Missteps V.2
Chapter 46 – House of the Hollow
It was only a few hours after noon when M.A. headed out on the short hike to the abandoned attraction. Magistrate Mora hadn't had much information on the project, much to the group's dismay. The wizard in charge of the project had kept the notes to themselves. All Mora really had was the original pitch for the 'House of the Hollow'.
"Take on the role of a daring crew that has been hired by a distraught mother." Kerri read dramatically as they hiked the five or so miles to the house. The home wasn't too far from the edge of the city. "Two children, Celya and Bern, have been abducted by a wily old couple and imprisoned within the home. Solve the puzzles of each floor, till you reach the top and mount an exciting rescue. Designed ideally for groups of four to five, ages seven and above."
"Too bad it didn't say exactly what the puzzles were." Ander grumbled. "Do we know how far the wizard got before they disappeared?"
Lia leaned over and rifled through the leather bound book Kerri had been reading from. "Last update, which was a few days before people started disappearing, said that the construction team was starting on the third floor."
"The puzzles are designed for seven-year-olds to understand, I don't think we'll have any problems." Elaine practically had her eyes shut as she walked. She had her hand on Carric's arm as he led the way. The source of the discomfort was her armor. Before the group had set out, Kerri had magicked away any sort of dust, grime, or just wear and tear from her armor. Aside from a few dents, it looked practically new and shined brightly in the afternoon sun. Emblazoned on the front and back of the armor, was a newly painted Vowilian crest, also courtesy of Kerri, who wished to take no chances in the house. The shine from the armor was the source of the irritation, and not just to Elaine. It was easier for the others to avert their eyes.
Near the front of the party, Iados stretched. "Guys, we've taken out zombie hordes and a blood-hungry tree, I think we can handle whatever's in this house."
Jun shook his head. "The moment we get cocky is the moment we take mistakes." To emphasize his point, Jun took a few practice swings with his warhammer.
"Yeah yeah, rub it in." Iados sighed. In his hands he held Carric's quarterstaff from earlier, while at his waist was a dagger, on loan from Lia. The party had made a plea for Iados's swords before they left, but Captain Samin had remained steadfast against it.
"Just keep in mind that we have no idea what to expect in the house. For all we know we could walk in and be confronted with bodies." Lia stated.
Kerri shivered. "Can we walk a little faster? I want to be in and out of the house before the sun sets."
"I just don't get it." Elaine nudged her friend in the ribs. "Back home you were the queen of ghost stories. Now you have the chance to experience one, and you're scared?"
Kerri tsk'd towards her friend. "Back home I was the queen of telling ghost stories. It was a performance, one where I knew how it ended and that it wasn't real. You have no idea how many stories out there have been embellished to hell and back by bards and troupes." She smiled. "My father used to say that it was the job of a bard to be able to tell the difference between a work of fiction, and reality. That way, we could walk the line between the two and sway the audience towards the story we wanted to tell."
"Your father was very good at that." Elaine reached out and hooked her arm with Kerri's. "He earned a lot of clout with the church with his storytelling, helping to keep public opinion focused on our plight."
"Is your father still around?" Lia asked.
Kerri nodded. "Him and my mom left town shortly after I did. Last I heard they're doing a circuit around the outlying villages."
"Is your mom a bard too?" Iados called from over his shoulder.
"No," She smiled. "She can sing, but she can't weave magic into her voice like Dad and I. My mom's family has been in the troupe business for generations. Mom's worked in practically every role in the troupe. When I left, she was a barker, someone who gathers the crowds and spreads the word of when a performance was."
"And your dad's family? Were they in the troupe business too?" Ander asked.
Kerri snorted. "My dad left home shortly after he became an adult. He comes from the elven kingdom of Acadym to the west of here." Kerri explained. "He was the black sheep who didn't want to be an isolationist. So he left and settled with the troupe in Crystaliron."
Iados pulled some jerky out of his pants pocket. "That's when he met your mom?"
"Actually, that's when he met my great-grandparents." Kerri laughed again. "My father decided very early on that he wasn't going to get involved with anyone. He knew that to live among humans meant that he had to watch them die and age while he lived on." Kerri's face turned somber. "My mom said that for a long time, my dad was a part of the troupe, but it was like there was a valley between him and everyone. When my mom was eight, she decided that she was going to build a bridge over that valley."
Carric cracked a grin. "How long did it take her to win him over?"
