Something Wicked - Summertime Blues

[Nina]

The kids started the climb, the hardship forgotten with the excitement of discovery. By their best estimate it was about 250 to 300 foot climb, but it wasn't a straight path. So it took them several back and forth passes at different heights on the way too their destination.

 

The going was still fairly rough but they made steady progress. Roach, Silas, and now Hannah each had  the nagging feeling of being watched but none of three said anything to any of the others, although each, at different times, found themselves scanning the ridge above for some unseen menace. Menace because each of the three felt that something threatening was near.

 

The rain started lightly at first when they were close to the top but still not near enough to clamber over to the top of the ridge. Large splats of rain fell then a rush and with a crash of thunder the sky fell. They ducked and sought cover and Silas found himself face to face with the twin of the skull Hannah had found below but this time it was stuck in another cleft rock and was facing the ridge looking down toward the ground.

 

 Silas looked that way and saw what could be the narrow opening leading into the face of the ridge!

[Malachite]

"I, uh," Silas blinked hard and swallowed, determined not to scream himself. "I think I found the next step. And guys, whoever laid this out had way too many skulls just laying about." 

He pointed and shuffled around so the others could see the narrow entrance into some sort of cave within the cliff side. If they hadn't had to look for a bit of shelter from the rain, they'd probably just walked right past on their way up to the top. He wondered if it was just a lucky coincidence or of if there was a touch of destiny or divine intervention going on. He tried to mop some of the rain off his face and internally grumbled that that signs were much less wet than rain but he couldn't help grinning, either. "Let's go!"

[Asarasa]

The skulls didn't really bother Jordan, other than being mildly interesting as she'd never seen a real one in real life before. They were just old bones, of people she didn't know. Not all that different than the bones left over after eating a plate of chicken wings. Except for being skulls. The big girl was far more interested in finding out where the map led and she was enjoying the rough hike, even the rain, at first, wasn't unpleasant.

 

But even the brawny blonde had to admit continuing on when it began to pour was a bad idea. It wasn't just that footing would get treacherous, it was even getting hard to see clearly for any distance, the rain was coming down so hard. She tried to wipe the water from her eyes and brow with a thick forearm, but she shouldn't have bothered, it made no difference.

 

Jordan could barely hear Silas, his voice hushed by the thick patter of rain, but his pointing made his meaning clear. She eyed the opening with a faint, dubious frown, hoping she wouldn't have to duck too much or turn sideways to fit, let alone get stuck, but it wasn't like they had much choice, if they - or at least, she - didn't want to just sit out here, getting soaked by the rain. Already her crop top clung to her body.

 

"Okay!" Jordan shouted over the roar of the rain and another boom of thunder, and moved to enter the crack in the cliff face.

[Dawn OOC]

With the decision made, Quinn formed the other kids up behind Jordan. Caves could be dangerous, but she was wet and getting wetter, and right now, all she wanted was a chance to get somewhere safe and dry. She encouraged the others in her usual forward manner, with firm, direct commands. Silas and Hank, having spent time with her around the horses, also know it was the same tone she used on them, and the same tone her parents used on anyone under the age of twenty or with four legs.

 

Within moments, they had squeezed inside and were fumbling out their flashlights to take a look around their new shelter. Quinn -- after tripping over a rock -- focused her own light upward, looking for bats. She wasn’t scared of bats, necessarily, but she’d prefer to not find out there were bats by one tangling up in her hair.

[Shameless]

With Hank bringing up the rear as seemed to be normal for this Hike, he got to hear Quinn use her "Den Mother" voice, trying to get everyone in line, and he put a hand over her light.  "Shine it on them, and they'll stop roosting.  Shine it lower on the walls, and edge it up slowly.  That won't startle them, if there are any."  Clearly he knew what she was doing, and smiled.  It wasn't the first time he'd been in a Cave, though this one he was certainly not familar with.   "What a way to spend summer Vacation."   Stuck in a cave with several girls and only one other guy.  He knew some of the guys at school would be jealous, but anyone who really knew the group knew there wasn't really any romance there, at least as far as Hank knew.

