Evelyn found herself in the depths of the dungeon, alone, she was walking through the dark, dull, and dank chambers with nothing but a small light she could form in her hands. The light bounced off the dark slate walls and lit the deep fog that came up to her knees.

The sounds of distant cries and wails echoed all around her as she felt a strange tingling on the back of her neck. It felt like she was being watched. She couldn’t tell where she couldn’t see anything down the hall in front of her. The light didn’t reach far enough to illuminate the unknown in front of her, yet as she turned, the light couldn’t even illuminate a foot behind her. Then the tingling began to crawl across her entire body, from her neck to her arms, down her back, across her stomach, and then a piercing pain that struck her hand.

Evelyn began to run, she couldn’t tell what it was, she couldn’t tell if it was large or small, she couldn’t even tell if it was even there, yet she could feel it was behind her. She thought she saw a figure who absorbed all the light in she shone at it, but she couldn’t see anything behind her. Yet that was exactly why she knew something was there, there had to be, everything felt too real. She ran through the darkness, wails and cries became louder as she felt the dread and pain slowly seep in deeper. She could feel her heart become stuck in her throat, her chest wailed in pain, her legs felt like they became like jelly, and it felt like her alien pursuer was right on top of her.

It was then she saw a light. A brilliant white light filled Evelyn’s heart with hope. Hope that she was saved.

Evelyn’s feet slammed into the stone hard as she began to run faster, she needed to run towards the light.

She was mortified, filled with intense terror as she could not even fathom the terrible nature of the monster that pursued her.

The white light was safe, it cut through the darkness she could not and gave her haven.

Yet as she came close, she felt all her hope dashed as she saw the light change.

It was once a brilliant white glow, but the moment she came near, it turned green, and then black as she could see at that moment, an awful creature made of countless tails, tentacles, scales, and horns stood there taller than any man and with countless appendages ready to act. All with a single black eye that produced the light that now instilled absolute terror into Evelyn.

She cried out in terror as she saw multiple tendrils spring forth, a trap was triggered and she saw only horror for it. Evelyn’s body began to feel weightless, and her mind began to swim, as her eyes shook violently. She could feel her everything fade away as the horror of the situation was all present in her mind, yet could not be comprehended.

This was horror, one Evelyn couldn’t imagine down in the depths of this dungeon. It was something she never saw, yet it was right under their noses. She thought she knew this place, she thought the knowledge gained from the countless ages of people who entered this accursed place. The countless documents of information on this only scratched the surface, and even that was wrong. The only thing right about this dungeon was:

Death.

Then a line of light broke through, this crack of light streaked across the air, shattered the very space, struck the creature, and broke through the very darkness that had once struck fear into her.

The light was so brilliant, that Evelyn’s eyes became filled with the light and then faded away.

A scream filled the cavernous chamber as Evelyn found herself on the floor looking up to see light moving quickly. She rose from the floor and saw Adrith and the strange creature she had seen moments ago in a pitched battle.

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Evelyn began to try and scramble to her feet, yet the moment she tried to get her feet under her, she felt her legs didn’t respond and she fell forward. She scrambled as she could to get herself up and turned back to see her legs wouldn’t move no matter how much she tried. She gritted her teeth as she damned whatever was happening, yet she could not think about that. She needed to kill the thing that Adrith was fighting, so she brought up one of her hands and screamed out, “BOLT!”

Yet the moment she tried, she realized no magic came forth, her hand twitched and moved in strange ways, as she saw her hand then move completely on its own. Her hand aimed at her and her arm seemed to move on its own as it leaped at her.

Her uncontrolled hand wrapped around her neck and began to squeeze and crush her neck. Evelyn dropped to the floor once more as she brought up her free hand to grab her uncontrolled one to try and peel the fingers off of her throat. Yet no matter how much she tried, her hand that turned against her began to grip tighter, she could feel it crushing her throat and overpowering her in every way. The pain from the squeezing, the suffocating, and her helplessness felt awful.

Adrith himself found a fight with one creature he hoped to have not needed to fight. A magically powerful creature that can take over the minds of their prey. Forcing them to then attack other creatures until they outlive their usefulness, at which point their head is destroyed.

Adrith couldn’t tell what was happening with Evelyn at this moment, yet he wouldn’t let this go on for long. He took in a deep breath and lunged into a flurry of blows towards the creature. First, he performed multiple slashes with his saber, next he propelled himself forward to skewer the beast through, then he finished by ripping his rapier out of its chest and leaping to perform a spinning slash to cleave it in half. Yet the moment Adrith was about to land the finishing blow, he felt his hand twitch and shake as it flicked and slapped the monster with the broad of his sword. More smacking it rather than killing it.

Adrith’s eyes flared open as he knew what that meant. The monster looked at Adrith with its single eye as it began to glow a green glow. The light began to fill Adrith’s eyes as his head began to feel weightless, his limbs felt heavy, and his senses were completely gone.

Evelyn was writhing on the ground in pain, the hand would not respond and continued to choke her, her other hand could only barely fight against the hand for so long until she began to feel the strength leaving her body. Her mind began to run blank as all she wished for was this to end. This pain was unbearable, it felt as if it was not only choking her but also digging through her skin. Digging through the muscles and it made her want to scream and cry out.

Her vision began to fade, her thoughts completely ran blank, and the feeling within her body slowly faded, as she became cold and was moments from passing out. Her mind swam as she thought she could hear a voice yell to her not to close her eyes.

Then she did.

Moments later Evelyn was filled with a sense of pure euphoria as she awoke with a gasp of air.

She began to look around as she couldn’t see anything in the dark, she quickly began to chant, “Hear me, oh dawn that chase away the dark, answer me, Light!”

From that, 3 large orbs of light appeared that lit the dark cavernous area like the blinds being open to the afternoon sun. She could see she saw no monsters in the room, no noise, no light, no items, no other soul, just her.

She checked herself as she realized she had nothing. Her clothing was gone, her wand, any semblance of protection, she was left bare once more, just like she awoke first in this terrible space.

Evelyn began to look around her teeth gritted as she called out, “Hello!”

Evelyn could hear her voice echo, it reverberated in a hollow voice, as Evelyn sunk back realizing she was alone. Evelyn closed her eyes as she took a deep breath in and began to stand. She didn’t know what was going on, yet she needed to find Adrith, he was the only person she could think of knowing what happened.

She stood, feeling the rough stone on her feet was painful, yet she quickly became accustomed and managed the pain. She walked out of the area slowly, looking for any sign of where they could have gone, yet there was nothing. She couldn’t begin to think what was happening. She couldn’t think of how she was by herself when they were near each other. Yet she knew she needed to start from somewhere, she needed to find something to fight with.