I woke up from my nightmare screaming! The burning sensation on my arms had worsened. I took a peek under my bandages to find two more bands had burnt out. This time, it was the orange and purple ones, which represented Country and Funk. Only the pink band, Pop, remained lit.

How long was I asleep?! How was Barb able to get a hold of two more strings so quickly?

I tried to stand up, but immediately had to sit back down. I felt dizzy and a bit nauseous all of a sudden. I looked down at my hands and noticed they were shaking even more now. My skin tone had also started to get lighter. The troll on stage in my dream...I was slowly starting to look more and more like her.

I closed my eyes and tried taking some deep breaths in order to calm myself down and get my hands to stop shaking, but I was quickly distracted when I heard an unrecognizable voice.

"Bad dream?"

I shrieked. There was someone else sitting in the corner of my cell!

"AH! It's a ghost!" I screamed as I picked up my book and threw it at her. She shrieked and dodged it at the last second. "Begone! Fly!" I scooted myself into the nearest corner as fast as I could in order to get away from her.

"I'm not a ghost! I'm alive!" the troll said as she too backed up into her own corner, probably to get as far away from me as possible. My face flushed from embarrassment.

"Oh," I whimpered, realizing my mistake. "I'm sorry..."

"No, I should be the one who's sorry!" the bright pink troll said. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"Oh no! There's no need for you to be sorry," I reassured her. "I'm just not used to having anyone else in here with me, that's all."

As I squinted at her to get a closer look, the first thing I noticed was that she was definitely not a rock troll. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a troll like her before! She was so bright and colorful! Aside from her pink hair, skin, and eyes, she wore a blue dress and had a green and blue velvet crown on top of her head.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up! You were still asleep when those rock trolls threw me in here earlier. You were mumbling a bunch of gibberish and tossing back and forth so I tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't budge. You must be a really deep sleeper!" the troll said quickly as she made her way across the cell. She stuck out her hand towards me. "I'm Queen Poppy of the Pop trolls, by the way! What's your name?"

My mouth hung open. "Umm...I-I..." I didn't know what to say. I used to be Princess of the Hard Rock Trolls, then I became Queen of the Techno trolls, but now, I think I'm just...Roxy the nobody...

"My name is Roxanne, but you can call me Roxy," I answered Poppy as I shook her hand.

"Well it is very nice to meet you, Roxy!" Poppy said happily as she forced a smile on her face. It was obvious she was upset about something, but when she gave me that forced smile, I thought it would be best not to ask.

"Oh please! The pleasure is all mine!" I responded. "I've never met a pop troll before!"

"Yeah, I've heard that from a lot of different trolls these last couple of days," Poppy said as she sat down next to me. "So, did Queen Barb lock you up too?"

I chuckled. "No, her mother did...my sister..."

Poppy gasped. "Wait...are you a princess?!" She asked me enthusiastically.

I winced. "Well...I mean...you could say that...it's just...I don't consider myself to be one anymore..."

"Oh," Poppy whispered as she started to swing her legs back and forth. A confused look began to form on her face. "Wait...why would the rock trolls lock one of their own up in a cage?"

I gave her a weak smile. "It's...a long story..." I replied.

"I'm sure we have time!" she said as she scooted closer to me. "I love long stories!"

I sighed. Suddenly, my stomach let out the loudest rumbling noise ever. I was very hungry. I groaned miserably as I lowered my head into my legs.

"Are you hungry?" Poppy asked. She didn't even wait for me to answer. "Don't worry, I've got something we can eat!"

She reached behind her back and pulled out a small pile of gummy candies. Where the heck was she hiding those?!

"Story time snack!" She gave me a smile.

"What are those?" I asked suspiciously.

"Gumdrops, you silly goose!" She said as she popped one into her mouth. "They're very chewy and super delicious! Want one?"

"Sure, I guess." I picked a gumdrop from the pile and began to inspect it slowly. It was squishy and smelled like pure sugar. I shrugged and put it in my mouth, but immediately had to turn away from Poppy in order to hide the sour face I was making.

Holy crap! That was so sweet! Almost too sweet! Agh, my teeth! Although it felt like I had to force myself to swallow the sweet treat, it was in fact, quite delicious. Maybe I was reacting the way I was because I had never had one before.