"Years." Kerri stretched out the word. "She had to start slow, and treat him like a shy dog. According to her, she found little odd jobs to do that would keep her close to him. She wanted him to get used to her presence. Then she moved on to getting him comfortable with talking to her, and then they did some performances together. Little by little she became the person that his eyes immediately sought whenever he entered a room. She was nearly forty by the time I came along."
"That's kind of cruel, when you think about it." Iados said around his jerky. "I mean, he didn't want to have watch anyone he loved die of old age, and there your mom went and practically forced that fate on him."
Kerri shrugged. "That's what I thought when I first heard the full story. For a while, I was really mad at her for it. I couldn't believe the lengths she went to, just because she loved him. She essentially trapped him even more by having me. I even held some anger for my dad, for letting himself fall that deeply in love with my mom. For not sticking by his principles and beliefs, and for letting himself be swayed."
Ander slowed down his pace until he was walking just a few steps in front of Kerri. "What changed?"
A dark look crossed her face. "I fell in love, and I fell so deep that I allowed myself to be swayed into some very bad decisions."
Elaine cracked open her eyes and flicked her gaze towards Kerri's back.
After that, the conversation fell short and the group traveled for the next hour in relative silence.
The group got their first glimpse of the house while they were still half a mile away. The road had been straight and narrow for most of the journey, with only a few slight turns here and there. Suddenly, the top of the house had come into view. The closer they got, more of the house became visible. Finally they reached the edge of the rise, and the house came into full view.
The three-story home sat in the middle of a depression. A pure blanket of untouched white snow set the stage. Blackened, barren trees erupted out of the snow and dotted the landscape. There was a straight, stone path that led from the house to the narrow staircase that led to the top of the rise. Neither the stairs nor the path showed any sign of snow. A tall, 10 ft wrought-iron fence encircled the depression, with no signs of a gate.
The home itself had a dark wooden exterior, while the shuttered windows showed signs of peeling white paint. There was no porch, only a stoop that led to the double-door entry. On the third floor was a small patio balcony. Snow covered the steepled roof and clumped around the three chimneys.
"So, we hopping the fence?" Iados stared up at the wrought iron that was topped with pointed tips. He reached out with the quarterstaff and tapped one of the bars.
No reaction.
Jun stepped up and took hold of two of the iron bars that were only a foot apart. He groaned as he tried to stretch the bars, but to no avail.
Iados tried to scale the fence. At first he did well, but just before he reached the top he lost any sort of traction from the bars and slid down. He tried again, to the same results.
"Did Mora have any information on how to get over this?" Iados asked grumpily as he wiped his hands on his pants.
Lia shook her head. "The Wanit's put the fence in. All Mora knew is that to his knowledge no one has visited the place since it went up."
"Alright, we're gonna have to brute force this." Jun gestured at Carric for him to come help. Jun took hold of one bar, while Carric took hold of the other, and together they both grunted and pulled. Once again Jun's didn't budge, but Carric's did. Carric's bar bent easily out another foot.
"You loosened it." Carric reassured the berserker as Jun glared at the offending bar.
His pride wounded, Jun pulled with all his weight on the remaining bar. The bar creaked as it slowly began to bend. Suddenly it wrenched and bent like butter. Jun was thrown back onto his butt. The group now had about a three-foot gap in the hole. One by one they entered through the hole and made their way down the stairs in single file.
The temperature dropped with every step they took. Everyone pulled their cloaks and jackets closer to them. The further they got into the depression, the quieter it became. Up top, the group had become accustomed to the whistling of the wind as it had ripped around their clothing. Here, the air was still, like even the wind itself didn't dare enter. When they transitioned to the dark stone pathway, everyone could see their breath as it came out in puffs of smoke. Their footfalls were quiet on the path. The straight shot to the house seemed to stretch on forever. Down in the depression proper, the trees around them had long shadows. Even though it was only a bit after three in the afternoon, the area looked to be in a permanent twilight.
Ander grasped the crystal around his neck and muttered a spell to himself. A purple film covered his eyes, and he nearly went blind. "Shit!" His hand shot up to cover his eyes, and he fell to his knees.
Elaine hurried to him and knelt in front of him. "What's wrong?"
"This whole place is covered in magic is what's wrong." Ander uncovered his eyes, and Elaine watched as the film cleared and his eyes returned to their normal brown. "Whoever this wizard was, they went overboard with the illusion and enchantment spells."
