Darkness. Shrouding, inescapable and enveloping darkness. The elven woman could only see this intangible force that seemed to strangle her as she ran, her heart pounding in her chest, each movement fuelled by terror and survival instinct. The pitch-black corridors, only slightly illuminated by the small, dying flames of torches, scattered across the cold catacomb walls. Sounds of many crawling creatures followed her every step, getting closer and closer.
The Elven woman’s party members followed closely behind her, some turned to run in other directions, othered followed closely, no words or gestures exchanged. They all had one goal, survive, and each of them would do whatever they could to achieve it, even if it meant betraying one of their own. The elf woman, as nimble and quick as she is on her feet, stumbled slightly, but kept moving anyway, she couldn’t afford to stop for even a moment. Her party members, slowly falling behind, slipped into the darkness one by one.
“No, please…please don’t!” one pleaded before he was silenced. “NO…NO PLEASE, SOMEONE, HELP ME!” another cried out, her voice a mix of desperation, panic and unadulterated fear that pulsated her like a primordial beast. The elf woman couldn’t stop, she wanted to, she wanted to go back and save her friends, her party members, her comrades, but even she knew that even trying to would only kill her too.
No, she was not dying…not here, not today.
“That’s it, run run run, my little piggies…hide where and how you can so I can find you! Hahahahaha.” A high pitched, sinister voice laughed from the darkness behind the elven woman, she paid no mind to it, it was the least of her concerns. As soon as she turned another corner, she saw it, a door!
She sprinted to it, a sense of hope surging her movements, drawing closer and closer to the wooden structure, the sounds behind her drawing ever closer, was it one of her fellow adventurers? One of those…things?! It didn’t matter, the moment she reached the door, she practically slammed into it with all her weight, slamming the thin wood behind her and pressing against it with all her might.
For the first few moments, there was just silence, not comforting or welcoming, but eerie and abrupt, like something very bad was soon to happen. Suddenly, something smashed into the door, determined to open it, but the elven woman stood firm and resistant, pushing back against the unwanted force on the other end. Again and again, whatever was on the other side, ever relentless, barraged into the thin wood but the elven woman couldn’t relent either. Was this one of her friends? Desperate as herself to find a sanctuary? One of those monsters? Knowing where she was and wanting to finally have their turn at ending her too? The thoughts of every possibility swam around in her mind like fish in the vast ocean.
She realised how small of a fish she was in this much larger territory, an area she was never meant to venture into, finding horrors never meant to be discovered. Angering a predator that had no interest in sparing her life.
“Oh Gods…why? Why me?...Stupid adventuring parties! Stupid greedy adventurers! Stupid…all of them…all of us so damn stupid.” She muttered to herself, so desperate to be anywhere else but here, soon after she noticed something strange, the banging on the door had ceased. Slowly turning to it, she had noticed the silence had returned again, no more barraging on the door, no more noise of the monsters, no screams, pleads or cries of her allies. Just pure, unadulterated, almost tranquil silence. “Calm down, cursing everything isn’t going to help you escape…think, think damn it, calm down and just think.”
She thought to herself, letting out a long, quiet sigh, attempting to calm herself, the silence made even something as quiet as that sound like a great hurricane. “If I can retrace my steps, yes, just have to remember where I came from…leave this area, and the castle is pretty clear, find the exit of this place and just go home…okay, I can do this.” With that, a small amount of hope flooded her mind, a small light in the darkness of despair that, just earlier, seemed like that of an endless ocean.
The seconds seemed to tick by like centuries, every breath taken in this place not guaranteed, “Why couldn’t I have just listened to my sister, I could be at home, not having to do this…damn it! Let’s just do this.” She said, finally making up her mind, now was the time she wanted to leave, to find her way back, to just get out of this house of horrors.
Before she could do anything, a hand grasped her shoulder, turning her around as another hand grabbed her throat, the hands were soft and feminine, yet the grip was like that of iron and cold as winter. “Having a little trouble there, elf?” A new voice said, it was mature, womanly, royal, but it also sounded like someone experienced in bloodshed and death, a contradiction that blended together in sweet symphony and fake kindness, it had not matched the one behind her she heard and so carelessly disregarded as she was fleeing. “Gak…Uck-…I-…Ple-” the elf pleaded, like a little rabbit asking a wolf to be spared of its life, but the pleading sounds of discomfort fell on deaf ears.
“Hmhmhmhm, you’re not bad you know, I almost thought you’d leave this area…almost, but you can’t just blame other people for you being here, you made every choice that brought you to this situation, as did I, I suppose that means you can only blame yourself and me. That gives us something in common, doesn’t it?”
“She can read minds?!”
“Yes, I can, however, only those with unfortified mental barriers, like you.” The elf woman’s eyes widened at this, the hope that had once been there just a few moments ago, died almost instantly in that moment, leaving a sense of absolute despair and terror in her heart, it was almost comical to believe she had any hope to begin with, after all, her fate was sealed the moment she stepped foot into this place.
Footsteps, the owner of the hand that wrapped around the elves’ throat, a woman of great beauty stepped out from the darkness. Her skin was porcelain smooth, crimson red like the warm heart, black hair that absorbed the little amount of light in the room and fangs, sharper than the greatest of blades.
The majestic woman wore a black bodice with red trim, matched with black trousers tucked into knee high boots that clicked against the smooth yet cold stone floor and her pitch-black cape flowed down like her hair, almost reaching the floor yet missing it by a few inches and the inside was a warm red that matched her eyes, almost as if to warm the cold hearted woman in the chilly stone walls, the cape held onto the alluring aggressor by a thin yet durable rope, and a small pendent rested in her chest, a beautiful diamond shaped ruby that observed the elf with sinister glee.
“What the-…How…a human? She looks so human.” The elf thought to herself, but those eyes that seemed to pierce the darkness, fangs that look like they could tear through the toughest of steel told a different story. “You’re lost, confused, tired…afraid, do not be scared anymore.” The red eyed woman said, the elf staring into those alluring eyes slowly calmed, her tense muscles loosened and her thoughts turned clouded, she thought of the woman as less of a threat and more like a friend, a phenomenon she couldn’t understand and perhaps didn’t care to understand why. It was only a few seconds later she saw the fangs closing in closer and closer, eager to take a bite.
“Aaaaaaaaah!!” The elf lady cried out, the sound slowly drowned within the darkness of the corridors, her life slowly fading away as nothing more than a number, another soul that lost their lives in a tragedy of greed of wealth, pride of one’s own power and ignorance at the horrors that existed with the castle she and her allies had so carelessly walked into, without second thought or worry of what they may find. A common and unfortunate occurrence in the line of adventuring, this definitely wasn’t the first time, and it most certainly will not be the last.