The darkness hid the spiraling staircase that led below.

There was a brief clatter from the broom and other cleaning supplies as Marsh and Victor, who had picked up Mogi's broom, set them against the wall.

Victor quickly grabbed the oil lamp and a match to light it on fire.

The warm light softly glowed, exposing the enclosed area.

The stone walls seemed to have been worn down through time, with streaks of whitened weathered rock seemingly exposed to a leak in the ceiling. A musty stench permeated the air in a suffocating manner. The curving staircase left a sense of unease of what lie ahead.

Mogi was struggling to drag the passed out servant, as he continued to cut off the guard's air supply. His teeth gritted and his face strained.

"Victor you lead the way. Quickly. We need to find a place to offload this guy."

Victor nodded silently as he made his way to the staircase.

Marsh started to follow Victor but was interrupted by a glare from Mogi.

"Are you going to help me?"

Marsh's face turned sour in skepticism, but the reluctantly grabbed the guard by the legs before descending the stairs, leaving Mogi at the top with his arm still around the poor servant's neck.

Their footsteps echoed in a quiet patter with each step they took. The stairs were longer than Mogi expected. It was not until they had descended around three stories before they reached the underground room.

The eerie room was more of a long chamber than a room. Its claustrophobic sides seemed to lean into them like a hungry owl patiently closing in on its prey, contrasting the open main hall above them.

The lantern's weak light crawled forward in a struggle to reveal the bars of a cell. It seemed as though the underground chamber was more of an obsolete dungeon than a basement. The thought of being stuck in the rotten place gave Mogi chills.

On the inside wall of the nearest cell, Mogi could make out a pair of broken fetters hanging high up on the ceiling where a shackled prisoner would be slowly stretched out by his own weight.

A light clamor wavered through the air. Mogi looked up to see Victor holding up a large ring with many attached keys that jingled like chimes.

Mogi grinned.

"Good, we can finally get rid of this guy. Vic you find which key opens that cell."

Mogi and Marsh set the servant down while Mogi lifted a part the suit he was wearing. With a screeching tear and a grunt of effort, Mogi ripped part of his shirt off.

Victor glanced at him with a confused look.

Mogi shrugged nonchalantly.

"We can't have him screaming for help."

Taking the ripped cloth, Mogi stuffed it into the servant's foaming mouth, tying it tightly around his head.

Looking back to Vic, Mogi raised his eyebrow.

"Did you find it yet."

Vic gave Mogi a quick nod indicating for him to bring the servant over. Mogi grabbed the guard by the waist, hoisting him over to the cell. As Mogi approached the cell he strained to see what was inside. The cell appeared to be larger than Mogi had originally imagined. More of the room was revealed as the lantern's soft glow slowly reached into the depths of the room, past the metal bars barring the exit.

Victor slid open the door as Mogi took a brief step in to set the guard down across the cold stone floor.

As Mogi let go of the guard, he saw the blink of a beady, black eye. Suddenly the guard was torn out of his grasp causing him to stumble back.

Stolen story; please report.

What he saw was mortifying. From the shadowy corner of the room a creature suddenly attacked. The creature looked like a wolf, but half of its face was sunken in, given it a sinister appearance. It's sharp fangs glistened, protruding out of its mouth like a snake. A red gash tore through its side and a swirling black mist seemed to flow around its figure, creeping into its fur like snarling tendrils of an angry vine.

The crazy wolf had already torn through the servant's calf as it tossed the body aside. It lunged towards Mogi with malice and killing intent.

Mogi barely had time to react as he tried to jump back out of the cell, but he was not quick enough. Mogi's right hand remained in range of the wolf's teeth, which snapped, bitting off the tips of Mogi's fourth and fifth fingers.

In stinging pain, Mogi pulled his hand back and slammed the cell door shut, locking the guard in with the ravenous beast.

Mogi looked down at his hand. Two of his fingers were left in a bloody stump, slowly leaking crimson onto the dungeon floor in murmur of drops.

The beast clashed against the bars, trying to reach Mogi with it's snout pressed through a gap in the bars.

Mogi slowly back away, his heart reverberating in his chest as adrenaline rushed though his body from what just happened.

