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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟐: 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 : 

When Eris woke up again, her head hurt significantly less than before, but a continuous throb still drilled through her skull.

A groan escaped her dry lips as she sat up, opening her eyes to find herself on the same bed she had awoken on earlier.

As she looked to her right, a dim light came through the small window, signalling that it was either dusk or dawn. Eris wasn't sure how long she slept.

A sharp frown grew present on her brows as the grogginess fell away in her eyes and mind as she remembered the situation she found herself in.

She swung her legs to the side of the bed before standing up and making her way to the wooden door on the opposite of the room with heavy steps.

Reaching out, she turned the metal door handle that felt cold to her hands. Unfortunately, but predictably, the door didn't give way. The wooden object stayed stubbornly in its place, almost like it was mocking the young brunette.

She didn't like it.

So instead, she resorted to knocking on the door harshly and repeatedly, turning her knuckles raw as nobody seemed to respond.

"Let me out you fucking bastards!" She shouted, hoping it would get somebody's attention, "Hey!"

Suddenly the door handle tilted downwards and the door was thrown open, taking Eris by surprise, who was still leaning against it.

She staggered backwards, before she hit the ground, breaking the fall with her arms, which immediately made a lightning bolt of pain shoot up to her shoulders. She winced.

"Hello."

Dream stood in front of her with a wooden tray in his hands, carrying himself in the same, light and arrogant way Eris did not want to get used to.

"Why are you on the ground?" He asked mockingly, looking down at Eris, who was still on the ground, a sharp glare in her gaze.

"Fuck you." She replied, awkwardly standing up, but immediately taking a small step back as the man was far too close to her for her comfort.

Dream huffed, placing the tray down on the table in the corner of the room before turning to her again, "I come up here, taking time off from my own schedule to bring you food and I don't even get a thank you."

Eris crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the man from under her brow, a cynic smile placed on her lips before she spoke up, "Fuck you. Bitch."

"I don't think you're in a position to talk to me like that, Eris." The masked man replied, tilting his head ever so slightly.

The small, but significant action made a shiver run down the brunette's spine, although she made sure it would not be possible to tell.

"Or what?" She asked. Challenging the man in front of her who was bigger than her in every way and could overpower her easily, especially in the not-so optimal physical state she was in.

Dream took a step forward, the difference in height between them making Eris tilt her head back slightly to still match the mask's eerie gaze, "Don't challenge me."

For the first time in a while, Eris found the -possibly misplaced- confidence she had lost over the last few days, causing a small smirk to appear on her chapped lips, "Why?"

Not a moment after the words had left her mouth, she was pushed backwards against the wall and her breath escaped her lungs at the impact.

She was trapped in her place as Dream held his forearm across her shoulders, towering over her, "Because I'm not in the mood."

The words he spoke carried nothing more than confidence and intimidation, clearly leaving his mouth to shut Eris up. But unfortunately for him, the tone acted as a drop of gasoline to the small spark Eris had found back in herself, giving it room to grow exponentially.

"Good."

Eris could practically see the masked man's face falter at her reply, not being able to get the satisfaction of overpowering her mentally, even though she was physically hopeless.

Instead of the punch to the face Eris had expected, she was thrown to the side, landing with her shoulder against one of the chairs. Her already bruised back and shoulder now even feeling worse.

She refused to give up however. Looking up at the table, she spotted the wooden tray again, which contained two plates and a glass of water.

Eris immediately reached over, tossing the bread that was placed on one of the plates aside, before retrieving the object and throwing it at Dream, who was making his way over to her.

She wished it had hit his head, but unfortunately his reflexes were too quick and he blocked the plate with his arm.

The object shattered against his arm, which didn't even seem to face him, before several shards fell to the ground, multiplying themselves.

"You know what? I'm not dealing with this right now." Dream said, brushing himself off from any leftover pieces of ceramic shards, annoyance lacing through every vowel, "No wonder Wilbur let you go that quickly."

When she originally wanted to chug another object at the man in front of her, Eris froze in her place at Dream's remark. The words stabbed through her composure like a knife through butter. Her smirk faltered.

"Have fun staying in this room by yourself." Dream, an exhausted but somehow amused sigh leaving his lips, coming out slightly muffled because of the mask.

He turned around and walked out of the room, shutting, and locking, the door behind him.

The moment Dream shut the door again she reached over to the other plate before throwing it against the, now closed, door, "Fuck you!"

She could swear she heard a faint laughter far away behind the door, but it could easily be her ears playing tricks on her.

The girl sat on the ground for another few minutes, before standing up, deciding that sitting there would do nothing to help her situation.

Her mind had gone into survival mode as the adrenaline of her encounter with Dream still rushed through her body, searching for a way to escape the room she was locked in.

