Y/N POV

For now, it seemed to be best me and Ethan stick together. While the Duke had provided a good area to search for Rose, the question was how would we get to Lady Dimitrescu's personal quarters? We had no idea where they were and we still had Dimitrescu and her daughters to contend with.

We exited the Duke's small room and made our way up the stairs  to the area where I'd encountered Bela before. It seemed both her and Cassandra had moved on from this point so we were free to search.

The door to the right was initially locked but we managed to click it open only to reveal the corridor we'd walked down earlier, a possible shortcut for later but not of any use to us now. Next we went over to the door at the far end, the one I'd tried going through before however this one was also locked, with no way of opening it yet.

That left the winding staircase going up to the next level. I'd not explored this part yet so I was interested, Ethan went up first with me close behind. Up here we found some vases which actually had some of that Lei in it, finally allowing me to get my hands on some. I think between the three vases I shattered I came away with about 500 lei in total.

At the north-end of the hall was a door labelled 'Wine Room' that didn't have much going for it. I did make note of an empty bottle holder on a pedestal but aside from that, there was nothing. On the left was another locked door so that left the door on the right.

Sticking out the door was a sculpture of a face. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that one of its eye slots was empty. Luckily I turned to Ethan gestured towards the eye and said "There we go." Ethan stepped forward with the small maroon eye in his hand, he reached up and sure enough, the eye fit perfectly, there was that satisfying click again as the door unlocked though this relief was short-lived.

As we entered this, I noticed multiple flies buzzing around in front of us. What started out as only a few developed into a full-on swarm that all flocked towards us and began violently biting away at us. 

Ethan began swatting as we stepped back out of the corridor into the main hall. The insects went to the end of the corridor and merged together revealing a laughing Cassandra, she grinned at us and said "I haven't cut open a man in a while, now I have two. Let me string you both up, slice your jugulars and just watch. Taken alive? Dead? Which would you prefer."

Strangely enough, she pointed at me and said "It's a pity mother doesn't want us to just kill you yet. Doesn't mean I can't have a quick taste." Ethan raised his gun and opened fire, I warned him "Ethan, bullets won't do anything to them, trust me I've tried."

We took off running, heading down the new corridor, at the end was a locked door. However just left of that was another which we ran inside. My eyes widened at first as I saw nowhere else to go. Cassandra could be heard yelling "I can't hold back any longer!"

I spat "It's a dead end! Damn it, we're trapped!" We looked around frantically for a moment before I noticed a gap in the wall, big enough for us to fit in, covered loosely with wooden boards.

Turning to Ethan I said "Ethan, help me get these boards out of the way." He nodded, saying "Right." He rushed over to me and with a joint effort, we managed to yank the wood clean off the wall. Turning to the door we saw the swarm of flies slowly seeping through so we wasted no time crawling through the passage and leaping down a hole, crashing through more sticking out boards and landing in a stone brick room.

As we both got back up to our feet, we looked around at our surroundings hoping for some hint as to where we were exactly. My eyes landed on a piece of paper, picking it up I noticed it was some sort of letter.

'June 9th 1958,

It was my first day working at the castle today. I as most shocked to see the other staff were all women! The mistress and her daughters were very adamant they wouldn't bite. It was quite peculiar.'

That in itself was confusing however then I turned the page to find MORE text, this one caught me off guard.

'June 23rd 1958

It's been two weeks since I started working at the castle and I am a little... afraid. Another maid, Adela made a mistake and Miss Daniela slashed her face with a knife! And at night I can hear wailing, as if ghosts roam the halls. I want to go home...'

There was a third entry as well. It was here that my eyes narrowed.

'July 8th 1958

I don't know what to do.

The young ladies were complaining it was too hot and stuffy during dinner so I opened the window just a crack.

"SHUT IT! SHUT IT NOW!" They all shrieked at me in unison. I fear I may be taken down into the cellar, never to be seen again. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.'

That was it for the note. I placed it down where I found it and said "The fifties, decades ago. What the hell is happening here?" Ethan replied "I don't know." That's when old-fashioned music could be heard playing up ahead.

I snapped my head up Ethan asked "You hear that?" I nodded, following the source of the music, we both followed a corridor until we reached a narrow passage we had to crawl under, I went first and got about half way before noticing something.

The passage lead into another wine room and I saw Lady Dimitrescu herself stood at the end of it inspecting a bottle! I muttered both to myself and Ethan. "Crap. Quick, back up, back up! Crap, crap, CRAP!"

