The sound of something massive crashing into the ground below me was followed by a shock wave that threw me forward, tossed with rubble and dust bellowing from where the Basilisk broke through from the lower pipe. 

I rolled forward and allowed the momentum of the force of the blast to propel me forward, pushing my way through the dust obstructing my vision, and I kept running forward. 

Thankfully, before the Basilisk broke through, I had seen the path before me clearly and knew that there was a right turn about five metres ahead of me that I needed to take if I wanted to avoid slamming into the dead end ahead. 

A blood-curdling scream rang out behind me, sending shivers throughout my body and making me want to vomit. I felt hot air blast into the back of my legs, indicating that the basilisk must have only been a few feet away. 

“Slow down, what’s the hurry?” A sweet voice suddenly rang through the halls, making my stomach drop. 

I bit my lip and kept pace. Two metres left. 

“Little Alaina, I am only here to help you, to bring you back to where you belong” “ the voice continued, and I had to blink away tears. Of course, a familiar would think that the actions of its Masters were correct. Just like the pup downstairs, it probably thought that after it caught me and handed me back to its human masters, all we kids got was a brief talking to, and then it was all hugs and kisses and good boy to us. But as kids, we were treated less than familiars. 

“Alaina! It’s not too late to turn back!” The voice cried out, and I could feel a hot tongue lash out and curl around my ankle, yanking me down and causing me to fall flat onto the floor. 

I kicked my leg violently and scrambled back as I did so. 

Turning over to use my hands to push off the tongue, I made the mistake of looking up and found myself frozen in fear. 

A huge cavernous mouth was agape, millions of razor-sharp teeth bared as its long tongue snaked around my ankle, holding firming, prepared to drag me into its mouth and swallow me hole. 

“Don’t be afraid. I only mean to return you to where you belong,” The voice said again, and I could see the tonsils at the back of the cavernous mouth below as the Basilisk spoke. 

I forced myself to snap out of it and scrambled back. I had to put distance between myself and the beast as much as possible, and I couldn’t mistake its sweetness for salvation; who knows if it even would do as it said. Those teeth would probably rip out parts of me before they managed to drag me back to its Master. 

“Silly girl” “ the Basilisk hissed, and its tongue’s grip on my leg tightened, and it began to pull me towards its deathly depth. 

I looked around, saw an exposed pipe, and grabbed it in desperation. As I did so, the Basilisk suddenly froze as if stunned and shocked into stillness. 

That must mean it had reached the end of its rope!

I scrambled to pull myself further up the pipe, and halfway up the wall, the tongue recoiled and retracted back into the Bassilick’s open mouth. 

As it had been slapped, the Basilick snapped its mouth shut and recoiled on itself, hissing and looking around wildly, trying to locate me. Its large golden eyes blinked rapidly, and its tongue darted out, but thanks to the magical barrier, it could not proceed or even see beyond the radius it was restricted to.

I took a deep breath and propelled myself off the pipe and down the passage to the right, crashing into a bunch of crates as It landed and rolled into a sprint to push myself to keep going. 

“I heard you little on! It’s only a matter of time before they catch you; you should have come with me; I would have kept you safe,” The Basilik hissed behind me, but I paid it no mind. The kind-hearted nature of this gigantic creature contrasted their fearsome appearances, and so I couldn’t help but feel sorry for thinking for a minute that it had ill intentions of eating me instead of returning me back to the Winter Manor. Either way, the only one who could keep me safe was me, and only if I made it to the other side of the job fair walls. 

A few more sharp turns, and finally, I found myself jogging through vine-filled tunnels. Cracks in the ceiling indicated that the stones were slowly eroding due to exposure to the elements. This means that mushrooms such as oyster and honey mushrooms had found residents in the old rotting wood from crates and barrels that had been left behind. 

Without hesitating, I scrambled up the first ladder I came across and pushed open the manhole cover that closed off the tunnel from the upper world. As  I expected, I came up in the middle of a country road, with BiBi’s family’s farmland on either side of me. I pulled myself out of the maintenance hole and replaced the cover, making a beeline for the fields I had seen BiBi working in on previous occasions. 

Strangely, even though it was early in the morning, the perfect time to go and start ploughing the fields or sowing seeds, the fields were utterly deserted. I jobed along the paths that cut through different plots of land, and there wasn’t a single person out for miles around. 

That could only mean. 

I looked around and spotted BiBi’s home at the far end of the farmlands. Perhaps everyone was still having breakfast. I suppose on such a momentous day, they all took a holiday to avoid encountering any of the assassins that were out and about, targeting and capturing kids to return them to their families. 

I couldn’t approach the manor head-on, so I headed towards the woods that flanked the farmlands and stayed low, keeping myself on the same level as the bushes and undergrowth to make it hard for those looking at the manor to see me. 

As I approached, I could see two assassins stationed at the front gate, so I headed around the house, looking up at the many windows, trying to remember which one was BiBi’s room. 

I finally saw a room with scratch marks around the window ledge. It was three stories up and in the furthest corner of the building, which meant I would have a heal of a time scaling the building. Thankfully, it was also in a blind spot, so while I struggled to pull my tired and aching body up the side of the brick building, I could take my time and my presence when undetected. 

As I approached, the bedroom window was locked. However, the bathroom window was left ajar, so I climbed up to the bathroom window instead and pulled myself up through the narrow window, rolling into the narrow en suite to BiBi’s bedroom. 

“A-Alaina?” I heard a weak voice gasp as I stood up and tried to dust myself off, only to find myself ankle-deep in water. 

I spun around and found none other than BiBi lounging in an overflowing bathtub, shivering as he gripped the sides of the bathtub and tried to pull himself up.

I stared on, horrified. 

“BiBi. Why in God’s name are you in the bathtub?” I asked, rushing over and turning off the shower tap and that bathroom faucet, all turned on and running simultaneously. 

“M-My parents put me in here. I woke up, and they dogpiled me,” Bibi replied, shivering as he spoke. 

I pulled out the plug in the bathtub as I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t wrap my head around how BiBi’s foster parents, knowing that BiBi was a fire elemental, could do such a horrifying thing. However, this was precisely why we had to get out and get away from them. All they cared about was their bottom line and their profit margin. If it meant keeping their prize working in line, what did it matter to practically almost suffocate them to death?

As the water drained from the bathtub, I helped a shaking and weak BiBi out of the tub. His large dark hands gripped my shoulders as he clambered over the edge of the bathtub and shakily tried to stand in the pool of water that had pilled his bathroom.

“We have to get out of here. Is there anyone in your bedroom guarding the door?” I asked as I guided BiBi towards the bathroom door.

“I think so. There were two large guys, and I heard one of them prop up something against the door earlier”, BiBi said. 

I leaned BiBi against the wall next to the bathroom door and steadied myself.