D1 Dining Hall
The light of a fire sounded good to Mira, and she hurried into the dining hall. Being careful to avoid making too much noise, she slowly, but firmly closed the door behind her.
As she faced the large room, Mira saw with a mixture of relief and dismay that it was empty. On the one hand, it felt safe to be back in a lighted room with a warm, crackling fire in the hearth. But where was Duke?
After a moment more of searching the room with her gaze, Mira walked towards the fire and stuck her hands out to warm them. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. Perhaps she had only imagined that dreadful noise that she thought she heard before.
Looking around again, she saw the doorway that she had used to enter this room before with Duke and Mallory. Going back out that way would still allow her to get back to the staircases if she wished to go upstairs.
After a second more of lingering by the fire, she started to walk towards it, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw her shadow, cast by the firelight, trailing along the opposite wall as it mirrored her movement. Suddenly, she halted and stared back at that same wall with wide eyes.
There was her shadow doing just what it should, but only inches away from hers was another shadow. Mira tensed and looked around for the shadow's owner, but whoever it was should have been standing beside her… only there wasn't anyone around her.
Bolting for the open door to the hall, Mira started to run out of the dining hall, but the untethered shadow flew across the room with a rush of speed and appeared on the walls just where she wanted to go. At first, she feared that it was trying to catch her, and she stopped and backed away from the door. But then she saw its hands extended – not as if it was trying to reach for her – but as if it meant to just stop her from going out that way.
And there was something not quite right about the head of this shadow. It would have seemed the wrong shape for a human, but was it…?
Her thoughts were interrupted by another terrifying roar. And this time, it was accompanied by the sounds of things being shattered and broken. All of these noises seemed much closer than before.
"It's just out there," Mira realized under her breath, not sure if she was speaking to herself or the shadow. "What do I do?"
The shadow drifted away from the door and pointed to a partially enclosed nook in the far corner of the room. Mira followed it and when she drew closer, the hand of the shadow pointed to the floor. There was a wooden trap door amidst the stones. Mira tried it and found that it was unlocked. It seemed to lead down into a small cellar.
"Thanks," Mira said as she looked around for the shadow, but she lost sight of it as she climbed down into the cellar.
As she gently lowered the door above her head, Mira felt what seemed like heavy footsteps enter the dining hall. Judging from the sound, whatever that creature was, it seemed to be smashing some of the chairs, but it wasn't coming any closer to her hiding place. When the noise died down, Mira felt suddenly weary, and she laid back against some of the musty sacks and fell asleep in the dark.
You've completed Day 1 of the story. To move on to Day 2 and more choices, select D2 Morning in the Cellar from the chapter list.