I leaned over the door as it moved downwards trying to see a glimpse of what laid ahead of us.

“Oh gods, what is that smell?” I asked. My senses were punched by the smell of wet dog.

“Remember those bats I mentioned before?” Breaker replied stepping through the door motioning me to follow.

“The three-eyed ones?”

“Mhm.”

“Lovely,” I said stepping forward and pinching my nose.

“I know it will be difficult for you, but try to avoid talking too loudly beyond this point,” he said leaning into me, “they wake easy.”

Beyond the door was a large landing. Breaker lit another torch as we entered. The pattern on the floor twisted and turned weaving into knotted designs that circled the area. I traced them with my feet making my way over to the stone railing. The landing overlooked spiraling stairs descending into a thick blackness. An intense feeling of wanting washed over me as I stared down. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to. The darkness was pulling on me, edging me to lean further over the rail to meet the source of the feeling. Shadowy tendrils wrapped around my wrist seeping from between the stones. Unintelligible whispers caressed my ears.

A hand tightened around the back of my tunic dragging me away from the edge and shaking me out of my trance. The shadows dissipated. Breaker stood there eyeing me with a flash of worry across his face.

“Let’s keep moving.”

“Did you see that?” I said looking towards the railing.

“No, now come on. Just stick to the wall until we reach the bottom. Can’t have you accidentally throwing yourself off the side,” Breaker replied stepping towards the staircase leaving space for me between him and the wall.

There was no way he didn’t see that. We began our descent. Down we went until nothing but darkness was above and below us. The only sound was our feet steadily moving.

“So, where are these bats anyway? I haven’t seen or heard any. Not that I’m complaining.”

Breaker stopped without saying anything and lifted the torch higher revealing the black mass above us under the steps we had just came down. I covered my mouth to prevent sound from escaping. Hundreds of bats a third my size with dark fur and large ears packed closely together dangled from the steps. They had snarled noses and three eyes firmly closed. I looked back at Breaker in shock. He nodded and continued walking down the steps. I followed behind occasionally glancing back up to the bats.

“They are kind of cute,” I whispered.

“They are not cute, they are extremely territorial when woken up and could cut you to ribbons,” Breaker chided me.

“Mmmm, they’re a little cute.”

Breaker stopped turning around to face me with a flat expression.

“They’re ugly cute. A bit like you.”

Breaker sighed. “You’re going to have to try a lot harder than that if you want to get under my skin, Sunshine.”

Then he stopped. He extended his arm out to warn me.

“Something’s wrong, listen.”

My ears perked up. A rumbling grinding noise started getting louder. I looked behind us. The stairs were flattening. The bats began chattering and waking up.

“What did you touch?” Breaker exclaimed.

“Nothing,” I shouted back as we began falling forward. Bats came flying down from above and swarming all around us. Breaker grabbed onto me and shifted into a boat like shape as we careened downward.

“Alright, you were right, these aren’t cute,” I screamed desperately holding onto Breaker. I could feel claws grazing my skin and cutting ripping the shoulder of my clothes.

“I told you,” he yelled back as we flew forward. His body caught air at an opening in the wall. We flew through the darkness and out of the whirlwind of wings and claws.

Splash. I opened my eyes.