I may be a monster, but I've got limits. Let's rescue the girl and get the hell out of here.

The girl's eyes opened when William clapped a hand over her mouth, but her scream was already muffled. He snarled and she shut up. Removing his hand, William whispered, "The cask, where is it?" She blinked, not understanding. "The man who brought you here, he's hidden a solid bronze cask somewhere in this room. Help me find it and I'll take you with me. But hurry the hell up." With one strong tug he ripped the girl's bonds away. She sat up, got off the bad, tripped, picked herself up again, and without question started the search with William.

It was the girl who found it, secured in a secret panel underneath the pipe organ. Inside the chest was a splintering wooden box, and inside it, wrapped in cloth, was a loose, fragile roll of papyrus, the ancient paint of its sacred hieroglyphs still bright. William sucked in a breath: The Scroll of Thoth! Exactly what the Countess had sent him here to get. The Phantom had picked it up in a museum robbery a few years back. William slipped it into a hard case and tucked that underneath his arm. "Let's go," he said, and headed for the tunnel, but the girl grabbed his arm.

"Not that way," she said. "He'll be waiting. You'll be dead in a few steps. But there's another way." She revealed a trapdoor in the ceiling, so high that they had to use a long hook on the end of a pole to open it and then attach a ladder.

"You really know your way around," William said.

"I've watched him come and go as I pretended to be asleep," she said. "Please, you go up first."

Up the ladder, only a little light came from the chamber below. William looked around; what strange sort of room was this? The back of his neck prickled and he was about to shout a warning, but by then the girl had already joined him and, with a clang, the trapdoor snapped shut. The Phantom's filled the room. The girl shrieked and grabbed onto William and he held her tight. The room lit up then, and William was baffled to find that entire room was paneled with mirrors, even the ceiling and floor. Soon, he realized why: The lights shining in were unbearably hot, and everywhere he looked he was blinded by a reflection. Sweat soaked William's body. The girl swooned, close to fainting. The lights grew hotter and brighter; they were going to be cooked to **** in here.

William dropped to his haunches, prying at the trapdoor, but it was no good. The floor would be too thick to break through, but what about the walls? The glass was so hot to the touch that he winced, but there was no time to worry about that. He grunted to the girl to stand back, and then he smashed his fist right into the glass. An ordinary man would shatter his every finger this way, but William's curse gave him inhuman strength. He bashed the glass again and again until it shattered, warped and fell away, but behind it was only a bare wall. So he tried the next mirror, and then the next. He smelled his hair singing. His vision started to tunnel. His dehydrated body was almost too weak to fight, but he bashed the sides of the room again and again until, finally, one mirror fell in, revealing a room beyond. Cooler air rushed in on them. The girl had fainted, and William picked her up as gently as he could, slinging her over one shoulder and securing the scroll under his other arm. In the control room he found two dials, and turning the one in the shape of a grasshopper extinguished the light and heat.

The Phantom was nowhere to be found, but William wasn't stupid enough to think he wasn't around. He looked at the girl. She'd slow him down, and she might die anyway. He could just leave her. But if not for her he'd never have found what he needed. So he carried her into the darkness of the catacombs and, hopefully, to freedom, with the Countess' relic in hand. If they were lucky...