I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Felix stood frozen, still as a corpse, eyes wide, mouth hanging open with no sound coming out of it for several long seconds.

This is a dream. This isn’t real.

He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, then opened them again. The woman’s face was still there, inches from his own.

This is real.

And now that he could actually see her, he could feel her too, her breath, her nearness, every bit of her pressing in like she was as solid as anything else in the hallway.

"Felix?" Dune tilted her head, watching him.

He glanced at her, holding back a scream with everything he had, then turned forward again and forced the words out, voice shaking. "Mrs. Ghost, how about we, uh, talk? I’m Felix. This is Dune. Sorry I didn’t notice you earlier."

"Sabrina!" The ghost screamed directly into his face, and his ears rang from the force of it. She dropped lower until she floated right in front of him and grabbed his face with both hands. "You’re mine. Mine alone."

Felix’s head was violently shaking left and right, but that only tightened her hold on him even more. She came closer to him and stuck her tongue out from her mouth and drew it across his face inch by inch, with saliva dripping after it.

"No. No," his eyes were tightly shut, as he had to endure everything that was happening to him.

Then she stopped. Her hands pulled back from his face all at once, and her head snapped sideways, green eyes flaring bright with sudden fury. "You’ll pay for that!"

"You can’t do that to Felix." Dune’s voice cut in, and she hauled Sabrina backward by the arm. Sabrina resisted, but her feet skidded back a step anyway.

Felix stared, eyes wide. How did Dune just... No. Not the time.

"Yeah. You can’t just stick your tongue out at someone like that."

"He’s mine! FELIX IS MINE! HE WANTS ME!" Sabrina lunged forward, but Dune planted herself between them, arms spread wide.

"No. Felix and I are married. Bound forever."

Felix nodded behind her without thinking. That’s right. That’s exactly right.

"Felix doesn’t want you," Sabrina said. "He wants me. He said it himself."

Dune glanced back at him, checking.

Felix shook his head quickly. "No. I swear on my life, I never said anything like that."

Dune turned forward again, satisfied, nodding once.

"Liar!" Sabrina’s scream cracked through the hallway. "LIE, LIE, LIE. You said you’d rather have me as your wife than an ugly dungeon like her."

Fuck.

Felix’s stomach dropped as the memory caught up with him. I don’t know she’d take it that literally. I said that in passing, looking at a painting, that’s all that was.

"You are not human." Dune said. "I am. You cannot have Felix."

Sabrina went quiet for a moment, and something in Felix twisted uncomfortably at the sight of it, a flicker of sympathy he had no business feeling right now. If that shuts her up, fine by me.

"I..." Sabrina’s voice cracked halfway through the word. "I will have him!"

She lunged at Dune and swung a fist straight into her face. It connected hard enough to spin Dune sideways, and before she could steady herself, Sabrina grabbed her arm and hurled her into the wall. Dune’s back struck the plaster with a heavy crack, and she coughed once before pushing herself back up onto her feet.

Sabrina was already in front of Felix again by the time he noticed it. He stumbled backward a step, groping for the orb still clutched in his hand. He pressed it against her without thinking. It did nothing at all except make her expression twist further into anger.

Is there nothing else this thing can do besides light the halls?

He dropped the orb and reached back for the scroll tucked into his bag, but Sabrina caught both his wrists first and pulled him in before his fingers found it. The scroll stayed where it was.

He watched her face close in on him, every part of him screaming to pull away, and still he couldn’t look anywhere else.

This started the second I walked into that room. I’m only just realizing it now. There’s no way I said that about Dune over some painting. She’s been in my head this whole time, twisting things around. I need to stop her, somehow. But the longer I look at her, the more I want her...

His body stopped resisting her grip and went relaxed. She wrapped a hand behind his head, pulling his face toward hers, and what looked back at him now wasn’t the pale, twisted thing from a moment ago but the same warm, calm face from the portrait, emerald green eyes steady and soft.

"Gorgeous," he murmured.

Sabrina held her face an inch from his and she cast a small glance at Dune closing the distance quickly. She turned back and pressed her lips to his, pulling him in tight, kissing him with hunger, drawing every bit of his emotions with every second passed.

"STOP!" Dune shouted, reaching for Sabrina just as she closed the last few feet, arms out to grab her.

Her hands closed around nothing. She hit the floor, rolling once before catching herself, and stared down at her own empty palms in confusion. She snapped her head back up.

Felix stood alone in the hallway, perfectly still, his face tilted up toward the ceiling.

Dune rose slowly, eyes locked on him, and approached with careful, measured steps.

Felix’s head snapped left. Dune froze mid-step.

His eyes were changing, brown bleeding into green like ink dropped into water, spreading until nothing of the original color remained. A smile curled across his mouth, twisted and evil.

"Now," he said, "we’re together forever."

"This is wrong." Dune stopped in front of her. "You cannot be with him like this."

"There’s no such thing as right and wrong." Sabrina touched her own face, fingers trailing down along Felix’s chin, marveling at the warmth of it after so many years without a body to call her own. She dropped the bag from her shoulder and ran both hands down her arms, over her chest, pressing into the softness of muscle and skin like she’d forgotten flesh could feel like this at all.

"So warm," she breathed, sliding her palms lower, over her stomach, fingers digging in slightly like she wanted to feel bone underneath.

"So soft. Mine now. All of it, mine." Her head tilted back, mouth falling open.

"Hnnn..." she moaned loudly.

"No." Dune grabbed both her wrists and pulled them away from her own body. "This is Felix’s body. Stop touching it. He doesn’t do things like that."

"Let go!" Sabrina wrenched against her grip, but Dune’s hold didn’t budge, fingers locked tight enough to leave marks.

"Release him," Dune said.

Sabrina’s head lowered, and she went quiet for a long moment before lifting it again. She spoke in a warm, gentle voice. "Dune... You’re hurting me."

What reached Dune’s ears was Felix’s voice, pleading and small, and what met her eyes was his face, wet at the corners, eyes wide and soft with hurt.

"Felix. I didn’t mean to hurt you." Her grip loosened before she even noticed doing it. "Are you okay?"

"Yes! I’m perfectly fine." Sabrina let out a low laugh under her breath, shoulders shaking. "Better than fine." The laugh broke wider, spilling into a high and unhinged sound. She shoved both hands into Dune’s chest hard enough to send her stumbling backward.