After breakfast, I did what any sane, rational, and calm person would not do in my place. I took my captor's very unnecessary advice.

The entire experience was surreal, to say the least. Walking through a dark tunnel, until I saw pure light in the distance. Gradually, my world of three paces cobble and cement became a little more broader block by block on its horizons until I found myself standing in a great grey foyer, the familiar schemes of cream marble and grainy wood beams holding up a large glass roof with midday sunlight pouring through.

Whoosh.

My head whipped around to see what had moved, when there had been little to no sign of life since this morning.

Chills began running down my spine with these thoughts, making me fervently rub at my biceps to warm them up. I didn't realize that the candles from the dark narrow hallway had been heating me up, perhaps because of the fever I had.

Wait a second...

You're in the fucking mountains as well. How will you get out?

Nobody's going to be looking for me for the first two weeks.

Why didn't I study more about Transylvania?

I began to celebrate by admiring the vast bright grey sky. Feeling vertigo, I immediately walked backwards to a concrete pillar basking in the light and leaned against it. I slid down to the floor and recalled whatever the hell had happened in the past hour with my head between my knees and arms wrapped around myself to stop myself from shaking. Bits of my memory unearthed themselves from the fog of my mind as I slowly regained my senses again.

"Now, draga mea vulpine nebună," He began as he elegantly clasped his hands resting on the table and one on my shoulder. It took me a righteous whole minute to realize he just spoke Romanian. "I have some rules to set for you." (My dear crazy fox)

I was frozen, in spite of trembling from sheer fright. At this point, I did not know what his intentions were, but I did know that I had fucked up.

"First and foremost, your sense of security must be broken. Your refusal to be afraid will only harm you."

A frenzy overtook me hearing that. One entire childhood wasn't enough to break me down, and this namuna  thought his shittalking could spook me? (Freak)

Vlad could be from another planet with antennas on his head going right along with his pantherlike glowing eyes, yet I still recognized him. I saw right through that sachharine suave facade he put on just for me. His sophisticated and educated mannerisms were like feathers to his peacock prince self. His charlatan act of concern for me in any way more than what was to his own benefit made me even more nauseous. His veiled threats and cryptic tone could go to hell, exactly to where he was bound in the end.

I hated the fact that I felt safe where I definitely shouldn't have felt safe. I should've been freaking out, trying to find a way back outside. And truth be told, that is what I was doing.

I'm a creature of mobility. I don't stay in one place, it's just not who I am. No man or beast could ever change that. My path was unknown, but only because I didn't chart it yet.

Because I didn't want to. I thought to myself. I clutched the hem of my tunic tighter, and felt my resolve growing stronger. I shoved away the thoughts bugging me to focus on my nonsensical train of thought, refusing to entertain them.

Even a rat is smart, but it is a rat after all. I won't hide around and use humiliating trickery like one, I'm going to get out of here with my head held high whether it's attached to my body or not.

Astaghfirullah.

"Psst!" A sharp hiss echoed behind me, breaking me out of my fierce trance. I turned my head to the stained glass wall from where the sound came.

I opened the door, and instead of the dark void, I was met by a musty smell of paper and the stench of rotting meat before I could see anything else.

As the odor burned through my nostrils and sinus, I doubled over and almost hurled out my breakfast from the wave of disgust. Holding my loose sleeve over my mouth, I straightened back up. I wasn't going to give up now.

I squinted into the darkness to find my little stalker, but I couldn't even hear anything. Obviously, no living creature had set foot in here for months.

A loud chitter of bugs from all around me sent me back outside the room on instinct. Hands on my knees and my temper rising at the challenge fate taunted me with, I thought of what I could do. I gazed at the corridors which appealed to the coward I had silenced within me with its cozy yet grim familiarity, beckoning me to return to my "room" like a good little girl.

I growled at the thought, and walked away from the room with a scowl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ten minutes later

I found a lantern hung in one of the dark hallways on my way back and before I knew it, was walking into the library again. I really need to get my head checked.

Only a few steps in between two bookshelves, a large thick spiderweb spanning across the aisle greeted my face, sending me tumbling backwards out the door again while clawing at my body.

"Ugh! Phhhh, EWWWW!" I chanted, sputtering out whatever had creeped into my unsuspecting ajar mouth.

The slimy fibers and sensation of tiny movements like spider legs scampering across my face only amplified the gnarly experience.

Sharp pain spread through my shoulder as I had bumped into something beside the doorframe, but I was still glad to breathe clean air again.

Angrily, I ripped off whatever clothes I had on until I felt most of the hot sticky mass was off of me.

My breaths were heavy now and bravery questioning itself, so I went back in and quickly shuffled to the lantern dropped on the floor, waving my overcoat in the space in front of me like a flag to catch anymore spiderwebs as I took steps along the obscure path. I noticed a  peak of light shining from the very top of the wall in the back of the room, it was enough to be noticed yet not enough to illuminate.

