The Devil's Spawn

ACT VI: TRAPPED

"What was that loud noise?" Amber questioned from the floor above, her bottom lip quivering in fear. I look forward to the show, it said and it gave the brunette a sense of foreboding.

King ignored the said girl and pounded on the door, but as if it were made out of heavy metal, it did not budge. His adept fingers examined the door in hopes of discovering some sort of mechanism that made the door locked even without a padlock. Alas, the boy could only feel the coldness from the wooden door and nothing more.

"Damn it!" He cursed and Prism watched over him with furrowed brows. By now, the rest of the group had come down to witness what was going on.

"Did it close on its own?" Hori asked.

"Again," Hiro added. The male twin attached himself to Hori in fear, which the girl found annoying. Unfortunately for her, Hiro was just as strong as her and did not budge no matter how hard she shoved him off of her.

"Great, we are trapped and I have a leech with me," the female twin muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"We do know that for sure yet, it is best if we split up and look for other entrance ways." Yue's calm voice reverberated in the empty hall, his deep tone soothing the bubbling panic. "King, I will leave this door to you. Kou, you may bring anyone, except my sister—"

"Aw, come on!"

"And go to the left side, I will go look in the right, Leon will lead the search on the rest and look for something that we may be able to use," Yue ordered, ignoring Kou's side comment expressing his disappointment. The rest nodded and scrambled to form into groups.

Princess immediately teamed up with Yue, and naturally, Sky followed. Nana and Onyx went with Leon to pester him, much to the redhead's irritation. Prism had no other choice but to follow her brother who insisted she stay close to him. Sora, with his inquisitive quality, tagged with Kou. Rose and Amber went with the ginger-haired male, their notepad and camera ready. Lastly, the twins remained with King, choosing to examine the entirety of the massive hall — which they have yet to search thoroughly.

With no luck, King kicked on the door, only for it to remain intact. "Damn, its will is stronger than my will to live"

Hearing his statement, Hori rolled her eyes. "Alright, mister edge lord. Now can you two please come here?" The blonde girl gestured for the two to come closer. Both males found her behind the main staircase, staring at an old portrait. In contrast to the mansion's exterior that looked as good as new, the portrait was damaged with its frame cracked and the image scratched out. Red smudged the remaining faces that were not thorn.

Recognizing what it was, Hiro paled. "Is that dried blood?"

"Can you please not scare yourself further?" Hori reprimanded before pinching her twin on the arm. The other male twin groaned in complaint.

"What am I supposed to think after all that talk about this place's tragic history?"

Ignoring their bickering, King squinted his eyes at the hanging portrait. It was an unusual place to hang a portrait, seeing as how no one would ever see it unless they made an effort to look for it. "This is just a guess, but this might be a family portrait."

"Yeah, I think so too," Hori agreed. Then she pointed to the ground. "I could care less about the portrait though, instead, look at that."

"Claw marks?" Hiro muttered, his figure already squatting to examine the marks that decorated the tiled floor.

"No," the blonde male retracted his words. He touched the marks and confirmed his suspicions. "This is the result of a door being continuously opened, and due to friction, left marks over time." The blonde knocked on the wall in front of him, although it was no doubt made of concrete, they still could tell it was hollow on the other side.

"That is confirmed then, there is definitely a door here. Do we dare to find out?" Hori questioned, one brow raised at the two males she was with. Her gaze held curiosity, and she gazed at the two with a look of challenge in her eyes. Hori waved her camera and the two heaved a sigh before agreeing.

"I mean, what could go wrong?" Hiro shrugged.

"I wish you did not say that, it's those one-liners in horror movies. You say that and then things go awry," King grumbled but he was the first to move to examine the wall for any knob he could twist.

"Geez, will it kill you to be more optimistic about this? You are making me nervous," the male twin complained.

Sadly, the ravinette ignored him. "They must have such a heavy door to scratch a tile."

"And they must have gone into it a lot for the scratch marks to be this bad," Hori added while resisting the urge to stomp on the markings. The girl then reached for the portrait and made a noise of victory. "Eurika!"

The two males jumped in surprise at her sudden loud voice and discovered a small opening behind where the portrait was placed previously. A cold breeze drifted from the hole and Hori — seeing how their heights cannot compare to Yue, Kou, Onyx, or Leon — stepped on her brother's knee with King's hands carefully placed on her hips to steady her as she took a peek on the other side.

"What's inside?" King asked, curiosity getting to him.

"It's very dark, all I can make out are tools, and not the kind used for repairs." Standing on his knee, Hori felt the shiver that ran through Hiro's spine. The girl found nothing else and hopped down.

"There is still no knob anywhere so that's a shame," the girl declared with a sigh of defeat.

Hiro, on the other hand, shook his head in disagreement. "Those tools are already very suspicious—"

"Were they sharp tools? Like knives or axes?" King cut Hiro off, earning him a loud hey from the male twin.

"I think so, yeah. It would be better to examine it closely though."

"I hate to admit it but it seems like we have to wait for the...taller guys to come back," King admitted, albeit hesitatingly.

"Hey! Stop ignoring me!"

And as they pondered on what to do, an ear-piercing scream shook the entire building, jolting each of them out of their thoughts. Words died in their throat as their minds raced. There was no mistaking the voice belonged to one of them.

"That scream belonged to Amber!"