Our own hell; lord of the death trial

They all departed from the study one after the other, after they had all come to an agreement that they would forage for food and other supplies before whoever owned the place would return. Hei Yue walked by all the shelves looking at the books on them, all were leather-bound, he picked one out from the shelve that faced the window, it was red in color and was written in the same language Kai had read earlier. He scrutinized it, flipping through the pages "how?" He said closing up the book and putting it back into its place before walking out of the study. Emma walked out of one of the rooms at the east wing, clad in a flimsy light blue dress with a slit up to her left thigh and a coat mad of fox fur. Her hair was tied up in a tight bun and was still damp from the bath she had just had. She walked towards the study, the slit opening to reaveal the riding pants and boots she wore underneath.

The study was back to its pristine condition, as though they had never been inside. She smiled at the thought of that, using her fingers to make traces on the surfaces it landed on until she reached where the painting that had the strange sentence on it was. "Night cometh when no man can work" she repeated racking her brain to remember where she had seen it before. She walked of to the desk and sat on the chair, leaning into it, her head bent uncomfortably, her eyes closed. She heard the roof creaking loudly, as voices began whispering "Myrna" continuously, she opened up her eyes, and stood up from the chair walking away from it when the windows bursted open and all the candles went out. A strange melancholic melody began playing as the sound of the creaking roof and the whispers increased. The door slammed shut as she turned towards it, as moonlight illuminated the room. She heard as the clock struck twelve, the whole place going silent as though it was a musical pause and resuming immediately. She saw it creeping slowly in the shadows, its tentacles sharp and pointed. She closed her eyes and opened them, panting in relief, it was all a dream. She stood up quickly from the chair and ran out of the study, down the stairs, to the hall where they were, all seated infront of the fireplace with cups of ale in their hands laughing at something, their provision behind them in a pile. "We have to leave, now!" She said, walking briskly towards them. They all turned to look at her pausing their laughter while waiting for her to explain. Lily stood up first dropping the ale in her hand and walked to grab her bag while Kai looked at her confused "Why" she asked taking a large swallow of the cup of warm ale in her hand. "They are coming, we must leave now" she said joining lily to pack up the supplies. Hei Yue stood up and joined them in packing everything up into various bags in preparation for them to leave. Emma turned to Kai "help us out, we don't have much time" she said as the clock struck quarter to twelve. Kai stood up reluctantly and joined them. "Where are we going to go now, its already so late" Lily asked as she held tightly onto the bag in her hands. "where is the map" Emma asked dropping everything she held on the floor and stretching out her hand, Kai pulled it out of her pocket and handed it over to her while the others continued packing up. She opened it up and squinted her eyes as she studied it. She rolled it back up and handed it back to Kai, picking up her share of the provision again. "Its this way" she said heading for the kitchen and they followed her behind. She picked up a large kitchen stool and opened up the door that led to the pantry. They all walked into the room and Yue shut the door, following the others to the cabinets that were on the left side of the wall she placed the kitchen stool on the floor, climbed onto it and opened up one of the cabinets that revealed a round hole as wide as a broad shoulder of a man behind it"how do you know that this is safe?" Kai asked her, she straightened her posture and tapped Lily on the shoulder "how did you know what was written at the side of the map" she asked her back. Kai smirked at the answer and went ahead with what she instructed. Lily went in first, her provision tied to her waist as she crawled into the hole.