"Were you able to see any spells in particular?" Kerri asked, and Ander shook his head. He allowed Elaine to help him stand again.
"When I say this place is covered, I mean that every stone in this path, every tree around us, and several spots around the ridge lit up." He rubbed his temples. "I didn't even get a chance to look at the house."
Iados looked over to Lia. "How long was this prison sentence?"
Lia raised an eyebrow. "Let's at least make it to the house before we start thinking about that." Lia led the way towards the house. Elaine stayed near Ander, while Kerri latched herself onto Carric's arm.
"Kerri, I'm losing circulation." Carric muttered to the girl. The pressure eased up a bit. "Why are you still so freaked? You heard Ander, this is all magic, not ghosts."
"We can't rule them out yet, we haven't seen what's inside." The girl whispered. "Ghosts don't like to be exposed to the elements any more than the living do."
Finally they made it to the house, and walked up the few steps to a tiny porch. The porch was only five foot wide. Lia reached for the door, but before she could touch the ornate handle, the double doors swung noiselessly inward. The small entryway was very dark, and the group could only see a few feet in, even those with superior eyesight.
The elven woman gulped as she stared through the doorway into the darkness. "So, who's first?"
Iados took the initiative. He grabbed Elaine's arm and hauled her towards the door.
"You could have asked." The cleric admonished as she paused before the threshold. She wasn't sure whether it was a spell or something, but the hair on the back of her neck was raised and her whole body tingled as she stared into the darkness. She took a deep breath, held her holy symbol out in front of her, and walked in.
The moment she took the first step, a light burst from two sconces on the wall opposite. They sat on either side of another pair of glass paned double doors at the end of the fifteen-foot hallway. On the left hand wall, a heavy draped curtain hung still on the wall from the floor to the ceiling. The right hand wall was bare. Elaine took a few more steps into the room, but nothing else occurred.
Elaine gestured for the rest of the group to follow her, and they huddled into the room. Carric and Kerri were the last ones in. As soon as they cleared the door, the doors slammed shut with a whoosh of wind that also extinguished the sconce light. They were plunged into total darkness.
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The sound of a chain being pulled filled the air. Those closest to the left hand wall felt the curtain move past them. A small ball of light appeared on the wall. This ball was soon joined by many others. They shimmered and swayed as they went through a vortex of different colors. After a couple of minutes the light show died down, and a woman flickered into view.
The woman was about middle-aged. Her face was lined with signs of a hard life, and her wispy blonde hair escaped from the messy braid she had hanging over her shoulder. Her rough hands were clutched in front of her, as she turned her red-rimmed eyes towards her audience. As she began to speak, tears fell down her face.
"Please, please you have to help me." The woman sobbed. "My children were taken from me. The couple that live in this home, broke into their room and abducted them from their beds." The woman reached into her tunic and brought out a small pouch that she then extended out. "I don't have much, but I will give you everything I have if you will save my children. My children are being held on the third floor of this home. Please, please hurry and rescue them. I will give everything I have to be reunited with them."
The images of the woman faded, and the lights came back. The party saw that before them was a large mirror. At the end of the hall, the doors opened into the house proper.
"Well, we might as well get this over with." Kerri headed towards the open doors.
Iados scoffed. "What's with the sudden bit of courage?"
Kerri paused and turned to look at him. "The doors locked behind us, and they probably won't open till we reunite the woman with the lost kids."
"Even then it probably won't work." Ander led the way into the house proper with Jun close behind him.
Kerri's eyes widened as she followed after. "What do you mean?"
Ander shrugged. "I mean, the wizard might not have finished the spells to unlock the door. That door might be one of the reasons why people come in, but don't come out." He ignored the bard's dropped jaw.
The next room seemed to be an extension of the entryway. As they walked in, a fireplace roared to life on the left-hand wall. In the middle of the room was a circular table upon which three crystals sat on velvet cushions under their own glass domes. As the last person, this time Elaine, walked through the double-doors, they once again shut of their own accord. Elaine reached behind and tried to open them, but they did not budge.
Iados cast an eye around. "So, anyone see any stairs?" Everyone but Ander looked around, but there were no stairs. There were only three doors. Two doors lie on the opposite wall of their entrance, while the third sat a few feet down from the entrance doors.
Ander had focused his attention on the glass domes. The light from the fireplace was low, so he brought out and activated his circumluci. He reached out and tried to remove one of the domes. It didn't budge.