[SalmonMax]

Roach stayed behind for a second, looking at the skull. She was having a hard time putting her finger on it, but this whole situation was starting to feel...weird.

 

Map found in a cabin that pointed to skulls that pointed to...what, hidden treasure? Old map. Old skulls. How old? How long did skulls last, just sitting around outside? Summer, winter, summer...snow, rain, wind...

 

What though? Did she think someone had falsified the map, made it look ancient, hidden it in the cabin with antique guns (also made to look old) for them to hopefully stumble over so they'd go on an epic quest and find the skulls that had conveniently been set up? Roach was all about elaborate hoaxes, but that seemed...extreme, even to her.

 

But it nagged at her. It was either too convenient, or too inconvenient. The one thing it didn't feel like to her was real.

 

And that constant weird feeling she'd been having, that she was being watched. What if they were? What if this was like...some kind of prank thing, hidden camera... Ugh! Stupid! She didn't know! But everything felt off!

 

You don't hide treasure, and then build signs clearly showing people where to go to find it.

 

She didn't like this.

[Nina]

It was dark inside. As the kids crowded in behind Jordan a peal of thunder rumbled outside, long and ominous.

 

“Stop pushing I can’t see anything who has a light?”

 

There was rustling and suddenly a thin beam of light shot out from a small flashlight in Hank’s hand, revealing several of the other kids, Hannah, Roach and Quinn, fumbling with their phones to use them as flashlights. “Don’t use your phones, the batteries won’t last. I have another flashlight in my pack.” He handed the one he held to Jordan and swung his pack off his back to dig out the other one.

 

“I have one too,”  said Silas turning on the one that he had.

 

Now with a light in hand Jordan looked around. They were in a small narrow chamber about six feet wide, the ceiling was close in place it would brush Jordan’s hair if she did not bend slightly. It was damp and the floor was slick and littered with debris which indicated that animals had used the chamber as a den or at least as shelter. The air was damp and smelled of rich earth. Jordan moved a bit deeper and her small light revealed that the chamber narrowed more but also came to another opening at the end.

 

“There’s an opening back here.”

 

Two more beams of light joined hers and clearly showed an opening and another open chamber beyond. Quinn shook her head, “We came in here to get out of the rain not to go cave diving,” she said.

“The rains getting harder so we might as well explore a little while we wait. What do you thing Hank,” asked Silas?

Before the thoughtful boy could answer thought Jordan pushed on saying back over her shoulder, “You guys think about it, I’m going on.”

“Wait…”

 

But she didn’t she had to bend lower and turn sideways to get her broad shoulders through the opening but once clear of the opening she shine dher light and stopped.

 

“Fuck me.”

 

Jordan’s voice had been barely a whisper but the all heard it as it echoed back into the chamber they were in. The rest of the kids crowded that way.

 

Jordan’s light had revealed an even larger chamber and the beam reflected off serious veins of crystal which lined the rock wall and ceiling and even the floor. This chamber was at least twenty feet long and oval in shape, widening to about sixteen feet. At the other end of the chamber was another opening but this one was different. Whereas the entrance was a purely natural opening the far opening looked as if it had either been widened from a smaller opening. There were obvious tool marks and the opening was a rough square. When the kids all gathered at the end the found that on one side of the ‘door’ a carving had been made, crudely done but intricate, nonetheless.

 

Symbol --  

 

Beyond the door was a narrow tunnel about four feet wide and barely five and a half high, it too looked as if it was either man made or had been widened by hand. Everything was covered in deep dust and evidence that water flowed across the floor was apparent. The tunnel went on straight from the ‘door’ and stretched as far as the light would go. There appeared to be small openings at random spots on either side.