The wolf snarled in annoyance, turning back to the hopeless servant that had been locked in the cage.

By now the servant had regained consciousness, his eyes widening from seeing the beast in front of him.

The wolf approached him in a slow trot. The poor servant trembled desperately trying to crawl away.

Soon, muffled screams echoed throughout the closed chamber as the beast tore the guard's body into shreds, painting a scarlet mosaic across the walls of the cell.

**********

The sound of their footsteps were drowned out by the pounding of Mogi's heart. His vision was a blur, still trembling from what he had witnessed. The sharp teeth gouging into a helpless man's body. The helpless shrieks that barely escaped through the cloth that he had put around the man's mouth. The splatter of blood that painted the dreary cell like a beautifully horrendous tapestry. But worst of all was the squelch of tearing muscle, the crunch of breaking bones, and the ravenous gulps of a starving wolf. Mogi had looked away before he could witness the servant's sorry fate, but he almost wished he had not, as his imagination ran wild, filling in the gaps of what he had heard.

Mogi's bit fingers stung as he thought about the wolf. The metallic smell of his blood filled his nostrils. His fingers were no longer bleeding, but a cascade of dried blood had dripped down his hand from his wound slowly clotting, reaching his wrist. His head felt woozy from the slight loss of blood, but it was nothing he could not fight through.

Mogi looked down at his shoes, trodding behind Marsh, who was behind Victor leading the way with the lamp. The three stayed towards the center of the eerie corridor, attempting to avoid the mysteries of the dark cells that dotted the border of the hallway.

Yet as the corridor went on, the width seemed to shrink every so gradually. It was hard to notice, but the light from the lamp slowly shone brighter on the surrounding walls and the feeling of being enclosed in started expand in Mogi's throat until it felt like he was about to choke.

Time passed as the three continued to venture down the basement chamber. Mogi could not tell how much time had passed. It had probably been around two hours since the start of midday meaning they had to find a way out of the Vargas property in the same time it took for them to make it this far into the mansion. It was not looking good, but they were in too deep.

There was no point to turning back now, but a sense of doubt had long ago crept into Mogi's heart. He was less and less sure by the minute that there would be anything down here. Looking back on it now, he was stupid for ever thinking there would be treasure deep under the mansion. Of course there would be some creepy prison with even more unsettling creatures rather than the vast treasury he had dreamt of.

Marsh scratched his head breaking the long silence that had persisted since the incident at the cell.

"Should we turn back. I'm almost certain that we've traveled way beyond the length of the mansion."

Marsh was right. Despite the vast size of the mansion they had been walking with a brisk pace for what could not have been less than thirty minutes. There was no chance that they were still in the confines of the mansion, but they were certainly under the confines of the Vargas manor.

Victor kept moving ahead, unconcerned with Marsh's doubt.

"It's too late, we must keep going. If we turn back now it will take just as long to get back and we will gain nothing. If we keep going there is a chance we can find something, even if our chances of escaping unnoticed are slimmer."

Just as he said that Mogi could faintly discern a wall straight ahead of them with the soft glow given off by the lamp.

"We've reached the end."

Marsh and Vic looked ahead in confusion before squinting their eyes to make out the end of the passage.

The three boys hastened their pace with a newly found vigor.

As they approached the end of the dungeon, Mogi could make out a faint glare of water shimmering in the darkness. Slowly the wall grew bigger and bigger as the three got closer, until they had finally reached the end of the passageway.

The wall it self was still of cobbled stone, rotting away with the putrid smell of mold. Cold drops of water dripped from the roof, forming a thin muddy puddle beneath their feet, which splashed in a light spray across the bordering walls from their heavy steps.

At this point Mogi could reach out and touch the walls on either side of him, making him feel uncomfortable.

At the end of the chamber stood a tall wooden stand, its circular structure simple yet sturdy in design. On top of it lay an ordinary black box about the width of Mogi's hand. It was unassuming in presence, with clear scuff marks from overuse and neglect, yet Mogi could not help but get his hopes up. Maybe they would finally be rewarded for their efforts.

The three boys circled around the stand as Mogi reached out to open the box...