Jun rubbed his hands together. "Alright, we should start searching. Just like before, no one goes anywhere alone, so find a buddy."
Carric and Ander, who already stood next to each other, paired up and walked into the room closest to them. Another fireplace crackled to life as they walked in. This room held a large dining table, surrounded by eight high-backed chairs. The walls were covered in a simple designed floral wallpaper that had begun to curl near the bottom.
In a similar fashion, Jun, Iados, and Lia headed towards the room closest to them. Lia was the first one into the room that was next to the entrance hall. This parlor room also had a fireplace that sprang to life, and illuminated three sheet-covered chairs that sat in an oval in front of it. In a corner of the room in front of a large window, was another circular table with four low chairs. Jun followed after Lia into the room, with Iados behind him.
The door slammed shut in Iados's face. Immediately Iados began to bang on the door.
"What happened?" Carric demanded as he and Ander rushed out of the dining room.
"The door suddenly closed." Iados's teeth gritted as he tried to turn the handle and bust down the door. The door didn't budge.
Carric went over and hauled the akudaem from the door. He pounded once on the door and then yelled. "Can you hear me?"
"I hear ya." Came the muffled voice of Jun. "We can't open it on our end."
"It must be part of the puzzle." Ander yelled through cupped hands. "Look around the room and see if you can figure it out."
Kerri groaned and collapsed on her knees. "It's only the first floor and already we're getting picked off."
Elaine reached down and hauled Kerri to her feet. "Come on, let's go look at the other rooms. Try to find something to help them with the puzzle." Elaine pulled her friend towards the third door. Elaine slid the door the side, and the two of them peeked in first, and saw that this was a small kitchen.
Kerri held up a closed fist. "Loser goes in first."
"Fine." Elaine held up a fist as well. Her rock smoothly beat out Kerri's shears, and she gestured for Kerri to lead the way.
Kerri gulped. "Best two out of three?"
Elaine rolled her eyes and lightly shoved the bard over the threshold.
A split second later, the door slid shut and locked Kerri in.
Elaine's eyes widened as she began to mimic the same motions that Iados had done earlier. Elaine turned around to get some help from the remaining men, but they weren't there. She glanced over, and the door to the dining room was closed.
With all three doors closed, the fireplace petered out and Elaine was plunged into darkness.
Jun pounded once more on the door before he gave a defeated sigh.
"You can't brute-force everything." Lia said from behind him. Jun turned around and faced her. She'd already abandoned her pack and staff against a wall and was in the process of checking under the sheets.
"Doesn't mean I can't try." The berserker grumbled as he headed towards the card table. He sat down heavily in one of the chairs. "So, I guess we have to solve a puzzle to get out. What's the puzzle?"
Lia grinned and threw a balled up sheet at him. "That's for us to find out. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Puzzles aren't in my wheelhouse. We didn't exactly cover them in the military." Jun turned his attention to the deck of cards that were placed in the center of the table. He picked them up and began to shuffle them.
Lia laughed. "I think you're a card short." She held up a playing card, the Jack of Hearts. "I found it in the cushions." She brought it over and handed it to him. When Jun went to put it in the deck, the card flew out of his hands.
"What the-" Jun picked up the card from the floor and tried to put it in again, to the same effect.
Lia raised an eyebrow. "That's weird."
Jun didn't answer as he began rifling through the deck. He only got a few cards in before he paused and held one of them up: the Jack of Hearts.
Lia sat down at one of the chairs. "Are there any cards missing?"
"Don't know." He handed half the deck to Lia. "Lets find out." The two of them spent a few minutes separating the deck out by suits. In the end, three cards turned up missing: Queen of Diamonds, Jacks of Clubs, and the Seven of Spades.
Lia reached over and slapped Jun on the shoulder. "Now we know what to look for."
The two of them spread out and searched the room. Lia finished her search of the chair cushions and found quite a number of cards, but only one was one they needed. Jun started with checking under the card table and chairs, but no luck. Along the wall was a large trunk that was filled with various envelopes. He spent ten minutes alone going through every one. Like Lia he found plenty of cards, but none of them were the cards he was looking for. He also found a few letters tucked into some of the envelopes, but he didn't take the time to look through them. He slammed the trunk lid closed.
When he turned around, Lia had her upper body directly in the fire of the fireplace.
"What are you doing?" He ran over, grabbed her legs and pulled her out.
