(To Brilliant Dr. Garfield: No worries! ;) I've done that often enough)
You start off down the stairs at a fairly steady pace despite the dark with Leona following you, but your mind isn't truly on the so-called Hall of Records, if it really exists. You're turning Hardin's story over and over in your head, and something's just not sitting right with you. He seemed, well, TOO sane. You had been here for only one night, your sense of time was already shot, and you would be on the verge of a pretty serious breakdown if it weren't for Leona's sake. Can you really believe that this guy had been turned into a robot, left to rot in a small section of the castle, and is this helpful after decades? The more you think about it, the surer you are that something is wrong.
The lack of light nearly makes you trip when you suddenly reach the bottom of the stairwell. Just like Hardin said, you can see the faint outline of a hallway, and turn to the right, Leona following you rather closely, a bit intimidated by the dark. After walking for a bit, you can just make out the stairways in the distance. A slight glow comes from above, where the rising stairway leads, but the one leading downward is just as dark as the hallway. As you near it, you suddenly stop, unable to bear your doubts any longer. Not able to pause in time, Leona runs into you.
"Hey, warn me next time," Leona hisses in your ear, backed up by her tail hissing a few feet back.
"Look, I'm not sure we should do this," you finally state. "Something about Hardin's story is off; I just can't put my finger on it. I don't think we should do what he said; we should go look for Camelia instead."
"What do you mean? He was so nice!" Leona retorts. "And how are we going to look for Camelia? You yourself said she could be anywhere."
"Yeah, but she went down," you reply, pointing to the dark staircase, causing Leona's eyes to widen.
"That's crazy! I want to find her too, but Hardin told us to go up, and I've had enough of the dark to last me," Leona pouts. "Besides, you're just being suspicious, you don't know that Hardin lied to us! After all, Cain trusted him!" In your mind, that's not much of an endorsement. In fact, it makes you even warier that the robot is friends with the homicidal mutt. Furthremore, if they had common goals...
As you ponder how to make your case, Leona shrugs angrily at you and starts towards the staircase leading up. A step behind, you decide to follow, if only not to be alone in the castle, even though you still feel like you are missing something. Turning at the landing and continuing up the stairs, the two of you reach the head of the stairs, which is brightly lit by torches. However, neither of you note in passing the large iron gate which is swung fully open, and which if closed would block the stairwell.
"See, it's fine," Leona smirks, and turns to the left. Sighing, you follow reluctantly down the hallway, which darkens as your distance from the stairwell increases. Finally, a good distance from the stairwell, Leona pauses before a large sturdy oaken door, which looks like it is heavily reinforced. You frown at this, but Leona is too happy to notice. However, remembering Hardin's warning about the record-keeper, she does manage to open the door slowly and cautiously.
The first thing you notice is that it is nearly pitch black in the supposed records room. As you wait for your eyes to adjust, a musty, dank smell assaults your nostrils. Nevertheless, Leona slowly swings the door wider. With the dim light entering the room, you see a large mirror at the other end of the room, but your view of it seems hazy, and you are not sure why. As you take a step closer to the doorway, you begin to see strands, and realize...the haze is caused by webs. Giant webs filling the entire room. There's no way one spider could have done that. And seeing the mirror jogs something in your memory, something Hardin said...
At that moment, the door thunks against the wall, having swung open all the way. In an instant, the mirror is reflecting tens - no, hundreds of reddish eyes, all directed towards the door. Terrified, you grab Leona and pull her back.
"What the...?!" Leona snaps at you as she nearly falls back, but then she catches sight of your face.
"Just RUN!" you shout as you drag her along. As the two of you bolt for the stairwell, you hear the ominous sound of clicking and high-pitched screeches from behind you. Leona has to concentrate on keeping her paws moving smoothly, so she cannot look back, but your curiousity gets the best of you. While continuing forward, you sneak a glance over your shoulder.
Although you first concentrate on the floor of the doorway, you suddenly realize the movement is coming from the top. Although you cannot get a clear look at the shape, some large, many-legged creature crawls under the top of the doorframe and moves up to the ceiling, chasing after you, and your blood runs cold when you realize it is followed by many more.
Running and stumbling, you and Leona finally make it to the stairwell, which Leona turns to in order to dive down to the landing. However, you know you cannot outrun these creatures at this rate. That is when you spot the heavy iron gate, and begin to swing it shut. The weight is slowing you down though.
"Wait! Help me with this!" you cry out, distracting Leona. She trips over her paws and nearly lands head-first on the landing. You have no time to look back, as through the bars of the gate you can see the creatures nearing rapidly. If you don't get it shut, neither of you have a chance. You push with all your might, willing the gate to close. As the creatures are mere feet from the still-ajar gate, something slams into the gate next to you. It is Leona, who has managed to untangle herself. As the gate locks in position, you and Leona jump down to the landing, then dive for the hallway below. You can hear banging and screeches from the hall above, but it seems like the gate is holding. You and Leona collapse in the hallway, panting, and eventually the screeching begins to lessen, then goes away entirely as the creatures seem to give up on their prey.
"I just remembered," you say between deep breaths. "Hardin said he couldn't go through the 'mirror.'"
"So?" Leona asked, her leonine and human sides heaving.
"Why did he call it a mirror? It wasn't reflective from inside the workroom, why didn't he just call it a doorway? Even if someone else told him it was that, he only saw a doorway, there's no reason for him to refer to it as a mirror," you frown, while Leona pauses to give you a sharp look. "The only way that makes sense, is if he had seen the other side of it often enough to call it a mirror. And if that's true...he lied about being trapped in the workroom. He spun us a heck of a tale." Leona's eyes open wide as she sees where you are going.
"But what about Cain?" Leona gasps. "We can't just leave him with..."
"Those two know each other," you scowl. "You saw how comfortable Cain was in there, he even switched on those machines. No, I doubt Cain is in any danger." Leona's look fades into despair.
"Yeah, he was lying," Leona finally says as though trying to convince herself. "After all, he said he'd been here for years, but he hasn't been here much longer than I have!"
"Uh, right," you smile uncomfortably.
As an awkward silence descends, both of you look towards the darkened stairwell leading down.