Rita was in front, followed closely by Karma.
They walked in silence. The dim light behind them quickly vanished, swallowed by darkness. The stairs were slippery. Water seemed to leak from somewhere they couldn't pinpoint, and they had almost fallen more than once. The air was heavy, and a musty smell overwhelmed their senses.
It was endless. They had been walking for almost an hour, and there was still nothing in sight. Despite the lack of comfort, they finally had enough and sat down for a while.
"Why does it always need to have a catch? Couldn't they just make a normally sized flight of stairs??" Karma said, looking down at the countless steps ahead.
Rita glanced back at him and shot back jokingly:
"Well, you can still just jump down. You'll get there faster."
"Oh, fuck you."
Despite his rudeness, he wasn't as annoyed as he would have been a few hours earlier. After the events in the painting room, Karma had grown a bit less harsh toward Rita, and she had a more playful attitude with him. Their fights felt less like actual fights and more like playful banter.
After a few more hours, they finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Karma immediately collapsed onto the ground, exaggerating the long descent.
"FINALLY…!"
"What are you doing..? Stand up…"
Rita started looking around alone while Karma recovered. The room wasn't necessarily big, nor very classy. It felt almost empty.
And then she saw it. In the middle of the room sat a humanoid creature with skin as red as blood, eyes with no iris or pupil, and white, sharp teeth, ready to tear through flesh.
But it didn't move.
It was sitting in front of a table with an unfinished game of chess on top.
Rita immediately jumped back and drew her weapon, fear coursing through her. Seeing her reaction, Karma stood up and jumped back too as he finally saw the thing in front of them.
"W- what the fuck is this..?!"
"I-I don't know.. It's not moving..!"
They lingered there, studying it as it stared back at them. Its eyes had no iris or pupil, but they could feel its cold gaze all the same. After a while, they concluded that it wasn't going to attack them just yet. Still keeping their distance, they examined it, and the room, more thoroughly.
There wasn't much to see: no words carved into the stone, no paintings hiding the way to the next room. Eventually, their eyes returned to the game of chess.
"Do… do you think we have to play against that thing..?" Karma asked, reluctantly glancing at the demonic creature for any sign of what to do next.
"Well.. I don't think we missed anything…"
"Just so you know.. I don't know how to play chess."
Rita looked at him, more surprised than angry.
"You don't know how to play chess??"
"Wh- I just- I never really needed to learn how to play??"
Rita rolled her eyes, and only then did she fully grasp what this meant. She was the only one who could play against the thing, and she had no idea what the consequences of losing would be.
Reluctantly, she stepped closer, weapon in hand, and slowly sat down in front of it. As she did, a horrendous smile began to spread across its face. Rita froze. Karma moved closer in case things got out of hand and summoned his stone tablet.
Then the creature moved. Rita almost jumped out of her chair, but all it did was push a pawn forward.
It was her turn. Rita's eyes darted from Karma to the man in red, then to the board. She measured, calculated, hesitated. Finally, she made a move. From that instant, the battle unfolded: pieces seized, sacrifices made, each turn sharpening the tension between them.
————————
Time passed, and eventually, Rita lost.
She stared at the board as fear crept through her and Karma. They both looked at the red-skinned creature at the same time. Its smile was gone. It looked… almost satisfied.
Then it moved. Rita fell to the ground, expecting the worst. Karma rushed to help her up, but the creature didn't attack them. It simply walked toward a wall of the room and placed its clawed hand against it. The wall disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if it had never been there, revealing another dark corridor.
The creature stood in front of the entrance and looked toward Rita, as if waiting for her.
"Should we..?" Karma asked, glancing frantically from the thing to her.
Eventually, Rita moved. She walked forward, her legs trembling.
"We.. don't really have a choice, you know?"
As she approached, the creature began moving down the dark corridor, a burst of flame erupting from its hand to light the way ahead. Karma hesitated, unsure whether to follow. Then, realizing he didn't want to be left alone, he sprinted toward the entrance, which slammed shut just seconds after he slipped inside. He glanced back at the wall behind him, heart pounding, before hurrying to catch up with Rita and the demonic creature.
—————
A few hours passed. Karma and Rita kept following the creature, keeping their distance, of course.
Eventually, they reached another room. Its walls were covered in murals, and at the far end a throne loomed. The man in red walked steadily toward it. When he reached the throne, three bowls filled with fruit appeared before him. He placed them carefully in front of the throne, then sank to his knees.
"What is it doing??" Karma asked, confused by the demon's behavior.
"I think it's… making an offering?"
"For who?!"
Karma was clearly disturbed that such a terrifying thing could be kneeling for anything else.
"I- I don't know, but I think it's inviting us to kneel with it..? I mean, it made three bowls appear.."
"That! That's something else I don't get! How the hell is it doing all this magic stuff?? First the wall, then that fire, and now the bowls???"
Karma was almost screaming as frustration overcame him.
"What the hell do you want me to tell you?? I'm as clueless as you, you know?!"
After finally calming down and taking one more look around, they walked toward the throne. Karma looked at the scene in front of him and asked:
"So do we just… kneel next to it??"
"I mean, probably?"
And so they did. They stayed like that for around five minutes before the creature finally moved again. It stood up and started walking away, back toward the wall where the corridor was, and went through it, not letting Rita or Karma follow. The moment it did, the whole room started shaking.
"Wha-"
"Shit!"
Karma swore under his breath as the ruins collapsed around them. In that instant, a hidden entrance flung open, and they sprinted toward it, moments before the room vanished beneath a tide of sand.
"What.. the actual hell is up with all of those hidden rooms… Couldn't they just build a normal castle?!" Karma complained, catching his breath.
Rita, on the other hand, said nothing. She stood up and started walking.
".. Rita..?"
Karma called out to her, but she just kept walking. He looked ahead and saw a floating orb of light in the middle of the room.
"R-Rita, we shouldn't just touch this thing-"
But it was too late. Rita had already reached the orb and grabbed it with both hands. It was warm to the touch and even whiter than snow.
She stood frozen for over an hour.
Karma kept trying to get a reaction out of her, but she just stood there, unmoving like a statue. At first he feared the worst, but she was still breathing, despite her lack of movement.
Eventually, she moved again, took a few steps back and gasped for air.
"Rita!"
Karma lunged toward her as she stared back at him, almost saying something before she fell unconscious.