I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Weeks went by after that incident, and every single day things were getting worse than the previous one. Edwardo was coming back late at night, drunk, eating very little, saying not a single word; he was feeling like a dead person rather than a living human being. Sabrina was seeing all that, feeling the heaviness of it in her heart every time another scroll was delivered to their doorstep asking for their money.

Edwardo wasn’t talking about any of his problems anymore, and stopped asking for any suggestions in the business as he used to do before everything got started.

Now Edwardo was sitting quietly on the bed, his body completely exhausted from every kind of energy, and his dead eyes were looking down at the floor.

I can’t see him like that.

Sabrina knelt beside him and put her hand in his. "It’s not too late yet. Something will happen, you just have to keep trying."

"Nothing is happening, Sabrina." His tone was flat. "I’ve gone to everyone that I know. I’ve asked for help. I have begged those who used to call themselves my friends. Nothing is going to change."

"Well then, we need to find the people that you haven’t yet," she tightened her grip on his hand. "There has to be someone else out there who—"

"There isn’t," he jerked his hand away. "Maybe it’s about time to start thinking about leaving. Selling what I have left and getting the children as far away from this place as possible. Somewhere that no one has ever heard of Aldric."

"Leave?" She sprang up from her position. "Are you serious?"

"I really don’t see any other choice."

"There is." She moved herself into position before him and brought his head up to face her. "There is. We haven’t tried everything yet. I know we haven’t. Please, just give it some more time. I’ll figure out a way, I swear I will. I will fix this."

Edwardo looked at her for a long moment, weariness and pity in his gaze, but said not a single word, which scared her even more than if he had argued.

Later that same night, back in her room, Edwardo’s face kept flashing through her mind again and again, until finally it was Karl’s voice that echoed beneath it, growing ever louder.

One word and this family will cease to exist.

She had heard it as a threat when he first spoke those words. But now, seeing Edwardo resign himself to giving up on the one family she’d ever wanted to be part of, it did not seem like a threat anymore. It seemed like the last remaining option.

Georgia would have found a way. It came to her mind unexpectedly.

This is what everybody has been telling me, isn’t it? Georgia used to find a way out. So will I.

She went to the wardrobe and swung it open. She took the black blouse that she had not touched since that day.

"This is the way. I have to do this... If I don’t then everything will fall apart. I can’t let that happen."

...

"Master Karl."

"What is it?"

"Lady Sabrina has come to see you."

"Sabrina?" Karl pushed the door open and looked down into the hall. A woman in a black dress sat waiting on the sofa below. *What does she want?* "Send her up."

"Yes, Master Karl."

The maid went down and led Sabrina up to his room, then bowed and stepped away, leaving her alone at the door. Sabrina stood there a long moment before knocking twice.

"Enter."

She pushed the door open slowly and stepped inside. Karl sat in a chair at the center of the room, and his mouth curled into a faint, mocking smile the second he saw her.

"What brings you here, Lady Sabrina?"

"I’ve come to pay the price." She kept her voice even. "You said there was a way."

*Price?* He looked her over, head to toe. "Wait. Are you here for—" He broke into laughter. "No. No, no, no. I remember exactly what you said to me."

"And now I’m telling you I want to."

"Fine." Karl folded his arms. "Show me, then. Prove you actually have it in you. Maybe I’ll consider it, if you can."

Sabrina’s face stayed motionless as she unbuckled her black clock and let it slip from her body. Her hands were behind her as she untied the ties of her dress, allowing the dress to slide from her shoulder and drop to her feet. She began undoing her blouse, followed by the last of her underwear, and folded them carefully and placed it on the table.

Karl’s breathing became heavy, his boot stomping the floor impatiently. "Stop staring at me." He shifted forward in his seat. "Touch yourself, please me, beg for it."

Sabrina’s hands moved gently over her breasts, her stomach, her lips—

"Enough!" Karl jumped from his seat.

She immediately stopped her actions.

The man crossed the room quickly and grasped Sabrina’s neck. She choked.

"Was that supposed to please me?" He spoke in a hoarse voice. "Don’t play innocent with me. Do what you do for that weasel husband of yours."

He waited for a response, but nothing came from her besides the silent stare which seemed to irritate him more. He clutched tighter at her throat and pulled her towards the bed.

"Let me teach you properly. How a price is actually paid."

He forced her onto the bed, the mattress dipping under her weight

He climbed on the bed, above her, his eyes focused on her expressionless face, heart pumping faster. He pushed her forward while she lay still and dropped his pants and penetrated inside her.

Karl stopped suddenly and his head lowered and noticed the blood. He realised it quickly. "God Hell..."

He muttered softly and laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls. "You were a virgin. I know it now. That’s why I’m feeling so different. You’re a girl who just came out of her shell."

He slapped her face. "Open your eyes Sabrina, I want to see your pain. I want you to see me, Karl Martinez who turned you into a woman, the face you’ll never forget."

He slapped her again. "Didn’t you listen to what I just said?"

Sabrina’s chest rose and fell, and she opened her eyes, they were red filled with tears of pain and humiliation.

"There you are." His hand reached for her throat, choking her mouth open. As he moved once again. He leaned forward to her, she quickly turned her head away. He laughed. He laughed harder.

After this time ceases to exist for Sabrina.

Yet she listened, Karl’s cruel words to Edwardo, to her children, how low life women she is, that she never received any real love from Edwardo; she couldn’t unhear him when he was screaming right into her ears.

She tried to bury the pain deep in her heart, she told herself that it was alright, that she was doing it because of the family but tears still ran down, the blood from lips still trickled down.

It hurts. It hurts so much. I don’t want to do this. The words kept echoing inside her mind no matter what she tried to think.

He spit on her face, he slapped her again, he grabbed her breasts and tried to pluck them out like a fruit from a tree, he turned her over and shoved her from a different position.

Yet she couldn’t do anything. She laid still. Lips pressed closed.

The time finally continued for her. Karl got down from her, his face covered with sweat. He put the night gown on himself and walked into the room to the right of the bed, and said, "Clean yourself."