Part of the wall of this room he found seemed to crumbled away to reveal a hidden passage. He grinned slightly and entered. There was a coldness about it when he first entered but he sensed something. "Risa?" he called. His voice echoed down the tunnel to wherever it ended.

She head shot over to the sound of Vincent calling her name. She got up and started running toward it but could find no exit. "VINCENT?" She called with a raised voice, obviously panicking. She felt around the wall for a weak point and found part of it broke at her touch. She broke the entire wall and ran down the tunnel. She ran into Vincent and clung to him, scared out of her wits.

Vincent was a little surprised when he heard a response. When he felt her arms around him he was even more shocked. The book was still in his hand and he hugged her back with one arm. "You'll be fine," he said gently.

Her eyes were wild with fear. "We have to leave. Now. And seal the entrance. At all costs. please..." She begged, ready to get down on her knees if he disagreed.

"All right," he said looking confused. He paused for a moment then led her back to the little chamber he'd found that led outside. he paused slightly when he noticed a distinct smell of gun powder. He grinned slightly. "I think I have a plan," he said with a smirk.

She simply nodded and loosened her grip a little. She still felt the stare of that griffin burning her soul, and she still felt as if the world was spinning all around her. "I'm not feeling too well..." She mumbled, then all she remembered was black.

Vincent caught her with his free arm and struggle for a moment. He did what he could with the gun powder and then looked around for something to light the trail to the pile. He smiled slightly when he found a match box and he lit the line with ease. He carried Risa quite easily with the book after lighting it and ran off towards the house.

She woke up being carried again but couldn't see anything. She didn't really care anymore she just let her head fall back and she feel back into unconsciousness.

A while later he heard a loud explosion and the grin widened on his face as he ran. He slowed down slightly though since he knew he was close to the home. He entered the clearing it was in and admired it slightly. He looked down at Risa now. "It's all right," he said gently.

She heard a familiar voice ring in her ears but she didn't know what to think of it, so she just smile and let it repeat in her mind.

He walked now with her in his arms. As he crossed the clearing a fox crossed his path and sat down next to the door. He went inside and up to Risa's room and placed her gently on her bed.

She woke up to Vincent setting her on her bed and finally come out of her daze. "Vincent?" She asked quietly, hoping he would hear and answer her.

"Yes," Vincent asked when he heard his name. He took a seat next to the bed now. When he noticed that she was awake he smiled even though he had registered hearing her call his name and the fact that he had responded.

She looked him straight in the eye "I'm sorry about yelling at you..it's like...I don't even know anymore...it's like when I loose my temper I become a shell of a person...cold and hard and empty and I have no regard for anything or one...I watch myself do this, like I'm a stranger intruding my own mind...but I can't make it stop...no matter how much I want to...it's like an endless stream of hate that takes over me...I'm sorry..I can only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me..though I don't expect anything..." She said quietly, not moving her eyes from his the whole time.

His dark brown eyes studied her expression as she spoke trying to figure out if there was a way he could help her with that problem. He listened intently though to every word and when she was finished he just smiled. "It's fine," he said after a moment. "But I don't know how much more I can take. Just next time, promise you won't follow me. I don't want you getting hurt again."

She shook her head quietly "I'm not hurt.." She said with a small sigh "Just a little shaken." She finished, examining the holes in her shoulders that oddly didn't hurt.

"But if you had gotten hurt," he said. "I don't think I could deal with that. What were you doing out without anyone with you in the first place?" His last words had anger hanging on them as if he could get up and leave at that moment but he stayed rooted to the spot.

She stared at him for a moment, a little bit of anger mixed with nothingness and finally started "I'm not weak. I can take care of myself." She said firmly with a bit of anger roaming amongst her tone.

Vincent sensed the anger but he ignored it this time. "I know you're not weak," he said gently. "It's just natural for some to worry when the person clings to you after running down a dark, scary tunnel."

She clicked her jaw. "Ok, you think that tunnel was what scared me? You have no idea what was beyond it, though, you just assume it was the tunnel, right? You want to know what was beyond the tunnel? Would you like to know form where I came running?" She asked harshly, the anger rising in her voice.

Vincent stayed silent this time and looked hurt again since he had no idea what she was mad about. He had assumed something had been down there due to her desperation because it was unnatural for her to act like that because of a tunnel. His facial expression changed and he stood up and walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

She glared at the door "It was h**l, Vincent, burning flames were all around, deep caverns and griffins with claws sharper than the finest blade around!" She called after him, still half in shock from everything "The griffin, Vincent, the griffin was Lucifer...his eyes...they burned me...they burned my soul..." She said, her hands starting to shake slightly and her voice becoming shaky. Her eyes did not see what was in front of her, they saw the griffin, she didn't try to get away, she simply stared into his eyes as they burned away her soul.

Vincent ignored her at that point and stared at the wall blankly. He was shivering slightly from anger and possible anxiety. He seemed to lose it for a moment. He attempted to stand but fell against the door with a loud thud and then hit the floor as he passed out.

She was broken out of her trance by the loud thud on her door and then on the ground. She got up and walked to the door, grasping her heart with one hand and opening the door with her other shaking hand. She looked down and saw Vincent on the ground. She gasped and pulled him to his room, afraid to take her hand off her heart. She got him up on his bed and sat on the floor next to it, waiting for him to wake up "Vincent?" She asked in a soft voice every now and then, hoping it would awake him.

Vincent stirred but he didn't awake at first. He mumbled something about Risa hating him. He twitched slightly in his unconscious before waking up. He opened his eyes slowly and glanced at Risa. He was confused at the moment and could only remember her yelling at him. "You hate me don't you?" he asked.