~ ZARA ~
I was standing in a dark passageway in a part of the castle I didn't recognize when the first spool ran out. I thought I'd gone down only one floor, but the passageway stairways were different and I had been following passages that went away from the royal quarters and now I was standing there in the middle of a dark corridor trying to tie a new spool of thread to the old one, but it was hard while I was carrying a candle.
I swore and wanted to just throw the whole thing away and wander until I found my way out, but I knew if I got really lost I'd need that clue on how to get back—and then, suddenly the thread jerked in my hand, tightening around the finger where I'd circled it to try and make a loop for a knot, then going slack.
I gasped and looked back in the direction where the string trailed from, but it was slack on the floor now, a little rippled, like a snake and…
Then it tightened, then went slack again.
Shit.
SHIT.
