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“How do people get down here?” I wondered.
“Either they pay for their plot or win the lottery.”
I blinked at him. “Come again?”
“The city has a yearly lottery for those too poor to purchase a niche for their eternal rest,” Will explained to me as we snaked our way through the catacombs. Countless tunnels ran off the main path and into the bowels of the dead depths. “The winners hold on to their ticket and their relatives or friends can redeem the ticket at their passing.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That’s. . .lucky of them?”
“It’s either that or a burial outside the walls where any manner of animal might dig them up. The city has also been attacked in ages past and their dead desecrated by the invading forces.”
I winced. “That’s terrible.”
Will paused at an intersection where the path branched off in three different directions. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at the sight. I’d seen too many movies to like what I saw.
“Do you really think they know anything about the Agency?” I asked him as I tried not to look at the myriad of cobwebs that ran out of a nearby skull.
“Did you notice the good father flinch ever slightly when I mentioned the Agency?” he returned.
I shook my head. “No. Did he?”
Will swept his eyes over the area and nodded. “It was barely perceptible, but my question definitely struck his soul.”
“If he has one. . .” I mumbled as I studied our grim surroundings. “Maybe one of these guys stole it to use as a needle.”
Will chuckled. “It would be small enough for that, wouldn’t it?”
I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. “All joking aside, what do we do now? Do I strip naked and run around yelling that I’m available?”
Will’s eyes glowed a little more brightly in the dim light. “As tempting as that would be, I suggest we continue on our way and see if any of these ‘gentlemen’ are in search of a bride.”
I followed on Will’s heels as we continued through the dark, empty passages. Not a soul was seen or heard, and I felt as though we were the last two living creatures on earth. Not even the rats dared show their snouts. Their absence made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. There was just something not right about a place that even rats avoided.
We had traveled for another few minutes when the path opened to a long chamber some thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. The ceiling had a gentle arch to it that glided down into the dozens of niches set into the walls on both sides of us. Those holes were filled with the restful bones of the deceased.
Or so I thought.
A strange noise disturbed the silence and I pressed close to Will. “W-what’s that sound?”
He tensed as his eyes flitted about the room. “The dead.”
The noise grew louder and I realized with a sinking feeling that the sound was the rattle of bones. The skeletons shook off the dust of death and climbed out of their final beds. I had to remind myself to keep breathing as they surrounded us.
“A-are they staring at me?” I hoarsely whispered.
“Keep calm,” Will advised me.
That was easier said than done when dozens of empty sockets stared at me. One of the skeletons stepped forward. They wore the tattered remains of a robe and rings adorned their skeletal fingers. The dead creature pointed one of those bony things atme and its jaw moved as it spoke, but the voice seemed to come from the other end of a long tunnel. The tunnel between life and death.
“You are worthy to be a bride.”
I shook my head. “I-I’m not. Really.”
An unholy red glow came from the depths of those empty sockets. “You are worthy.”
“Will!” I hissed.
“Allow me to handle this,” he comforted me as he took a step forward. “Worthy patrons of the Grimton! I assure you she is worthy of your attention!”
