The base of the stairwell opened out to a huge chamber, illuminated with torches, which cast an unearthly glow on the walls. I recognized this place at once.
"It's the place from my dream," I gasped. "It's his lair..."
"Indeed it is," stated a voice from the far end of the room.
Perched on the throne formed out of bones, was BloodLust.
"Welcome, Gabriel Coleman, and your jovial acquaintances, to my cavern..." he declared, in his strident voice.
We turned to leave.
"No, I don't think so," BloodLust intoned, flicking his armored finger.
The archway leading out to the stairwell vanished, leaving an empty stone wall in its wake.
He flicked his finger again, and a loud whirring noise arose from the roof.
A circular stone table slowly lowered from the ceiling hung by cords, with a person tied to it.
"Lorraine!" yelled Jared "Let her go!"
It appeared to take every bit of his energy not to lash out at BloodLust, but he knew better than to do such a thing.
BloodLust merely laughed. A cruel, mirthless howl, that echoed through the cavern.
Lorraine was unconscious. She was in a gruesome state. Her face and nose were bleeding, and her limbs and neck were tied to the stone surface, with something that looked horribly like...
"Tendons and ligaments" stated BloodLust, looking quite proud of himself. "Fresh out of my supply." He laughed again.
"W-what do you want from us?" asked Jared, stuttering. "Let her go and we'll give you whatever you want."
BloodLust's grin faltered. A shadow transcended across his face, and he lifted a finger and pointed it at me.
"I... want... him." he said, with a dramatic pause between each word.
He smiled again and snapped his fingers.
Immediately a whooshing sensation came over me. It felt like a frigid wind blasting in my face, and I found myself in another large hallway.
"How many hallways does this damn place have?" I yelled.
BloodLust's incorporeal voice called out to me from seemingly within the walls.
"More than you can imagine."
"Why did you bring me here?" I asked, looking around the hall. It was a horrible sight. Piles of human meat hung from the walls, bones, ligaments, tendons and other gruesome stuff I won't mention.
BloodLust appeared out of the side of a wall. He grabbed my arm. His armor felt frosty and rough against my skin.
"To show you this," he replied.
"Why would I want to see this?!" I shouted.
He led me out of the hall of flesh, and into a long corridor and then through a whole labyrinth of halls and stairs.
BloodLust was walking swiftly; I had to jog to keep up with him.
He told me certain things as we went along: "That is the door to the dungeons," he would say, or "That passage leads to the primary torture chambers," or "This was the hall where I led twenty school children and slaughtered them all."
He led me at last to a large cavern with a large pool in the center. It was filled with blood, similar to the lake which we had just crossed. It was lit all around with candles, and the surface was shimmering, like a red mirror.
