by Andrea Judy
"Watch it, Aramis!" I growled.
"Behind you, Pulptress!" Jackson's voice called out and I ducked just in time to avoid something sharp piercing through my neck. It caught my hair, cutting through a few inches, but avoiding skin. I put my knife upwards into the groin of the creature behind me. It dropped to its knees and I grabbed for its head and twisted. Something snapped, then burst into dust.
Catching my breath I glanced toward Jackson's voice, "Any more?" I asked.
She paused before answering, "I don't see anything."
I put the knife away and let out a deep breath as I got back to my feet, "You don't listen very well, Doc."
"I don't do things that I know are bad ideas," Jackson countered. "And wandering off to fight things in the dark is not a good idea. So, how about my goggles and I take the lead from here on out?"
I frowned. "Just wear the goggles and follow behind Aramis. Keep an eye on his chest and see what the temperature change looks like. We need to follow after that and find this gem as soon as possible. That’s priority right now."
"And after that?" Jackson asked.
"We find her and finish her once and for all," Aramis answered. "She will be looking for us. She has to know I'm here."
"Right, the gems react when they get close together." I sighed. "So let's move."
Aramis began back through the tunnel.
"How's she going to know it's your gem and not the one already here setting her gem off?" Jackson asked.
"The closer the three are, the stronger the sensation. Just being close to one other gem means some light but when the three get closer together, it's a heat," Aramis explained.
Jackson nodded. "So, there's no way of knowing if we're heading straight toward her or toward the missing gem."
I gripped the handle of my knife. "If we find her first, we'll deal with her and then find this thing and get rid of her for good."
Jackson sighed. "This was a terrible idea," she groaned.
"Too late to protest it now, you agreed, no, you insisted on coming."
"I know!" Jackson replied, then paused. "Temp in your chest is rising by a few degrees, Aramis. We're getting closer."
"I can tell. It's starting to burn," Aramis said. "Now, let's keep at it. Looks like it splits three ways up ahead again."
I groaned. "Jackson? Which way looks best?"
Jackson waited as Aramis walked a bit down every tunnel. "Right. The right made a huge jump in temperature almost immediately."
"Well then, lead the way. We've got to be getting close," I said, keeping up the rear as we started down the tunnel. The soft dirt walls closed in tightly around us, brushing against our shoulders with every step. The air was stagnant and sometimes difficult to breathe. Jackson suddenly stopped, "Okay, your chest is nearly at 98 degrees. It has to be close." She rustled through her bag and a flashlight flared to life.
I squinted against the sudden light and looked around.
Various bones jutted out from the walls, hanging in place around the narrow tunnel that appeared to end just a few feet from where we stood. "Looks like this is a section she hasn’t really searched yet," Aramis said, rubbing his chest.
"Well, guess we better start looking around then." I knelt down, pulling a few bones loose of the dirt, and digging through some of the tunnel wall. After a few moments, Aramis and Jackson began searching as well.
"We don't have any kind of description to go on?" I asked as I dug through the dirt and bones around us.
"I already told you everything I know. It'll be small, probably smaller than a fist. It's going to be some kind of shade of grey, and it will be glowing since it's so close to me." Aramis said.
"Well glowing at least ought to be easy to identify," Jackson grumbled, pulling a bone loose from the wall and jumping back as dirt tumbled down. She sighed, kicking the dirt and bones free from her legs and getting back to digging.
Aramis stopped working. "Think we've got company." He raised the shovel.
I groaned and pulled my knife out again. To my left, I could see Jackson pulling a large bone from the wall and holding it up like a club. She frowned at me. "It's one of the hardest, strongest bones in the body."
"I know. It works pretty well," I said, remembering taking out quite a few chiffoniers in the catacombs of Paris with a leg bone as my only weapon.
The first one leapt from the darkness and was immediately caught by Aramis' shovel to the head. It crumbled into dust and then they began crawling out of the ground and walls.
