Chapter 10

Nothing but dark. Darkness and the lightest flickers of the oil lamps that lined the walls.

Once Elana had exited the room, leaving the man calling himself Suho and the wolf behind, she had turned down the hall not really paying attention to where she was going. All that she wanted was to find the exit. Normally a simple task, but soon she realized that finding the exit in this place would prove to be difficult. The hallway Elana had run into was long, and full of doors. Using her logical side she determined none of the doors in the hallway would lead out, they were probably bedrooms or such, so she ran straight down the hallway ignoring the doors altogether. Hoping instead for an entryway to another part of the house. Well, not really a house. The place she was currently at was much larger than a house, fancier too. At least it was fancier than Luhan and Kris's dwelling. Definitely not palace, or mansion status in terms of decoration. In fact, even though she only gave subtle glances, the place seemed a bit creepy. Like Hogwarts at night, Count Dracula status.

The empty halls echoed as she ran through them, her bare feet going numb against the cold stone floors. The lamps casting strange shadows of herself against the walls. Elana rounded a corner, her eyes searching for any sign of an exit.

There, an opening in the wall. Elana ran towards it, skidding to a stop. Stairs, and they were heading down. But the stairwell had no light; the lamps ending at the top. Elana glanced back down the hallway, there was still more hallway she could go down, hallway that had light. She glanced back at the stairs, but down usually meant ground level. Ground level meant front door, which meant exit. But why was there no light? Elana took a step down, hesitating. Hallway or stairs?

"Elana, wait!"

Elana snapped her head in the direction the voice called from. They were finally coming after her. Without a second thought Elana ran down the stairs, gripping her personal belongings closer to her body. Almost as if it would ward off the darkness. As she got further down, the light that had been coming from the hallway became less and less. Making her travel down more difficult. Hard enough that she had to slow down to a careful crawl. Searching for the next step with one foot before stepping down and then continuing the process. As she worked her way down the spiraling stairs, light started to seep into her vision once again. Elana’s speed picked up as she reached the light source.

A single lamp was hanging on the wall, next to a large wooden door. Elana walked up to the door, noticing a metal latch locking the door shut. Elana placed her hand on the latch, pulling it open. The metal letting out a deafening screech. Elana cringed at the noise, a sound a thousand times worse than nails on a chalkboard, and much louder. Elana knew the sound would signal her whereabouts. Hurriedly she pushed against the door in attempts to open it. It didn't budge. Elana huffed in frustration, then grabbing the door’s handle she leaned into the door, pushing all of her weight against it. The door creaked open slowly. Elana pushed the door until there was a large enough crack to slip past.

The first thing Elana noticed once she had slipped passed the door, was the late morning sun shining down on her. At first  glance Elana believed she had finally made it outside. She made a fist pump of success. Only to realize after that she wasn't actually outside. She was in fact in a strange, cave-like room. It had a large hole in the high ceiling, which allowed for light from outside to make its way in, but the rest was nothing but stone.

The part of the room she was standing in was fairly bright due to the sun, but the rest of the area was covered in dark shadows. Elana squinted her eyes trying to see past the dark for any type of exit. As her eyes adjusted she started to make out some shapes in the shadows. Her eyes locked onto a wall, a image being created in her head. It started out as curved lines, but as more details fell into place, Elana was able to make out what she was looking at. Chains, there were chains attached to the walls. Multiple ones all around the room, connected to different parts of the walls. She shuddered realizing where she had entered, the dungeon.

As she took a step back to leave, a low growl echoed through the room, bouncing off the stone walls. Soon after a second growl joined the first. Elana in a breath, slowly turning to find where the sound was coming from. Just off to her right, in an especially dark corner were two pairs of glowing eyes.

Elana knew enough about dogs to know the eyes before her were the eyes of canines, she prayed they were the eyes of dogs. But the most recent conversation she had with Suho played in her mind, and she knew that she had not walked into a room full of dogs. No, she had walked into a dungeon full of wolves.

Elana began to back away, shuffling on her feet to avoid falling, as she blindly searched for the door behind her. As Elana moved back the two wolves began to move forward, moving into the sun's light. They were frighteningly beautiful, both were dark in color, the one closest to her had fur that was black with deep brown spattering, it's eyes a golden gray. The wolf only slightly behind, was a bit larger than the first. It's fur black, mixed with  a dark gray, the black fading down the legs until just the gray remained.  Elana noticed the wolf had a small tuft of white fur