The black spiral staircase seemed like a throat of some giant creature trying to strangle the trio.
Every step Percival, Lewis, and Mercius took away from the Library of Midnight Echoes made the cold, dead air down there turn thick and wrong. Humid. Sticky.
The silence, however, was the most terrifying.
"Did you hear that?" Lewis whispered behind the dead Knight.
Percival stopped on a stone step and tilted his head.
The vibration created by the rhythmic pounding of a huge machine somewhere beneath the floor of the house was felt in his boots. He stared at the massive stone wall which was preventing him from discovering the source of the noise.
THUD…THUD…THUD.
It sounded like very large machinery rumbling with urgency and desperation, like someone was working hard and fast on something.
"Keep moving," Percival said emphatically.
