“Whoa! OOF!” Amy grunted as she tumbled out of the shaft onto something soft, cushioning her landing. When the trapdoor had opened up beneath the young woman’s feet, the 20-year old girl had slid, feet first, down a narrow, metal shaft, in total darkness. She must have fallen at least thirty feet or more. Fortunately, the chute wasn’t straight down. After a few yards, it had curved to one side, slowing her descent somewhat.
Slowly, Amy sat up, heart still racing from the shock of her plummet. Feeling around, she grabbed her cellphone from where it had fallen nearby. Turning it on again, she held the glowing screen up and looked around the room she found herself in. As best she could tell with the weak like of her phone, the room was maybe fifteen feet, square. The walls, floor and ceiling were of bare stone.
About half of the room was taken up by a large pad, on which she’d landed. It was placed underneath the opening of the chute she’d fallen through. Peering up into the portal, Amy could see the smooth metal walls, curving up into darkness. No way was she going to be able to climb back up it, then…
“Victoria!” Amy called up into the chute. “Beth! Can you hear me!?!” Her words echoed up through the metal tube for a moment before fading away to silence again. She listened a minute, but she couldn’t make out any reply. She turned to examine the rest of the room…
On the wall, opposite the end of the chute, there was a door, made of wood, reinforced with rusted iron bands. Set in the center of the door, about two thirds of the way up was a small window, with iron bars. There was no latch or knob Amy could see.
Nervously, the young woman stood and crossed the room. Standing on her tip-toes, she peered through the window. On the other side, Amy could make out a long, narrow corridor, stretching off into the gloom in either direction. Spaced every five yards or so, along the wall, in either direction were at least a half dozen doors, identical to the one she stood behind. Each had a pair of thick, iron latches, one above the window, the other below, bolted to the stone beside the door.
Glumly, Amy stepped back, switching off her phone to save what was left of the batteries. The young woman recognized what kind of room she was in: a prison cell. And at the moment, it didn’t look like there was any way for her to get out of here, at least not by herself. Glumly, Amy walked back over and sat down on the pad. She could only hope Victoria and Beth found her soon, and that they didn’t run into any more trouble…

“MMMPPPHHH!!!” Victoria groaned into her gag as she squirmed, helpless in the phantom’s grasp. The young woman was thrown over the larger man’s shoulder. Her hands were bound together, tightly, behind her back. Her legs had been lashed together with equal tightness. A thick band of cloth was pulled between her teeth, muffling her frightened cries to little more when soft whimpers. A second band was bound over Victoria’s eyes, leaving her even more in the dark then before…
“Not much further now, my dear…” The phantom teased. He’d been carrying Victoria for what felt like hours to the captive girl. She’d quickly lost track of the constant twists and turns as he dragged his terrified prisoner down the secret passageways through the mansion. All the while, they’d descended deeper and deeper underground…
“And this time, your friends won’t be able to find you…” her captor continued. He laughed evilly enjoying the helpless girl’s whimper of fear. “Don’t worry, you’ll see them again soon enough…once you are all my prisoners! Muahahaha!!!”
Abruptly, the phantom came to a halt. Lifting Victoria off his shoulder, he set her down, gently, on a hard stone surface. She groaned, miserably through her gag. To her surprise, her groan was answered, by a similarly miserable-sounded, gag muffled cry.
“Hhhllllrrryy?” Victoria groaned, the thick cloth between her lips distorting her words. “sss aaaattt ooohhh?” She grunted in discomfort as the phantom grabbed her and began adding to her bondage. Rope was looped around her chest, to pin her arms down. The phantom’s hands, invisible in the darkness of Victoria’s blindfold rolled the helpless girl onto her belly so he could hogtie her.
“Iiccoorraah?” Hilary grunted back. She squirmed, until she was lying on the floor beside her friend. The two girls huddled, close together, trembling with fear.    
“I’ll leave you two to catch up.” The phantom taunted, standing up. “And I believe one of your other friends is currently in one of my dungeon cells right now… which means there’s still one girl I have left to bag! Muahahaha!!!” The two captive girls sobbed in fright as the phantom turned, his footsteps echoing away down the corridor…

Alone, lost, trembling with fear, Beth stumbled through the near pitch black hallway. The teenage girl had spent the better part of the last hour searching the basement in vain for some clue was to what had happened to Victoria…as if she didn’t know. There was no sign of her friend. Beth had finally been forced to leave, just before her candle burned out. She’d barely made it back up the stairs before the melted stub had gone out, plunging her back into gloom.    