"It's alright!" Lia exclaimed as she tried to squirm out of his grasp. To his shock, she was right. There wasn't any sign on her torso that she'd be exposed to any flames.
Lia grinned as she watched shock register on his face. She scooted back over to the fireplace, and put her arm in the fire. "It's an illusion. There's no heat, or sound."
Jun ran a hand down his face. "You could warn a guy, you know. No law against it."
"Sorry." Lia pulled herself back into the fireplace. Jun walked over and bent his head in. He watched as she reached up in the chimney.
"Safe to assume you see something?"
"Yep." Lia's voice was strained as she tried to reach up. Jun grabbed her torso and shoved her further up the chimney. After a few seconds she gave a shout of victory. When she emerged, perfectly clean, she held the Queen of Diamonds. "Two down, one to go." Jun helped her out of the chimney, and she quickly bounded over to the table. Just like she'd done with the previous card, she returned the Queen to her suit. The card stayed in place.
Jun knelt by the fireplace and looked around the room. There actually wasn't a whole lot of hiding places outside where they'd already looked. Finally, he stood up.
"You checked these chairs, right?" Jun pointed towards the previous sheet-covered chairs.
Lia looked over her shoulder. "Yeah, I found the Jack of Clubs in the cushions of that one." Lia pointed towards the chair on the left. She turned her attention the wallpaper, looking for any slits.
Jun nodded, and went over to the chair on the right. One-handed, he flipped the chair onto its back. Nothing. He then did the same thing to the chair in the middle. This time, there was a card strapped to the underside. With a triumphant grin, he removed the Seven of Spades.
He walked over to the table and returned it to the suit. As soon as he removed his hand from the card, the door behind him popped open.
"Alright, what's the puzzle here?" Carric had pulled out one of the dining room chairs, before proceeding to flop down in it. One leg was tossed over the arm as he watched the halfling scurry around the table. Iados leaned against the door that had shut as soon as he'd walked in.
"It has to have something to do with these numbers." Ander tapped one of the wooden tablets that hung on the back of the nearest chair. Each of the chairs had one of these tablets on them. They were numbered 1-8.
"They probably go on these hooks." Iados moved and allowed the other two to see four hooks on the back of the door.
"Ah, well then this will be easy. We just have to guess the passcode." Carric swung his leg off the chair arm. "How many options could there be, really?"
"Uh, a lot." Ander held up his fingers and did a quick math check. "At least 1600 different combinations."
"Ah, that's a bit more than I was expecting." Carric rubbed his hands together. "Well, there has to be a clue around here somewhere. Like Elaine said earlier, this place was designed for seven-year-olds, so it can't be that hard to solve."
"Makes sense." Iados pushed off the wall. "What do you guys say to a friendly wager? First one to crack this doesn't pay for drinks for the next week."
"No thanks, I don't want to take advantage of you." Ander cracked a grin.
"Come on, it's just a friendly bet." Iados wandered over to the fireplace. This one was smaller than the one in the other room, and provided very minimal light. If it wasn't for Ander's circumluci they'd be working on feel only.
"That's what you said three days ago, and I lost six silver." Ander grumbled as he checked the chair legs of chair '3'.
Carric squatted down and did the same on the number '5' chair. "You're the one who went double or nothing."
Ander sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm not too good at the whole 'stopping' thing."
"What do you mean? You just got a little riled up, and it was only six silver." Iados ran his hands over the smooth stone of the fireplace. He knocked against them every once in a while as he looked for anything hollow. Like Lia, he quickly came to discover the illusion that was the fire.
"It starts with six silver, but then I try to recoup that and it becomes thirty silver, which turns into sixty, and eventually you get into the gold range." Ander moved onto chair '4'. "I don't have the greatest track record with gambling."
Carric paused and looked under the table at the halfling. "Is that why Jun's been holding onto your coin purse?"
Ander nodded. "Shenir, my girlfriend, told Jun about my gambling problems." The wizard shrugged. "He's just keeping me from hitting rock bottom again."
"What's rock bottom look like for you?" Iados called as he moved on to inside the fireplace.
He gave a heavy sigh. "At my lowest, I was so far into debt that I had to hand over my spellbook."
Carric whistled. "Damn." He moved to the next chair.