 

Spoiler

At this point there are several test which can be made. caving, the symbol, geology, just about anything you might be able to think of Instead of me asking for a test if there is something you wish to see if your character notices get with me either in a pm  or on discord and we can work it out.

 

[Malachite]

Silas took several moments to just stare around the cave. This was weird. He'd spent his life roaming these mountains and could count on one hand the number of caves he'd ever come across, including  this one. How had it been missed? People had been living here for generations! And clearly people had been here. The skulls were a creepy trailsign from someone, the cave had been widened by human hands not just the flow of water, and that symbol was put here by someone. It might have been gold diggers, but the gold rush here had played out almost before it had begun. The symbol didn't seem like something from the native tribes that had been here before that, either. It didn't have the right. . .rhythm to it. 

He eyed the crystal lacing it's way through the stone. That was weird, too. It might be hiding gold he supposed, but that wasn't nearly as interesting as the lattice itself. He reached out to trace his fingers over it while making his way to the back of the second chamber and the small hallway there. He glanced over at his friends, picking Quinn out specifically. He grinned, "I'm going. It's an awfully big adventure." 

She'd called him Peter Pan once, trying to fly by climbing trees. He'd repaid her by quoting the Neverland boy any time he determined to do something utterly foolish.

[Dawn OOC]

Even in the dim interior of the cave, Silas could see Quinn rolling her eyes. “If you’re gonna dig in spurs,” she told him tartly, “make sure you’re wearing your crash helmet.”

 

She turned to the others, straightening and assuming her ‘mom’ stance. “That goes for everyone. I’m not going to be goin’ home and telling your parents that you fell down a hole in a cave or somethin’ like that.” While it was interesting that she didn’t seem to think that something bad would happen to her, she plowed on, adding, “We stick together, and since Twinkletoes here is goin’, we’re all goin’.” She gave Silas a stern look. “Or none of us are. Anyone objecting, do it now or shut up forever.”

Edited April 26, 2020 by Dawn OOC

[SalmonMax]

Roach stepped up and put her hand to the strange emblem, then followed it around, her mouth moving slightly, silently. Then she looked at the others.

 

"Guys, I know what this is. It's part of a Swahili curse-sign. It warns of grave danger ahead...this bit here..." she touched a squiggly bit at the bottom, "...means evil spirits. And one in particular..."

 

She backed up a step. "The Skull-Taker. You guys sure about this?"

[Nina]

Hannah glowered at Roach, "No it is not." She stepped up to the doorway and adjusted her now clean and dry glasses, she leaned closer her shoulder brushing Roach's, whic brought a slight blush to Hannah's cheeks, luckily no one could notice in the dim light.

"I'm pretty sure it's Scandinavian," she raises her phone and snaps a couple of pictures, then fiddles with the device for a few moments. "Well poo, I am not getting a connection at all in here.

I don't know exactly what it means but I am fairly certain it is a rune."

 

[SalmonMax]

Rochelle cracked a grin and started laughing at Hannah's glare.

 

"You were buying it," she snickered.

[Asarasa]

13 minutes ago, Rochelle McKendrick said:

"The Skull-Taker. You guys sure about this?"

 

"The skulls are outside, not here," Jordan scoffed, rubbing the rock dust and light scratches on her shoulders from where she had to turn and squeeze her way into the chamber. "What's there to be scared about?"

 

The place was strange, but cool. She hadn't ever heard of the Swayhill Native American tribe. The crystal in the rocks were pretty the big blonde guessed, but she didn't know if there was anything special about them in particular. Would have to be careful climbing walls with the stuff, it looked like there were some sharp edges.

 

When Hannah corrected Roach, Jordan just shrugged. "Is it better or worse if this rune thing is from the Swayhills or from Vikings? I didn't know the old Viking guys came out this way."

 

To be honest, Jordan didn't precisely know where Scandinavia was. She knew it was more than one country way up north, that the Vikings were from there, and that some of her family heritage was from out that way too. The show Vikings had a kick-ass warrior woman on it.

