Ashley woke as her entire room rocked about violently. It was dark and there was something strange about the way she shook. Ashley held her hands out and felt around until her fingers wrapped around metal bars.
She pulled herself closer to the bars. Her eyes were struggling to adjust in the blackness.
She was no longer in her room. She was inside a carriage.
Even though inside the carriage held little light, she was able to make out dim shapes when she looked out the window. Most of what she could see was offered by a lantern that was toppled around next to the driver. She could see the man's silhouette and just a bit of the carriage itself. What struck her the most were the horses that drew it.
They had no fur, not even flesh. They were just bone and went down the winding path at an alarming rate.
Ashley felt a tear streak down her cheek, but pushed it away. She was afraid of who the man was and where he was taking her, but she knew that she could get away from him. She had to. Her family would be missing her.
She turned and faced the depths of her cell. She couldn't see anything. Then Ashley turned back to the lantern and strained her eyes to see if she could focus on anything else. If there was a chance that the light could give her any ideas.
Her eyes then flicked downwards. There was a bit of path that the fire illuminated, then it dropped into nothing. Were they travelling along a cliff?
Ashley thought, then shook her head as she came to a conclusion.
She ran from one side of the carriage, then slammed herself into the wall, forcing the whole thing to shift close to the edge of the path.
Ashley heard the horses panic, then did it again.
When she it the side of the carriage with the entirety of her body weight, the door swung wide open and she was falling.
She thought that she heard somebody shout, but everything quickly faded into blackness.
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