Haunted Mansion (Part 3)

"Huff, huff, huff," Sylvia heaved. She had been chasing the figure for some time but it was still elusive.

'Geez, stop being so slippery.'

The figure ran nimbly in the darkness. Sylvia could not discern the characteristics of the shadow as it was covered in a black cloak. Its tendency to move between shadows also made it more difficult to spot any details. From its movements, it was clear that it was familiar with the layout of the mansion.

It continued to jump around the antique furniture to get some distance from her before turning a lamp sideways. A nearby bookshelf had a click sound and it pushed the shelf aside to reveal a hidden passage. It looked back at Sylvia before running into the corridor. It took a few seconds for her to catch up to him.

The corridor was a lot more primitive than the majestic interiors of the mansion. It's walls were brick without any finishings. The jagged bricks were covered in thick dust and cobwebs. The air was stale. Who knew how long had this part been covered for, one thing for sure is that it wasn't opened very often. The narrow corridor made running uncomfortable. Coupled with the darkness, the place would make any claustrophobics start having seizures.

After a few minutes, Sylvia finally found the figure again, stuck at a dead end.

"Finally, I caught up. There's nowhere else to run, just surrender quietly," she told the figure while wiping her sweat from her forehead.

"Hahahah, I'm not trapped. You are," the figure laughed.

She immediately realised that she was too rash and did not exercise enough caution. A serious blunder. The floor started to move and she tried to jump away but it's too late. She tried to grab on one of the bricks but it was brittle and broke.

"Crap!" She cursed as she fell into the pitfall.

Damian looked up at someone's screams, it sounded familiar. He had been wandering around a hidden part of the mansion for some time now, trying to find an exit.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

"Oof!"

Sylvia wondered why her fall was softened. From that height, it would probably cause at least some bruises.

"Ow, can you get up from me?" Damian groaned. He had tried to catch her but she crashed on him instead.

Sylvia looked beside her and saw Damian. She immediately stood up and went into a defensive stance. "Why are you here? Are you one of their accomplices? Is this another one of your schemes?"

Sylvia deduced that the figure was male from his voice and his age was probably in his forties from his agility and build. Quite impressive for someone his age.

"Woah, woah. Not even an apology or gratitude? I'm just another victim like you. I'm trying to find an exit. I should also ask you, why are you here?" Damian stood up and brushed dust off his clothes.

Sylvia relaxed her stance but still kept a degree of caution towards him. "Let's get out of here. I need to get back to Luna."

"Wait, she's here too? With everyone else?"

"Yes… Tell me how you ended up here," Sylvia still had some distrust. While they're walking, Damian told the entire part of his story before Sylvia shared her part with him too.

'So his group made that hole in the maze. Something to be grateful for, I guess.' She finally found out. It wasn't intentional.

His group abandoning him made her feel sorry for him. However, after telling both of their parts, an awkward silence started to build a barrier between them. Damian took the initiative to break the silence.

"You know, I've decided to change my ways for the better."

"..." Sylvia did not bat him any attention.

"I'm not one of those Dences."

Sylvia furrowed her eyebrows.The Dences were an infamous circle of wealthy and powerful people who twisted the happiness discovery into their deranged hedonistic tendencies. Once they became numb to conventional dopamine, they ventured into something more extreme, which ended up with the Party Incident.

They created an underground coliseum to watch murder and violence called the Death Game. The participants need to run in the coliseum for a fixed amount of time away from a giant monstrosity before the exit is opened.

From the spectator boxes, they would bet or even sponsor the participants like Roman gladiators, to supply them equipment, if so they wish. When they ran out of participants, they resorted to tricking impoverished people with jobs. The rise of missing people was silenced with their influence. It was the decadence of society.

However, nobody really knew what happened to the Dences. They just collapsed by themselves and disappeared one day.

"It was… just a little fun. You know… Nevermind, it was dumb and immature," Damian ameliorated. Despite his efforts, the silence dawned on them again. The corridor felt like it went on for forever. He tried to say something but they arrived at a hall, torches burned on the walls.

A massive figure hiding in the shadows appeared. It was a knight in a full suit of armour brandishing a broadsword that glowed like flames while the other hand held a kite shield. A flow of red dust swirled around it, like an aura, with a red jewel embedded in its chest.

A voice loomed and echoed in the hall. "I'm sorry but I can't let you interfere with my plans. Be obedient and have fun with my creation here. See ya kids."

The figure escaped through a door behind the knight.

'That must be the exit but how do we get past that thing?' Sylvia pondered while looking at the 4 meter tall knight.

She tried to walk closer to the knight but the slits of the helmet glowed red and started moving. Sylvia stopped for a while before continuing after the knight stopped when she stopped. Suddenly the knight swung its sword at her and she barely dodged it by somersaulting backwards back to her original position beside Damian.

'Wew, this might be challenging.' Sylvia thought as she wiped beads of sweat off her forehead.

She looked around and found a long but sturdy staff lying on the floor. There are several other miscellaneous objects lying around but it wasn't anything of value. She tried several more attempts to bypass the guardian but she was repelled every time.

A hand grabbed her shoulder, she looked back and it was Damian. "I'm here too you know. You don't have to do this alone. I might be able to help you."

'Hmm, it's true that one more person will improve the chances of escaping.' Sylvia thought.

"Alright, we can do a two-pronged assault. You on the right and I'll be on the left." She agreed and gave the staff to Damian. "You need this more than me."

Both of them got into their respective positions. The knight had returned to its original spot, standing ramrock straight.

"On my count: Three, two, one, go!"

Both of them dashed as fast as they could and the knight reacted instantaneously to them. It targeted Damian as a priority over Sylvia. It swung it's shield towards Damian.

"Oh crap, oh crap," Damian panicked as it loomed closer and closer. He did not have enough time to dodge to the sides, sliding under looks dangerous and he could not jump high enough.

In the spur of the moment, he decided to jump using the staff as a leverage and barely leaped past the attack.

He celebrated his success and his heart jumped with joy. "Oh yeah… Ahhhhhhhh!!!" But the celebration was too early. The edge of the shield hooked onto his jacket and sent him flying.

He smashed onto the wall and fell into the mass of miscellaneous objects. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and he coughed. As he laid on the cold floor, he noticed something from the pile.

'This could be useful.'