Chapter 11: The Keeper of Secrets
Elias’s breath hitched as the figure stepped closer, its movements slow and deliberate. The lantern’s weak glow barely illuminated the tattered robes hanging from its frame. The air grew heavy, suffocating, as a low whisper coiled around them like a living thing.
Grayson raised his revolver. “Stop right there.”
The figure halted, its hood tilting slightly, as if considering his words. Then, in a voice that sent ice through Elias’s veins, it spoke.
“You should not have come.”
Elias tightened his grip on the lantern. “Who are you?”
The figure lifted a skeletal hand, pointing at the mark on Elias’s arm. “Marked. Chosen. Doomed.”
Grayson took a step forward. “What does that mean? What is this place?”
A dry chuckle rasped from the hood. “A tomb. A prison. A warning.”
Elias swallowed hard. “A warning for what?”
The figure shifted, revealing a glimpse of a face—gaunt, with hollow eyes that burned like dying embers. “The first sacrifice. The one who brought the shadow here. You seek answers, but the deeper you go, the closer you bring it.”
Grayson exchanged a look with Elias. “Who was the first sacrifice?”
The figure let out a breath, almost a sigh. “Emily Thornton was the last. But the first… the first was me.”
Silence wrapped around them, thick and suffocating.
Elias felt a chill crawl down his spine. “You… you were the first?”
The figure nodded. “I opened the door. I let it in. And now, I remain to warn those who would do the same.”
A sudden gust of wind blew through the tunnel, snuffing out the lantern’s flame. Darkness swallowed them whole.
Then came the whispers.
Dozens of voices, layered upon one another, crying, pleading, laughing in madness. Elias fumbled for a match, but a cold hand closed around his wrist. He gasped, heart hammering in his chest.
“Turn back.”
The voice was barely a whisper now, but the urgency in it was undeniable. “Leave this place before it wakes.”
Grayson yanked Elias backward, breaking the cold grip. He struck a match, the tiny flame flickering to life. The figure was gone.
Only the empty tunnel remained.
And at the far end, where the darkness stretched endlessly, something was moving.
Something was waking up.
ns18.219.105.101da2
