Paranormally Yours: A Boxed Set

by Alisha Basso

  “What was that?” asked Nik, rubbing his chest where the light had hit him.

  “I think that was a test to see if my heart was pure. The inscription said that would be the first test. Now we have to meet three challenges. I’m not sure what to expect, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy.”

  They made their way down the passageway until they came to some more words written on the cave wall. They peered at the letters until they, like the others had, changed into English.

  One hundred twenty drachma the price to pay

  For a slave’s freedom,

  Or a friend’s betrayal,

  A precious metal divided by four.

  Tell me now the betrayer’s fee.

  “What in the world does that mean?” asked Tessa.

  She and Nik looked at the cave floor and noticed several silver coins scattered around. They looked at each other and shrugged. Suddenly, a silver cage came down around Nikolas, trapping him inside.

  “Nik!” she screamed, running over to the cage and trying to help him lift it.

  “It’s no use, Tessa. It’s not going to budge.”

  “Is this one of the challenges? To get you out of the cage?”

  At that moment, the top of the cage started slowly moving toward Nik. It reminded Tessa of one of those adventure movies where the stone ceiling started to come down on the explorers, but a quick check of the ceiling of the cave showed Tessa that was not the case here. It was just the cage that was getting shorter.

  “What do I do?” wailed Tessa. “If this is a challenge, there has to be a way out!”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Wait, what did the cave wall say?”

  Tessa went back to the writing and read it again. “One hundred and twenty drachma for a slave’s freedom. Your freedom! And it says a precious metal divided by four.” She looked around at all the silver on the floor.

  “Tessa, I need you to hurry! I already can’t stand up in here.”

  “A friend’s betrayal. I got it! Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver! One twenty divided by four is thirty. But what do I do?”

  “Toss the coins in here. Hurry!”

  Tessa started gathering up coins, trying to count as fast as she could. When she had twelve in her hand, she dropped them, groaning because she had to start over.

  “Tessa!”

  She looked over and saw Nik was curled up in the cage, trying to make himself as small as possible. Panic started to overtake her, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her hands were shaking, and she tried to steady them, afraid she would drop the coins again. She finally had thirty pieces of silver in her cupped hands, and she hurried over to the cage and tossed the coins inside. One of them rolled back out the other side, and she quickly grabbed another one, and pushed it through the bars. She didn’t know what to expect, but the cage didn’t lift. The floor beneath Nik started to move down.

  “Nik!” she screamed.

  There was nothing she could do, but apparently the silver coins were the right answer to the challenge. The floor under the cage, plus about a foot around it, kept moving, and when it had moved down far enough so Nik’s head was clear of the cage, it stopped. Now there was a gap of maybe a little over a foot between the cage and the wall where Nikolas was stuck. He could barely get his body in the opening. And the real problem was how to get him back up to the cave floor where Tessa was. She peered down at him helplessly, but she almost clapped when she saw Nik grasp the bars of the cage and start to pull himself up. His back against the wall helped hold him each time he had to reposition his hands, so he didn’t have to pull hand over hand, but was able to grip with both hands at a time. It was just minutes before Nik was standing beside her.

  “I was so scared, Nik!” she said, flinging her arms around his neck.

  He chuckled. “I was, too, but it’s okay now. We know a little bit about what to expect from the challenges now.”

  “I wonder what’s coming up next,” said Tessa.

  They walked for a few minutes longer but had to stop suddenly when the cave floor just ended. They peered down and saw there were steps leading down to a ledge where dark water, still and silent, filled the chasm between them and where the floor began again. There was a light mist rising from the water.

  “Now what do we do?” asked Tessa.

  “I don’t know. Can you swim?”

  Tessa sighed. “Yes, but we don’t know what’s in that water.”

  As if to give credence to her hesitation, they heard splashing, and they saw, rising out of the water, a huge snake. Its head had to be as big as a football, and judging by the ripples in the water, its body was at least ten feet long. Tessa shuddered.