Behind me, Ethan asked "What? What's wrong?" I replied "Just do it." I held my breath as Dimitrescu continued to inspect the bottle, she let out a hum before turning and exiting through the door. I sighed with relief muttering "That was a close one. Let's go." 

We continued through the passage, arriving in the small circular room. Barrels of what I hoped to be wine lined the walls. I pointed to the door Dimitrescu had gone through and said "I suggest not going out that way. Whatever you do."

Ethan said "I saw her, you don't have to remind me. What about this way?" He pointed down another corridor leading out of the room. I didn't say anything but nevertheless, we both headed down that route, at the end we found a particularly strange room.

It was circular with two unlit braziers, in the centre another brazier was hung from a chain. The walls themselves made me uncomfortable, they seemed to portray a battle of sorts, the top of the portrait were 2D carvings on the walls and the lower it got the more it began to transition into 3D. Other than this strange detail, this seemed to be a dead end as well.

This time though there was no wooden boards to pull away. I studied the room for a moment before getting an idea. I turned to Ethan and said, "I think we need to light these two braziers. Don't know what it will do but it's worth a try."

With that, me and Ethan tucked our hands into our jacket sleeves as not to burn ourselves and began to push the swinging brazier. I don't know how it worked but sure enough as soon as the swinging flames came into contact with the other two braziers, they too were lit.

There was the sound of a loud rumbling and too my surprise, the two sides of the walls began breaking away from one another revealing yet another passage, one completely bathed in darkness.

Ethan shakily reached for his torch and clicked it on, revealing what appeared to be some sort of dungeon. I mean it was a castle after all so I shouldn't have been surprised. But even so, I had a bad feeling about this place.

Various barred cells lined the room on either side, it gave off a proper medieval vibe with wooden toilets, an assortment of torture instruments and blood as well. Ethan asked "What happened down here?" I replied "I can only imagine. We'd best hurry, I have a bad feeling about this place."

In the back of my mind, I got the nagging feeling we were being watched. As we continued to explore, the feeling only increased. On a table in one cell in particular was another note, with different handwriting to the last one.

'Irina - Robust appetite.

Mihaela - Robust appetite.

Lois - Robust appetite.

Ingrid - Unstable, overly alert at times.'

That was all it said, I asked quietly "Were experiments conducted here?" I thought back to that last note, the woman's panic about the cellar. Perhaps she hadn't been two wrong after all. As soon as I placed the note down, a gargled noise could be heard in the darkness.

Me and Ethan both snapped around, aiming our respective handguns into the void. Slowly, from the shadows, a figure emerged. It wasn't like the Lycans we'd encountered before. This one resembled a woman, wearing a tattered and dirty cloak, partially covering its face. In its hand was a sword which perfectly suited the medieval atmosphere of the castle and the dungeon in particular.

Image of a Moroaica:

Ethan warned "Stay back!" The creature continued to stagger forward, sword clutched in its hand. Its mouth breathing with harsh rasps and gurgles, showing sharp teeth. I sighed and instantly opened fire, shooting the monster three times before it dropped to the ground on its back.

The relief was short-lived, as the gunshots and the creature hitting the ground seemed to attract MORE of them. The gurgling sounds only multiplied all around us. Me and Ethan looked at one another, knowing exactly what to do.

We instantly broke into a run, through the dark tunnel, Ethan held his torch out in front of him. More of those things began emerging from the cells in front of us. We both opened fire, shooting them as best we could, the number of shots it took depended on where they were hit.

One leapt from a cell and attempted to slash at us, it actually managed to strike me in the side, causing me to grunt out in pain. I quickly turned though and killed the monster responsible. Ethan raised his shotgun and blasted another's head off!

We ran through a part of the dungeon where the ceiling had caved in, allowing the sunlight to shine through briefly causing me to raise a hand up, shielding my eyes from it. At the other end of this opening was a staircase leading upwards.

Those creatures continued to approach, me and Ethan both turning around and shooting at them before retreating up the stairs quickly. At the top we found a gate, locked with an insignia on it. There was no way to open it just yet. Instead we turned left where we found ourselves in a barred maze with another flight of stairs directly ahead, presumably going right back towards the castle.

Before we could show any sort of relief though, a familiar buzzing filled the air...

Author's Note: And that's the chapter done, I've finally sorted out how I'm going to handle the Dimitrescu daughters in this book. Ethan will face one, Y/N faces another and they face one together. The next chapter will be the 'fight together' option so I hope you enjoy it. I also hope you liked the chapter and as always, thank you for reading.