 

Jordan stalked up to join Silas by the mouth of the tunnel, crouching down on her heels and debating whether it would be better moving in there bent over or crawling on her hands and knees. She snorted at Quinn and flipped her braids over her shoulders.

 

"They can object all they want, I'm going in too."

[Shameless]

Looking closely with the light, Hank studied the crystal.   "Well I've got some good news.  I'm not a hundred percent certain, but this does look like the same sort of quartz that gold deposits are found in."  He looked up at the symbol, and from his lessons, he knew immediately.   "I can confirm that that symbol isn't Native American, certainly not any that have ever lived here in this part of the country."

He looked at the others.  "Let's go explore then.  It's still pouring outside anyway."

[Nina]

One by one the kids, led by Silas, entered the new tunnel. It was too small for Jordan and she had to scoot sideways and bend over just to pass through and even then, it was an uncomfortably tight fit for her.

 

About every six feet a narrow opening into recessed alcoves lined the tunnel on alternating sides. These alcoves were rough hewn into the walls, each about three feet high and from five to six feet deep, they were about two feet wide and they were roughly waist level. All were empty except for dirt and detritus. There were eight totals, four to a side, and six feet past the final another narrow opening led into another much larger chamber.

 

When Silas came to the new opening, he stopped some thirty to forty feet from the opening a shaft of dim light could be seen streaming in from above and the sound of dripping water could be heard. His flashlight was not strong enough to penetrate to the other side but when he shined his light to the sides of the opening he gasped. The walls to either side curved up toward the dim light from above to form a dome some thirty feet overhead and lining the wall. on carved stone shelves were a multitude of brown aged human skulls, hundreds of them, in various decayed conditions, empty eye sockets leering at the center of the room where Silas could see a raised platform and what in the dim light from above, looked like an altar.

 

As his light played across the chamber there were glints of something shiny on the floor and the ceiling which flashed and reflected the beam of light.

 

 

[Malachite]

Silas sucked in a breath in surprise. It wasn't that this was something he hadn't expected - I mean, video games do teach you some things. It was that, well, life wasn't a video game. Or at least it hadn't been until they'd found a treasure map in the storage shed, followed skulls pointing the way along a cliff face, and wriggled their way through a mysterious cave tunnel to find. . . what was this?

Hopefully not a boss fight. They were waaaay too under-geared and low-level for a boss fight.

That might be better than the other alternative of having stumbled on some serial killer's trophy cave. Or one of the those real-life crazy death cults. Silas' feet had kept going while his mind tumbled through possibilities ranging from the absurdly campy to the all too bone-chillingly possible. He kept his light on the floor in front of him as he moved towards the alter - he was curious about the glinting patches around the cave, but not so much he wanted to risk a broken ankle or worse from an uneven cave floor or a sudden drop. 

[Asarasa]

Jordan was *not* claustrophobic. It was just, the tunnel was a tight fit for her and she didn't know how long it was and she was prevented from moving as fast as she wanted by the ones in front of her. Her heavy breathing was a bit ragged as she urged people forward and Silas felt one of Jordan's strong hands on his ass more than once as she shoved him forward.

 

"Ouch! Fuck!" Jordan cursed when she bumped her head on the top edge of the tunnel in her haste to get into next room and finally stand and stretch the kinks out of her back from her uncomfortable crouch. She groaned in satisfaction as she stretched, fingers interlaced and arms above her hand, then cut off abruptly when she saw all the skulls. She'd been lackadaisical about the two skulls out on the mountain, but these were a lot of skulls in here. She panned the flashlight slowly around the shelves and shelves of skulls in various states of decay and wholeness. "That's a lotta skulls."

 

Following in Silas' wake, Jordan narrowed in blue eyes at the altar or whatever under the light coming from above. The big girl flicked her light up. She could hear the water, but didn't seen the rain. Then she began trying to find out what the shiny stuff was in the ceiling and floor and for something else in particular. She'd seen this movie before. There was so a round boulder here that was going to try on crush them.

