Violet advanced down the basement hallway, Falcon's blunderbuss gripped firmly in her hands. The beam from her shoulder lantern cut through the darkness like a cold, white blade. Every step echoed against the damp stone.
clic… clic…
The stench of rot and old blood was so thick it was almost chewable. The distant drip of water continued somewhere in the unseen darkness.
ploc… ploc… ploc…
"Come on, mansion…" Violet muttered through her teeth, her voice low, controlled, and precise. "Show me what else you're hiding. Don't waste my time."
The hallway narrowed as if the walls wanted to crush her alive. More rusted iron cells appeared on both sides, some with doors half-open and hanging from a single squeaking hinge that groaned like a lament. Violet illuminated them one by one, eyes wide, heart pounding hard, but her mind completely focused. In one cell she saw the remains of torn black uniforms, shredded as if a rabid animal had chewed them, and dark stains on the floor that still smelled of iron and fear. In another, a pair of broken safety goggles lay in a corner, one lens splattered with what looked like dried blood or slime.
"Every detail counts…" she whispered to herself, a tight little smile revealing her determination. "I'm not leaving anything to chance. This mansion owes me answers."
She stopped in front of a metal table embedded in the wall, warped and covered in dust and fine cobwebs. On it lay an open file, the yellowish pages splattered with dried blood that had turned almost black. Violet picked it up with two fingers, carefully, and brought it closer to her lantern's light. Her eyes scanned the lines with calculated hunger.
"Virus-R. Phase 3. The organism derived from the Tudor Rose integrates into the host and rewrites its biology. It increases strength, aggression, and regeneration… but it consumes the carrier from within. Affected subjects are simply known as the infected."
Violet turned the page with a steady finger. There was a pencil drawing of a creature with both human and arachnid features—swollen veins and legs that looked completely wrong.
"This is important," she said quietly but clearly, almost to herself. "There's a lot of valuable information here. Enough to start understanding what the hell is going on in this place. I'm getting out of here with everything I need… for them."
She slipped the file inside her coat with a quick, precise movement and kept moving forward, her mind racing as she observed every detail.
The hallway grew even narrower and the ceiling lower, forcing her to duck slightly. Thick, sticky cobwebs hung from the walls like dirty curtains, some still damp and glistening, dripping a clear liquid that smelled of sweet decay. The floor was covered in black puddles that reflected her lantern's light in a sinister way.
Suddenly, she heard a new sound.
skitter… skitter… skitter…
Small, rapid scratches on the stone, like sharp nails scraping the floor.
Violet stopped dead, her light beam sweeping the floor and walls with strategic calm.
"Spiders…" she murmured, her voice barely a whisper.
And then, without warning, a memory hit her hard.
She was much younger, in a sunny park from her childhood. A group of girls ran away in terror, screaming and shaking their hands as if the world was ending.
"A spider! Ew, gross!" they shrieked, tripping over each other as they fled from the tiny black bug that had landed on the bench.
Unlike them, Violet had stayed still. She slowly crouched down and extended her open hand with calm curiosity. The spider, tiny and delicate, hesitated for a second before climbing onto her fingers, exploring with soft, precise legs. Violet watched it, fascinated, without any fear.
The other girls stopped in the distance and pointed at her.
"Weirdo!" they shouted with cruel laughter. "Violet's a weirdo, she likes spiders!"
The memory faded as quickly as it had come, leaving Violet blinking in the dim hallway.
"Why am I thinking about that right now?" she asked herself softly, a note of genuine surprise in her controlled tone. "Maybe… because even in the deepest darkness, I've always seen something others don't. I'm not like them. I never was."
She shook her head slightly, refocusing, and continued forward, heart pounding but breathing steady. She spoke quietly to herself as she explored, processing every detail like pieces of a puzzle that now felt a little more personal.
"This is a well-orchestrated nightmare… Cobwebs everywhere, spiders with human features… What kind of laboratory was this? Every step gives me more questions than answers. But I won't stop. I can't. They're waiting for me upstairs."
The hallway finally opened into a wider room. The ceiling was completely covered in thick white cobwebs, like a giant net that pulsed softly, almost as if it were breathing. In the center hung an enormous cocoon, the size of a man, wrapped in sticky threads and beating slowly like a sick heart. Around it were smaller cocoons, some still twitching weakly, as if something inside was trying to break free.
Violet paused for a moment, breathing under control, observing everything with cold, analytical eyes.
"This isn't just any nest…" she murmured. "It's an incubator. A mass breeding facility. I have to be more careful than ever."
She approached a overturned table cautiously, almost tripping over a pile of broken test tubes that crunched under her boots. On the table was another file, this one stamped "Confidential – Ethereal Division" in faded red.
She opened it with precise fingers.
"Virus-R does not kill the host immediately. It rewrites them. Those who survive become vectors. Those who don't… become food for those who do."
Violet turned the page, studying every line carefully.
"Phase 1: fever and aggression. Phase 2: accelerated regeneration and eye changes. Phase 3: complete transformation. The host loses the ability to reason and seeks to infect."
She slammed the file shut and stored it with the first one.