  “I guess we won’t be swimming,” she said.

  “Look, there are more words carved in the wall down there.”

  As he started down the steps, Tessa grabbed his arm. “Are you sure you want to get that close to the water?”

  “Do we have a choice? You stay up here and let me see what the carving says.”

  “Okay, I won’t argue with you,” she said.

  Nik made his way down the stone steps, careful not to slip and fall into the water. Walking to the cave wall, he peered closely at the inscription. Tessa could see him frown. He looked up at her and shook his head.

  “I can’t read it. It didn’t turn to English the way the other writings did.”

  Tessa let out a long, shaky breath and started down the steps. They were a little slippery, and her legs shook in fear of joining the snake in the water. She finally stood next to Nik and looked at the words carved into the stone. They immediately formed English words.

  Shrugging, Tessa said, “I guess the pure heart thing works on the inscriptions, too.”

  Guiding his craft with a long pole

  Crossing the Styx and Acheron

  Charon’s obol upon the mouth

  Tell me now the Ferryman’s fare

  “What was the Ferryman’s fare?” asked Nikolas.

  “I can’t remember much about mythology. Anyway, I don’t see a boat or a ferryman.”

  “But the inscriptions are clues, so there has to be something,” he insisted.

  “How much is an obol?”

  They saw a lantern in the distance, and then a boat appeared, black and foreboding. They could see a figure sitting in the boat, and as it drew closer, the figure became visible. White bone, shining in the light of the lantern, was all that remained of the one who commanded the boat. However, the boat’s path was straight and true, not wavering to the left or right. They backed up as the vessel touched the ledge, which served as a dock of sorts. The skeleton rose and started toward them, its feet thudding on the bottom of the wooden boat then clacking against the stone as it walked along the edge. When it reached Nik and Tessa, it held out its bony hand, apparently seeking the fare for crossing.

  “What do we do?” asked Tessa in a shaky voice. “I don’t even know what an obol is.”

  “I think it’s a silver coin, but not like the big ones we saw before.”

  “I saw some smaller ones, Nik. There were a few mixed in with the bigger pieces of silver.”

  He looked at her. “We need to go back and get one. I’m faster than you, Tessa. I don’t want to leave you here, but it makes the most sense for me to go.”

  She gulped and nodded. “Go. Hurry!”

  After Nik left, she turned to the ferryman where he was still standing, holding out his hand. “We’ll get your fee. Just hold on a minute, okay?”

  The skeleton moved closer to her, the empty sockets glowing with some sort of eerie yellowish light. She had backed up as far as she could, but the ferryman kept coming. He thrust his hand out and grabbed hers. She screamed and tried to pull away, but that only caused the sharp bones of his hand to cut into hers, drawing blood. His perpetual grin seemed to widen, although she knew that was impossible. He pressed his bony body against hers, and his teeth started chomping together. What w
as he doing? Was he going to eat her? She slipped down the wall and managed to scramble away from him, but she slipped on the damp rock and fell into the water. Immediately, the snake rushed toward her, and she froze in fear. The serpentine beast raised its head, the fangs in its huge mouth dripping with venom. Just as it was about to strike, strong hands pulled her up and out of the water. She fell against Nik’s hard chest, sobbing.

  “I have what you want!” shouted Nik, holding up the coin.

  The skeleton turned its head toward him, reaching out its hand, and Nikolas placed the small silver coin on its fingers. The creature looked down at the coin, then back at them. It gestured for them to come aboard the small craft, and they climbed into the boat. The skeleton used the long pole to propel them toward the other side. Tessa sat in the boat, shivering from fear and cold. Nik put his arm around her and she pressed her face into his shoulder.

  When they reached the other side, the skeleton inclined its head and started off into the mist, disappearing soon after leaving them. They walked up the steps that led back up to the main cave floor, but when they got to the top, Tessa grabbed Nik’s arm, stopping him from moving on.

