Slowly, cautiously, Rebecca slowly peeked her head outside the unnaturally black door and glanced up and down the hallway. Wide enough for people to walk down it at least five abreast, the tunnel was thick with darkness and very faintly lit. From what little she could make out, she didn’t see any other doors like hers in the wall, be then again she wasn’t certain if she would. The unnaturally dark doors would bend into the shadows thick along the walls, and simply add to the oppressively heavy atmosphere.

Glancing down the hall to the right, she squinted her eyes, trying to make out anything in the darkness that she could, but the only discernible sharps that she could guess at were the rough outline of some sort of frames lining the wall at irregular intervals, before the dark gloom swallowed up her vision completely in that direction. Logically, considering the stone floor, walls, and ceiling, and the size of the hall which stretched out before her, she came to the assumption that she was in what could only be called either a massive mansion, or perhaps even a castle. If she was right and this was either of those things, then most likely the frames on the wall were holding some sort of impressively fancy artwork which she just couldn’t make out yet.

Turning her attention to the left, the hallway seemed to mirror the other side, with the greatest exception being a faint lightening of the darkness at the end of the hall. Stepping out slowly into the hall, the cool fibers of an exquisite blood-red rug tickled the bottom of her feet as she slowly turned and began to work her way down towards the left. A pale light – any light – was much more preferable to her than the idea of heading into the compete darkness that seemed to swallow everything remorselessly in the other direction.

As her eyes slowly adjusted to the deep gloom, she slowly worked her way down the left side of the hallway. The frames hanging on the wall were indeed various scenes of fantastic artwork, with images which seemed almost familiar to her. One contained a painting of a giant snake, curled around the world, mouth wide with long fangs dripping a vile dark poison, seemingly ready to swallow it whole. Another was a painting of a guy that somewhat reminded her of an ultra-muscular Santa Claus. with his long white hair and beard, stretched out, being drawn and quartered by two massive horses with eight legs, while a pack of ravens plucked the single eye from his head and fought over it. The scene was painted so vividly that there was no mistaking that it would’ve been called a masterwork, fit to proudly sit as the prize of any museum’s collection, but the scene was so disturbingly surreal that it made her stomach lurch as she could almost feel the pure agony and despair emanating from the figure in the painting.

After that, Rebecca keep her head down and focused primarily on watching the ground directly in front of her feet, as she slowly put one in front of the other and worked her way down the hall one trembling step at a time.