 

"Silas!" Jordan hissed. "If there's anything on that thing there, don't take it, unless Hank has a bag of sand to replace it." She looked back over her should, light flashing, looking for anything above the tunnel they'd come in from that might drop and trap them. "Hank? You have a bag of sand in your pack?"

[Shameless]

Hank had followed Jordan this time, and like her stared at the shelves and  alcoves full of skulls.   "Holy crap...."  he was abit in awe, and feeling no small amount of horror at this, it was like some sort of dark temple, or ancient burial crypt, but only for skulls.    "huh?" he asked.. Then his attention came to the altar, with the light down on it.  "Uh no, fresh out of bags of sand.  I do have a small bag, and we could fill it with rocks or something from the ground.."  

"It was a joke, Hank.."   He shrugged and smiled.  "Still don't touch anything.  This could really be booby-trapped, so just this once, let's be just abit cautious."

[SalmonMax]

"Told you it was the Skull-Taker," Roach pointed out. "Look how busy it's been. All those meddling kids following the maps it left out, probably."

 

Inwardly she couldn't decide if she was just in awe, or was really scared. This place DID look like bad news, but it looked like bad news in the BEST way. She got her phone out to get some photos of the place, with all the skulls on the walls, and the altar in the middle.

 

Then she lowered the phone and asked the first question that struck her.

 

"What's that stuff on the ground? The shiny things. Glass?"

 

Roach went over to get a better look.

[Nina]

It was gold. Raw gold

The whole chamber seemed to have been carved from a huge vein of gold bearing quartz.

 

Silas and Jordan had approached the Alter which was about five and a half feet long and three wide. One end had a raised piece of stone three inches higher than the top and in the middle of that a curved section was worn out. There were holes drilled into the top down at an angle through the sides, large enough to fit a thick rope or a small chain. There were runnels down the slab angled  to the sides and the end away from the raised piece, and on the floor circular indentations where the water which was dripping from the opening in the ceiling onto the slab ran off and pooled.

 

Looking up they could see a circular shaft its sides lined with thick weeds and roots but they could make out what could have been the trees above the water came from the rain dripping off those trees.

 

The sides of the alter was covered in crude carvings that looked like the sort of things you saw on the history channel about the Aztecs or someone like that.

But that wasn't all beyond the alter the saw a section of shelves had been cleared of skulls, which had been haphazardly piled against the wall to the side of the cleared area. On the shelf where the ancient bones had sat were small brown bottles and the stubs of candles. Jars of unknown substances sealed with wax and a weirdly shaped knife. with dark stains on what looked like a silver blade tarnished black, on the floor underneath all of this was a box covered in oilskin with a brass padlock.

 

   

Spoiler

the lock does not have a key  but that is the kind of lock

 

[Shameless]

Hank moved to inspect the jars, deliberately and carefully, wary of any traps they may have been set.    Some held ointments, others various unidentifiable liquids.   Others had dead bugs, maybe twigs or dried leaves, even berries.  One thing unified them all though, they were not modern in any way, looking old-fashioned.  He frowned.  "What the hell were they up to, druidic magic or something?"  He muttered softly.    There were no labels and he wasn't in a rush to break the wax seals on any of them.  

"Curiouser and Curiouser."  Hank mused softly.   "So ancient druidic cult...  Why did your family have a map that started us on our journey here, Silas?"

[Malachite]

"The gold, probably," Silas said distractedly as he studied the alter. "And druids, maybe? I mean, that symbol on the wall might give us a clue. We should take a picture on our way out. Might've just been a weird cult or something. It's a lot of skulls. And this," he gestured to the alter, looking pale despite a fairly calm voice, "it seems like something you. . . well, kill people on."

