~Y/n pov~

Me and Itsuki sat on two desk chairs in a room we were staying in overnight . I had my suspicions and decided to tell Itsuki about them, I mean I trusted him, I just hoped he trusted me.

"I think Naofumi is innocent . I mean did you see the way Myne controlled Motoyasu and the King ignored her wrong doings." I started hoping he would agree.

Itsuki's eyebrows scrunched up cutely in thought, "That sounds about right, I see what you're trying to say. So if that were true Myne could be lying about Naofumi, I knew something seemed wrong ."

I nodded, "Right. Something about the country's ruler , well if that's the ruler they're doomed ."

"Actually if I remember correctly , the Queen has more power than the king so when she gets back from wherever she is. I just hope everything is sorted out." He ran a hand through his hair tiredly .

"I'm not sure what else we can do other than trust in Naofumi. Also, Motoyasu is a dumbass if he doesn't realise he's being played, he's so easily manipulated. If he continues to blindly believe people it will get him in serious trouble , especially seeing as he is meant to be a cardinal hero." I explained .

Itsuki flopped back onto one of the twin beds , "Yeah and also the next adventure we are going on, well Ren told me he's going the same direction so I thought it'd be fun if we did an adventure together before parting ways ."

I agreed, getting onto the other twin bed and drifting off to sleep, knowing we were back to adventuring in the morning .

~*~

The road seemed abandoned and a mist surrounded the area , as we approached an abandoned looking town.

The fog seemed to loom over the tall, dark building giving it a mysterious air.

Nervously , I scooted closer to Itsuki cautiously stepping forward.

My heart leapt as a small whimpering sounded , I whipped my head towards the sound and noticed two children.

A boy and a girl, the girl seemed like the older sibling and was trying to hush her whimpering brother .

As if she was just noticing us, she spoke, "There is a monster in our house."

"Huh?" I was in a dazed like state .

What exactly did she mean ?

"What do you mean?" Itsuki asked just as confused .

"Our parents keep it trapped in the basement."

"Where are your parents ?" Ren's voice was blank .

"I'm not sure but I don't want to go back to the house until the monster is gone." The girl frowned .

I fidgeted nervously , "We'll take a look?"

My tone was more questioning than a statement .

Ren and Itsuki nodded in agreement.

Approaching the house, the gate was loose and the metal was rusted, nudging it slightly , it swung open screeching in protest.

This was the first thing that raised an alarm, why was it so old ?

Nevertheless, we proceeded through the gate and walked into the house, our party following after us, strangely enough the front door was unlocked .

This was getting weirder by the minute.

The click of a lock was heard followed by a child giggling.

In fear, I quickly clenched my eyes shut and then grabbed Itsuki's hand , he didn't seem to protest as he held mine back just as tight , indicating he was probably also afraid.

Ren turned to the front door desperately trying the door handle , but to no avail, they had locked it behind us.

They tricked us, does this monster even exist ? Because if it does we are trapped in here with no means of escape .

We were stood in a small entrance way and two double doors lead to a main hall. With no choice but to continue onwards , we decided to explore all the rooms .

The walls in the main halls had patterns of vines , flower and mysterious symbols. At one end of the hall was a black , marble fireplace with two long swords mounted above it.

At the other end was a spiralling staircase , leading to the next floor of the building .

From the outside, the building looked to have 4 floors but that's just above ground because according to the children there was a basement .

The next room had various ornaments and animal fur and heads . Assumably whoever used to live here liked to hunt.

There was an ordinary looking kitchen with a fully stocked pantry attached to an ordinary looking dining room, nothing looked weird or out of place .

Despite that, the place just have of a authentic and uneasy feeling.

"This is creepy." I uttered our despite my lungs feeling they were going to collapse .

"Something isn't right...." Itsuki agreed.

"Let's explore more." Ren nodded to us and then his six party members.

I didn't bother to learn their names and no one was really talking much, we were more interested in investigating the whole area and hopefully finding a way out of here.

~*~

We stumbled upon an undecorated room and judging by the straw bed and uniforms in the wardrobe it was that of a servant .

Not finding anything of use on this floor, we climbed the stairs to the second floor.

The stairs groaned under our weight, I was afraid they were going to collapse but alas we all made it safely to the second floor .

Entering the first door on the left, I found my self in a library of sorts or maybe it was some sort of study, perhaps a mix of both.

Looking around there were several bookcases and a desk with various objects.

I stepped closer to the desk and noticed an open book, grabbing it, I checked the cover only to see a book how cults.

"How creepy...." I put it down not wanting to scare myself more than I already was.

Holding back a scream, my body jolted in shock as a hand made contact with my shoulder .

Whipping around so fast I got whiplash, I noticed Itsuki giving me a worried look.

"I just came to see if you found anything useful but it seems I may have startled you." He sighed .

I let out a breath of relief , "I'm sorry I'm just anxious this place gives me the creeps."

"No need to apologise , it gives me the creeps too." Itsuki looked around the dark room anxiously , "So find anything?"

"Not anything useful." I held up the book to show him the cover , "Just some creepy ass book about cults."