One dove from overhead, crashing down on top of me and knocking me to the ground. My back slammed into the hard red clay and my breath rushed out of my body. I struggled to get my grip back solid on my knife, when suddenly there was a sharp crack and the monster pinning me was gone. Jackson offered me her free hand and helped pull me back to my feet. I nodded a wordless thanks and adjusted my knife in my hand.
Standing back to back with Jackson we turned slowly, taking out any of the creatures that rushed us or came too close to either one of us. We didn't work perfectly together, hitting one another with elbows as we swung and fought back, but that feeling of having someone at my back made the dark of the tunnel seem less terrifying.
Just out of the corner of my eye I saw Aramis with three of the creatures grabbing him. His shovel was bent at an odd angle, broken at his feet, and when Jackson’s wildly swinging flashlight turned its beam toward that direction again, Aramis and the chiffoniers were gone.
Chapter 8
I pulled from Jackson's side and rushed over to the broken shovel. My knife flew, ready to strike any creatures still rushing about, but now they all pushed down the hallway, away from Jackson and me.
"They took Aramis!" I slammed my fist into the wall, wincing at the hard red clay not giving an inch.
Jackson groaned, slowly getting to her feet. "Took him where?"
"To her," I growled, clenching my fist. "We need to get him back."
"What about finding the gem here?" Jackson asked. "It's got to be here."
"Without Aramis, we can't gauge that anymore. We don't want her to get him." I shook my head. "I'm not leaving him with her. I'm not losing anyone else to her."
Jackson was quiet before nodding. I heard her shuffling a bit through the dirt and bones, taking a deep breath before joining my side. Jackson followed after me, keeping the leg bone clutched in her hands, raised and at the ready.
"What are we going to do?" Jackson whispered.
"I'm going to put a bullet between her eyes, and we're gonna get Aramis the hell out of there." I answered.
I quickened my pace. I could hear Jackson running right behind me, yelling for me and for Aramis. I kept the light from her flashlight just in my periphery vision as I continued down the winding, twisting dirt passageways. I only came to a stop when I hit in the fork in the paths and wavered on which way to go.
Jackson stumbled into me. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Shine that light on the floor," I told her.
Jackson nodded and let the flashlight slowly sweep the ground. I knelt down low and carefully examined the moist earth. I could make out signs of a struggle and of someone being dragged. I pointed straight ahead and moved quickly down that hallway with Jackson right behind me. In the bouncing light of the flashlight I watched the trail continuing, turning left then right. Jackson struggled to keep up with me as I rushed through the hallways.
"Where are they taking him?" Jackson asked. "I didn't think these monsters would, you know, kidnap someone."
"They'll be taking him to their maker," I said. "She's probably had them looking for him specifically. He holds one of the gems that she needs, remember?"
Jackson nodded, jumping and dropping the light as something growled. The sound echoed around in the narrow tunnels. Jackson scrambled to get the flashlight back in her hand. "What was that?" she whispered.
"Turn off the light," I hissed.
Jackson fumbled with it but got the light off and pr
essed close against my side. I heard her fumble through her bag and then slide her goggles slide over her head and snap into place.
She took a sharp intake of breath. "We need to go. Now," she said.
"What do you see?" I asked.
"A lot of very big, very angry, likely very dead dogs. Those body temps I’m picking up are not compatible with life."
I looked around the darkness of the cave and finally saw the shine of something white and sharp. The growls grew louder and louder, starting to vibrate against the walls.
I took a deep breath and stepped backwards, pushing Jackson with me. We tiptoed a few tentative steps back when I heard paws slamming against the ground. I grabbed my flashlight from my belt, turning it on just in time to see a huge dog leaping toward me.
The matted fur hung in loose clumps from a skeletal body. Its skin pulled back tightly on its skull making the milky grey eyes look bigger, and the teeth stand out with a constant snarl. Pale green drool dripped from its jaw, and the one jumping towards us had the bones of its legs fully exposed.