Ander sat down, his legs hanging off the end of the chair. "My Master had given that spellbook to me, the very first day of my apprenticeship. He'd filled it with all sorts of spells, at all different levels. It was supposed to grow with me." He sighed heavily. "I still haven't told him. The spellbook I have now is one that I made, filled with spells that I'd had to beg off other apprentices."
"What about those spellbooks you got off Sol's mom?" Iados shimmed out of the fireplace after having no luck.
"Haven't had a chance to do anything but glance at them." Ander explained as he moved to the next chair. "It takes money and time to transcribe new spells into my book. Without moving them to my book, the spells are just one and done's."
"Well, I suggest you get a move on transcribing once we're done here." Iados joined the two of them at the table. He knelt down and examined chair '8'. Almost immediately he noticed something. "Someone cut a notch into the seat."
"What do you mean?" Carric leaned over to see what he was talking about. Iados pointed it out, a small square gap on the edge of the seat. Ander also crawled over to see. Now that they knew where to look, it was easy to identity the other three chairs. They also discovered that other chairs had a different number of notches, from one to four.
Carric was the one who got to do the honors. One by one the ranger hung "8-6-7-2". A split second after the final number was hung, the door swung open.
Kerri was not too proud to admit that she'd screamed when the door had closed suddenly behind her. She pounded on the door and tugged at the handle, but they didn't move. She put her back to the door and slid down to the floor. She lightly banged her head back on the door. Of course she would be singled out. It was always the pretty girls that had to suffer first.
She took a deep breath, and took a moment to survey the room. First of all, the room was very narrow. It was probably about ten feet wide, but wide work tables were on either wall. The tables were covered in various bowls, pots, and utensils. What little space there was between the tables led to a large cauldron at the end of the room. The room itself was lit by two wall sconces near the ceiling.
Kerri scrambled to her feet, and headed for the cauldron. Rule number one: if something looks like it's begging to be seen, there's usually a reason. As Kerri walked slowly towards it, she sang a song for herself.
"In my past, mistakes I've made
They haunt me every day
But they're not gonna hold me back!
As I fight another day
With lute in hand and rapier
I'll sing along and slay
I'll write my own story
So get out of my way!"
At first glance the cauldron was empty. Kerri found herself a little disappointed in that. She reached out and touched the rim so as to get a better look inside. As soon as she touched it, dark smoke began to billow out. It was a thick smoke that immediately obscured her vision.
She backed out of it and headed towards the door. The smoke continued to billow out of the cauldron, and soon the cauldron itself was completely obscured. She went for the door handle again, and this time saw the keyhole just underneath it.
She rolled her eyes and went to the nearest table. She picked up the various objects on the table, and anything that wasn't key shaped got pitched into the smoke cloud. When she ran out of objects, she turned her attention to the underside of the table. Nestled in the crook of the leg was a key. With a holler of victory she snatched the key and rushed to the lock.
The key wouldn't even enter the lock.
"Damn it!" The key went flying into the cloud that now brushed against the far edges of the tables. Kerri started her search on the underside of the second table, but there was no key there this time. She found another key in a pot. This key fit the lock, but it wouldn't turn.
It was pitched. She went through the rest of the items, but there weren't any other keys.
Kerri put her back to the door and scanned the rest of the room. More than half of the room was obscured by the smoke. The light that emanated out of the sconces were almost blotted out, and soon even Kerri's superior sight wouldn't be enough to see by.
Kerri groped along the wall beside, desperate for some secret compartment. Her fingers found the wooden trim of the door, which was at least a full two inches wide. Her eyes widened as she got an idea.
"There's no way I'm right." Kerri felt up as far as she could, but she couldn't reach the top. Even standing on her toes didn't help, and not for the first time did she curse her 5'3" height. She moved over and tried to pull one of the tables closer to her, but she barely got it to budge.
The light in the room completely disappeared.
Kerri went back to the door, drew her dagger, and used it to make up the difference in height. She scrapped as far back on the trim with her dagger as she could. Finally she heard the dagger hit metal. She used the weapon to nudge the item over the side, and heard it as it clattered on the wooden floor next to her.
She scooped up the item that most definitely was a key, and jammed it blindly in the direction of the lock. It seemed like it took forever as she rammed and scraped the key against the wooden door and metal handle. Behind her, she could only imagine the smoke as it billowed ever closer to her, like some sort of monster, just waiting to consume her.
Finally, she was rewarded with a resounding click as the key turned in her hand. As the door opened, the light returned to the room behind her. She didn't look back as she left.