***

"Ow..."

Tao groaned and slowly blinked his eyes open. He felt like he was beaten down by a horde of monsters, feeling dizzy and in pain. Doing his best, he carefully sat up, slowly moving his fingers and toes, his limbs, and examined his injuries. Somewhere he felt relieved that he was still alive, but the moment he thought of Lay and Luhan, he panicked again.

"Lu-ge! Lay-ge!" his voice echoed through the strange room he found himself in, and he quickly covered his mouth, afraid that he might attract the attention of something horrific. When he looked up, Tao saw that he fell through a shaft into this other mystery chamber. Where was he now?

Trying to get up to his feet, Tao looked around him. There were dim lights here, but he was surrounded by tall walls that disoriented him. He took a tentative step forward and felt like sinking back down to his knees.

A maze. He couldn't look over the walls and when he saw the many ways he could get lost in, he felt exhausted already. Wasn't this too much? Hoe was he going to find his way around here?

Exhaling again, Tao smacked his own cheeks and shook himself up. "Enough of the whining, Tao! Everyone calls you a baby, it's because you act like this! You have to focus! Lu-ge and Lay-ge didn't get left behind for no reason. You have to find the others quickly so you can get back to them quickly as well. Be a man!" he scolded himself strictly, his own words giving him some more courage, even if it was minimal.

"Okay, now, which way should I go?" he looked around, trying not to lose his determination as he carefully stepped forward. He tried sniffing the air, but it smelled foul, almost rotten. His wolf senses were useless here.

Tao shivered as he thought about what the house had shown him so far. The fact that he couldn't use his senses and that they seemed to have dulled gave him goosebumps. He didn't want to think about it, but maybe, just maybe, this haunted house really wasn't an attraction at all. How could a scare actor emerge from the well like that and crawl after him whilst going through a freaking door? That door was solid, but maybe that ghost really wasn't.

Aiyah! He got jittery all over again just thinking about it, his heart pounding while his sense of paranoia kicked back in. Maybe it would be easier if he treated everything in here as being real, so maybe his braver wolf instincts would kick in and give him the courage he needed to keep going.

"You can do this, Zitao, you can do this," he whispered to himself, turning a corner and hoping that it wouldn't lead to a dead end, in the figurative and literal sense.

When he found that he had walked a good few minuted in relative peace and quiet, he managed to relax just a little bit. No one seemed to be following him, and the only thing that scared him now and then, was his own moving shadow, cast by the flaming torches that hung on the wall. Maybe this was like one of those mirror mazes at carnivals, meant to disorient him and make him more anxious, while really, there wasn't anything for him to worry about. At least, he hoped that was the case.

Using this quiet opportunity to glance around properly, Tao noticed that the walls were dirty and old. But, they seemed to be damaged as well. There were deep gashes in them, but he couldn't imagine what could have made those in the stone. He also saw splatters of liquid, but he quickly moved away from those.

"Left, or right?" he muttered to himself, coming to another dissection. If only he could somehow climb the steep, tall walls, and look over them. That would make his life so much easier.

"Let's go left," he said, when a strong, pungent smell made him gag. "Nope, right it is!" he corrected himself, whining under his breath when he had to make his way through dirt and other unidentified filth on the path. It was ruining his sneakers, and he had paid so much for them, too. He forced himself to move faster, if not for the sake of his sneakers, than for the mere fact that he was wasting far too much time already.

Tao was worrying about Luhan and Lay, but he had faith in them that they could take care of themselves. At least they had each other, which was not something he could say for himself, being left alone with his shadow. Now that he looked at the wall, even his shadow had another shadow friend to keep him company, whereas he was all alone and– wait.

Taking a double-take that nearly gave him a whiplash, Tao noticed how his shadow was painted on the wall, next to another one. However, when he looked behind him, there was no standing there. He hadn't paid attention to the corridor beside him, thinking that he should just keep going until there was another intersection for him to choose from. He peeked inside the corridor, and saw a massive fire place, and an enormous creature standing before it.

Quickly covering his own mouth to prevent screaming his lungs out, he moved away from the entrance and leaned against the wall. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as his brain tried to process what he had seen. He made sure not to step into the light, afraid that his shadow would betray him.

What had he just seen?

Tao continued to cover his mouth as he crushed his eyes shut, hearing the creature grunt and breathing heavily. Watching the creature's shadow moving on the opposite wall, he saw that it paced about, dragging something along while growling viciously.

If he didn't know any better, he was staring at the silhouette of a minotaur. Of course, this could never actually be one, but he knew that it was a monster. Its proportions and shapes were off. Even though it didn't have horns or feet the shape of a goat, the creature was enormous, with long arms and big hands that nearly dragged over the floor.

He wasn't sure, but Tao thought its fingers shaped themselves into sharp talons, and Tao pushed himself further against the wall to prevent being spotted when he heard the creature sniff. Not wanting to take any risk of meeting that thing, he lowered himself down on the floor in mild disgust and crawled ever so carefully forward. He bit down on his lip hard when he saw fragments of bones scattered over the floor, pretending that they were oddly shaped rocks to be able to continue moving.

As silent as a mouse, Tao quickly maneuvered away, stopping only when he thought he was safe. He leaned against the wall, peeking from behind it to see if the creature had noticed something. He sighed in relief when there was no sign of the thing, though it worried him slightly that he also couldn't see the monster's shadow on the wall. He mentally smacked himself. How could he have been so careless? He should have known better than to let his guard down in a place like this!

"It's okay, Zitao, you're fine," he whispered softly to himself, closing his eyes for a moment while leaning against the wall, taking a breather.

He frowned the moment he started noticing that the breathing he heard didn't match his own, and that was when the cold sweat broke loose. Panting, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a gigantic monster looming over him, watching him, breathing on him.

Its talons were scraping against the floor as its face slowly opened up like a terrible flower in bloom. Its pallid skin slowly opened up, piece by piece, revealing a horrid, bloodied face and gaping, dislocated mouth, roaring at him.

Tao screamed as if his liver had fallen from his body, his reflexes quick enough to duck and roll out of harms way when the monster attacked him. He grabbed whatever he could and threw it at the creature, momentarily stunning him. He had to think on his feet.

Come on, Tao, you're trained for this! What to do? Hurry!

>>> FIGHT THE MONSTER! KUNG FU ITS SCARY ! <<<

>>> WHY DID YOU STOP TO THINK AT ALL? RUN, PANDA BOY, RUN! <<<