"What are you doing here?" Gloria hissed, holding the candle so close to my face that I could feel its burn. "How did you get into my house?"


    I stammered. No matter what I wanted to say, they all mixed into an incomprehensible mess that was best left unsaid. Ana, unafraid, approached her.


    "We know you are hiding something. What is this place? What is down here?"


    Gloria backed away defensively. She looked at me as if I would come to her aid against her short but aggressive accuser. When words failed me again, she spoke again.


    "What exactly are you accusing me of? I don''t understand. Your men have seen this place - they checked the entire manor! There is no one else here. Just me and my daughters. Please!"


    I shook my head. We all knew that she was lying, but nobody said a thing. I pivoted to the undesirable alternative - to answer her question, whether I was wrong or right.


    "Your stepdaughter is still alive."


    "Estella? No. She is long gone-"


    "-but Cinderella is here." I insisted. "Isn''t she?"


    Her eyes shifted, avoiding me. "You have her down here. Out of sight. Locked away like a monster!" My breath shook. "And you would know all about keeping monsters… wouldn''t you?!"


    Horrified, her eyes widened and her teeth clenched. As her jaw began to shake, her eyebrows furrowed with rage, and her collarbones stuck out and rose from her chest. She altered into someone so terrifying, that even Ana began to keep her distance.


    Without warning, I was dragged into her grasp. Ana gripped my shoulder to pull me away, but Gloria''s bony fingers dug into my skin. She grabbed the sleeve wrapped around my arm''s wound and pulled it, releasing it as I was pushed away back into the darkness.


    I gripped onto the wound and watched, unblinking, as she smashed the candle on the floor, illuminating us with red light.


    The fire travelled on a path of powder indented into the floor, wrapping us all in a circle of burning flames, reaching up to the walls and ceiling to show the room''s true form. The room seemed to open up, creating the shape of a dome, scratched with strange, swirling symbols and pictures that I could not quite make out. Ana stayed close to me, eyes fixated on the countess, while I tried my best to take in exactly what that place was.


    My heart sank.


    As the last flicker shot up to the side of the wall, I caught it; the image of a feathered serpent, basked in the light of the Sun.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I stared at Gloria, who had my bloody sleeve in her arms, smelling its raw, metallic scent against the smoke of the flames.


    "The feathered serpent." I could only manage to say, but it was enough to paint a wicked smile on Gloria''s face.


    "The very last." She said, unable to keep up the fa?ade of innocence.


    I was knocked out of place as an angered growl erupted like thunder beneath me. My feet struggled above a trap door, nearly burst open by the sheer force of the beast''s avaricious screech underneath it. Gloria seemed startled. Even she appeared to have never heard such a ferocity in its voice before. But instead of being held by that initial grip of fear, Gloria seemed delighted.


    "It all makes sense to me now." She thought aloud, her revelation spiralling into something I could not turn away from, being so frozen with fear. "All this time I had wasted, taking all those sacrifices into these caverns, letting my serpent feast on their flesh. He was never satiated. Not once did he offer to fulfil his promise. But now… now this is the first I had heard him roar with hunger in his heart. He can smell you, yes; he wants you."


    She pointed at me with the end of her long nail.


    "He has waited for your flesh for some time. He always wanted the royal blood of those who killed his father. I never realised that until now," she thought aloud, "But once I have finally pleased him, however…" She turned to the painting at her side, of a feathered serpent granting a shining gem to a human, "...he will bring back my Fabián."


    I turned pale, everything suddenly making sense.


    "You. You were behind the kidnappings!" Ana''s eyes reflected the blaze beneath her. The implications were unspoken, knotting and twisting our insides. Gloria did not change her expression. It confirmed it all.


    Ana yelled out. "Where is Ynez?!"


    Gloria seemed puzzled. She tapped her chin, trying to remember the names of those she brought down into the caverns to kill.


    "I took many women. Too many to remember. They were all too easy to take and all too simple to kill. I am afraid you will have to be more specific."


    "Ynez isn''t the kind of girl you forget!" Ana insisted.


    "Ynez…" Gloria said thoughtfully. I prayed that she would not recognise the name at all; that Ana''s love was still out there, unharmed and unaware. Against my wishes, Gloria answered. "Green eyes. Quite pretty. Yes. I remember her well… she bit me as I dragged her down here."


    Ana''s lip quivered. "She gave my serpent a good fight. He does like to play with his food."


    Ana fell to her knees, gasping with a hand over her mouth. I could not move. I could not even blink.


    "How could you?" I whispered, my heart tearing apart with every whimper that left Ana''s mouth.


    "She was far from the only one, your highness." Gloria said, unbothered. A question pressed on me.


    "And Cinderella… don''t tell me-"


    "-She is alive. For now."


    The serpent roared again ravenously. I could feel my feet become unstable again over its sheer power.


    "Cinderella is just as weak and gullible as all the others. She had my pet at her doorstep for months and months, and yet she never suspected a thing. Not once." Gloria appeared proud of herself, circling us and the flames with her head held high. "She believed I was keeping some rare animals down there for safekeeping, but how rare exactly, well…"


    "Where is she?" I exclaimed, my fists shaking.


    Gloria looked into my eyes, and then slowly, so that I would follow, her eyes lowered further and further down until they were at my feet.


    Instantly, I stepped off the panel, keeping myself only inches from the fire. I unlatched it and threw it open. Below, I faced a long, rusted ladder, descending into an endless abyss.


    "I have no need for her anymore. I supposed trading her life for her father''s would have been fair in the serpent''s eyes. It is a shame, really. Had I known that he was really after you mere minutes ago, she could have been spared."


    Blinded by her rage, Ana flew forward and stepped between the flames. With a swing, she tightened her fist around Gloria''s throat and threw her aside, into the circle with us. Not letting go, she shoved Gloria further and further back towards the trapdoor, and with all her hostile strength, she dangled Gloria over its edge, threatening to let her fall into the bottomless hole.


    "Show us where she is!" Ana demanded. Gloria panted for air, but the more she did, the tighter Ana squeezed. Gloria slapped Ana''s hand over and over again and struggled to nod in agreement. Satisfied, Ana put her down.


    Gloria, exasperated at the fact that she had been so easily thwarted, tore her gaze away from us both, and reluctantly lowered one foot into the darkness. She hooked her feet and arms around the ladder, and beckoned us weakly.


    Silently terrified, we followed her down.