I found a thick rope tied from above in front of a large curtain covering the entire wall, fed through a pulley a little to the side. I grasped the rusty crank of the pulley wheel and started turning it as hard as I could. Slowly but surely with my entire body weight, the curtains began to shakily give way to the light outside, as if hesitant to let the light in.

As the faded emerald hue of the library wall could be seen in the sunlight, and so could more of the architecture. Dusted mirrorworks glittered dimly in the corners, musty marble columns held ancient arches up, all to hold up at least 20 aisles of shelves that were so tall that my neck hurt looking up. In fact, even the light couldn't reach it. On the very shadowy top, a slight dome with faded and forgotten paintings danced around the mighty, robust chandelier. If cleaned up, it was quite apparent that this structure was meant to be a masterpiece of the castle, a grand marriage between the gothic and moorish architecture.

Suddenly forgetting my overheating, sweaty, claustrophobic self, I stared around with my jaw dropped, stumbling a few steps backwards as I beheld the majesty of what was hidden. Why was this hidden?

"Psst!"

I jumped, and whipped my head around to find the source of the sound. Thinking of nothing else, I wrapped my overcoat and wrapped one end of it around my hand, hoping that it would protect me from any danger still yet to face me.

A series of soft thuds followed, before a creaking sound came from above me. I slowly backed away from the shelves. Whatever was following me was above me.

"Who's there?" I called out.

I grabbed the crank, ready to anchor myself for a powerful chest kick at whoever came at me, with my overcoat as a flail in my other hand. In the back of my head, an unnecessary worry lingered that I might have looked like a real dumbass to anyone looking at me instead of the fearless heroine I was feeling like.

A flash of satiny baby blue and brown hair suddenly dropped in front of me from above, prompting me to kick it to the ground and prepare to use my coat like a whip.

"O Doamne!" A high-pitched voice screamed.

"HyAllah!" I also exclaimed, jumping when I realized it was a female voice. The last thing I expected was a tiny girl crouching under me who looked like her life was flashing before her eyes. I dropped my coat and relaxed.

She looked around my age, maybe even younger. She had light brown hair in a loose fishtail braid tied neatly with a big blue ribbon. Her big sky blue eyes, now tearing up, looked up at me in fear.

"Te rog nu ma ucizi..." she whimpered. (Please don't kill me)

I held out my hand to help her up, which she took. Even to her full height, she came up to my shoulder at most, and I was afraid as I pulled her up that I might yank her too hard because of how light she was.

"Uh, vorbiți engleză?" I asked in my crappy accent. (Do you speak English)

"D-da." She managed to say, still looking up at me like she was on the ground. It had me wondering her age, since she looked about the same as mine by facial features yet had to crane her neck to look up at me. (Y-yes)

"What's your name?" I asked after a long silence.

"Lumina."

"I'm Mavis," I said, almost holding my hand out for her to shake it but decided against it. "The prince's-"

"Yes."

I gave a small smile, biting back a snort. Perhaps that was too personal.

"Do you work here?" I asked.

Her eyes widened and her mouth twisted into a scowl in bewilderment at my question. I scanned her appearance more, and although her clothes were fairly modest and plain, they didn't seem to be practical for housework. The stains on her dress and the daintiness of her frame suggested her clothes had done more of the cleaning than she had.

It took me a minute to realize that on the off chance she didn't work here, she was most likely of noble birth and I had just insulted her. I quickly corrected myself and apologized.

"I'm sorry, what I mean is, do you live here?"

"Da." She replied curtly, averting her eyes.

Realizing she didn't want to discuss this topic any further, I decided not to press any further despite this encounter only giving me more questions than before. Fuck me, socialization was now officially a survival skill.

If she's one of them, she's probably not going to be helping me.

And until I know who- or what- she is exactly, I won't be able to count on her for anything. I set my mind on that and knew what to do.

"Are you a vampire?" I asked, taking a few steps back so that I was in the sunlight.

"Are you scared?" She asked coyly. My mind went back to this morning when I tried to burn him alive in the sun after head-butting him, then yelling at him at lunch.

Sweetie, I've been beating the shit out of your king today.

I gave her a bored expression. "No."

She gave me a bewildered look with pursed lips, perhaps I of all people in her opinion should be afraid of him. She looked around her quickly, as if checking for something over her shoulder. Meanwhile, I was still recover from the jump scare.

"I'm sorry, why the..." I started loudly, but immediately reconsidered my choice of words when she looked afraid again. "Why did you jump on me from up there?" I asked, pointing up from the shelves where she jumped down on me.

She ignored my question and turned around, grabbing my hand.

"Vii," she murmured. (Come)

"What?"

She continued pulling me along with her, and started climbing up a ladder on the large structure housing books that I now noticed were the size of my forearm and thicker than bricks.

Please don't tell me there are giants here too...

"Vii!" Lumina hissed down at me while climbing the wooden ladder that had splints popping through the centuries old finishing with crackles in it.

Redone, but not replaced. I scoffed.

Whoever was in charge here really needed to let go of their sentiment for history a little. A castle this big, with staff that many and of such... variety, governed by a literal prince, had me raising my expectations a little.

