At that point, I was too exhausted to care about anything, even the possibility of catching pneumonia from sitting on the floor.
If death truly wanted me, perhaps I was already too tired to run from it.
“Aah…
is that so?” The moment the voice spoke, something strange happened.
The chains around my legs loosened, and one by one, the heavy links slipped away before disappearing into the darkness.
At the same time, the cage door swung open with a soft metallic click.
I stared at it for several seconds, almost afraid that it was another trick, but when nothing happened, I pushed myself to my feet and stepped out without a second thought.
“You are free to go, then.” The words barely left his mouth before I rushed toward the door.
I pulled it open and sprinted into the dark corridor, not bothering to figure out where I was going.
I didn’t know this place, I didn’t know where the exits were, and I couldn’t even see more than a few feet ahead of me, but none of that mattered.
I simply needed to get as far away from him as possible.
The farther I went, the better my chances of surviving seemed to be.
I kept running until the darkness around me became thicker, swallowing even the faint light that had guided me moments earlier.
My breathing grew heavier, my legs began to ache, and my movements gradually slowed despite every desperate attempt to keep going.
“Haha…
how far can you get?” His voice echoed through the corridor again, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.
I clenched my teeth and forced myself forward, refusing to answer him.
I didn’t know how far I could actually get in this darkness, and if I had been a stronger wolf, perhaps I could have relied on my senses to find my way out.
Unfortunately, I belonged to the lowest existing class of wolves, born with an impure bloodline and possessing none of the strength, status, or abilities that would have made escaping a place like this possible.
I had nothing.
Eventually, exhaustion overcame me.
I sank onto the floor, struggling to catch my breath as I rested my trembling hands against the carpet beneath me.
For several moments, I simply remained there, wondering whether I had already reached the limit of what my body could endure.
Then I forced myself back onto my feet and continued walking, one slow step after another, determined to find a way out even if I had to wander through the darkness for hours.
I could see nothing around me.
I couldn’t tell whether I was getting closer to an exit or walking deeper into the estate, but I refused to stop.
Then, without warning, a hand slipped around my waist and pulled me backward.
My back collided firmly against a broad chest, and before I could scream, another pair of hands caught both of my wrists and held them securely behind me.
“I like it when I hunt for my prey.” His warm breath brushed against the side of my neck, sending a shiver through my entire body.
I struggled instinctively, twisting against his hold, but his grip only tightened.
The hands restraining mine were surprisingly soft despite their strength, with long fingers and wide palms that completely covered my wrists.
His chest was broad against my back, and judging from the way he towered over me, he was considerably taller than I was.
For the first time, I realized that I had been running through the darkness exactly where he wanted me to go.
I froze.
Every instinct inside me screamed at me to get away, yet my body refused to cooperate.
The warmth of his chest pressed against my back should have been comforting in the cold darkness, but there was something deeply unsettling about feeling the warmth of someone I couldn’t even see.
His breathing was slow and unhurried beside my ear, completely at odds with the frantic pounding of my heart, as though he had all the time in the world while I was the one running out of it.
“Let me go,” I whispered, forcing the words through my dry throat.
He didn’t answer.
Instead, his fingers tightened slowly around my wrists, not enough to hurt me, but firm enough to remind me that escaping him would not be as easy as I had imagined.
I swallowed hard and tried to pull away again, only for his other arm to settle more securely around my waist, keeping me firmly against him.
“You were running so desperately,” he murmured, his voice almost amused.
“I wonder what you thought would happen when you finally reached the end of the corridor.” My heart hammered harder against my ribs as I struggled to think of an answer.
“I… I was trying to escape.” “I know.” The calmness in his voice frightened me far more than anger ever could.
There was no frustration in him, no urgency, no sign that he was even trying.
He sounded almost entertained, as though my desperate attempt to escape had been nothing more than a game he had allowed me to play.
His head lowered slightly, and his warm breath moved across my neck once again.
Every muscle in my body stiffened when the tip of his nose brushed against my skin, as though he were deliberately taking in my scent.
Then he went completely still.
For several seconds, he said nothing, and that silence somehow felt worse than his laughter.
I could feel his breath against my skin, but even that seemed to fade as he remained motionless behind me.
“Interesting.” The single word sent an uncomfortable chill through my body.
“What?” I asked cautiously, unable to hide the tremor in my voice.
He didn’t answer.
Instead, his grip around my waist loosened just enough for me to turn my head, desperately searching the darkness over my shoulder for even the slightest glimpse of his face.
There was nothing.
I could feel him standing behind me.
I could hear his breathing.
I could feel his hands holding me.
I could feel the warmth of his body against mine, yet when I looked into the darkness, there was absolutely no one there.
My breathing faltered.
How was that possible?
“You’re looking for me,” he whispered.
I immediately faced forward again, my entire body going rigid.
A quiet laugh escaped him, deep and strangely pleased, before he spoke again.
“You still haven’t learned.” “Learned what?” I asked, barely managing to get the words out.
“That you don’t need to see me for me to be here.” My stomach twisted painfully at his words, and before I could respond, a faint metallic sound echoed somewhere ahead of us.
A soft click broke through the silence, followed by another, and then another.
One by one, tiny red lights began appearing along the walls, blinking at irregular intervals and casting just enough illumination for me to make out the corridor around us.
I stared ahead, trying to understand what I was seeing, until something on the walls caught my attention.
Scratches.
There were hundreds of them.
Some were shallow and barely visible beneath the faint red glow, while others had been carved so deeply into the walls that the marks stretched from the floor almost to the ceiling.
They weren’t random scratches either.
They looked as though someone had dragged their hands desperately across the walls, again and again, searching for a way out.
“What happened here?” I whispered.
The laughter behind me stopped.
“People tried to leave.” His answer was so quiet that for a moment I wondered if I had heard him correctly.
I stared at the scratches, and a horrible realization began settling over me as I imagined all the people who might have stood in this same darkness, desperately searching for an exit just as I was.
“Where are they?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
He remained silent.
I swallowed hard before forcing myself to ask the question that I already feared answering.
“Where are the people who tried to leave?” His mouth moved close to my ear, and I felt his warm breath against my skin.
“They never made it out.” A tremor travelled through me, and for several seconds I couldn’t move.
Then, without warning, his hands released my wrists.
I stood completely still, almost afraid to believe that he had actually let me go.
When nothing happened, I slowly took one step forward, then another, my eyes fixed on the faint red lights ahead of me.