The long dark hallways filled Stell with a sense of dread worse than she usually felt when Xyla and Arlin would leave her alone for long periods of time. Nothing looked familiar to her as she continued down the hallway blindly, unsure of where it was her feet were taking her.

Mosaic windows decorated one side of the wall with doors to unopened rooms on the other. Ahead of the young girl was darkness that seemed to brighten for her to see the rest of the hallway. She didn't dare look behind her in fear of what she might see, but she could only hope it was just darkness following after her and nothing else.

The windows, never seen by Stell before since she was forced to live in the castle, were arranged in a way that told somewhat of a story. The images were blurred however and she couldn't make out the story clear enough to know what was happening. Giving up on the stories, she kept her focus on the darkness ahead of her, brightening into more hallway as she went.

Finally, she reached the end where a door she had never seen stood. The design had purple, swirling etchings and the wood was shadow black. The door knob appeared to be solid gold, shaped like that of a heart. But the one design that made her feel uneasiness at the forced feeling of having to open it was the giant midnight blue skull with fangs glare at her with fire blazing in the hollow sockets. Storm clouds taking the form of howling wolfs were painted above the skull, shooting white bolts down to the top of the head. Waterfalls of blood poured from the eyes and jaw, making it look as if it were real and not just a design.

Though she felt terrified of what awaited her behind the door, Stell slowly made her way toward it. One hand clutched her mother's heart-shaped locket while the other shakily made its way from her chest to reach for the doorknob. Faint, distant voices began to rise in her head and a cold chill ran down her spine. Everything around her told her to not open the door. The voices told her it was untold horrors ready to kill her the moment she dared turned the knob. The chill behind feeling as if it was pulling her back into the dark hallway behind. But she still gripped the knob with all her might, shivering like a leaf with fear and determination, refusing to back away into the cold darkness she had known since her parents' funeral.

Taking a deep breath and gathering whatever courage she had in her, Stell turned the heart shaped knob and pushed the door open to reveal a dark room. As she walked in, the sound of the door slamming behind her, all the voices and the chill ceasing, made her jolt. She looked back once to see the door, but the design on the inside of the door had been replaced with a blurred image. She looked back into the room to see a light shining down on a pedestal where a book was laid atop of. The design on the cover looked the same as the door, but with no clouds of wolves, nor lightning shooting down, nor the waterfalls of blood, nor the fires in the sockets. All that remained was the skull, purple swirls on either side of it, and the shadow black background.

As Stell reluctantly inched closer to the book, she could see strange writing above the skull. It was in a language she never had seen before, written in silver ink that added to the ominous feel that the book emanated.

A new voice began calling to her as she started to loom over the book. It was calling to her, pleading for her to take the book from its marble hold. Stell reached out a hand to only touch the book. She only wanted to feel the cover for its design and be sure it was not hexed to kill those who even tried to touch it.

Once her finger was an inch away from the skull, a splitting cold slithered from her index finger to the rest of her body, making her shudder violently. It felt like something was holding her hand as she tried to pull it back. It was almost like it was pulling her back to the book, to open and read what was in it. She wanted to cry for help, but she knew the Mallors wouldn't try saving her if she were in danger. They'd force her to use forbidden magic to save herself. But using dark magic always hurt Stell beyond any kind of pain.

The invisible force yanked her back to look over the book, her upper body leaning against the pedestal as she looked down at the terrifying book. Her fear was soon replaced with a sense of sorrow and longing. The feeling wasn't for the book, but some unknown thing she didn't have, but wanted desperately to have.

That's when the book flew open, the pages turning too quickly for her to read what was written. Pictures could be seen through the in-betweens of the speeding pages, but Stell couldn't make out what it was she was looking at. Then the pages came to a freezing hault, coming to two pages with words and images Stell wanted to read, but before she could make out what the black ink was trying to say, a shadow in the form of a head blocked her view. A furious scream escaped the mouth the head formed, blazing green eyes appearing above it. Before Stell could scream and run for her life, the head lunged for her, shrouding her in the cold, harsh darkness she had feared since she was twelve.