Hellbound Heart

This bonus chapter is dedicated to @Babsia! Thank you so very much for the supergift!

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The Victorian mirror moved back and swung to the side the moment Elle twisted the candelabra, shocking her. It moved so impossibly quiet that Elle could not help but feel amazed at the mechanism that had gone into making it.

Her palace back home also had secret passages like this. So, Elle was not really surprised that this was a secret door, but she was shocked that it did not even make a single sound. Their secret passages often make sounds as they opened! Some passages were even so loud!

She twisted the candelabra even lower until the mirror was completely moved to the side and a square hole about a meter long on each side appeared. Elle could not help but be intrigued by what was behind this secret entrance. Searching for secret passages in her palace back then was actually her hobby ever since she was young. She was fascinated with these secret chasms as they tend to lead her to some unknown, quiet and interesting places.

Seeing one again right now, made Elle felt as though her inner child was squealing excitedly within her, eager for an adventure. She was eager to find out where could this secret passage lead her to and what would she see along the way. She had been so bored out of her mind that this unexpected find was a pleasant surprise for her.

She had not tried to look for any passages in this castle since she had arrived. It was not that she had no interest in doing so. But it was simply because she felt as though she was not allowed to do so. Since Sebastian or the butlers revealed these to her, then that means she was not allowed to know about it.

But now, here she was standing before an opened passageway, just waiting for her to explore. There was no way she could deny this temptation placed right before her! She took another look at the note again, flipping it to see if there were more written messages that she had perhaps missed. Unfortunately, there was nothing other than that one lonely line. This only meant that the one wrote this wanted her to go inside… wait…

Elle whipped her head towards the clock and then towards the still tightly closed main door to her room. Could it be that Sebastian was waiting for her on the other side of this passage? But why would he even do such a thing when he could just barge back into this room of theirs?

Her brows creased harder. It was a little hard for her to believe that Sebastian would be fond of something even remotely fun like this. But then again, she truly did not really know if he might be the type to secretly be fond of this kind of thing. So far, he had never revealed anything personal about himself to her, nor even talk about anything related to his past. The two of them… still barely knew anything about each other. And it was more glaringly obvious especially on her, to him.

Staring inside the dark hole again, Elle went to grab a small flashlight from her bag. She had not seen any emergency flashlight in this room, so she had bought one some days ago.

She thought that perhaps, Sebastian wanted her somewhere else to reveal the secret he was going to talk about. Perhaps, he wanted her to see something in there and that was why there was this… note and this passage. Perhaps, he was late because of this?

Elle clenched on her flashlight tightly, turned it on and then, after taking a deep breath, she entered the dark passage.

As soon as she was inside, the door automatically slid shut quietly behind her. Again, she only stared at it as it closed. She knew many passages that closes on their own from the outside like this one. However, the silent way it slowly slid back and seamlessly disappear gave Elle a slight shiver.

Shaking her head to dispel that weird feeling that had come over her, she then pointed her flashlight straight ahead. The path was not as narrow as she had thought it would be. However, this passage could only accommodate one person moving in it at a time.

Wasting no time, Elle moved forward. The walls were not decorated or carved with anything, and it seemed that no one had entered this passageway for many years. She avoided the spider webs as she passed through. The ones that were blocking her way, she used her flashlight to push them out of her way.

Soon, she reached a stairway. Pointing her flashlight down, she saw that the stairs went down in a spiral. Again, a narrow stair.

She tested the stairs first. She held on to the railing and shook it, testing to see if it was as flimsy as it looked. Surprisingly, it was made of steel, and it seemed to be pretty sturdy. She extended her feet and kicked the first step, and she found that the steps were made of steel as well. Deciding that it was safe, Elle proceeded. She descended slowly.

A long while later, Elle pointed her flashlight down again. Somehow, it was weird how long this stairway was. It seemed to be spiraling to no end. She was appalled to see that her flashlight's ray could not reach the ground.

Hesitation hit her, but after a short while of contemplation, she continued descending.

Thankfully, she soon reached the end of the stairs. What came next was a long straight path. And then another stair!

Elle had thought of going back. Judging from the length of distance she had already travelled, she must have gone way too deep already. But she clenched her fists tight and continued. She did not want to go back to the room sulking and angry because Sebastian did not keep his word. Again!

And she also had a feeling that she was already close to the end. The change in the air's freshness gave her that idea. So, she pushed on ahead. More determined to see this through till the end.

Walking faster, Elle halted after a gust of strong cold wind welcomed her. She blocked her face with her arms from being directly blown at, and then slowly put them down as the wind seemed to have calmed down. It seems that she was right! The passage did not bring her to anywhere in the castle itself but outside, somewhere below the castle itself!

Elle moved slowly, and she could already see the dark sky and the moon peeking through the clouds. The space became bigger until it looked like a small cave that had been carved into a stony hill.

She stood there, quiet and still, only her arm that was holding the flashlight moving. She pointed her flashlight everywhere to look for Sebastian.

Her flashlight then caught a man's silhouette to her far right and she focused her flashlight towards it.