Maria and Diane secured the restrained staff member carefully, tightening the bindings until his frantic movements slowed into shallow, panicked breaths.
Whatever fear gripped him now felt far more genuine than before, raw and uncontrolled. Maria couldn't shake the sense that everything surrounding this place was wrong, false, or even fabricated.
The spiders, the endless corpses, the grotesque mouth embedded in the wall…
"We're not seriously trusting what he said, right?" Maria asked quietly, glancing back at the trembling man.
Diane nodded without hesitation. "No. We don't."
She scanned the room again, eyes sharp and calculating. "We'll search this place ourselves, but that lift isn't our option."
Her gaze shifted upward toward the massive tube running through the ceiling. "I can try to fly up there. If it's accessible, I'll carry you."
Maria's eyes widened slightly. "You can grow wings? Like Lady Crow?"
