Chapter 159 Chapter 159
He took her hand in a tight grip and used his magic to brighten the light in the hallway. Valerie couldn’t say how grateful she was that his magic wasn’t of a different element. With water or even earth magic, they would have been stuck in pitch-black darkness. She still had the flashlight on her smartphone, of course, but that wasn’t as efficient, and the battery wouldn’t last forever.
“Where do we go first?” she asked, unsurely, and looked around, checking their options. The hallway was so long that the light didn’t reach the end. It looked like a black hole waiting to swallow them. However, the alternatives were no better.
Left and right of them, she spotted two closed doors that would take them to an unknown place, and in front of them, a concrete stairway led up to the next floor. The entire orphanage looked decrepit and forlorn. Nobody had taken care of it in decades. It had been left as it was, and in some areas, it was easy to see that nature had overtaken the structure.
Parts of the wallpaper near the ground were covered in green. Valerie suspected it was moss or mold, but she didn’t feel like taking a closer look at it. The stagnant air was permeated with different smells, and none of them was particularly inviting. It reeked.
“I don’t know… but we have to start somewhere if we want to find the blood mage,” Maxwell said slowly. “I’m sure they have set a few traps in here for us… and I assume they are watching us from somewhere.”
A quiver ran through her body. This was like a scene taken from her worst nightmare. Valerie hated to be trapped; it made her anxious. And the fact that some deranged psycho was waiting in here for them did not help either. She was relieved that she was at least not alone… but of course she would have preferred if both of them could have just skipped this ordeal. It was her kindness that had gotten them in this predicament. She figured that the blood mage had foreseen she would be worried about the other humans and used it to their advantage. They really couldn’t underestimate this person, whoever it was.
“Let’s go upstairs first, okay?” Maxwell suggested, and she agreed. She held on to his hand because his touch was the one thing that grounded her. The fear in her heart was a bit more bearable thanks to him. She concentrated on their bond and noted that he felt mostly angry. No fear was mixed into his emotions. However, what she did notice was the paralyzing feeling of worry that was hidden behind his rage.
Frowning, she ascended the stairs with him and reached the next floor. This one didn’t look much different than the ground floor. The walls were grey and worn, the floor made of concrete. Maybe this place had been lively once, but now it was just sad to look at. The creepy symbols were everywhere, following the long hallway as it stretched on in front of them.
They walked down the hallway fast, reaching the first door to their left. Maxwell decided to simply kick it down and walked inside. His magic illuminated the entire room to the last corner and revealed a mostly space safe for a few half-broken metal beds. The weathered curtains on the walls looked out of place because there were no windows in this room.
“What the fuck? Has it always been like that? Shouldn’t there be windows?” she muttered.
“It’s part of the spell that the blood mage has put on the building. All exits are closed off,” Maxwell said slowly. “We’re trapped like rats in here. If they wanted to, they could just let us starve.”
Or, in other words, let her starve. Demons didn’t need food to survive. She was the liability here, and she already hated it.
“Let’s take a look at the other rooms up here,” she said gloomily.
He didn’t answer but accompanied her back to the hallway. Some debris from the ceiling littered the ground, and Valerie wondered how safe this building was. What if the floor gave in, or something equally awful happened? No matter which direction her thoughts followed, they always ended in a terrible place. She was afraid for their lives.
The next room didn’t look much different than the last. It was just as worn, and the black symbols on the walls were present as well.
“Maxwell,” Valerie said with her eyes glued to a spot on the ground. Someone had painted a large summoning circle on the cracked tiles. It was a bit messed up on the edges, and some of the letters were smudged, but it probably had been functioning at one point. What kind of creep would come to this place to summon demons in their spare time?
“Maybe… those demons that were summoned here are still in the building,” he muttered to himself and stepped closer to the circle, using his shoe to smudge the charcoal more.
A loud slam reverberated through the building. Valerie flinched and turned to the door, but she couldn’t see any movement. She hadn’t imagined the sound, though. Maxwell had heard it too. He had snapped his head around and stared at the empty doorway. None of them moved for what seemed like hours. As if they were frozen in time, they stood and waited for something to happen.
Minutes passed, but no other sound was heard. Eventually, Valerie relaxed and heaved a sigh.
“What could that have been?” she asked breathlessly.
“Who knows. Maybe it was the wind,” Maxwell said sarcastically, scowling. “Seems like this blood mage loves to play games.”
Valerie gnawed on her lower lip, holding his hand tightly. Her heartbeat was fast and uneven—he probably heard it with his sharp senses.
“I want to get out of here. Is there really nothing you can do?” she asked desperately. “Maybe you could try opening a portal to hell? That could be a way out.”
He looked unsure, scrunching his brows. “I highly doubt that it would work, but I can try.” He moved his hand in a circle and concentrated his demonic magic on opening a rift in the air. However, nothing happened, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t create a portal.