  “Can we wait here a minute? I think I need to gather my courage back up.”

  “Sure,” said Nik.

  They sat down on the cold stone floor, and Nik gathered Tessa into his arms, trying to calm her fears. After staying like that for a while, Nik reluctantly pulled away.

  “Tessa, we need to get going. Besides, I could feel the dark side of me wanting to resurface. It’s been unusually quiet on this trip, but I can feel it wanting control. The vampire in me doesn’t want to get my soul back. We need to hurry.”

  Tessa stood up. “One more challenge. I wonder how bad this one will be?”

  They moved toward the last challenge, dreading it, but wanting to get it over with. Tessa’s clothing clung to her as the dampness had soaked all the way through now, and she shook from the cold. Nikolas put his arm around her, and she smiled at him gratefully.

  “Maybe we won’t have to be here much longer,” she said.

  “I hope not.” Neither of them mentioned their way out was blocked.

  The path soon split into two passages, and Tessa groaned. “Now how do we know which way to go?”

  “I see an inscription on the wall way down there to the right,” said Nik.

  Tessa looked at him in surprise. “I guess the excellent vampire eyesight is also true. Are you sure you want to be human again?”

  “How can you ask that?” asked Nik.

  “I’m just sayin’….”

  He finally realized she was joking, although the joke was rather inappropriate in the present circumstances. However, he found himself chuckling anyway. She smiled at him, and it somehow broke some of the tension. When they got to the inscription, again, the letters turned to their native language.

  Stony faces looking down from above

  An old lady selling her crumbs

  Entreating cold hearts to part with their coins

  To aid winged creatures in a city forlorn

  Tell me now the bird lady’s request

  “What? What bird lady?” asked Tessa.

  He smiled. “I’m a little older than you, so maybe I know this one, even though you don’t.”

  “So, what is it?”

  “Well, in Mary Poppins….”

  “Mary Poppins?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Yes, Mary Poppins! Anyway, there’s a bird lady who sells birdseed for a tuppence. There’s some kind of song about ‘tuppence a bag’.”

  “Um, I don’t see any birds.”

  Nikolas looked around. “Maybe it’ll be bats. This is a cave, so that makes sense. But we don’t have a tuppence, nor have I seen anything that looks remotely like a coin except for the silver ones.”

  “Bats won’t be so bad. You’re a vampire; they’ll like you.”

  Nik frowned. “Tessa, I think we need to take this a little more seriously.”

  “It’s either laugh or cry…I choose to laugh. The bird lady’s request was a tuppence, right? So there has to be something around here somewhere.”

  “Let’s look before the bats come out,” suggested Nik.

  They moved down the passage looking for some kind of coin that could be a tuppence. Neither of them knew much about English coins, so they had no idea what it might look like. To their dismay, they heard a rustling of leathery wings, and with a sense of dread they looked up. Not bats. In fact, these hideous creatures looked like nothing they had ever seen before.

  “What are those?” screamed Tessa.

  The black creatures with bat wings and heads that looked like gargoyles swooped down and barely missed their heads as they ducked. Their long sharp teeth snapped each time they did a sweep, and Tessa cringed at their nearness. It wasn’t just the fact they were hideously ugly…it was also that they were about five times bigger than any bat she had ever seen.

  “We have to find a tuppence!” shouted Tessa. “Otherwise, we’re dead meat.”

  One of the creatures grabbed Tessa and picked her up from the ground, but Nikolas punched it on the side of the head, and it dropped her. Another one came at Nik and sank its teeth deep into his shoulder. Letting out an angry roar, Nik yanked the creature off and threw it against the wall. That should have killed it, or at least wounded it badly, but it shook its repulsive head and started back toward the couple. Soon they were surrounded by dozens of the winged creatures, and Tessa was sure they weren’t going to make it. She couldn’t believe they would be thwarted by one of the challenges before they even got to the chamber containing the souls. Then she had a thought.