Deciding there wasn't much more in the library, we were about to leave when I spotted a door in the darkened corner .

Some sort of secret room?

It was quite small, in it was a bookshelf with books about rituals and a big, oak chest stood in on corner of the room.

In the other stood a skeleton, clutching a letter in it's hand.

It read:

My most pathetic servant,
I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers
of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my earth.
You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.
Your dread lord and master, Strahd von Zarovich

What was this? It didn't make any sense, disregarding the letter we continued to search the other rooms but it seemed mostly normal except it didn't seem like anyone had been living here for a long time .

~*~

It was then we came to a locked door, but wanting to do a thorough investigation, we broke it down and was met by the sight of two skeletons of children in the middle of what seemed to be a bedroom.

Their clothes were tattered but they were wearing the same as those of the children who lured us in here.

I knew it, I knew something wasn't right.
But, I can't say I was expecting this.

"Oh God.." Itsuki mumbled under his breath, searching the dusty room for anything of importance .

When Itsuki accidentally nudged what looked to be a chest full of toys, a childish voice spoke, startling us both, making us jump in shock.

"Don't touch that."

It was the girl and the boy, as ghosts? They were hovering just above the skeletons.

The wall suddenly shifted to reveal a staircase leading to the attic.

~*~

After searching the attic, we discovered a secret door identical to the one on the dollhouse . Was the dollhouse based off this house?

There was yet again another staircase but this time leading down, it was so long I couldn't see the bottom.

Me , Ren and Itsuki exchanged a look.

We were all exhausted from not eating in hours and exploring this house, but we had to find a way out. We can't just die here.

~*~

There are many rooms in the dungeon , in one of them were books with weird markings.

Everything was coming together though, this was some sort of weird cult.

Was that why the children thought a monster was in the basement? Their parents must've been a part of this cult.

Perhaps even the leaders, no doubt they sacrificed people for it.

The children must've heard the horrendous screams and got curious.

So the parents told them there was a monster so they wouldn't investigate and find out the truth. What a messed up and twisted world.

Turning into the last room, it seemed to be the room where all the rituals took place.

There were multiple blood stains and black marking on the floor. Even a few rotting corpses .

The stench was horrible and made me sick.

From the silence , a loud rumbling noise was heard as this demonic being started to blindly attack us.

It was far to strong for us to take, and the other knew it.

We ran through the spiralling passageways of the dungeon in hopes it would eventually give up the pursuit but yet it followed us.

A shrill screech sounded, echoing across the never ending hallways .

Somehow we made it out of the dungeon , and as soon as we did it just stopped following us.

~*~

Now we were back at the front door and surprisingly it was unlocked , I didn't know how or why.

All I knew was I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible .

No one so much as uttered a word after that horrifying experience , we just parted ways and that was that.

So much for a fun adventure together .

~*~

All I could see and here were the soft thuds of my footsteps and the monster much louder ones .

Getting closer and closer until....

With a gasp, I shot up in my bed and looked around the room. Nothing was there.

It was just a dream, but at the same time it wasn't , we did see a monster.

And I don't even know how we all survived like we did, it seemed like some sort of cursed miracle .

Maybe I would've preferred dying to having to live with this fear for the rest of my life .

Touching my face, I found it wet with tears.

I walked into the bathroom rinsing my face and looking into the mirror.

God, I looked horrendous , big bags surrounded my eyes, making it look like I hadn't slept in days.

Truth be told, I hadn't .

I couldn't get to sleep, not after that dream, it was all so surreal.

As much as I didn't want to bother Itsuki, I found myself outside of his hotel room about to knock on the door.

What was I doing? What if he was peacefully asleep?

But then again, how could anyone peacefully sleep after that?

My fear clouding my thoughts, I went ahead and knocked anyway.

To my surprise , Itsuki opened it almost instantly, as if he wasn't even trying to sleep.

He adorned the same dark circle under his eyes as I did.

"I-I couldn't sleep." I stated avoiding eye contact.

Itsuki smiled tiredly and softly, "Yeah me too, but I'm so tired ."

Swiftly , he pulled me into the room and shut the door.

We both stood there for a few minutes , neither of us knowing what to do or say.

"We really need to get some sleep." Itsuki offered a crooked smile.

"Right." I played with my fingers nervously and turned to leave.

Surprise was evident on my face when a hand gripped my wrist.

I then felt myself be pulled down into Itsuki's bed.

"H-huh? W-what?" I spluttered my face turning red as I didn't know what to say.

Itsuki pulled the covers over us, "Well, we both need sleep and we both know sleeping alone is near to impossible . Even if you don't sleep at least try to relax.

No more words we exchanged as I melted into his arms, also wrapping my hands around him.

I traced circles and other random patterns soothingly on one of his arms as I felt a hand gently brushing through my hair.

Eventually, my eyes grew heavy and I was lured to sleep in his comforting embrace and moments after I felt asleep, he did too, as his hand fell from my hair and rested on the mattress.

~*~

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2324 words

A/n I wasn't really sure about this chapter I didn't really have any ideas hence why it is slightly shorter than the others, this was actually based off a DnD adventure about a cult in a basement because I didn't have any adventure ideas