He kept looking and shook his head as he got to the carvings on the side. "This doesn't look Celtic at all. Not that I'm an expert or anything. It looks like those. . .y'know, the calendar things you see in souvenir shops or on pillows? The one that said the world was supposed to end in. . . 2012, I think?" He bit his lip, thinking, but he couldn't make it add up to anything that made sense. Sighing in frustration, he made his way over to Hank and the disturbed shelf. 

He glanced over the jars, shuddered at the stained knife, and then set his attention on the locked box. He turned it around, hoping the trick with the back pins would work. They'd rusted shut over the years. The only options left he could think of were if someone could pick the lock or if they wanted to try breaking it. They had no idea what was inside or how fragile it might be. "Hey, Roach, do you know how to pick locks?" 

[SalmonMax]

Roach was busy chipping at the gold in the floor with her pocketknife to see how hard it was to get out,when Silas' words broke through to her. She glanced over at him, then at the altar.

 

"Law abiding me?" she asked. "Where would I learn something like that? Also, that's definitely a sacrifice altar. See the little dents in it? That's where the blood runs off the table. There's probably holes in the floor that drain it in those spots."

 

She went over to look at the lock more closely. "Looks pretty old," Roach mused. She folded the knife edge of her pocketknife back in, and rotated out some other tools as she hunkered down by the lock.

 

Despite her unconvincing protestations of innocence, Rochelle handled the lock with the assurance of long practice. One of the pocketknife's tools had been modified, the awl pike shaved much narrower and sharper, so it could fit into a lock's mechanism. She then had another metal piece, kind of like a paperclip, but made of springier, tougher stuff. Squinting her left eye shut, she peered into the lock with her right eye as she carefully pushed at the tumblers through the key-hole.

 

"Ugh...it's rusty," Roach complained after a couple of minutes.

 

Silas had drawn closer by then, fascinated. "That's bad?" he asked.

 

"It's not great. Makes it harder to move without breaking the picks, and also means the guts are corroded and weak...if you bend something inside, the lock jams for good..." Then she looked at Silas and frowned. "Dude. Gimme some space here. Jesus."

 

Silas murmured something vaguely apologetic and shuffled back a couple of steps, standing up higher to try to see over Roach's shoulder as she worked.

 

Then there was a distinct click! and Roach let her breath out. "Sweet." With some effort, she worked her screwdriver tool into the box's lid and pried it until the hinges loosened, then opened the box up.

 

Immediately a foul odor emerged, thick and oily. Roach coughed and fanned in front of her face, setting the lid back down to do it. "What the...ugh!" After a second she lifted the lid again, this time throwing it all the way open. The smell had dissipated slightly, but was still eye-watering. Inside the box were two bundles of burlap, one larger and one smaller, that looked to have been thoroughly soaked in some kind of dark brown oil.

 

"Gross," she muttered, and pried at the edges of the burlap with her knife edge. It peeled up and over easily enough, even if it smeared the knife with that oily stuff. After lifting another flap of it, another package was visible within, this one wrapped in leather. Grimacing, Roach gingerly pried the leather open as well, revealing a set of five silver candlesticks...stained with the waxy oil, but otherwise seemingly in decent condition.

 

The larger burlap revealed another leather package that protected a book that was bound in iron. Maybe a foot wide by two feet high, and quite thick, the iron tome showed three hasps that connected the covers, locking it securely shut.

 

"Holy shiiiiiiiit," said Roach gleefully, even as she scraped her oil-smudged hands on the cavern floor. "We found the Necronomicon! Who remembers the magic words?!"

Edited May 6, 2020 by SalmonMax

[Asarasa]

Walking towards the altar with Silas, Jordan looked around, her flashlight flicking around. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of gold speckled crystalline rock, her blue eyes wide. She didn't know how they got the gold out of the rock, she wasn't even sure how much gold was worth exactly or how she'd sell it, but she did have a pickax. She could gouge out much bigger pieces than Roach ever could with her tiny pocketknife.

