Valerie Sinclair stands still in the darkness of the room; it was pitch black with not even a thing in sight.

  Explosions of smaller scales go off from different locations of the house, each rumbling the ground below Valerie’s feet.

  This has to be the figures I saw outside, there can’t be any other way.

  She thinks, she looks around the room again now, her eyes had adapted to the change of light. The normal looking lounge room was now destroyed. Collapsed pillars, shattered glass on the ground and debris on the tiled floor.

  She starts to run through the hall in front of her, the pieces of glass below crunching and shattering beneath her wedges, like mini firecrackers waiting to fire.

  She takes a left turn into a hallway with windows on its right, as she cascades down the hall, she looks through the windows, seeing the same mysterious dark figures outside, now sprinting towards the house.

  Valerie’s heartbeat quickens as she feels the tension of this current moment, and where it could lead to.

  She moves through the house hastily, until she iss running towards an opening that looks like a loggia, at least is what she could make out using the dim light of the moon.

  She plunges into it and comes to a halt, her attention shifting to the left and her eyes widen at the sight that her eyes receive.

  She walks over to the rails of the loggia, panting, and leans forward slightly.

  Fire burning from different areas of the house, thick black smoke coming from the fire that hinders the sight of other areas of the house. The smell of the smoke was tangible from where she stands, an acrid smell that burns nose hairs with its potency.

  Valerie’s heart quickens again, as if pushing towards a goal. Her eyes drift down to the garden below, untouched by the chaos of the hellscape surrounding it, an unquestionable contrast between the two.

  The fountains go on, ejecting the water that glimmers in the light of the flames, and the gazebo in the middle that is still and calm, unlike the situation.

  Valerie looks at the scene, frozen in the moment, “Just... Unbelievable.”

  The sound of the fire burning dulls, the smell disappearing from her nose. Valerie stands there; she couldn’t move.

  What? I’m... Losing, consciousness?

  Everything goes blank, as if she is taken by the void, the situation around her become forgotten.

  Arms wrap loosely around Valerie’s neck; their body close enough to her that she would feel their breath.

  The figure glows a cool white, with pale skin. It plays with Valerie’s hair from behind, spinning it around its fingers.

  “It’s fascinating, right? To just see it all burn, see it all fall. A shame it won’t last long, your father and aunt will probably take care of this quickly. But anyways, that’s good, the fall of our family isn’t to happen now, the situation wouldn’t benefit us if it did tonight, as exciting as it might be to just see it end now. So... What will you do now, darling? My Scarlet Maiden?” The figure says in a harmonic tone, a female voice—before seeming to fade away.

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  Footsteps approach Valerie from the side, “Valerie, we have to get somewhere safe!” Rosaline says, with quick breathing and a tone laced with urgency.

  Valerie stays still, not moving an inch, her body holds no tension at all, just looking forward at the destruction in front of her blankly.

  “V-Valerie! We have to get going!” She says with a trembling voice, grabbing Valerie’s shoulder gently.

  Valerie flinches at the touch and her eyes widen slightly, she turns to Rosaline quickly.

  “Rosaline?”

  “I said, we have to get going, Valerie!” Rosaline replies, grabbing Valerie’s hand.

  Valerie nods, “Right...”

  They walk through the house, hastily but carefully.

  “It’s surprising how a night like this became such a... Nightmare,” Rosaline says, as the both of them walk down a hallway, glass littering the ground beneath them with no windows on either side of the hall, a large door at the end.

  Rosaline was in front, as Valerie followed. As they reached the end of the door, Rosaline extended her hand forward to open the door.

  As the door opened, revealing what is inside, there was simply an empty room, shattered glass on the ground a destroyed chandelier in the middle from falling.

  They close the door behind them and walk through the place, Valerie looks up from the chandelier to where it fell.

  As they walk, a part of the roof start to descend, moving closer to the ground.

  Valerie notices this, and then looks at Rosaline in front of her, then back up at the roof, realizing she was walking right where the weak material was.

  “Rosaline...” Valerie says, but Rosaline doesn’t hear.

  The material begins to fall right where Rosaline is.

  “Rosaline!” Valerie shouts, running over to her and pulling her back.

  The material fell, landing on Rosaline’s left leg, Rosaline shouts in pain as the debris comes crashing down on her leg, trapping it underneath.

  “Rosaline!” Valerie says, kneeling down next to her.

  Rosaline’s face contorts in discomfort, but looks at Valerie with a comforting smile, “Don’t worry, Valerie... It, doesn’t hurt that bad.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out.”

  Valerie starts to dig her out, as cuts and bruises filthy her hands.

  She everything off, leaving Rosaline’s leg exposed, her leg was injured with lacerations from the debris, but no noticeable sign of any fractures.

  “Rosaline, can you put weight on it?” she asks, on her knees.

  “I’ll try,” Rosaline rises to her good foot first, before trying to put weight on her other leg. As she puts weight on her other leg, she falls over.

  Valerie quickly rises to her feet, catching Rosaline before she can fall, “Well, I guess it seems you can’t, I’ll just carry you for now, just try and... Endure the pain for now.”

  Rosaline smiles and rolls her eyes, “How supportive...”

  Valerie puts Rosaline’s hand over her shoulders, and grabbing her waist securely.

  “Ok, here we go.”

  Valerie starts to walk, making her way to anywhere that looks like it could be an exit.

  As time goes on, Valerie’s movements get slower as exhaustion starts to wash over her, but she keeps going.

  Luckily, we haven’t ran into any of the intruders, which is good.

  She walks through a hallway, illuminated in orange by what seems to be a flame burning from the right turn up ahead at the end of the hallway.

  The place they are walking in is silent, except for the sound of things breaking in the distance, explosions still firing and flames burning.

  That is, until the sound of footsteps coming from the right turn at the end of the hallway come to life.

  Seven men emerge from the turn, one turning towards the direction of Valerie and Rosaline.

  “There! The Scarlet Maiden!!!” one of the men shouts, grabbing the attention of all the others, turning towards the both of them.

  Oh no...