"Hello? I - I can see you in there!" you call out to the orbs in the darkness of the door far across the room from you, trying to sound brave and confident but ending up sounding unsettled and scared. The points continue to look at you (if they're eyes) without so much as a peep. You hear a thumping behind you as your folded-up wings hit the painting, it appears you have been backing up without realizing it. The pressure of the impact causes, much to your dismay, your wings to unfurl, spreading out to their full wingspan in seconds. You hear a loud tearing behind you. The points suddenly flicker out, and the room is dark, as if they were never there at all.
For some reason, the fact that they are gone now is far more unsettling than them being there before. Gulping, you're not sure you want to turn around, letting the door out of your sight. Now nearly paralyzed with fear, you slowly fold back your wings and turn around to see the source of the tearing sound. It appears your unfurling wings have created a large tear in the painting of the apocalyptic fight between gods, monsters, mortals, and creatures alike.
But much to your shock, instead of seeing just a stone wall, several slats of wood are present behind the painting. Turning back to the dark door where you saw the lights (eyes?), you see they are still gone. Not sure what to do, you decide to bite the bullet and tear the painting more. Setting your torch in nearby holder and grasping the upper portion of the tear you made, you tear it up, revealing to top of a doorframe. You then tear to the right, shearing a group of werewolves in the painting in two. It reveals the right side of the doorframe. You tear to left, shearing a god with a ram's head in half revealing the left side of the doorframe. You tear more in all directions until you see it: it appears someone has hidden a door behind this painting, set a few feet off the ground so it could hang in the frame. The door is dusty, but otherwise unmarked. A large iron ring is set in the mid-right of the door. Biting your lip, you try to determine if you should open it.
Quickly looking behind you, you are horrified to see that the points of light have returned, but they seem to be closer in the dark, more towards the doorframe, than earlier. In fact, if you squint just right, you think you might actually see a figure standing there in the dark. A small point of light flickers for a second, you can imagine, before going out. Was it just your imagination, or was it a glint of light off of a sharp weapon?
Or sharp teeth?
It's too much for you to bear. Snatching your torch from the holder, you pull hard on the ring, and are surprised to see it open with ease. Jumping the frame, you look back at the dark doorframe across from you without looking in the room you are entering first. The light points are, to your horror, gone again. Sweating profusely and trembling with fear, you slam the door with all your might and throw the bar down across it, locking it from the other side.
Panting, you turn to face the room you have entered. Well, it's not a room exactly, but more like a stone hallway. It's as well lit as the front hall, you can see about twenty yards of well lit corridor before it hits a wall and splits off into two benches on the left and right. You turn to face the door again and, to your horror, you see scratch marks have been made on it, splintering the wood. Several dark stains adorn the door as well, and you don't even want to think what those could be. For all you know, it could have been some creature sharpening it's claws, some warrior testing his weapons, or some prisoner trying to claw his way out of this corridor you now stand in. But one thing is puzzling, if you go with the prisoner scenario, why didn't he just lift the crossbar?
Shivering, you continue down the hallway, footsteps echoing eerily in the empty passage, devoid of any furniture of any kind, except for the torches in their holders and a few cobwebs here and there. Despite your new probably menacing looking wings, you don't feel powerful or brave.
Soon, you reach the wall and look at your two options. The hallway to the left has several doors before hitting another wall an turning right. It's well lit, but something strikes you as off about it. So, you turn to the right, and almost gasp in shock. The right passage is devoid of light of any kind, with no torches except for the one you are holding. But, holding it out in front of you, you can perceive... something standing in the middle of the passage about fifty feet from you. But, from your point, you cannot tell if it is human, animal, or creature.
You strain your ears and hear a faint sound coming from the thing in the hallway ahead of you. You can't tell if it's a laugh, moan, cry, heavy breathing or whatever. Suddenly, whatever it is takes a step towards the lighted hallway, where you are standing. It's foot, paw, hoof, fin, or whatever it walks on echoes down the passage towards you. Dripping with sweat and paralyzed with fear, you realize you have a decision to make.