Quinn awoke to a dark and cold room. His eyes slowly opened to the flickering of a red and orange flame. His head began to pound and he was at a loss as to where he was. After a few seconds, his eyes shot open and he began to look around the room.

Where are we? We… were sucked into the door right before we passed out. What happened to Kiara and Alec, are they okay?

Just as he thought that, a voice rang out, “It's so dark and cold. Am I dead? Is this what death looks like?” Quinn turned to look beside him and laying a few feet away was Alec.

“Ow, my head…” Quinn looked to his other side to find Kiara sitting up, rubbing her head. He felt relieved that both of them were still alive.

Quinn decided to stand up from the floor. He brushed off his pants and helped Kiara and Alec off of the ground. Once they were all back from their daze Kiara sighed, “What exactly happened? We were fine at first and then we suddenly lost all of our energy.”

Quinn thought about it for a few seconds, “If I were to take a guess, I would have to say that the sun was drawing energy from us while we were in there. The reason the sun was always sitting in the sky unmoving was because it wasn't really a sun. It was a giant ball of energy drawing power from us. Just as how a plant draws energy from the sun, the giant ‘sun’ was drawing energy from us.

“The only reason I was able to think of this was because of the abnormality of the sun. Everything seemed normal besides it, besides the fact we are stuck in an endless mansion. It seemed out of place. If this is actually the reason, we can also deduce that Alec had not been in there for very long, considering he started feeling the effects at the same time we did.”

Kiara nodded her head in understanding, “If that is the case, since Alec had arrived in that room at almost the same time we did, that also means he was either placed there or was put in there the instant he entered the mansion. This would make sense as to why we woke up in different locations.”

Kiara and Quinn looked at each other as they analyzed the room they were just in. Alec's head began to spin as he watched the pair speak, “You guys are too smart for me. I don't think I can keep up.”

Kiara and Quinn began to slowly explain to Alec what happened. After a few minutes Alec smiled, “Ahh… I think I get it now. But then, what should we do now? We don't even know where we are.”

Kiara motioned towards the hallway, “There doesn't seem to be any other way out of here besides through that lit hallway. That is probably our best bet for escaping.”

“You're right, we should probably get going. Things are fine now, but if we don't get going the situation could change.” They left into the dark dreary hallway.

The hallway was long and dim. It had a musty smell and was slightly cold. Quinn rubbed his hands against the cold stone wall, feeling a bit of moisture that had built up.

After walking a few minutes, the air had become less humid and the coldness was starting to dissipate. They continued walking until they finally reached the end of the hall.

The hall opened to a pitch black room. Quinn tried looking into it, but his sight was devoured by the darkness. He turned away from the room to look at Alec and Kiara. Kiara was standing next to him with a torch in hand. Alec was also standing beside him with two torches he had grabbed from the hallway wall, “Take this, I don't think we'll be able to make it through without it.”

Quinn gripped the torch and waved it around the dark room, illuminating the area. The darkness had a cold feeling as the trio began trekking through it. The darkness surrounded them, only being warded off by the torch flames.

Cold stone walls surrounded them with only one doorway to walk through. They made their way through different rooms, each of different shapes and sizes. The further they made their way into the darkness, the more insecure they became.

Quinn felt something was wrong with the darkness. The others were feeling the same.

As they walked they kept total silence. The only noise to be heard was their footsteps. They felt that if they made a noise, something horrible would occur.

Quinn examined his surroundings looking for anything that seemed out of place. He found nothing, as the rooms were empty and baron.

After entering a new room, Quinn suddenly stopped. Kiara and Alec understood, “Something feels wrong…”

Quinn waved the torch slowly to his right. He saw nothing but the still baron room. He then turned the torch to his left. The torch illuminated the room bit by bit, slowly crawling its way across the floor and walls.

Quinn's eyes opened wide as his head tilted in the direction of the torch's light. Standing next to him, a black figure with beat red eyes and sharp teeth stared at him. It clung to the ceiling with claws covered in dried blood.

Quinn felt shocked for a second before yelling out in urgency, “RUN!”

Kiara and Alec noticed the monster just as he spoke, and all three of them began to bolt through the hallways. How far was it behind them? Is it still following us? Quinn couldn't think. All he could do was continue sprinting, hoping to escape from the vicious monster.

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Close behind them, a loud screech could be heard, rushing closer and closer to them. Still, their legs continued pushing. Quinn ran in the front followed by Kiara and Alec. They couldn't stop or else they would be ripped apart. Alec turned to look behind him, but was met with a claw slashing right below his right eye.

Agh…

Quinn and Kiara could hear Alec's grunt behind them. Blood began to seep from the cut, but he was able to recover, moving quicker than before.

“Don't stop running, he is directly behind me and I would prefer not to be mincemeat.” Alec's joking tone could still be heard through his serious remark.

Quinn was leading the charge through the different rooms. Multiple times he barely dodged a head on collision with the stone walls that surrounded them.

Finally, after running through the different rooms in hopes of safety, their luck ran out. Quinn had led the group into a dead end. They tried to turn around and make their way through a different door, but the monster cornered them.

