The Kitchen

"This way!" Danielle cries as she turns yet another corner in the labyrinthian mansion. Circe is not far behind and getting closer every second.

"We're out of smoke!" Chris declares, waving the blackened plant. It's smoke effect has tapered off to basically nothing. "Do we still need this thing?" 

"You can toss it." Danielle states as she screeches to a halt in front of a grand door, Chris bumps into her clumsily. 

"Sorry!" Chris apologizes to Danielle, before turning and chucking the remnants of the plant at Circe. It falls pitifully short of the serpent, which glides around it, completely unperturbed. Danielle opens the door as quickly as she can, grabbing Chris by the arm and pulling him through.

Danielle slams the door shut behind them, which Circe smacks into soon after, making the frame creak from the sheer force of the impact. 

"That won't... stop her... unfortunately." Danielle says between breathes, wiping the dirt from her hands on her skirt.

"Why... not?" Chris gasps. "How did that... thing... get into your room in the first place?" 

"Circe is mother's familiar. As a result, she has a lot of agency in this place because everything here was created and fueled by mother's magic. That door, and any other door in this place for that matter, will open on its own simply because Circe wants it too."

Right on cue, the doorknob to the kitchen starts to slowly turn, just like last time. Chris grabs it and attempts to stop it, but it is unaffected by his efforts, no matter how hard he tries to prevent it from moving. 

"You're wasting your time." Danielle advises Chris as she admires the kitchen. "Help me look for something that could help us."

Chris reluctantly releases the knob, which surprisingly doesn't immediately turn all the way open. 

Laura's kitchen, just like the rest of the manor, is massive in scale. Being the workshop of a witch makes it even more unusual. There are long counters piled high with all kinds of magical instruments and cooking utensils. A mixing bowl filled with batter and a whisk sits next to the largest set of shiny brass scales that Chris has ever seen. Books of all shapes and sizes and varying conditions lay in stacks on the counter, the floor, on top of the cabinets. They fill book shelf after book shelf lining the back of the room.

"Why is the snake chasing us?" Chris asks in dismay.

Danielle pokes at a platter of normal-looking cookies with a fork, causing one of them to spontaneously erupt in flame. Completely unsurprised by the sudden fire, she says, "Mother ordered her too. And she isn't chasing us, she's chasing you." 

"Great..." Chris responds, as he walks along the opposite wall, looking nervously back and forth between the door and the counter. He stops in front of a gigantic fridge, the size of two telephone booths put together. "Do you think there's anything in here?"

"Maybe..." Danielle joins him. She sees the door to a walk-in freezer nearby. "Actually, I might have an idea involving the freezer, but we need to be quick about it."

A few minutes later the door to the kitchen flies open and Circe rockets into the room. The snake stops momentarily, tasting the air in search of Chris. Once she has honed in on the teen's scent, she zips across the floor toward the open freezer, where Chris's jacket can barely be seen in the darkness. Danielle is standing next to the door suspiciously, but the snake doesn't seem to care, honing in on the dark, frozen void presented to her.

Without any hesitation, Circe dives into the freezer, causing a ruckus as she knocks racks of frozen food onto the ground. Danielle heaves the door shut behind the snake, latching it closed.

Chris steps into view, having been hidden behind the freezer door, the jacket wrapped around his waist now missing. "I can't believe she took the bait, but won't she just open the door again?"

"Eventually, yes. But the cold temperature is going to slow her down considerably." Danielle gestures to the back of the kitchen, where an alcove sits, completely obscured by shadow. "I would like to investigate that area before we leave."

Chris looks at the shadowy corner. "What's so special about that spot?"

"I don't know." Danielle shrugs. "Something about it is calling to me, I guess? I've never been in the kitchen before. Mother has forbidden me from entering this room since I was a little girl."

As the two approach the alcove, it is revealed to be the entrance to some underground room, the ground sloping down into the darkness like the lower floor of a parking garage. The scent of sugar and death is carried up and out of the void by a draft.

"Are you sure about this?" Chris asks, clearly unsettled by what could be waiting for them in the darkness.

"Of course." Danielle says absentmindedly. "I just want to take a peek."

Danielle leads the way into the cellar, with Chris following close behind.