She looked to the ground, eyeing the shards again, before she found two specific shards that were long and thin, but not too thin. She reached over to pick them up from the ground, examining them in her hands.

While turning one of them around in her hand, it cut her finger, swiftly slicing through her skin and drawing blood almost immediately.

"Shit." She whispered, sucking on the thumb to stop the blood from dripping onto the ground. Only a few droplets had made its way to the ground, randomly displayed between the sea of shards, camouflaging themselves almost completely

After a thorough examination she came to the conclusion they were just the perfect size to stab somebody with, and so she hid them underneath her pillow.

She had to get out of that stupid, plain bedroom, back to L'Manberg. She wasn't going to sit around and be a nice little prisoner. Simply put because of two factors.

One; it was not in her personality. Two; she didn't feel like giving Dream that satisfaction.

Then the dim light that had shone in her face earlier when she woke up, took her attention again. The light had become even less significant than before, meaning that it had been dusk.

The frame of the window then became apparent to her. It wasn't that big of a window, but the thick, wooden frame made it seem smaller than it in reality was and she came to the realisation that she could probably fit through it with ease.

And so, an idea popped in her head.

The window was placed quite high in the corner of the room. She wouldn't be able to properly reach it on her own.

Eyeing her left she found the chair that still stood next to the table and so she walked over to pick it up.

She placed it down quietly, directly under the window, before making sure it wouldn't fall over if she stood on it.

After finding no real danger in standing on the object, she took a step back and picked up two pieces of broken ceramic; a thin one and a more square looking piece.

She then stepped up on the chair, before placing the thin one against the glass window. The outside world was almost in her reach.

Taking one glance back at the wooden door that trapped her in the room, she let out a quiet sigh. If she got caught, she was completely and utterly fucked.

Eris placed the bigger shard on top of the thin one, careful as not to break the ceramic that was placed on the window. She repositioned it slightly before she balled her fist, and slammed against the bigger shard.

The thin, broken ceramic shot forward and pushed itself into the glass window. A spider's web of cracks appeared in the glass with a crack, before Eris threw her fist against the square shard once more, this time breaking the glass completely.

She watched on as the pieces of glass fell to the ground, earning a ring way too loud for her comfort.

A shout was heard from inside the house and Eris realised it was time for her to act.

And so, without thinking, she threw herself out of the window.

What she hadn't properly realised is that her room was placed on the second story of a house, making her fall to the ground much further, and much more dangerous.

The brunette shrieked ass you dropped down, starting out head first, but almost immediately turning around as she realised that the distance of her fall would be much bigger. She silently thanked Technoblade for her agility in that moment.

She dropped down on the ground in an almost perfect crouch before she let herself roll over, breaking the rest of her fall. This meant however that multiple pieces of glass had the opportunity to latch onto Eris' thin linen shirt, ripping it in several places and some piercing through the fabric entirely, scratching against her skin.

The brunette groaned as she let herself lay on the ground for a second, catching her breath, before quickly standing up again and running off into the forest.

Taking one last glance backwards, she took a quick second to observe the house she had been trapped in. It was quite ordinary looking, peaceful even. It was almost completely made out of several kinds of wood that fit together quite awkwardly, but somehow also homely, contradicting the people that lived there. Because the sun had set a little while ago, the darkness that started to brew over the building made it hard to make out any details, and so Eris kept running.

She found herself to be running through the trees rather often in the last few days, a certain feeling of dejavu washing over her.

Her stamina was not as good as it usually was however, the pain that was apparent in her entire body seemed to slow her down, with her dully throbbing headache beating in the background as an annoying reminder.

If she wanted to escape she had to be fast and smart. Either of which she was, but at the same time neither of which she was at that exact moment. Her head dazed and vision seemed to blur every so often, but still she kept on running.

After around ten minutes of running, she came to a halt, catching her breath with her hands on her knees. She looked up to try and find the moon, hoping for it to guide her back home.

Unfortunately for her, a thick blanket of clouds covered the entire sky, making it impossible for her to orientate where she was.

She reached into her pocket to retrieve her compass, only to realise that she had put it in her coat, which she had given to Tubbo.

Then to add to it all, she heard the sound of snapping branches in the distance.

Luck was not on her side that night.

"Fuck. Shit. Fuck." Eris hissed, looking around her. She then spotted a large tree that stood tall, only a few metres away from her current location.

She made her way over to the tree and started to climb it, trying so as quickly, but quietly as possible.

She took a hold of a branch above her, the mossy wood soft to her skin, before hoisting herself up. She almost lost her grip when a sudden pang of pain shot through her shoulder, but she managed to hold on.

But then, when she reached over to another branch above her, something yanked on her leg, making her almost lose her grip once more, but she still was able to cling onto it, her arms wrapped around the tree branch like a monkey.