All three backed as far as they could away from the beast. It began to approach them slowly. Quinn was finally able to get a good look at the monster through the flickering torch light.

It was pitch black, with only its discolored red eyes and white claws enveloped with bloody red tint. Its body was like oil, flowing and unpleasant. It seemed to have no bones as it could bend freely. It stood upon four legs that connected to the ceiling and floor. An unpleasant aroma emanated from it, attacking Quinn's nose.

Quinn had never seen anything like it. It was disgusting looking and its features looked like a monster straight out of a nightmare. Quinn was uncomfortable just looking at it.

The beast's mouth opened wide, revealing a slimy black mouth inlaid with sharp white teeth. There was nowhere to run. Would this be where they inevitably died? Quinn tried thinking of how they could run, how they could escape from this inescapable situation. It was inevitable. All they could do was give up.

Quinn, of course, wouldn't give up without a fight. He prepared his stance, waiting for the monster to approach. The monster sensed the challenge, and began to quickly approach Quinn at a quick pace. The monster lunged forward, two claws in front, in attempts to slice Quinn.

Quinn was ready to fight, but before the monster reached him, Alec threw a right hook into the monster's side. The beast was sent flying straight into the wall across the room. This strength of Alec's… was abnormal.

Quinn wore a look of shock. Kiara had a similar look, her jaw was agape and her eyes were wide open. Alec was capable of sending a monster flying with abnormal strength. If Quinn tried to reproduce that punch, he wouldn't have been able to even if he worked out his entire life. Not to mention Alec's scrawny stature. Alec was by no means a big man. His muscles were toned, but they were not at the level of a bodybuilder.

Although Quinn wanted to understand what just happened, he had no time to think. The group quickly ran in the opposite direction of the monster. They knew the monster wasn't dead, only stunned. They had to take this extra time to run in order to hide or escape.

They continued sprinting through the dark rooms, barely avoiding running into walls as they ran. They couldn't hear the monster anymore, its growls and screams were paled as they ran until it eventually faded out.

“Are we safe?” Quinn panted with one hand on his knee. The light of his barely lit torch was still in the other.

Kiara and Alec were in the same state. They were both out of breath and were gasping for air. Kiara inhaled through her nose and replied, “I think so…”

It seemed she answered too quickly, because not even a second later a figure formed in one of the door ways connected to the room. It was a monster, but not just one monster, two other monsters were standing behind it. Each one had a different form and figure, but they each had the same red eyes and sharp claws.

Quinn tried running towards the door they had just come from, but the same beast from before blocked their exit. They were surrounded and had no way out. Unlike before, Alec wouldn't be able to take them on by himself. There were too many. Still, Alec, Kiara and Quinn prepared for a fight.

A monster launched itself at Quinn but he was able to barely dodge it, only being slightly scratched across his side by the monster's sharp and bloody claws.

Another monster also leaped at Kiara, but she wasn't able to fully dodge it. Her arm got trapped under the beast's body, while another monster began its approach. The monster jumped on her, trying to rip her apart. She was sent tumbling backwards by the impact of the monster's body. She tried punching at it, but the beast was barely affected. Cuts and bruises began to form on her stomach.

Alec noticed her struggle and kicked the monster off her stomach, sending it flying. This allowed for Kiara, with the help of Alec, to remove the monster that was binding her arm.

During all of this, Quinn was going through his own struggles. One of the monsters had latched to his chest and wouldn't let go. He punched at the beast, but it would not budge. Finally, Quinn was able to pry one of the arms off of his body and threw the monster to the ground in front of him. He kicked it, stunning it for a short period of time.

At the same time, Alec had finally helped Kiara remove the black beast from her arm. She struggled to stand up, but eventually did. While Alec was still recovering, one of the monsters leaped onto his back. It slashed at him, cutting open different spots on his back.

Alec tried to remove the monster, but he couldn't reach behind his back well enough to have any effect. As a final ditch effort, he quickly ran backwards into one of the stone walls, pinching the beast in between. The beast quickly lost its grasp and fell to the ground behind him.

How much more of this fighting could they take? They were all badly cut and bruised and their stamina was slowly running out. At this rate, they would quickly succumb to defeat.

When hope was beginning to be lost, Quinn caught a glimpse of a torch light out of the corner of his eye. At first, Quinn thought it was one of their torches, but he soon realized this wasn't the case. He discovered it was another person! And not just one person, but a whole group of people.

This new group quickly rushed into the room. Fire light flickered against multiple shining swords that the group grasped in their hands. They slashed at the monsters, quickly slicing them and doing more damage that Quinn and company were able to do during their entire fight.

The monsters tried to fight back, but were quickly subdued by the new figures. In the span of only a few minutes, all four monsters lied on the ground lifeless and unmoving.

Although Quinn wanted to catch his breath, he once again had to wait as he heard the voice of one of the new figures, “Quickly, follow us. We know someplace where you guys will be safe.”

Quinn wasn't able to make out the faces of his saviors in the barely lit room, but he was fully capable of understanding what they said. Quinn, Kiara and Alec quickly followed behind them in hopes of safety.