To get to the old ballroom he had to innocently meander down a series of unsavory alleyways full of people that weren't entirely human and didn't quite know how to keep one alive for very long. From there he reached a courtyard with a fountain that had been used as a communal dumping space for so long that the water was no longer visible, though the rubbish bobbed about as something swam beneath it.
Taking the third exit from the courtyard took him passed several small shops that seemed to exist in another age altogether and whose owners glared at him through dust-coated windows, or perhaps it was the dust itself... in this part of town nothing was as you'd expect.
He ducked down a final alley and set to work prying damp boards from a broken basement window so that he could slip into the unguarded side of the old theatre and work his way towards a ballroom that hadn't been seen for almost two hundred years.
As he gently placed the boards back over the window to try and cover his entry point, he closed his eyes to help them adjust faster to the dark. As he turned around he saw that there was a lit candle by the open door that led to the lower workshop of the theatre.
Holding his breath he waited and listened for the sounds of whoever had been here just that little bit before him, long enough ago to have lit the candle but not so long that the candle had burnt out or even reached the halfway mark. He heard the faint sounds of birds outside and his own heartbeat thudding in his ears but all else was silent.
The candle felt warm as he picked it up, debating between sing it for light or using his own torch and ultimately choosing the candle for being a softer light, something harder to spot than the harsh white of an LED flashlight. Armed with this, he carried on into the underbelly of the theatre with the ballroom - his goal- at the forefront of his mind.
After what felt like hours of trekking through spiderweb-infested hallways, hiding underneath old sewing desks from patrolling denizens and tricking the lingering patrons into pretending he didn't exist, he finally found himself at the grandiose entrance to the ballroom.
The denizens found him shortly after.
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