She couldn't give up. For the fourth time that day, she decided that she would do everything to avoid being stuck in the tunnels forever. Because that's not what they were designed for - not to kill potential searchers. Dagmara saw it more as a sifting process, the tunnels sifted out people who threatened the mansion from those who were only seeking the truth, that is, from her. She didn't come for gold, because she didn't even know if it existed, she came there for information about what secrets the members of the residence had not shared with her.
The points towards which she was walking disappeared in the fog. She felt cold, even colder than when the icy water covered her entire body. At that moment, she didn't think about the cold, her natural instinct was to survive. Now, she couldn't focus on anything else. She wandered along the walls, her teeth chattering partly from the cold, partly from fear. She kept listening to see if anything was approaching having learned from recent events, and her eyesight was also strained to react properly in time, in case of danger. She felt as if she heard something, it wasn't an opera aria, but something barely audible, as if a thin, female voice was humming something like a lullaby. The voice scared her, she hadn't expected to find anyone there. But the lullaby didn't stop, on the contrary, it resounded on the bare walls of the tunnel, followed by an echo.
"Is there anyone here?" Dagmara asked, but in such a miserable voice that she was sure no one even heard.
Strangely enough, the singer who was humming the song stopped mid-word, not finishing the verse. Dagmara frowned, wondering what that meant. Was there really a person somewhere? She never thought something would scare her as much as this situation. She felt like the main character in some bad horror movie. The only thing she dreamed about was for this tunnel to finally end. She saw two points in the distance again, two lights. As she looked at them more and more closely, she began to suspect them of an ambush. However, she could not deviate from the road, because it led only in one direction, just opposite the lights.
The fog that surrounded her caused her clothes to remain wet, as well as her hair, which didn't even have a chance to dry. Steam was coming out of her mouth and she held her icy hands clenched tightly into fists, as if that would help warm her up. When she heard a sound behind her, she turned around in an instant, trying to identify the sound.
"Is there anyone here?" she repeated the question.
She sped up. It seemed to her that the longer she stayed in this tunnel, the more likely it was that she would lose her mind. She felt someone behind her, not trying to catch up or pass her, but to scare her to death. It slowed down when she slowed down, caught up when she sped up. It was like a game of cat and mouse, except no one pretended to know who was who. She was a mouse who didn't know how to escape.
The two lights were now dangerously close. They were somewhere below, so they couldn't be the candles she first thought of. Besides, they had a different shape. They were slanted and looked nothing like flames.
She almost touched the ceiling when the "lights" moved towards her. She found herself between a rock and a hard place - on the one hand, an invisible person behind her, on the other, moving points. She stood still, doing the only thing she could think of - she closed her eyes, waiting to see what she would reach her first. Soon the moment came, she felt something fluffy brushing against her legs, a feeling she was familiar with since she moved into the mansion.
"Tie?" she asked, bending down.
The relief she felt caused her to lift Tie up, kissing him on the nose. The two points she saw in the fog belonged to him - his large, cat-like eyes glowing in the dark.
"It's so good that it's you," she said to the cat, although of course she realized that he didn't understand her.
The animal wanted to get away, but she didn't let him go because she was afraid he would escape. She moved on, but every now and then she glanced back to see if anyone was following her. She couldn't express her theory officially, but somewhere in her mind she thought that the mysterious apparition would stop harassing her now, just for Tie's sake.
YOU ARE READING
LAMIAE
FantasyDagmara moves from a city to a small town, to her grandmother, who lives in a mansion in the forest. In a mysterious way, she becomes the owner of the unusual diary of Victoria , who died two years ago. She learns that Victoria was killed by the Cou...
