Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Creeeeeak

The door split open with a long, echoing squeak.

Step step

Down the long staircase she goes.

Cough cough

It was dusty, very dusty. Something a maid of her caliber wouldn't accept. But cleaning such a place would require ages, if not decades.
The basement of the Hwang mansion dated to centuries. However, her young and curious mind couldn't contain itself, so she gave in.

Cough cough

This was unbearable. Taking out a handkerchief from her pocket to cover her nose, the maid finally reached the floor. 

The echoing basement was decorated with ridges. With layers upon layers of books and other ancient invaluables.
If there was anything worthy here it was already gone. Either sold or simply to adorn the mansion masters' chambers.

Click click

Hae-in lit a lamp with her lighter, illuminating the shelves further. The books looked so old and dusty it felt as if they would pulverize from a mere touch.She looked around for a bit, maybe there was anything worth to take from here. 

Unbeknownst to her, the black heels nearly stepped on a long shadow. One that didn't match the shapes of the objects in there.

Continuing her walk, a shiver ran down her spine. And the heroine realized that her forehead was covered in a cold sweat.

THUNK

The old door closed far behind, the strong wind also extinguished her only source of light.
Thump thump
Her heart raced, breathing quickened and Hae-in slowly came to a realization.

There were eyes on her. 
An uncountable amount of eyes. 
Purple and glowing dimly.

Before she could make a run to the door, her feet cought up in a strange black tendril, and like that, the rest of her body followed suit. All enveloped in black.
Her eyes lost sight.

Chapter Text

Once awakened from her forced slumber, Hae-in deduced 2 things:

She was bound by a fancy chair, more respectively, only her feet and waist were wrapped in black tendrils while her hands were bound behind her back.

The maid was seated at a nice dinner table, with strange dishes arranging an appetizing sight.

However, the food looked odd.

Extremely odd.

As if it was a mere illusion, and would crumble from looking at it for too long. No matter how tasty it looked, the maid held back on even thinking of tasting it.

She looked around for a second, the walls of the room were—dark.

Pitch black darkness was sorrounding her.

But the huge chandelier standing mighty above gave the strange endless room some light. It's candles shone brighter than any she may have seen, but it didn't seem attached to anything, so it looked as if it was floating.

The air was clear and pure, like walking outside after a storm in the middle of the night.

One thing that was overlooked earlier, was the shadow materializing before her.

It only appeared a second ago, startling the woman, and was now trying to take a shape.

After wobbling for 2 full seconds it now took the form of a well suited man. His appearance was... ethereal. Whether it was it's true face, or a god taken from an ancient tapestry she did not know, but quietly hoped for the former.

Hae-in took a careful look at his eyes, which were glowing in a soft mauve color while the iris was differentiated by a striking light thistle glow.

Clad in black, the man sat straight piercing his gaze at Hae-in, his hands crossed holding his chin.

With a smirk he said in a strangely sing-song voice:

"Hello!"

The polite tone it took was unnerving, the maid was weary of the creature.

"Hello." She replied back.

"Not many people come around here, what got you curious?"

Is it talking about the basement, or are they still in there now and not some other cursed dimension.

"I was simply looking for some cleaning supplies."

The lie was evident, it seemed, however it was not a lie.

There were some tools one needed without alerting the head maid. Hae-in simply thought there might be something useful here.

She was wrong.

Maybe this was all a nightmare?

Maybe she collapsed from a gas leak.

It seemed more probable than sitting at a dinner table before an eldritch monster who took the shape of a human.

Lost in thought the woman didn't realize his change in expression.

He looked...nervous?

Was he not here to lure her in and kill her?

Or perhaps trying to poke fun with his meal.

Who knows...maybe instead of this poorly made illusion of food her head will be arranged on a tray.

He shook his head, dismissing a thought.

This time the small talk was over so he cut to the chase.

"I'll let you free on one condition."

Ears perked, Hae-in listened with full attention.

"Sign a contract. That's all you have to do."

Ah. Now it made sense. In all the books she read, those who forced contracts were either scammers or devils.

The amateur scammer was waiting for an answer.

She simply stood silent. Not catching the bait.

At that, he sighted and waved his hand.

The shadow wrapped around her wrist dissipated and her hand was free.

But before she could stretch it, an invisible force pulled it up.

It was so strong she couldn't move a but a finger.

Said finger was locked now too, pointed forward. And an old wrinkly paper appeared in front of it, black text wobbling weird words.

Slight pain surged from it, as blood slipped out.

The invisible hand moved her bloody finger to the left corner of the paper, signing the contract without her approval.

"Thanks for your cooperation, dear lady."

She opened her mouth to protest, but it was already done, pain surged throughout her entire body, and a black chain enveloped her wrist.

He let go of her hand and it fell flat against her body, numb from the force.

The chain disappeared and with that her vision blackened

once again, consciousness spilling from her body.