As much as she hated it, Beth knew she couldn’t spend any more time looking for her friends. The longer she stayed here, the better chance she had of fallen prey to another trap, like Amy and Victoria had. Beth’s plan now was to head back to the front hall and get out of this damn place, even if she had to smash her way through one of the windows. There was just one problem…
“What the hell is going on?” Beth thought to herself in frustration as she rounded a corner and came to another dead end. The teen shook her head as she stepped forward. This couldn’t be right… Beth was sure she’d been retracting her path back to the front door. She couldn’t have gotten lost, could she?
“The hallways couldn’t have just changed, could they?” Beth said, quietly, to herself. She shook her head, remembering the sliding bookcase they had found Victoria tied up behind, the way the doors and windows locked shut by themselves, the hidden trapdoor that had gotten Amy… “Of course they can…” Beth muttered bitterly.
“Muahahaha!!!” came the mocking phantom laugh. “You might as well give up now…sooner or later you’ll fall into my clutches, just like your friends! Ahahahahaha!!!”
“Let them go, you bastard!” Beth called back, as defiantly as she could manage. Inside, Beth was terrified. Her best friends were in the hands of this madman, and she was stumbling deeper and deeper into his traps with each passing minute. She had to escape, if they were to have any hope at all of rescue.
The phantom continued to taunt Beth over the loudspeaker system. He was obviously watching her every move via cameras, hidden up in the ceiling, somewhere. She guessed he was cutting off the hallways leading to the outside, herding her deeper into the mansion, towards the traps, until sooner or later she fell prey to one…only one thing to do.
Suddenly, and without warning, Beth broke into a spring. Hopefully, if she could run fast enough, she could move quicker than the phantom could rearrange the walls, get ahead of them and make it to a window and get out. In spite of her fear, her confusion over the dead ends, Beth hadn’t lost her sense of direction. She knew she was heading towards the outside of the building. Now if only she could reach it before she was cut off…
Beth stumbled over a rug on the floor. In the darkness, it was difficult to make out any obstructions. The teenage girl narrowly dodged around a table, set against one wall. Beth ran on, relying more on blind luck than anything else to make sure she didn’t smash into anything…
All around, Beth heard wood creak as the walls shifted. To her relief, most of the noise seemed to be coming from behind her. The phantom was having a hard time keeping up with Beth. Over the corner of her shoulder, Beth saw a wall panel slid into place behind her with a low creak, cutting off the hallway. She just needed to keep moving…
Miraculously, Beth reached the end of the hallway, unscathed. As she rounded the corner, the teen saw, up ahead, a window; moonlight streaming through. The storm had broken and the sky had cleared. Beth laughed with glee. Escape was close at hand. She could get outside, call for help; rescue her friends… “I just need to make it a little further…” Beth thought, running faster.
Already the corridors were changing again. A wall panel began to slowly rotate with a rumble of turning gears, to cut her off from the window, thirty feet ahead of her now. Gasping for breath, the young woman sprinted ahead, watching the space ahead of her shrink bit by bit. She wasn’t going to make it!
“Yes!” Beth squeezed through the gap in the walls with bare inches to spare. There was nothing to stop her now… Too late, Beth saw the glint of moonlight off the metal wire, strung across the hallway. The teenage girl tried to come to a stop, but she was moving too fast. Her momentum carried her forward and she tripped over the wire, a few feet short of the window. She landed on a Persian carpet, spread across the hallway. “OOF!” Beth gasped as the air was knocked out of her.
She struggled to get back up. As the teen clambered onto her hands and knees, she suddenly noticed metal wires attached to the corners of the carpet. Glancing back, she saw two more at the other two corners, four in total. “oh my god…” Beth said fearfully.
‘TWANG!”
With lightning speed, the wires were pulled up, dragging their corners up with them. Before Beth could roll off the carpet, the four pulled together above her head, closing the bag tight around the teen girl. In the ceiling above, a motor whirred into life, pulling the sack into the air. It swayed back and forth as the frightened girl inside squirmed, trying desperately to escape. From inside came her soft, muffled cries.
Above, a panel opened up to admit the carpet trap and its helpless occupant. As it disappeared through the opening, the panel closed shut again, cutting off Beth’s final, terrified scream…