14. Grave robbing date goes wrong #3
He makes a non-committal noise and without hesitation walks into the mausoleum. I follow after him hurriedly.
The burial chamber isn’t large enough for us to stand side by side.
It smells like dust and rotten leaves. I don’t know why I expected it to smell of death.
Lana told us the last family member to be buried here died eight years ago, leading to her inheritance.
He probably turned into a dried husk by now.
I shudder, trying not to think about all the remains around us.
“Let’s search deeper, among the older sarcophagi,” James says.
I follow him down a few stone steps, slippery with moss. The burial chamber goes underground, as if it wasn’t already creepy enough. Cemeteries are usually quieter, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t any ghosts.
As before, I hear the rustle of leaves in the wind.
Except there is no wind underground, I realise. No trees. What I hear are whispers.
I swallow thickly. “James...”
“Yeah?” He’s still looking at the names on the sarcophagi.
“Do you hear that?”
He pauses to listen. “No?”
Either I’m imagining things, or it’s something only I have the ability to hear. Am I hearing echoes of the afterlife?
“Are you okay?” James asks, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Aye... Let’s just hurry. I don’t like being here.”
“What? Visiting a musty burial chamber isn’t your idea of a good time? Surprising.”
His good humour helps a little, but it’s not enough to make me ignore my rising panic. I don’t like this.
“Ha! Found it. Meredith Lynch, died in eighteen twenty-four. Help me open it.”
He props the flashlight on a ledge and pulls out the tools we borrowed from Lana, long screw drivers and a hammer.
Together, we work on the stone sarcophagus until it gives out in a cloud of dust. We cough and step back.
I brace myself, but we only find old bones scattered inside.
Of course, these have been resting here for almost two centuries.
And unlike Egyptian pharaohs of old, the bodies weren’t prepared to withstand time.
“Bingo,” James says. “I see two skulls. The Lady in Red was right. This is where Earl Lynch hid Agnes' remains.”
“But which bones are hers?”
“I have no idea. I say we take them all.”
Is it me or are the whispers getting louder?
“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” I ask.
“No. But what other choice do we have? We aren’t exactly bone experts, are we?”
True enough.
He opens the empty suitcase and begins to fill it with the whitened bones.
He’s gentle with them, and I’m grateful.
Agnes and Meredith’s remains deserve to be left in peace, but he’s right, we’re out of options.
I cringe internally as I help him, my longer arms reaching deeper in the sarcophagus.
My fingers tingle as I touch one of the skulls, and I recoil.
James’ attention turns to me. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Just... I really don’t like this.”
We make quick work of the rest of the remains and close the suitcase. But as we’re about to climb the stairs, the whispers turn into a threatening hiss.
Thiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeves!
This time, James hears it too. “Holy shit. Run!”
Ghostly hands rise from the ground like weeds.
I yelp as they grab my ankles and clothes.
I tilt forwards, but James catches me before I can break my teeth on the stone steps.
The cold fingers loosen their grip, and we’re launching ourselves up the stairs.
The spirits of the Lynch family scream at us from beyond the veil, awakened from their eternal sleep by our theft.
James pushes me in front of him, and so it’s only when I exit the mausoleum that I realise he’s not behind me. I turn, horror-stricken, as I see him being dragged on the floor towards the empty sarcophagus. They’ll bury him alive to replace the bones we've stolen with his.
I drop the suitcase on the grass and run back inside. The heavy door slams into me. They're trying to lock me out, but I’m a rugby player fuelled by terror, and I’m unstoppable. I kick it so hard the rusty hinged give out. Then I’m scrambling down to James and I grab his hands.
“Let him go!” I roar. “He’s not yours to keep!”
The ghostly hands whip away, as if burned. I throw James over my shoulder and run for my life.
Once outside I grab the suitcase and keep running. We left the bag with the tools inside the mausoleum, but the ghosts can keep it. We’re not going back.
James is saying my name, but I only stop running once I have reached the fence, a safe distance away from the cursed burial chamber.
“Ewan. Let me down!”
I drop to my knees and gently let him fall on the grass. “I’m—I’m sorry...” I heave.
“Holy shit, big guy. That was a mad escape. Don’t be sorry, you saved me.”
I sob, and he straddles my lap. “I almost lost you...” I pull him into a tight embrace.
“Hey, I’m fine,” he says in my hair. “I’m fine, Ewan. You saved me. My hero.”
I laugh wetly, and he grabs my face in his hands and kisses me. “Stop crying, you’ll just turn me on. And this is not the time and place to pop a boner.”
I laugh again.
Grave robbing was, in fact, a terrible idea.