"What the fuck!" She yelled as she kicked out with her leg, trying to push the attacker away. But her efforts were fruitless as she was yanked down once more and she wasn't able to hold on to the branch anymore.

The moment she made contact with the floor, pressure was put on her back as she laid on the ground, flaying around.

"Jesus fuck, can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Dream's voice spoke from above her as he basically straddled her back.

Rough hands grabbed at Eris' arms before pulling them together and tying a rope around them, far more tight than would be necessary.

"Get off of me!" The brunette screamed, frustration ringing clear in her voice. She kept thrashing around, but with her arms to her back, she couldn't do much against Dream's superior strength.

The pressure was then lifted from her back, "As you wish."

Eris took a big breath of relief and filled her lungs with as much air as she possibly could, before being picked up from the ground by her arm.

Again, Eris started thrashing, to the annoyance of Dream, who tightened his grip on her arm in return, "Just give up already."

"Fuck you." Eris replied curtly, tugging at her arm even more. But once again, she was not strong enough, and to add to that, her headache had started to come back, making her feel slightly nauseous.

Eventually, as she was being dragged back to the house, she had to stop thrashing around, her blurry vision and nausea becoming worse with each movement she made.

"I can walk on my own." She eventually said.

The masked man huffed, not even looking at her, "Sure you can. I'm willing to bet you money that the moment I let you go, you try to run off again."

That was true.

"I won't. I'm just not feeling good and you dragging me along isn't helping."

"I don't care." He replied curtly.

"Please?"

The quiet and calm way she spoke the words, made Dream turn his head around, eyeing down her body language to find any signal that she was fooling him.

She was.

"Fine." Dream eventually replied, letting go of her arm slowly, "Don't do anything stupid."

Eris had to fight the urge to smile, "I won't."

She will.

Dream kept his eyes on her for a long moment, making sure she wouldn't run off and she patiently waited for the opportunity to escape.

That opportunity luckily quickly came and that being in the form of a bunch of birds crowing in the distance, making Dream look to the other side for just a moment.

But a moment was enough for Eris to take off and so she did, making her way back into the sea of trees.

Eris couldn't get far however as an arrow flew through the sky and pierced through the side of her linen shirt and slammed into a tree, centimetres away from her.

She wanted to laugh at the way Dream had missed his target, until she tried to move away from the tree, only to realise she was stuck against it.

"You've gotta be kidding me." She whispered under her breath.

"I'd like to say that I'm surprised. But that would be a lie." The masked man huffed as he put away the bow he held in his hand and made her way over Eris in a mockingly slow pace, knowing she wouldn't be able to get away.

Once he was near her, he yanked the arrow out of the tree and took hold of Eris' arm again, which earned him an eye roll, "You're annoyingly predictable."

Eris was taken aback slightly at his words. She thought herself to be many things, a few of those negative as well, but predictable would not be one of those. And so she was left speechless in slight confusion.

That confusion was thrown to the backside of her mind however as she was suddenly lifted from the ground and thrown over the masked man's shoulder.

"Let me the fuck down!"

Dream chuckled, sending waves through his shoulders, "No. You said you could walk on your own. Clearly that is not the case. I don't feel like chasing you once more today."

Eris wanted to start wiggling around again but immediately stopped as the nausea she had felt earlier grew tenfold and she stilled in his hold, trying not to throw up.

As she was taken back to the house, the reality of the situation hit her, and the rush of adrenaline seemed to wear off very quickly, leaving her tired and numb.

She wasn't going to be able to escape as easily as she hoped she would have and the feeling of being trapped, forcibly removed from the people she loved, made her feel helpless and panicky.

It wasn't long before Eris was thrown back onto the bed she had woken up from, her hands still tied behind her back.

"I hope you're happy with yourself." Dream said from above her, slight amusement apparent in his voice. She only glared back at him.

Then, without saying anything more, he walked towards the door, almost walking out, before Eris spoke up,

"Aren't you going to untie me?"

He turned his head around before laughing, "Yeah, no. You've been a pain in the ass all day, so I'll let you figure this one out on your own."

Without giving Eris the opportunity to say anything in reply, he shut the door behind him, audibly locking it before walking away, leaving the brunette to stare at the door in front of her.

As she looked outside to see the night sky, she realised she was going to have to sleep alone for the first time in a very long time, something she did not look forward to, not at all.

____
A/N:

3039 words go brrrr 

sorry for the far and few updates- writing do be hard. also - i have my exams in 3 weeks whoohoo. i'm trying to get back to writing every day however so hopefully more frequent updates?

i really don't like this chapter lol - the writing didn't really set right with me, even though the story is still going in the right way- idk hope you guys liked it

also again tysm for the support this book is getting- we're already up to almost 9k reads- that's very pog :] - if you like this story please comment and vote bc it really helps with motivation!!

you're beautiful,
Blue