After my face relaxed, I turned back to Poppy to tell her how good the gumdrop was, only to find her sticking two of them in her ears! I had to cover my mouth with my hand in order to stop myself from vomiting. Why would she do that?! That was disgusting!

Without even taking notice of my horrified expression, she stuck the pile back out towards me. I gagged. I think I just lost my appetite...

Upon hearing me gag, she finally saw the look on my face. "Don't worry," she said. "It's perfectly safe! I learned from a friend that gumdrops can be just as soundproof as they are delicious! Here!" She placed a few more gumdrops in my hand. "You can put some in your ears too if you want!"

"That's not what I was concerned about..." I said, still a bit disgusted. "I hope you aren't planning on eating those later, 'cause that's pretty gross." I stuck two of the gumdrops in my ears. She was right! They were pretty soundproof! I shoved two more gumdrops into my left pocket for later, just in case I ended up needing them, then gave the rest back to her.

"So," Poppy said as she put another gumdrop in her mouth. "What's your story?"

I sighed. I couldn't believe I was about to tell someone I had just met a few minutes ago my entire life's story up to this moment, but here we go...

"Well, it all started when my sister, Katheryn, and I were playing tag in the garden and accidentally came across this hidden library underground..." I began.

I only told her the most important parts and tried not to go into detail too much. I told her about my love for all music, running away, falling in love with Titus, starting a family and being dragged away from it, and then being stuck in here for the past twenty years of my life. The more I told her, the more focused she became on watching me talk. She was actually listening to me! Once I finished, she was completely speechless.

"It's a lot to take in, believe me, I know. But I've been told at a young age that I was destined for greatness and so far, I've done nothing but break every single rule in the book." I hugged my knees into my chest and sighed. "Sometimes...I wonder if my mother can see me from the other side...some daughter I've turned out to be..."

Poppy was shocked that I would even say such a thing. She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it. We sat side by side in an awkward silence until she finally perked back up and gently nudged my shoulder. "Hey," she said sympathetically. "I'm sure she's still proud of who you've become."

I flashed her a weak smile as I buried my face into my legs. "Thanks..." I knew she was trying her best to make me feel better about myself, but she was going to have to try a little harder than that if she wanted to see me smile. Suddenly, she gasped.

"You know, I think I saw a techno troll who looks exactly like who you described as "the love of your life". Dark blue skin, light blue hair, yellow eyes-"

I quickly jerked my head up and looked at her with stars in my eyes. "Really?!" I said as a big, goofy smile spread across my face from ear to ear. "You saw him?! How was he?!"

She laughed. "Yeah! He was in the same cage as King Trollex. Except..." she hesitated as she looked away from me. My smile immediately disappeared as a feeling of dread sat in the pit of my stomach. I placed my shaky hands on her shoulders and made her stare me straight in the eyes.

"Except what?" I asked worriedly.

"He...didn't look too good..." Poppy continued hesitantly. "He looked so...tired and sad. He was clutching this weird shaped box to his chest and muttering something under his breath. King Trollex was trying his best to make him stop, but nothing he did worked."

My violin! He kept it safe for me! Titus...

What happened next felt like the final punch to the thin, glass barrier that was holding all of my weakness back. The moment she told me about Titus's current state, that barrier shattered, and that weakness hit me like a ton of bricks.

My calm breathing quickly turned into frantic gasps as I sat their thinking about what could've possibly happened in order for him to get to that state. My body felt freezing cold, yet I was sweating. The room started to spin so much that I had to close my eyes. I started hyperventilating as I fell onto the floor and curled up into a ball. I felt like death was looming over me, just waiting to strike.

"Roxy!" Poppy shrieked as she got down on the floor to try and help me. "What's happening? Are you okay?"

I couldn't answer her at first. My lungs and throat felt like they were on fire. I clawed at my chest as hot tears streamed down my face. It hurt...so much...

"I'll...be...fine..." I wheezed. "Don't...worry..."

Suddenly, the door to the room swung open as both Katheryn and Barb stepped in at the same time, followed by four other rock trolls. I somehow managed to slowly lift my head off the floor to glare at both of them.

"," she said.

"Time...for what?" I wheezed, trying to sound brave, but I was honestly terrified of what was coming. I already knew what was in store for me. I had dreamt of this moment for many years and yet, I still didn't feel ready for it. A sinister smile began to creep across my sister's face as she motioned for the rock trolls to open the door to my cell.

"."