I swung the flashlight and cracked it against the dead dog's skull. It dissolved to the ground.
Howls and growls began circling around us, and I felt Jackson tense behind me. "We're surrounded," she whispered.
"Take off your goggles, very slowly," I said softly, “and get your flashlight back out. Turn it on and duck."
"What?" She whispered back though I heard her going ahead and removing her goggles and putting them back into her bag. The batteries in her flashlight rattled softly as she pulled it back out.
"Ready?" I asked as I pulled my pistol out, and readied it.
She took a deep breath. "Ready."
The flashlight burst to life, and light shone across the hall around us. As Jackson ducked, I turned my pistol to fire several quick shots at the raised dead dogs that snarled at the edge of the light. Their bloodshot eyes stared at us, and most of them were missing their snout or ears, lost to rot and time.
I grabbed onto Jackson's wrist and took off past the stunned dogs. In an instant the chase was on, the pounding sound of the feet of the dogs hunting us down echoed all around as we fled through the twisting passages of the underground chamber.
Aramis' trail became long lost under the fleeing from the bloodthirsty creatures as Jackson and I ran as fast as we could. The light bounced in Jackson's grasp, flashing from wall to ceiling to pack of dogs and then back to our own feet. I turned and twisted through passages until the jumping beam of light hit something solid, something of stone, not dirt. I stopped and pulled Jackson toward it.
This area of the tunnel was not fully dug out, a large slab of rock blocking the passage.
“Keep your light on.” I told Jackson as I shoved my flashlight back into my bag and tucked my pistol away.
Digging with my hands, I carved out a hole just big enough for me and Jackson to crawl behind the slab of stone. I pushed her in first and then climbed in after her, groaning in pain as one of the dog's feet caught my leg and tore through jeans and skin. I pushed in further, feeling the dog's teeth almost grazing me, snapping and clawing desperately as they began to dig to get to us.
"Now what?" Jackson asked.
I squinted into the darkness of the space around us, barely making out the gleam of something metal not far from us. “Come on.” I crawled through the narrow space in the dirt, just barely big enough for me to fit.
Jackson shuffled behind me, coughing as dirt toppled around us. Behind us I could still hear the dogs snarling and clawing at the ground, trying to dig their way after us.
I nearly crawled into the shiny object and ran my hands over it, slowly tracing out the shape of a coffin. I frowned, but turned toward Jackson. “Help me move this. We can use it to barricade the hall so those dogs can’t get to us.”
Jackson crawled over to my side of the coffin, and together we pushed, starting to wedge the narrow coffin into the hallway just as I heard the dogs starting down the narrow passage towards us. The old metal creaked and groaned under our work. I heard the first dog hit the metal and growl with frustration, starting to claw and fight through the dirt.
I rammed my shoulder against the coffin and wedged it firmly in, jumping back when the metal creaked and then cracked. The side panel fell off, and in the dark, something slid onto the floor.
Jackson scrambled backwards, boots scraping the dirt. I heard her rustle through her bag before the flashlight clicked to life and swung wildly around until Jackson controlled herself and aimed the flashlight toward the coffin.
On the floor was the motionless body of a white haired man wearing what looked like an old Union civil war uniform. Around his neck was a bright gold medallion. His skeletal hand clasped tightly around the necklace. His skin had all but rotted away, exposing nothing but bone and tuffs of white hair along his head. His Confederate grey uniform hung in rags off of his bones. The skeleton still held together even though it should have fallen apart long ago.
Jackson gasped. “That’s him. That’s the devil my grandfather told me about.”
Chapter 9
“The white-haired devil always had a pendant of gold! Always. They buried him alive and he just laughed and held onto his pendant until the ground ate him up.” Jackson spoke in a hurried whisper, “It’s just like grandfather told me.”
I frowned, “That’s a dead man with a necklace yes, but that doesn’t make him-“
His hand clenched around the medallion and a slow wheeze of air escaped the rotted body. His head snapped toward us, nothing but hollow, empty space staring towards us.
