The others looked at Allenya in surprise.
''Wait did you make a deal with that demon?"
Gert asked with a deep frown.
"No, she did not. I decided to help because I wanted to,"
The others were now even more surprised. However, I didn't care about that.
"Now shouldn't we go look for your friend?"
Allenya was almost jumping up and down like a small child. This made me laugh. The others backed away.
Allenya grabbed my and basically dragged me to a lighter spot on the wall. The floor on that place was also clearly worn down indicating that the 'hidden' door opened inwards.
I walked around the door, but I couldn't find an opening of some sort. With no other option left I ripped the wood from the wall. And as I expected there was a stone wall underneath it. I used my claws to get a grip on the stones. After this I pulled with all my might. It felt like I was ripping of my own arms and I was nearly giving up. Then I felt some movement. Some of the stones were giving in.
I finally managed to forcefully open the door. The others just stood there amazed by my performance.
For a minute I stood there, gasping for air before I finally regained some strength. Then I opened the door further. It was easier this time due to the door already being half open. The stones scraped over the floor ever so slightly destroying the floor further.
("How the hell did that old man open that door?")
Now that the door was open, I was curtain that we chose the right path to Yohan, given that a horrid smell existing of a combination of feces and blood
Elisa was to my surprise the first one to run into the stone tunnel. She almost fell when she tripped over some rocks that were scattered around the tunnel. But this didn't stop her she just kept running towards the dark end of the tunnel.
Allenya entered after her, then Alex and finally Gert. I followed them. I could barely fit in the tunnel. Since I was almost two meters long with my horns included. Gert kept giving me angry looks all the way till we entered a room with cells.
"Is he alive?" Allenya asked me. I stayed quiet and listened. I could hear some water dripping down from the sealing and some rats running around the dirty floor. Then I heard it, a faint breathing coming from a far corner.
"yes"
I walked to where I could hear the sound coming from.
There was a man. He was incredibly skinny and pale. He looked like a corpse. I saw that he missed a three fingers on his left hand and two on his right. One of the wounds on his right hand was still fresh but the bleeding had long since stopped.
The man slightly raised his head to look at who was standing before him. When his eyes saw my tail, red skin and horns he freaked out. He tried to free himself from the chains that kept him in this place.
I turned to face the others of the group.
"is this him?"
"yes!" Allenya screamed.
"Dad? Dad are you alight?" Elisa whispered as she sat next to him, hugging him tightly. She had tears in her eyes.
But Yohan didn't answer. This was because he had a piece of cloth in his mouth. The grills stepped aside as I tried to break his chains. They were low quality and almost broken to begin with, so it was easier than opening the door.
Once he was free, he backed away from me. He was now breathing heavily pressed against the cold wet wall. I simply walked to the other side of the room to give the middle-aged man some space. Allenya, Elisa and Alex approached him to remove the cloth in his mouth and looked at his wounds.
Gert on the other and stood in between me and the others. This annoyed me but I did nothing against it.
Once they were sure that Yohan wasn't too injured to be transported the helped him up. Alex lend him his shoulder as we walked back through the tunnel. Gert was once again in between me and the rest of the group.
This time we walked a lot slower. But it was only natural since Alex was carrying Yohan. After some time, we reached the exit. Upon entering too Livingroom that was located next to the entrance, Alex put Yohan down on the couch.
I stood in the corner of the room leaning against the wall. I was afraid to interfere since they didn't trust me.
I watched them as they treated his wounds and gave him some soup. They couldn't leave because of the still weak Yohan and I had nowhere to go. So, the number of people in the house stayed the same.
For the following days I tried to help the others with caring for Yohan. But they obviously wouldn't let me.
Only Allenya dared to talk to me from time to time.
"How can you even walk upright with legs like that?"
I shrugged. I basically always walked on my toes.
"I don't know."
"Can you… breathe fire?"
"Not at the moment, but according to Yerald maybe in the future."
She looked at me with her wide brown eyes.
"Wow that is so cool."
Suddenly we heard a cogue from behind me. It was Yohan. Without looking I guessed that he was once again choking in his soup. It couldn't be helped. He was almost starving when we got him out of the cell. So, now he tries to eat everything as fast as possible and often chokes in his food.
He seemingly had yet to notice that I was in the room. He was dead afraid of me. Once he notices I'm nearby he will either scream or just freeze.
Of course, no one would let me in the Livingroom alone. So, Gert, Elisa and Alex were there to.
In order not to frighten Yohan again, I decided to go back upstairs. I opened the door and laid down on the bed. I stared at the sealing while focusing on my breathing and the sounds from downstairs.
I did this to distract myself from the conflicts in my mind. On one hand I was hungry for some souls. I hadn't eaten them in over a week. On the other hand, I hated myself for wanting souls. I didn't want to go out, kill something and eat its soul. But my body gave me the feeling that it was natural and that it was what I should do.
I got up from the bed and walked over to my bureau. I always brought some food up here so I wouldn't have to go downstairs to eat.
On the bureau laid some stake and a vegetable soup that Elisa made. It had already cooled down, but the temperature of the food that she prepared didn't affect the flavour.
I ate my food always right before I went to sleep so that the endless hunger for souls wouldn't keep me up at night.