Wander

//Noises in the Dark//

Wander was starting to develop an extreme distaste of the castle the longer he found himself trapped within the confines of its walls. Every noise - from the smallest drip of water trickling down the walls to the largest groans of protest that emanated from every oak door that was touched - somehow became scarier than it should have been. In the unnatural light, in the isolation, in the current situation, each stray noise sounded like scurrying footsteps, and every squeaky hinge sounded like the roar from the faceless monster.

Why could he have not lost his memory at some tropical beach - where there was more than enough sunlight to go around that everyone could share, and still have plenty left over?

The trip back down the hallway has been rather uneventful. Wander made sure to keep a close eye on the walls for another torch because he was starting to get worried about his current one. It had been burning for quite a long period of time, and had yet to change appearance - it has not grown dimmer, nor has it started to slowly die. Sadly, he had yet to see anything on the empty walls but more empty scones, awaiting a torch of their own to fill them.

After a short time, Wander passed the room that he had awoken in originally, passing by it. He had done a thorough search of it when he was there - no sense in wasting time, and or going into a confined space. He couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that he was being watched by his stalker, but had yet to catch another glimpse of him.

Compared to the direction Wander had originally chosen to go upon exiting the room, the hallway that he ventured down currently ended after only a handful of minutes of brisk walking. It did not lead anywhere. A dead end. A solid wall of stone.

Holding the torch closer, Wander could feel his stomach give a large leap as he inspected the substance splattered against the stones - dried blood. It was splattered everywhere as if someone had intended to paint the wall but got bored and moved onto a more important task.

Before he lost his nerve, he turned back, setting back down the hallway. Maybe he had missed something in the larger area he had been at? He would have to check it out, but not before he investigated the original room that he has been in first. Maybe he had missed something.

The room looked much like how it has been when Wander left it, with the candles still burning on wax that Wander could swear was not melting as it should. He didn't let the thought linger as he already had enough on his hands than worry about things as trivial as candle wax. He walked into the room slowly, only satisfied once he was entirely sure that it was empty and didn't house anything dangerous.

Wander saw the detail he had missed almost immediately - now that he could ward off unwelcome shadows with his torch - another door that was tucked into the back corner of the room. He wasn't surprised that he had missed it in his initial panic of waking up with no memory whatsoever.

Approaching the door slowly, Wander was relieved that for once, the hinges did not let out loud sounds of any kind - it opened smoothly and soundlessly. Quickly, he entered the new room, closing the door behind him.

The first thing that stood out was the sunlight that streamed into the area from two large windows on the far wall. It was a welcome change from the enveloping darkness that Wander had been dealing with recently.

This room was larger than the one he had hid in while the faceless nightmare chased him - it housed multiple rows of shelves, all filled to the brim with books of all sizes and colors. It would have been considered quaint had the circumstances played out differently.

Wander kept to the walls, moving around the row after row, not bothering to look in them - he would waste too much time if he tried to search for anything in the massive collection of books. He kept moving until he standing in front of the large window, looking out in hopes of finding any way out of this cursed place, or at least some sign of civilization nearby.

Neither of his hopes turned out to be true.

The glass was thicker than he had expected, and he didn't think it would do any good even if he could get out this way. As far as the eye could see, Wander could make out the very top of pine tree after pine tree, a sea of green that went on so far into the distance that he could not distinguish where, if ever, it ended. And the scary part was that he could ONLY see the very top of each tree, for starting a few feet lower was a thick layer of fog, blanketing the ground so that Wander could not make out where the ground was. It could be a hundred feet, or only ten, and that uncertainty kept him from trying to find a way to get out of the castle this way.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, he turned around, scratching the back of his head. If he couldn't see the ground, then that meant that he would have to find a way to head to ground level, if that was even possible. And even then, who knew if he could guess the correct way to get out of the castle?

Instead of worrying about things that couldn't be changed now, he instead focused his efforts on finding a way out of the library. He knew that he had to keep moving, regardless of how much safer he felt here than anywhere else he had been up to this point - an almost unnatural fear of the faceless figure made Wander want to not stay in one place to long. Staying still would do nothing but eventually lead to another run in with his adversary.

Wander kept moving, staying to the walls once more, searching for a way out of where he was. His answer came in the form of two large metal doors with intricate designs blanketing the dull metal underneath. Once again, the same two dragons that he had seen on the tapestry he had inspected where depicted in a way that awed him. Each scale on the dragon's hide was a different color, no two exactly the same shade or hue. In all, it was a spectacular display, crafted masterfully so that the light that streamed into the room hit the gems at such an angle that they threw their colors onto the walls in a spectacular fashion.

In this instance, the two dragons seemed to be fighting one another for reasons left up to the beholders imagination. He couldn't look at it for long before the colors started to hurt his eyes anyways, so he didn't bother trying to make sense of the jumbled figures. It was a waste of precious time anyways.

Prepping himself, he took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping into whatever new horrors lay beyond.