AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He squeezed my hand. “We shall find out.”
Ben tiptoed up the stairs with me on his heels and eased open the door. The portal groaned on rusted hinges and revealed the simple single-room interior. Niches on either side of the wall held a half dozen stone sarcophagi. A small stone altar some three feet wide and two feet high stood near the wall opposite the door. The altar was topped by a stone candelabra and the mummified remains of three candles.
What I didn’t see was the cloaked man.
“Where is he?” I asked my companion as Ben stepped down onto the recessed floor.
His eyes were glued to the ground and he quickly strode across the room to the altar. “The footsteps lead here.”
I held aloft my glowing ball and beheld what he saw, a set of feet that led up to the shrine and then. . .vanished. “So do we start digging?”
Ben knelt beside the altar and pressed his palms against the sides. “There must be some secret entrance to a tunnel beneath the crypt.”
I hurried up and helped him apply pressure to the stone. My palm brushed against one of the arms of the stone candelabra and the arm twisted around. The altar slid back toward the wall with such force that Ben nearly tumbled down a set of stone steps that led into the earth.
He caught himself by grabbing either side of the hole, and in a moment he had dipped his head into the darkness. Ben lay there for a moment before he whipped his head up to face me. “I hear something, but we must hurry!”
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Ben leaptinto the hole and I quickly followed. In a few moments, I found myself standing in a rough tunnel with dirt walls and a slightly damp earthen floor covered in moss. The tunnel led away from the stairs and along a winding path that soon led out of sight. A few stone-lined niches in the walls held a few piles of gray dust.
Ben stood to one side with one hand on the wall. His red eyes looked into the darkness ahead of us and his lips were tightly pursed. “This appears to connect to the catacombs.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Catacombs? This city has those?”
He turned to me and I was a little unnerved by the intense look in those glowing red eyes. “Yes. They were used before the graveyards became the common practice, and they have also been where one can still find a cheap burial.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and sidled up closer to him. “So how big are these catacombs?”
He returned his attention to the tunnel ahead of us. “They run under at least half of the city, and many were repurposed for the sewers.”
“So do we dare go in there?” I asked him.
He nodded. “I know many of these tunnels, but don’t let my familiarity breed complacency within you. These tunnels are still very dangerous, and only a few souls know even half the layout. Anyone can get lost in these and never find their way out.”
“I guess we found you a kindred spirit,” I mused as I tilted one ear in the direction of the darkness. “Because I don’t even hear his footsteps.”
“Then we had better follow his trail,” Ben suggested as he grasped my hand. “And stay close to me.”
“But how are we going to follow him if we can’t hear him?” I pointed out as we hurried forward.
Ben nodded at the floor. “Our prey has disturbed the dank waters so that we will follow the rustled mold.”
I couldn’t help but drop my attention to the mold I had earlier brushed over. The moss was indeed flattened by a pair of feet, creating a trail. We hurried along the winding path as fast as we dared considering the slickness of moss.
We rounded the second corner and the surroundings changed. The tunnel widened and the niches became larger. They stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and grinning skeletons occupied the spaces. Their clothes and flesh had rotted long ago, leaving behind only their clasped hands in front of them. All that held them together was the thick mess of cobwebs occupied by spiders that scurried at our passing.
I yelped as my arm brushed against one of the thin occupants, and the whole body came crashing to the floor. The noise of the rattling bones echoed up and down the tunnel, followed by the eerie silence of the grave.
I turned to Ben with an ashen face. “S-sorry.”
He shook his head. “No need to apologize. I, too, am unsettled in this place.”
We continued on our way among the dead. The air stank of mold and dry dirt, leading me to sneeze several times.
I furiously rubbed my finger across my nostrils. “How much farther do we-”
I came to a stop so quickly that Ben’s hand that held mine jerked me forward. He caught me before I fell and looked down at me. “What’s wrong?”