I reached for my pistol, aiming squarely at an empty eye socket.
He took several slow deep breaths through his nose, sniffing the air. Then slowly, he began to drag himself toward us.
I fired straight through his skull. He slumped to the ground and I let out a breath I’d been holding. “Okay, we need to find a way that this connects back to the main tunnels,” I told Jackson.
She nodded, and, with flashlight in hand, began crawling forward through the dirt, I followed behind her.
I felt something circle around my ankle and then tug me sharply backwards, dragging my stomach against the ground as I struggled and kicked, glancing over my shoulder enough to see the tattered edges of a civil war uniform.
I kicked again and again until my free leg finally made contact with the corpse’s jaw and he let go of me with a howl. In the tight space I struggled to aim again and fired at him, narrowly missing as the bullet slammed into the dirt wall beside me.
“Go!” I yelled at Jackson.
She scrambled forward and I crawled right behind her, glancing over my shoulder. I could hear the chains around the man’s legs dragging against the dirt as he pulled himself after us and grabbed me again. This time he twisted, and I was just barely able to roll into the movement enough to keep him from snapping my ankle.
I kicked at him, struggling with the tight space and his firm grip around my ankle. He clawed up to my knee and began jerking me backwards, back toward the coffin. I heard Jackson yell something and then start after me.
“Let go!” I growled, managing to kick him hard enough to loosen his grip, but as we neared the coffin, the ceiling above raised slightly and he took that chance to leap onto me, pressing his hands around my throat and squeezing. I punched at him and kicked, rolling around and slamming him back into a coffin. He growled and lunged for me again, but Jackson was suddenly there with one of the handful of rosemary she’d collected in her hand. A lighter flicked to life and rosemary burst into flames as Jackson shoved the flaming sprig onto the man’s uniform.
Instantly the cotton fabric was ablaze. The dead man howled and struggled, rolling from one side to the other, unable to put out the flames. I pulled my feet away from him and stared in stunned silence as the fire ate over him. As it slowly began to smolder out I looked to Jackson and asked, “How do you know that would stop him?”
“Granddaddy told me that they pl
ant rosemary at the cemeteries to keep the devil away, and I knew those uniforms would be flammable,” she said, catching her breath and coughing, trying to get the smoke out of her face.
I nodded, and paused as that glint of gold against his chest caught my eye again. I leaned in closer and reached over to it, pulling it off of his neck. He lunged forward to grab at my hands, but as soon as the necklace left his body, he crumbled into dust.
I took a slow breath and looked over the amulet in my head. One side was engraved with the image of a phoenix while the other side had a beautiful pale grey gem embedded in it.
"Do you really think that’s it?" Jackson asked, leaning over my shoulder. “That man had it,” she murmured. “The legends were true.”
"Something is true," I muttered, turning the gem over in my hands, running my thumb over it and feeling the phoenix and the stone cold against my finger.
I winced when my leg burned from the dog's claws ripping into me. Jackson frowned. "Here, sit down for a second," she said.
Reluctantly I agreed, slowly sitting down on the ground, wincing and extending my leg out.
Jackson knelt beside me and tugged at her jacket. Pulling a pocketknife from her jacket, she carefully cut off the sleeve of her jacket and wrapped it tightly around my leg. She held pressure tightly against the wound, counting softly under her breath before tying it off. "We need to stop the bleeding before we get moving again," she said.
"We need to find Aramis," I responded, leaning against the wall and slowly getting back to my feet. "I've had worse. I'll be fine."
Jackson frowned, standing up after me. "I really think-"
"Look, we don't have time for this. We need to get to Aramis." I shook my head, and pulled out my flashlight and shone it around in a quick circle, finding a narrow pathway of loose dirt leading in a separate direction.
"Come on," I said before crawling forward down the pathway on my hands and knees.
Jackson sighed, but I heard her crawling steadily behind me. At several points, we had to stop and shove past a few loose clusters of dirt, digging our way forward.