"Tudor Rose…" she repeated softly, her tone calculating. "Now everything is starting to fit. And I'm going to use it to my advantage."
She continued forward, exploring every corner methodically: opening broken drawers, lifting wet papers from the floor, checking fallen shelves full of shattered vials that smelled of burned chemicals. In a side room she found more drawings pinned to the wall: sketches of transformations, lists of names crossed out in blood, and several pages of detailed reports. One of them, written in tight, technical handwriting, caught her attention especially.
"In the experiments, it was discovered that the spiders are highly sensitive to heat and fire. The mutated organic tissue shows extreme vulnerability to high temperatures, causing rapid disintegration of the exoskeleton and collapse of the central nervous system."
Violet read the paragraph twice, nodding slowly as she processed the information.
"Interesting…" she murmured, a slight calculating smile appearing on her lips. "The spiders are very sensitive to heat and fire. A clear weakness I can exploit. This could make all the difference."
The hallway narrowed even more, the air growing heavier, thick with a sweet, rotten smell that made her eyes water. Suddenly, she heard a low, guttural growl coming from an open cell to her left.
Violet pressed herself against the wall, heart in her throat but body motionless, and looked carefully.
An infected —a suited man, his tie still hanging like a broken noose— was crouched over a body, slowly devouring it. The infected's skin was pale and covered in pulsing black veins. His eyes glowed with a sickly yellow, and drool mixed with blood dripped from his mouth.
Violet held her breath, analyzing every movement of the creature.
The infected suddenly lifted its head and sniffed the air.
sniff… sniff…
Violet remained completely still, muscles tense as wires. The infected took a step into the hallway, growling louder.
She waited for the perfect moment with surgical precision. When the creature passed beside her, she leaped and drove the blunderbuss's bayonet into the back of its neck with a brutal but perfectly calculated motion.
The infected convulsed once and collapsed dead with a wet gurgle.
Violet took a deep breath, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"One less. And every one counts."
Violet pressed on, exploring every room that appeared with the same meticulous discipline. She scanned every corner with her lantern, opened crooked drawers, lifted soaked papers from the floor, and checked fallen shelves that still held broken vials with residues of burned chemicals. The air grew denser, heavy with a metallic and organic smell that made her skin crawl.
Suddenly, at the end of a narrow hallway, she saw a reinforced metal door, different from the others. It was hermetically sealed, and in its center was a card reader with a small dark screen. Next to it, a panel read: "Level 5 Access – Authorization Required."
Violet approached cautiously, running her fingers along the edge of the door. She tried to force it, but it didn't budge even a millimeter.
"A blast door…" she murmured, analyzing the mechanism. "It needs an ID or a special pass. I won't be able to break through by force. There has to be something here that lets me get in."
She stepped back and began searching the adjacent rooms with greater urgency. In a side room, she found an overturned desk and, beneath it, a partially devoured corpse still wearing a lab coat. In the breast pocket was a blood-stained but legible access card: "Dr. Elias S. – Level 5."
Violet took it carefully, wiping it on her sleeve.
"Dr. Elias…" she whispered. "Whoever you were, your card will be useful now."
She returned to the door and swiped the card through the reader. The screen flashed red for a second, then beeped and turned green. With a heavy hydraulic sound, the door slid aside, revealing a short hallway that ended in another much larger, circular room.
Violet entered with the blunderbuss ready, her lantern beam sweeping the darkness. The room was vast, with reinforced concrete walls covered in dented metal panels and dangling cables that sparked occasionally.
In the exact center of the room, kneeling on the cold, cracked floor, was the creature.
But it wasn't free.
Thick, rusted steel chains restrained it everywhere. Heavy chains emerged from the walls, floor, and ceiling, anchored with massive industrial bolts and wrapped around its arms, legs, torso, and neck. Some chains even pierced parts of its flesh, secured with hooks sunk into stitched scars. The creature was chained like a dangerous animal, forced to remain kneeling in that humiliating and grotesque position. Its breathing was heavy and raspy, and the bright points on its helmet flickered weakly, as if it were in a semi-conscious state.
Violet stopped dead, heart pounding. She observed the scene with wide eyes, processing every detail.
"My God…" she murmured, taking a step back. "It's chained… but it's still alive. This is worse than I imagined."
She slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the creature. Her instinct screamed at her to get out of there as fast as possible. However, just as she reached the threshold, the heavy metal door slammed shut with a deafening bang and a final hydraulic sound.
CLANK.
Violet spun around and punched the door.
"No! Damn it!"
She tried the card again, but the screen stayed red. The system had locked automatically. She was trapped.
Behind her, a deep metallic sound began to echo. The chains started to tighten and creak. The creature slowly raised its head. The bright points on its helmet lit up with greater intensity. A low, guttural growl escaped its throat, growing louder.
Violet pressed herself against the door, the blunderbuss aimed at the beast.
"Stay still…" she whispered, even though she knew it was useless.
With a deafening roar, the creature pulled at the chains with brutal force. The bolts in the walls began to bend and pop loose. One by one, the links snapped with sharp, explosive sounds. The creature rose from the floor, shattering the chains that bound its arms. Then, with a savage movement, it leaped upward with terrifying power. Its massive body smashed into the ceiling, breaking through in a shower of concrete, metal, and dust.
