“Hahahaha…” A hollow laughter reverberated across the metal tunnel.
The silver-haired girl, sitting on the metal floor, laughed strangely. Her shoulders bounced up and down with each laugh.
“So, you have returned, Alice.” Cerberus limped from the room. His long black hair messily swayed around him. He lost his hair tie after the powerful blow from the green-skinned orc.
She stopped laughing and looked over her shoulder at Cerberus, tears falling from her eyes.
“So, mind telling me why you brought him?” Cerberus knelt beside her with a smile. He was still carrying his separated arm in his hands. 𝒪𝗏𝓛xt.𝗇t
“I don’t know. My memories are fuzzy.” She grabbed her head with a painful look. “I thought… I had changed. I wanted to become his friend, I think.”
“Why did you want to become his friend?”
“I don’t know. He looked so helpless, like a crippled puppy.” She had a look of realization and nodded. “Yeah, he was my first patient, and I felt connected to him. However, to me, he was never a human.
“He was like a helpless puppy.”
“Yeah, you are the old Alice I know.” Cerberus chuckled and stood up. “How do I look in your eyes?”
“Angry dog. Very angry.” Serenity replied with a trembling voice. Her hands shook as she looked at them. “Everyone around me is an animal of some kind. I can’t see any of them as humans.”
Cerberus smirked and shook his head. He walked away with his separated arm in hand.
“People change, my ass. Heh.” Cerberus lifted his head and saw that the green-skinned orc had disappeared somewhere. “Well then, where the fuck did that little bastard run off to?”
…
The specks of dirt rolled down a small hill. The ceiling had collapsed, blocking the way back. Then a hand appeared from the dirt hill. The hand clawed its way forward until the person’s face appeared in the dirt.
Ambrose gasped greedily for air and rolled to his side. His clothes were covered in dirt.
“That orc…” He groaned and stood up with a creaking back. “My assumption was correct. The orc isn’t some mindless creature. The information about the whistle was false. The orc has sentience, and if it gets attacked, of course it will fight back.
“However, I thought Cerberus would be able to put up a better fight so I could escape… Luckily, I managed to escape the attack barely.”
Ambrose then looked around, wondering where he was. It was now even darker as the fallen ceiling blocked the path to the room where he came from. There was only one way left, and that was to go forward.
“I have to keep moving. I have to.” He steeled his resolve, but he couldn’t hide his sadness. He had now lost every person in his life. He was all alone.
“It will get better; trust yourself.” Ambrose dragged his feet behind him as he moved in the darkness. “They are not people to lose your sleep over. After darkness, there is light. Come on!”
Smack—he slapped his cheeks hard and let out a laugh. He laughed his frustration out, and soon he came across the end of the path.
A brown door, filled with strange engravings and embedded with green veins, blocked the entrance.
Ambrose bit his lip and felt like cursing aloud.
“No…” He slammed his fist against the wall and looked at the brown door in frustration. “I took the wrong path? I can’t believe this… I can’t return either!”
Drip, drop—small water droplets fell from the ceiling and landed before the brown door.
Ambrose looked over at the ceiling and suddenly started smiling.
“Haha, sneaky.”
There was a hole in the ceiling. It looked like a natural-made hole, and there were veins going into the hole and moving across the path to the top. The veins acted like ladders.
Ambrose started climbing up and soon entered the ceiling hole. He couldn’t see anything around him but knew that there would be something at the top. Thus, he started climbing, carefully moving his hands and feet around the veins.
A short while later, his head popped up from something and he could finally see other things than vine, tree roots and dirt. It was dark room, but there was another brown door. This time, it had door handle!
Ambrose jumped out of the hole and looked across the room. It had dusty bookshelves, withered flowers growing from the soil-filled floor, and a large window that was covered in thick dust.
He walked to the window and tried wiping the dust off, but it was to no avail. It looked like the window was simply made of hazy glass. As if the owner of this room didn’t want anyone to see outside.
Tap, tap—he tried tapping on the glass to see whether it would do anything. He even debated whether he should try to break it, but gave up the idea as there was a door out of this room.
The door might not lead to the outside, but it would lead to the next objective.
Ambrose walked to the door and opened it. He saw a hallway with framed paintings and a staircase leading down. There were also handrails where one could lean and see the floors below.
He closed the door behind him and grabbed the handrails. There seemed to be several floors, but he focused his gaze on the lounge of the strange place. There was a door that looked like it would lead outside.
It seemed like a mansion, which he had seen in old movies, yet it was clearly abandoned a long time ago. Dirt with tree roots had broken through several of the walls, and there were some holes in the roof.
‘It seems like this place is buried deep inside the mountain. Whose place was this?’ Ambrose wondered as he climbed down the stairs.
After reaching the floor below, there were several dusty doors that led to different rooms.
Ambrose looked around and noticed a small lantern on the wall. Strangely, its candle was lit up as if it were incapable of dying down. He curiously picked it up and used it as a source of light as he moved to other rooms.
The rooms were empty and desolate, but they looked like they had been used as bedrooms before.
After ensuring that all rooms were empty, he moved onto the bottom floor and stopped in the middle of the lounge. There were several openings, leading to a dark kitchen and living room with dusty furniture. However, one thing caught his attention.
There was a circular brown door filled with strange engravings and embedded with small jewels. It was situated at the end of the lounge, leading deeper into the mansion.
It surprised Ambrose because why would there be an unopenable door.
“Could it be that this door can actually be opened?” Ambrose moved to the door and traced his finger across the engravings and small jewels. “Maybe there is actually a key to open this? Maybe it’s somewhere in this buried mansion.”
“Are you looking for this?”
Ambrose drew his sword and looked towards the staircase. After seeing the person, he slightly lowered his sword but didn’t sheathe it.
“Hmm, where is Cerberus?” Andromeda asked while jingling the keys in her hand. The keys looked strange, as if they were rusting, but they also looked like they were made of dirt, soil, and pieces of tree root.
“Uh, it’s you.” Ambrose gulped and dryly laughed. “Mind giving me the keys?”
“Hmm, on one condition!” Andromeda put the keys in front of her lips and giggled.
“What is it?” Ambrose moved towards the staircase with his sword behind his back.
“You have to catch me first!” Andromeda shouted and ran upstairs. “Hurry up, slowpoke. Haha!”
“Damn it!” Ambrose sheathed his sword and rushed after the little girl.