw her dead body, mauled and ruined right next to Biana's and it happened again. And again. 

Keefe. Dex. Marella. Fitz. Sophie. Wylie. 

And then there were ones I didn't even know I would cry for, but I did. 

Mom. Dad. 

Ones I didn't even know well... 

Oralie. Juline. Alden. Della. Grady. Edaline. 

There were more that I couldn't save. 

And then I saw the faces, the faces of the ones who died. 

There was the Forkles, the people who had let me and Linh into the Black Swan, the people who gave us a new life, a better life, one that wasn't sad and miserable and lonely. And I couldn't help them, just like I couldn't save Biana. 

And then there was Tiergan. The man who had let us into his home. Who raised us like a dad. Who treated us no different than any other elf, and he had died. Died. For trying to save us, for trying to protect us and he was dead. Because of me. Because I couldn't protect him, not even once like he had protected us. 

There was Jensi, who I didn't know well, but was so young and happy and bubbly. And he had a brother, parents that had lost their youngest son. A whole life ahead of him. And he was dead too. Because of something he had no control in, something that wasn't his fault, something that shouldn't have involved him at all, but it did. 

The bodyguards, goblins that had died for us. 

Kesler, who had died to protect us. 

And then, there was Livvy. 

Livvy, who had sheltered me when I had run away from the Neverseen. Livvy who let me into her home, knowing that they were following me. Livvy who let me stay there regardless, and helped me back to my full health. Who treated my wounds, and kept me alive. Livvy who told me to run, as they burst into her home. Livvy who had screamed for me to go as the Neverseen members piled on top of her. And Livvy, who had died, trying to protect me. 

There ghostly faces swirled around me, reminders of more people I couldn't save, more deaths and things I couldn't stop. 

And then, the dead bodies around me started to glow, as each one of the dead's ghostly face appeared around me. 

First, there was Biana. 

"You couldn't save me..." 

I tried to reach out to her, but her face vanished as soon as my hand came near. 

I turned around and saw Linh's face staring at me, dead and cold, nothing like how she was when she lived. 

"You couldn't save me..." 

I panted as the voices overlapped...

"You couldn't save me..."

"I'm dead because of you..."

"I thought you would come..." 

" You couldn't save me..."
"Couldn't save me..."
"save me..."
"me...me...me..." 

And then they all appeared again and the swirled around me, ghosts of the people they used to be, dead because of me. Because I couldn't save them. I caught glimpses of my parents, of Livvy's face, of the Forkles, of Keefe and Dex, Marella and Sophie, Fitz and Wylie... 

And then, they all vanished, leaving the two I cared about the most. 

Phantom Linh walked up to me, her hair flowing out behind her. "I'm dead because of you. Because of you...because of you..." 

"Linh-" I tried to say, tried to say sorry, but she vanished. 

And then I turned around and saw Biana, her face pale and dead, her eyes cold, her smile flat and lifeless. 

"You couldn't save me... you couldn't save me...couldn't save me...." her voice said, soft and haunting. It seemed like it was everywhere, the voice, like she was all around the room, everywhere I could see, it just kept repeating itself in a cruel melody. 

"Save me...couldn't save me....you couldn't save me..." 

And then, she was gone. And I was there, alone in the world because I had nobody, nothing, and it was all my fault. 

But then, there were two brilliant balls of light. They shone like ice, piercing the darkness around me. I felt shaken suddenly, my body moving, and a voice-

"BANGS BOY! STOP MUTTERING YOU ARE ACTUALLY SCARING ME. PLEASE TELL ME YOU AREN'T POSSESSED BECAUSE THEN I'LL ACTUALLY START FREAKING OUT. SERIOUSLY WAKE UP THIS IS KIND OF TERRIFYING." 

I was shaken awake and I saw a panicked-looking Keefe above me, his hair wild and mussed up and noticeably skinnier than he had been a week ago. 

He looked relieved as he said, "Thank god. I thought you had gone insane and I would be stuck in the cell alone with an insane person." Then, he noticed the sweat on my arms and forehead and he looked worried. "What happened?"

"Nightmare."

"Oh." 

"Yeah." 

"I get those too." 

"I know." 

"Yeah." 

"Yeah." 

"What did you see?" Keefe asked after some more silence. 

"Stuff." 

"Well, that's very informative." 

"I know." 

"They finally brought us some food," Keefe said, gesturing with his head toward a measly plate of food they had placed in front of the door. "And some more water." 

"I'm not eating anything they give me." 

"Well, you drink what they give you, what difference is eating?" 

"I was going to die without water."

"Well, you're gonna DIE without food!" 

Silence. 
I guess he did have a point. 

I pulled the small tray towards me without saying a word, but Keefe yanked it back before I took a big spoonful of whatever this strange food was. 

"We have to share it you know! Don't just plunge it in without leaving me some! I mean, seriously Bangs Boy, didn't you ever learn to share?" The last bit was said with some half-hearted sarcasm as he took the other spoon on the tray and we began eating the small bowl of mush in silence. 

When we finished, I realized how hungry I was, and it looked like Keefe was feeling the same way. 

"Gethen said that he'll give us food in exchange for information." Keefe said after a while, as my stomach growled for the eighth time. "Otherwise it's a bowl or two if we're lucky a week." 

"Well, I know I'm not saying a word," I said stubbornly. "I'd rather starve to death." 

"I know, and I'm not gonna say anything either. I just had an idea that might be able to get us out of here, but if you would rather rot inside this cell, be, my, guest." Keefe humphed and turned back towards the corner. 

"Sorry," I muttered. "What's the idea?" 

Keefe rolled his eyes. "Now you want to know," he said. "Well, here it is." 

Keefe told me the plan. 

I told him it was stupid and it would never work. 

He asked if I had any other ideas. 

"No," I said begrudgingly. 

"Then lets do it."