Mystery Noir

Little Monsters Part 6

By the time my mind caught up with my body, I had taken a couple steps back and had my knife half-pulled out of its sheath. But whatever that creature had been, had not attacked. The clatter of talons echoed down the hallway away from us until the runaway beat of my heart drowned out the noise.

"So, we've confirmed that there are little creatures here." I murmured breathlessly, drawing an equally tense laugh from Penny beside me.

"I think there's more than Urisks." Penny had her thoughtful expression on. "And where they seem to not want to attack, depending on the species, they may get more aggressive if cornered or if we stumble into their homes."

I shoved my knife back into its sheath and nodded. I shook my body out, trying to release the tension as I focused on breathing to calm my nerves. "Right. Which is understandable. And it might be the symbols and things that are keeping people out, as opposed to their antics. But they're also keeping whatever that thing is, out too."

Penny frowned softly. "And we don't know why it wants in."

I shrugged and glanced around curiously, using my flashlight to see through the near darkness of the room. With the door closed, there was not much sunlight getting in, though my eyes were adjusting.  "Maybe it likes Urisks."

Whatever was in this castle with us didn't feel malicious.

Maybe scary because I didn't know what it was or where it was coming from. I didn't like the scattered sounds of footsteps racing around from every direction. But I felt bad for the creatures.  However long this place had been empty, it had become their home, and they probably thought we were there to hurt them.

That thing out there was malicious. I didn't need to sit down and have a heart to heart with it to feel certainty in the depth of my sole that it would hurt anything and everything it could.

Instead of following the three eyed creature down the hallway under the stair cases, we turned and walked through the portal to the right, following a short hall past a couple of empty closets into what appeared to be a library and study.

No longer furnished and with shelves that were mostly bare, the room was empty except for a couple stray papers, a couple books lying forgotten in the corners of shelves and a dusty black box on the top shelf in the far end of the room. 

It was one of those libraries with shelves so tall that it came with its own rolling ladder, though this one hung haphazardly from the railing, creating a diagonal in front of the massive stone fireplace. The pillars on either side of the fireplace were nearly as tall as I was, and in the shape of rearing unicorns, three dimensional and turned inwards, their hooves stretched out and forming the mantle.

"Whoever built this was really dramatic, you know?" I murmured, drawing a snort from Penny as I walked over to the ladder and tried to put it back on the railing.

Penny wandered around the room, glancing behind curtains and picking up stray pieces of paper from the shelves, dusting them off to read them before placing them back down.

After struggling for a bit, I finally hooked it in and rolled it back and forth to test the thing, then shook it, though the clatter the movement made had me jerking in surprise. I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath, trying to tell myself to stay calm, but the tension of being in a giant castle filled with little supernatural creatures, and surrounded by a barely holding ward that was the only thing keeping out some creature that was wandering around killing people was putting me on edge.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Penny murmured with amusement as she grabbed a small black book down off a shelf, having climbed up onto the lowest shelf to reach the thing. 

As she dropped to the floor and turned her attention to the book, I rolled the ladder over to the farthest corner of the room and tested the first couple rungs. "May as well check the box. We have no idea what that thing is trying to get at."

I didn't want to think about what would happen if I found what the creature wanted. Sure it would help understand it, if we were lucky. But would I take its target with me and thus cause the thing to hunt me down? Or would I leave it here and hope that the wards could hold up.

How long had it been trying to get in?

I ruminated as I climbed up the ladder slowly, testing it for wobbles or weaknesses until I was at the right height to reach the box. Then I turned to look at Penny, who was reading something in the small book as she idly reached out to pull another book off the shelf.

"This... is like a diary... half in English, half in those strange symbols..." Penny murmured absently.

She pulled the book just as I grabbed the box from the shelf.

There was a bit of tension from the box, then two clicks, before the ground opened up under me and the ladder rungs turned over, creating a slid where a steady foothold once was. I panicked and gripped the box tightly with both hands, though it merely came away with me as I slid down into the floor.

The last thing I saw before I fell into complete darkness was Penny being pulled through an opening where the bookshelf had been by several pairs of little furry hands.

My drop wasn't very long, thankfully. I hit solid wood when the dim light of the library was only about a foot above my head, my flashlight clattering beside me. Shadows danced wildly as the light rolled in a circle and I groaned softly. I found myself in a squished form of sitting position with my knees pressing into my chest, my jaw hurrting after I had kneed myself in the face

My tailbone was going to hurt in the morning, but I wasn't broken. Penny on the other hand, was a mystery So I grabbed the light, shining it around to show me that I was in some hidden compartment between a false floor and real floor. It was about four feel deep and the little space I was in was only about six feet by six feet. The walls were made of wood and the place was empty of anything but dust and spider webs.  The doorway hung down from where it had dropped to expose the hole, swinging back and forth ever so slightly.

With a shake of my head I stood, tall enough that my head and shoulders were above the hole I slid the box onto the floor and climbed out, running my hand along the marble, which appeared to be fake, or thin enough that it rested easily on the wooden walls.

I turned in a panic toward where Penny had been, seeing only the tiny black book resting open on the floor, the bookshelf back in place, though the shelf was empty when I reached it in a couple short steps, and no matter how I pushed or pulled on the book case, I couldn't get the thing to open.

"For fucks sakes..." I kicked the wall, only to hear a hollow echo somewhere beyond the secret entrance way and jar my toes and leg with the solid surface of the bookshelf.

"What's a fuck?" A tiny voice asked behind me.

I hesitated, then turned around slowly, trying not to spook whatever was in the room with me.