  “Nik, what if the answer isn’t tuppence? What if the answer is the bag? Or what’s in the bag?”

  “Crumbs?” asked Nik. “Where would we get crumbs?”

  As Tessa threw herself to the ground to avoid an attack, she reached into her backpack and pulled out her granola bar. “Here goes nothing!”

  She unwrapped the bar quickly and started tearing it into little pieces and scattering the crumbs all over the cave floor. As she did, the crumbs seemed to grow and multiply until there were heaps of crumbs. The monstrous fliers dove immediately to the ground and started devouring the crumbs.

  “Come on!” shouted Nik, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the passageway, away from the winged things.

  They ran until Tessa could barely catch her breath. She motioned for Nik to stop, and he obliged, even though he wasn’t even winded. Tessa was bent over, her hands on her thighs, trying to slow her breathing down. She finally thought she was ready to face the fight. She was wrong.

  “Look,” said Nik, pointing to the entrance to a large room in the cave where their adversary was blocking the entrance.

  “Oh, snap.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Tessa’s mind couldn’t fully process what she was seeing. The creature before them was about eight feet tall with muscles that rippled with power. Its skin was black and leathery, and its hands and feet sported talons as long as daggers. But it was the face that made Tessa’s mind reel with fear and revulsion. The mouth was wide and filled with razor sharp teeth, and the saliva that dripped from it sizzled when it hit the cave floor. The Keeper’s nose was some kind of snout, and the eyes blazed with fire. They weren’t just red; the sockets were literally filled with fire. This creature was the most frightening thing she had ever seen in her life.

  Tessa looked at Nik, trembling uncontrollably. “We’re dead.”

  “We have to fight it, Tessa. It’s not going to let us just leave.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. And we’ve come too far to turn back now.”

  The monster charged at them then, and they moved quickly out of the way. But it recovered rapidly and started after Tessa. Just as it was about to grab her, Nik jumped on its back. The creature easily slung him off, and it laughed. The sound was deep and it echoed throughout the cave until it sounded like a hundr
ed of them were laughing. Tessa shuddered at the sound. The monster turned on Nik, and its talons scraped down his chest and stomach, cutting deep. Blood welled, then dripped from the wound. Nik stumbled back but didn’t fall. He barely avoided another swipe as the creature advanced on him. Tessa pulled out the dagger hanging at her hip and charged the creature, trying to sink the knife into its back, but the blade couldn’t penetrate the leathery skin. She jumped on its back and tried to push the knife into the side of its throat, but the skin there was equally tough, so her weapon was useless. The creature flung her off as it had Nik, and she hit the rock floor so hard, it knocked the breath out of her. She moaned at the pain in her back and wondered if the fall had damaged her in some way. She couldn’t move as the creature came at her, its mouth crowded with sharp teeth grinning at her. Those horrible teeth were coming toward her, and a drop of saliva fell on her neck. She screamed at the excruciating pain caused by the slobbering demon. This was the end. It was going to bite her, to sink those teeth into her, filling her with the acid that dripped from its mouth.

  Just as she was preparing herself to die, Nik jumped on the creature’s back again, wrapping his arms around its neck, pulling it off Tessa. It tried to fling him off again, but Nik held on tight as the monster thrashed about, trying to dislodge the vampire. It roared in anger, and Tessa put her hands over her ears to shut out the sound. She could finally move, and she decided there was nothing broken. Still clutching the knife, she jumped up and ran at the monster, intending to drive the knife into its stomach, hoping it was a more vulnerable area. The impact of knife on hard skin was great enough that it sent Tessa forward and her stomach hit her hands gripping the knife. Once again, the breath was knocked out of her, but she didn’t go down. The creature stopped trying to throw Nik off and concentrated on Tessa again. She backed up, but it went after her again with Nik still hanging on. Tessa could see he had pulled out his own knife and was hacking away at the monster with one hand and holding on with the other. His blows didn’t penetrate the creature’s skin any more than Tessa’s had.