 

The cavern looked carved out, but otherwise, it didn't look like the place was being mined for the gold and quartz... not that Jordan would really know. How much was a chunk of this stuff worth? Tens of dollars? A hundred? A thousand? Jordan had been thinking of getting a job this summer, but if she could get even just some of this gold, she might even be able to get a truck on her own, unlike her twin brothers who had to pool their money together to get one.

 

The hulking teenager was about to ask Silas about the girl when she saw the altar, and the weird stuff beyond it. Other than being old, she didn't know anything about what that stuff was or what it might mean. And she didn't know how to pick locks, but she bet she could break the lock off... if they didn't mind if whatever was inside the box being bounced around some... maybe a lot.

 

While the others looked at the box and jars and stuff, Jordan's eyes kept going back to the altar, especially after they opened the box and all that was inside was a book. An old, fancy book, but, well... a book. A book that Roach seemed to know... or just read the title.

 

"Necromicon? Magic words? Like Abracadabra or Open Sesame?" Jordan suggested, puzzled. "Is this like, a Punk'd thing for a comic con or something?"

 

Even to Jordan, she realized the altar looked like something people would sacrifice other people on. It also looked like something straight out of a movie or video game, and more interesting than the book. And if Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider have taught her anything...

 

Jordan shrugged off her pack and then planted her feet while bracing her hands towards one end of the altar. She took a deep breath and with a grunt of effort, began heaving, pushing, muscular thighs and arms and shoulders bulging with the strain. The altar didn't budge half an inch. It looked like a solid piece of rock, but still, Jordan knew how strong she was, she should have at least been able to tell if there was any give.

 

She turned around and got down low, hands on the ground, and back against the altar. Several more deep breaths then pushed again, shoving with every ounce of strength she had, until one of her feet slipped and she fell down on her ass, the altar seemingly oblivious to all the pressure she had exerted on it, her chest heaving with failure. Jordan glared over at the obstinate piece of crystalline rock, then narrowed her eyes at the mucky grime on it and around the base from who knew how long of dripping water.

 

Jordan frowned, then dragged her fingers through the grime at the base of altar. She snorted, flicking the muck from her fingers then wiping them clean on her top. The altar was carved from the cavern itself, right out of the ground.

 

'Shoulda looked at that first," Jordan conceded to herself. Her friends looked over at her, and Jordan just shrugged her heavy shoulders from her seat on the ground. "Thought there'd be a secret passage under the altar thing."

 

Jordan flicked her light around the skulls again, looking to see if she could notice something different about them from the center of the chamber, but many were so decayed she couldn't really tell. She noticed Hannah was looking at the skulls too, which Jordan thought kind of odd. Hannah was the biggest bookworm she knew of, yet Hannah wasn't paying any attention to the big weird book that Roach and Silas had found in the box.

 

"What's up, Hannah?"

[Nina]

Hannah had been absorbed by the skulls there was something about them that made her feel distracted. Normally something like this would scare the begeebus out of her but this didn't for some reason. She almost felt...welcomed.

 

It took her a moment to respond to Jordan, she heard her but it didn't register. Then it did. Like surfacing from under water. Hannah stepped back and faced Jordan and the others. "These remains," it felt wrong to call them skulls, like it was derogatory or something," they have been coated with something, that why they have that dark brown coloration. If you look at the ones that are damage how the bones has deteriorated. These are old I mean real old. Not hundreds of years, I think, maybe thousands."

 

Then she saw the book Roach had picked up and she felt a sudden drop in temperature and it was as if her heart was suddenly gripped by terror, in her ears she heard the sounds of whispering in a language she had never heard before but she knew that the whispers were pleas. 

She stepped back and was jolted to a stop by the wall behind her. Several of the skulls were displaced by her collision, they shifted and when she looked back at them after realizing what she had done she saw the empty eye sockets staring at her as is accusing her. with a scream she backed away from the wall until she came in contact with the alter where she stopped and covered her moth with her fists her eyes wide with fright.