The young team leader also realized she didn't have her cloak, which didn't help her nerves at all. Being without her beloved scythe was one thing, being without her cloak was another, but being without both of them made her uncharacteristically skittish.

The eerie feeling that she wasn't alone only grew stronger as she walked down the dark hall, the candle in her hand doing little to light her way. Hot wax was still dripping down her fingers, but she barely noticed it as she strained her ears, trying to hear something that could maybe tell her what was lurking in the darkness and out of her sight. The dungeon appeared to be some sort of maze, judging by the many different rooms and halls branching off from the one she was in.

Pushing open another heavy, old door, she walked a little ways into the room behind it as she held the burning candle high to illuminate it as best she could. There were a few more shelves in this room, mostly containing random boxes and junk, but on one she could just see the light from her candle glinting off of a piece of red metal. Curious, she made her way over to the shelf and picked up the object. Once it was in her hand, she realized it was her rose symbol, and a quick look at her belt told her it was the one that was normally supposed to be there.

Why is this in here? She kept her confused gaze on it for a few more seconds, before finally shrugging and putting it back in place on her belt, where it was supposed to be. Even though she hadn't realized it was missing before, she felt a little more complete with her symbol back.

Ruby turned around to leave the room, and this time she did drop her candle. Well, would have, if it wasn't stuck to her hand. In one of the corners by the door stood her icy partner, still as a statue.

"Weiss?"

Her voice sounded much louder than she would have preferred, and she jumped as it echoed off the walls slightly. I hope that doesn't attract something I don't want to run into. Ignoring that thought for a moment, she crept closer to Weiss, feeling her hair start to stand on end as she did. Something told her that this was not her partner.

And she had to agree.

When she had moved close enough for the candle to illuminate the heiress properly, Ruby gasped and quickly covered her mouth with her free hand while her eyes widened in absolute horror. It looked exactly like Weiss, it could have even been an incredibly realistic statue, except for the eyes. She expected to see the icy blues that she knew so well, or at least closed ones, but this thing didn't have eyes at all. Just empty, black sockets, similar to a skeleton except for the blood dripping out like tears.

Ruby shuddered as she backed away, throwing the Weiss thing back into shadow. She stood still for a moment, telling herself over and over in her head that this was just a dream, and back in reality, Weiss was perfectly fine, not standing like a statue in a dungeon somewhere without eyes. That made her feel a little better, and she turned and started to walk out of the room, refusing to look at the thing in the corner.

Just as she reached the door, she had that feeling again. The feeling that she wasn't alone, that there was danger nearby, and with a prickling feeling, she turned back around to face the room.

The eyeless Weiss was standing directly in front of her, their faces only inches apart, and it had its fingers stretched out toward her like claws. It was completely still again, like a statue, as if it had never moved. All of these details became apparent to her in the split second that she stared at it, before screaming and dashing out of the room as fast as she could.

Normally, Ruby was brave. She took everything head on and never backed down from a fight, unless her team convinced her it was the better option. But here, she was without her scythe, without her team and friends, and was instead in an eerie dungeon alone with a creepy Weiss statue that only moved when she wasn't looking at it. Even that wouldn't be so hard to handle if the damn thing had eyes, but the empty, bleeding sockets freaked her out to no end, and her courage had completely deserted her the moment she saw them right in front of her face.

She ran down the hall recklessly for a few minutes, forgetting to try and be at least slightly cautious of how much noise she made. Though, after that scream, whatever else was down here probably already knew about her anyway. Finally she came to a stop and leaned against the wall, panting as she tried to regain her breath. Her candle had blown out in the mad dash away from the Weiss thing, and now the darkness around her felt even more foreboding than before.

There wasn't much of a candle left now, at least. It was barely more than a stub and would only have lasted a few more minutes anyway, so she didn't mind losing it so much, and carefully peeled it and the wax that had dripped over her fingers off of her hand, before dropping it to the floor.

Steeling herself against the fact that she had to continue wandering around in darkness without any sort of light at all, she slowly walked out into the next room. She could already tell it was a very large room, and wondered what may be hiding for her just out of sight in here.

However, a minute or two of searching around showed this room was actually empty, aside from some chairs or boxes here and there. Deciding to take advantage of the momentary safety to rest, she leaned against a wall again before sliding down it and onto the floor.

Ruby stared into the darkness for a few minutes, then down at the rose symbol on her belt for a few more. Eventually, her brows knitted together slightly in confusion as she remembered it was supposed to be silver. She hadn't realized it at first, but the one she usually wore was silver, whereas this one was red like Crescent Rose. Must be because this is a dream. I mean, they're not always completely accurate to reality and we don't always realize it's different until we wake up, right? Then her expression darkened slightly as she thought about that thing that looked like Weiss. This is one hell of a nightmare if I'm seeing stuff like that. Normally, the only times my nightmares are about Weiss is when I know she's going to yell at me for something. Actually, come to think of it, I've never had a nightmare like this before.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sound of something metal scraping against stone, like a heavy blade being dragged on the ground. She'd only ever heard sounds like that in horror movies before, where the killer dragged their weapon against stone or concrete in order to scare people. And while she always thought it was kind of pointless before, she had to admit that in a real situation, it was terrifying.

The sound came closer as whoever was dragging the weapon came into the room, making Ruby cautiously move behind a stack of boxes in case they could see in the dark. She peered over the edge of her cover as the sound started to pass right by, trying to get a glimpse of what it was, though all she could see was a vague shape of something large and red being dragged behind a dark figure with long hair.

And then the room was empty again, and Ruby made it a point to not go down the hall where the sound had faded off in. Instead, she forced herself to her feet and went down the hall that the figure had originally come from, since that was the only place she for sure wouldn't encounter it for awhile.

Almost immediately, there was a door on the left side of the hall, and she chose to investigate the room behind it. When she managed to force the old door open, the first thing she noticed was how light it was inside. The light was coming from a bunch of wall torches, making it the only room so far that was actually lit up, and in the center of the room was a ladder leading up to the next level of the dungeon.

Ruby took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for what she may face next, and climbed the ladder.