"I haven't asked in fear of being rude, but are you sleeping alright? You're not, are you?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Anyone could see it. Your eyes… the shadows around them are, um, vicious. They're very dark and large, like a—"
"I get it. Yeah, I don't sleep all that well, are you happy? We've got some more important things to worry about, you know."
"Yeah…"
The three of them, Linnie, Lady and The Prince, were stranded in a twisting, damp, cold, eerie, creepy, freaky passage.
"Any ideas where we are?" Linnie asked.
"The sewers would be my guess. But... it doesn't smell very bad. Maybe a large dungeon?"
"Why would a dungeon be beneath a horror house?"
"I don't know..."
"Meow-meow."
They had been walking for a few minutes, now. Maybe even a few dozen. Ever since they stepped in the horror house, it had become sort of difficult to make sense of time. It seemed like that effect extended down to wherever they were.
"Maybe we're in another level of the horror house? Maybe we'll run into another group."
Prince nodded.
After a while, it became hard to ignore. A faint, rhythmic noise. It wasn't the growling stomach of some horrific clown, but clearly the sound of metal. Chains?
"Let's go," Linnie said, gesturing in the direction of the noise.
"B-b-but why?"
"Do you wanna wander around in the dark forever? Wherever that sound is, there's gotta be people!"
"...Gulp."
"What?"
"Nothing..."
They continued down the dark passage, and the sound of chains became clearer and clearer—the sound of heavy footsteps, too. Then, out of nowhere, a bone-chilling scream sounded through the air.
"Eep!" Prince yelped.
"MEOW!"
"So that settles it, then."
"Settles w-w-what?"
"This is still the horror house. Why else would someone scream like that?"
"N-no, that's not a certainty at all! Someone could be seriously hurt!"
Linnie, despite living through horrors of his own, was still very inexperienced and naive. This was because, while he had seen his fair share of terrible experiences, he had only seen his terrible experiences.
The boy didn't know what a dungeon was, really. He also didn't know what torturers or murderers were like. Creepy, dirty, scary murderers, that is. He himself was technically no stranger to the actual act.
Typically, someone would be scared in this situation even if they weren't aware of the predicament they were in, thanks to the natural human fear of the dark. But he could see pretty well—so he wasn't that scared, overall.
"It's just a horror house, relax."
It was quite funny how he was trying to portray himself as an expert of horror houses or something, considering he had only learned of them a few hours prior. But he was, with debatable success, trying to calm Prince.
He confidently continued into the dark and closer to the strange noises. Every few minutes, another scream would echo. Lady was hesitantly following the two humans, and looked to be distracted by something.
'I mean, if someone's really hurt, you'd think their screams would end by now, right? It's probably one of those illusions.'
The passage opened up to a large circular hall. Bizzarely, the walls were lined with iron bars. The place was filled with cells, all surrounding the center of the room.
Right then, another scream echoed, and it was clearly coming from within the room. Linnie stepped back into the passage, away from the hall, and frowned.
"Hmmm..."
"W-what? What i-is it?"
"The room ahead of us made me a little nervous, so let's just wait for a second."
"Meow."
"I thought you s-s-said it wasn't r-real?"
"...You're right!"
Linnie walked back to the end of the passage, leaving Lady and Prince behind, and entered the room with a puffed chest. He couldn't know for sure, but he felt like all of the cells had people within them. That would be a lot of people. Through the darkness, he could make out hands gripping some of the iron bars.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
. . .
'Ha.'
"W-why are you back? Is it s-safe? Why are you breathing like that?"
"Haaah, haha. It's nothing to worry about. It's just a very large man with a very large axe. He walked in from the opposite side of the hall, so I ran away before he noticed me."
"Can't you just burn the illusion away?"
Linnie scratched his head and side-eyed Prince, unsure of what to say.
"...Uh, he seemed pretty real."
"Th-then those screams!?"
"Hmmmm... forget about them."
"What!?" Prince yelled in a hushed voice.
"Shhh! I don't want that man coming to grab us. I don't think I can kill him. I mean, I probably could—I just don't know if I'd be able to keep him from killing us first."
'So you can't kill him at all!' Prince thought, panicked.
"Let's just go. That way."
"That's where we came from, though?"
"We can just go down a different path."
"And a-a-abandon those people? They sounded like children!"
"Hey. We're children too, man," Linnie said, placing his hand on the sweaty boy's shoulder and giving a reassuring smile.
"We r-r-really aren't though!?"
"Why are you being so annoying about this? It's not like you're gonna do anything—you're way too much of a wuss! You're just asking me to do something I don't wanna do and forcing your own princely ideas onto me!"
"Wizards... are supposed to help people."
Linnie frowned, thinking for a second. A flame started to raise from within him, inspiring the boy with confidence. He felt an urge... an urge for justice, materializing in his heart—solid as stone and hot as magma.
"...Wow, you almost got me. Hell no! We're finding a way out!"
"Me-ow!"
Prince looked like he was on the verge of tears—most likely from fear, but for the young royal's sake, Linnie chose to believe it was out of frustration for not being able to save his people.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP STOMP STOMP—
Linnie grabbed Prince's hand and dashed into the darkness of the passage, running away from the sounds of chains, screaming, and stomping. This time, his kitty was leading the charge.
'She's leading me to the exit, right? That's what a familiar would do. I think?'
****
Many hours earlier, a young and angry girl ran face-first into Aliza's stomach. The girl was rambling nonsense to herself, and looked up angrily at Aliza as if she was the one who ran into her.
"Who pissed in your breakfast?" Aliza asked, crossing her arms.
"Who...? Who are you?"
'This is the young lady, isn't it? Last I saw her, she was a little kid. I've never really spoken to her before... this is kind of awkward.'
"Sorry, Lady Marielle. I'm La—uh, I'm Aliza."
"Well, Aliza, whoever you are—prostitute or maid or whatever—kneel down."
Aliza's eye twitched, and her head tilted a little bit. She bit her tongue, and smiled.
"Why, may I ask?"
"I'm going to execute you for disrespect towards a lady."