Once we reached the top of the shelves, the platform was sort of a walkway to the top of the walls. Lumina walked across it like she wasn't 20 feet away from certain death whereas I crawled on my hands and feet since the beams above us were wide enough to work as partial ceilings for the platform.

We reached the end of the shelf, and I I looked closer to see intricate linings blended into the engravings, before my new guide as she started to rip out a chunk out of it, creating a door into darkness, like an elevator shaft as far as the sunlight could tell me. Slowly trailing behind her busy form, I quietly picked up a piece of tiny rubble off the wooden platform, ready to use it as a blunt force weapon before pocketing it. She turned around and ushered me to climb in after her before disappearing into the dark.

Not so fast, dumbass. I told myself.

I waited a little to see where she was- or what she was- more accurately. If she was a vampire, her eyes would glow like a lion's in the night and I'd have no problem locating her. If not, then... then she was human and that would be that.

"Lumina?" I poked my head into the tunnel and called out, preparing to pull back as soon as I saw vampire eyes.

"Vii!" I could only hear her, which was the only sign of her existence in that moment. I looked directly below me to see a very thin, and very long inbuilt ladder leading into even more darkness in which nothing could be even assumed. And on its head was a shadow of a dress flowing, and faceless figure I could tell was looking up at me, nearly blending into the shadows. No glowing eyes. I let out the breath I'd been holding for so long as a sigh of relief.

But then, a twisted thought came to me.

Vampires and humans alike have hurt me. The thought of my wretched family and friends who threw me to potential beasts made me clutch the piece of rubble in my pockets, my hand figuring out which side would make it a more lethal weapon if I were to cut someone with it. No way in hell would I be fooled again, not before inflicting as much wrath as I could.

"Lumina!" I shouted. "Come back up!"

"Huh?"

"I said come back up!" I yelled louder, my voice turning gravelly in panic.

She hurriedly did as I told her, looking concerned that there was some problem.

Without even sparing a glance, I reached for the ladder and began my descent on the giant rusted metal rungs into darkness. I had to make sure to keep one eye behind me, and one eye to what was ahead, for only Allah knew the way in which the past and future were suffocating me with each moment I lived.

The only way to live is in the present. Death or life- hell or high water, it's nothing now. Because in the eyes of the righteous, evil is nothing. The only way to live is to walk alone.

With a new resolve, I stopped and hooked my legs around the rungs below to support myself. I took off my coat again and held it with both hands like a screen, and then grasped the smooth part of the side rails. Butterflies flew in my stomach as my minds raced with the possibilities of what could happen now, and what could be below.

Worst case scenario: tetanus from all the unrenovated things here, with my limbs rotting from necrosis, my 'majaazi khuda-urf-jallaat' kicking my ass out of here for being useless, and death. (Majaazi khuda-urf-jallaat means my earthly lord(husband) slash executioner)

Smiling at the thought, I readjusted my legs on the rungs ready to climb down again, only that's not what I was going to do. Giving one last look up to see Lumina slowly make her descent, unaware of the maniac below her.

"Hey Lumina!" I called out. My smile turned into a full blown grin at this point from holding in my excitement. Poor girl was going to be shocked. "Teri maa ka-!"

Before she could hear me complete my sentence, I hopped to align my legs with the side railings and loosened my grip on them with my hands as well, nothing supporting me as my hysterically cackling self plummeted in a free fall to the bottom of whatever the hell it was down there at lightning speed.

I heard Lumina's screaming cries of alarm getting fainter and fainter, with my fear and madness growing. If she was trustworthy, then she had no reason to worry about what I would meet.

"WHOOOOO!" I howled in thrill, throwing my head back before continuing to grin as the gravitational force whipped at my body while my hair and clothes flew upwards. The feeling of metal trying to scrape through my boots and through the thin cloth over my hands made it all the more fun.

After seeing some light appearing below me, I gripped a little harder to slow down my slide enough before jamming my feet in the rung to stop. With the adrenaline and serotonin leveling me back to my miserable self again, I felt like I was being intensely watched, and it definitely wasn't the scared little girl ten storeys above me.

I looked at the darkened shaft above me for a little longer. Knowing it was irrational, but there was something in the space around me. Goosebumps started to form when I realized that there was absolutely nothing else to hold onto but the ladder I was on.

Slowly, I started climbing down one rung at a time, which was what I should've done from the start instead of recklessly sliding down a ladder that's destination I still didn't know. All I knew was that I needed to be more careful from now on.

At some point, my entire body began to shake, but I didn't stop climbing down. This was the wrong place to be getting the heebie jeebies, and this was the wrong place to be.

Then, my foot met with thick basement air instead of a ladder, nearly sending me to brain injury before death. I checked down, and realized I was wrong about my danger assessment.

The circle of rust red bricks 20 feet below most definitely lead straight to death, no stopovers.

"Whoa!" I cried out, my voice wobbling. I squeezed my eyes shut and hugged whatever was left of the ladder, pressing my body along the disgusting rusty metal.

My shudders made the edges of the ladder shake along with me, as I silently started to pray for help through choked sobs.