CRASH!
The creature burst through the ceiling and vanished into the upper level, leaving a huge irregular hole through which chunks of debris fell.
Violet coughed from the dust, still pressed against the closed door. Before she could react, her communicator beeped urgently. A familiar, worried voice filled the channel.
"Violet… Violet, do you copy? Please respond!"
It was Emely.
Violet activated the communicator with her free hand, her voice still slightly shaken but controlled.
"Emely, I copy. I'm here."
"Violet!" Emely's voice sounded relieved but tense. "I was so worried! It's been over forty minutes with no word from you. You weren't answering and I started imagining the worst. Are you okay? Where are you?"
Violet took a deep breath, leaning her back against the closed door while looking at the hole in the ceiling.
"I'm sorry, Emely… really. I lost track of time down here. This basement is a maze and every room reveals something more horrible than the last. I'm fine, just a little shaken."
"What happened? Tell me everything you can. Did you find anything important?"
Violet looked at the destroyed center and the broken chains scattered across the floor.
"I found a huge creature, stitched together and deformed, as if they'd tried to fuse a human with something… it was pretty grotesque. It was chained in the center of the room, but it broke free. It shattered the chains and jumped through the ceiling. Now it's loose somewhere on the upper levels."
Emely was silent for a second, clearly processing the information.
"God… Be very careful, Violet. If that thing is loose, you're not safe down there. Are you hurt?"
"Just some scratches and a hit to the ribs. Nothing I can't handle. But there's something else… In the files I found earlier, I read that there are creatures called spiders. They're extremely sensitive to intense heat, especially fire. If you encounter them, don't try shooting them directly. Use fire, incendiary grenades, or anything that generates a lot of heat. It's their biggest weakness. Burn them before they get too close."
"Understood," Emely replied, her voice firmer now. "Fire. I'll keep that in mind. Violet… please get out of there as soon as possible. I don't want to lose you. Come up carefully and stay in contact."
Violet allowed a small, tired smile to appear on her lips.
"I promise. I'll find a way out. You take care up there too. Tell Victor and Falcon I'm close."
"I will. Be careful, okay? Don't do anything crazy."
"No more than necessary," Violet replied with a touch of dry humor. "See you soon, Emely."
"See you soon."
The communication cut off with a soft beep. Violet stood in silence for a moment, staring at the hole in the ceiling where the creature had escaped. She breathed deeply and adjusted the blunderbuss in her hands.
She had only one bullet left in Falcon's blunderbuss. The revolver in her side holster wouldn't do much in this enclosed space; reloading it would take too long and she'd only be wasting ammunition unnecessarily if things got complicated. She would have to be precise. Extremely precise.
Suddenly, from the dark corners of the room, where shadows pooled among the debris and fallen panels, a chorus of low, wet growls emerged. Five infected appeared, drawn by the noise of the creature's release and the scent of Violet. Their yellowish eyes gleamed in the gloom, pale skin covered in black veins, mouths drooling with hunger.
Violet clenched her jaw. There was no time to hesitate.
"One bullet…" she murmured, her voice firm and calculating. "Then I'll have to do it my way."
The first infected charged straight at her with a ragged howl. Violet waited until the last instant, then fired the blunderbuss's single bullet directly into its head. The impact was devastating; the creature fell backward in a spray of black ichor.
The blunderbuss was now empty.
Without losing a second, Violet spun the weapon and used the bayonet like a sword. The second infected leaped over a toppled table. Violet moved with surgical precision, driving the bayonet into its throat and twisting hard. The creature gurgled and collapsed.
"Three more," she said quietly, breathing controlled but pulse racing.
The third and fourth attacked at the same time, one from each side. Violet rolled between them, using the momentum to drive the bayonet into the nearest one's nape. She yanked the weapon free just in time to block the fourth's claws with the butt of the blunderbuss. The blow made it stagger back. Violet advanced mercilessly, plunging the bayonet into its chest once, twice, three times, until the creature stopped moving.
The last infected, bigger and more deformed than the others, lunged at her with a furious roar. Violet dodged the first swipe by inches, feeling the claws tear the air beside her face. She used the blunderbuss as a shield to stop the second attack, but the impact slammed her against the wall. The pain in her ribs intensified.
With a cry of determination, Violet pushed back with all her strength, shoving the infected far enough to gain space. She spun the weapon and drove the bayonet straight into its left eye, pushing until the blade came out the back of the skull.
The infected convulsed violently and fell to the floor in a dark pool.
Violet stood panting, covered in black ichor and sweat, the blunderbuss still embedded in the last corpse. She yanked it free with a sharp motion and gripped it with both hands, ready for any other threat.
"Five…" she whispered, wiping her face with her sleeve. "And not a single bullet wasted unnecessarily."
She took a deep breath, adjusted the blunderbuss in her hands, and began searching for another exit, more determined than ever.
The basement, though still dangerous, no longer felt so silent. The echo of the creature's escape still reverberated against the walls, reminding her that the real test was far from over.