Chapter #28Grave Errors by: imaj   “It’s the crypt,” you say flatly, following Joe’s pointing finger. You knew about the crypt in Blackwell’s back yard already. Sure, it’s a bit creepy, but Blackwell’s house is plenty creepy already and the crypt hardly looks out of place. That said, there’s something indefinably less ominous about the house now. Perhaps the guardian affected how you perceived it as well?
“Ah but have you taken a closer look yet,” asks Joe with a wicked grin. “We couldn’t get close: Blackwell’s creature kept chasing us off, especially when we tried to get close to the crypt.”
“And that’s important,” you reply. “More important than my… more important than Lisa,” you say, catching yourself in time.
If Joe notices the slip, he doesn’t comment upon it. “Didn’t you wonder why he had a crypt in his back yard? Do you want to take a look?”
“I guessed it was for making the golems,” you answer. Joe gives you a slightly puzzled look. “They need graveyard earth,” you explain.
“I want to take a look,” he smiles widely and grabs you by the hand, dragging you past his parked truck toward the crypt.
It’s seen better days. Moss grows over the ramshackle building and the stonework is flaking and crumbling. Despite this Joe looks fascinated. He clambers onto a pillar beside the low door and reaches up to clear the moss of the lintel. Joe jumps back down to the ground and grins at you wildly.
“Aha,” he says.
“Aha,” you reply flatly
“Look at the name,” he adds.
You roll you eyes exasperatedly but nonetheless humour him. “Oh,” you say quietly after reading the name inscribed there.
“Exactly,” replies Joe.
Faded by time, the name Keyserling has been inscribed above the doorway to the crypt. You’d seen the statues at the college, well Melody has anyway, but you’d never thought much beyond that. “And that motto,” you add.
“Do not call upon that which you cannot drive out,” translates Joe.
“Unusual,” you muse.
“Isn’t it just,” replies Joe somehow pushing his grin even wider He pushes at the door, which swings silently open. “Ladies first.”
You duck through the low door and inside. A couple of worn steps lead downwards and the floor of the crypt is maybe half a metre below ground level. It’s dark, but someone, Blackwell presumably, has left a battery powered lamp by the door. You pick it up and flick it on, casting just enough light to make gloomy looking pools of shadow in the crypt.
A couple of shovels have been rested by the door and a shallow pit dug in the centre of the room. Not deep enough to bury a body, but certainly deep enough to account for the creation of a golem. Alcoves in the walls might once have housed skeletons but are entirely empty now.
Joe ducks in behind you. “Ooooooh,” he says in what might pass for a scary voice at the age of fourteen. He waves his arms ominously. “Always wanted to do that,” he adds, looking round with interest. “Kinda disappointing, I was hoping for liches and zombies.”
“What,” you ask incredulously. “Zombies are a thing? There are actual zombies out there?”
Joe laughs at your question and continues. “And that’s where he got the golem from. Actually, that gives me an idea,” he says, his eyes twinkling. You put the lamp down and follow him back outside, because whatever he’s thinking it’s probably not good.
Joe’s already at his truck by the time you get outside, hauling open the trunk. You can see the flash of the masks in his hands, followed by grumbling voices from within. “Out you get girls,” he says.
“Boss,” asks the Umeko faced golem as you reach Joe’s side. You give him a sidelong glance.
“Trust me,” he says slipping an arm around your waist. A little bit of your resistance melts away.
“Do what he says,” you tell he golems. “Both of you.”
The golems extract themselves from the trunk in a grumbling tangle of limbs. You almost laugh as the Umeko faced golem, which has a copy of your own mind made barely a few weeks ago, seemingly accidently grabs at the golem K.C. in a couple of sensitive places. Were you really like that? It seems a lifetime ago now. Joe beckons them down inside the crypt. With a sigh, you close the trunk and follow them in.
The golems are standing unhappily in the shallow pit as you duck past the door. Joe is in the process of handing them shovels. The K.C. golem looks at the one it’s given with distaste.
“Bodies that bury themselves,” chortles Joe, ignoring the golems. The Umeko-faced one is quite pale looking by this point. “Pretty efficient.”
You place a hand on Joe’s shoulder. “I’m not sure about this,” you say as he turns to look at you. “It seems wrong…”
“You’re right,” replies Joe, his face momentarily falling. “We should get a hose in here and have them start wrestling. Put the video online.”
“Joe,” you exclaim, but you can’t help but laugh a little.
“It’s just for a few days,” says Joe more seriously. “It keeps them safe and hidden till we get Blackwell sorted. It’s the last place he would look.”
“Aren’t we taking down Blackwell today,” you ask.
“Well, we don’t want Frank finding them and freaking out,” adds Joe. He gives you a short kiss before continuing. “He’s not as understanding as I am…” Another kiss.
“Mmmm,” you sigh with your eyes closed, the feeling of Joe on you lips lingering for just a few seconds after he breaks the kiss. “They’ll be ok? I don’t want Melo… the one under that mask to be hurt,” you add, indicating the K.C. masked golem.
“Sure,” replies Joe. “Peace of the grave. What could hurt them down here?” He hugs you briefly before taking hold of your hand again. “Let’s go rescue your class mate.”
“She’s not my classmate,” you say. “Not any more, not really.”
*****
The Blackwell golem stares at you, angrily but silently, as you and Joe return to the library. “Oh I told you to shut up didn’t I,” you ask rhetorically. The golem stares at the ceiling for a brief second, before staring at you levelly. Its knuckles whiten briefly, but it manages to keep its temper under control. Not that it has any choice. “You can talk again, but only to tell me where Lisa is,” you add.
“The basement,” says the golem sullenly. “Past the hidden door,” it adds before putting its hands over its mouth in disgust. “And I am compelled to tell you that you need the bone charm from the left hand drawer in the desk furthest from you in order to pass the guardian,” finishes the golem, its voice muffled by its hands.
“How do we find the door,” asks Joe.
“I don’t need to help you,” replies the golem smugly.
“You’re going to tell me though,” you tell it.
“Statue of Cerberus,” says the golem through gritted teeth. “Twist the left head.”
“Very funny,” you mutter darkly as you walk over to the small statue of the guardian of the underworld. You twist its left head experimentally and the bookcase beside it swings open with a loud creaking noise.
You recoil instantly as look though the opening and into the gloomy shadows beyond it. Your face must be a sight, because Joe is quickly at your side and holding you closely. “Are you ok,” he asks.
“I just got a fright,” you say, burying your head in his chest.
“Yeah,” he replies. “Fear ward, and a surprising well made one by the look of it. Your work,” he asks the golem.
“I confess that I take pride in my work,” replies the golem unpleasantly.
“And this is why you were right to come to us,” says Joe to you. He walks over to the desk the golem indicated before opening a drawer and pulling something out from it. You catch the charm when Joe throws it to you, a little sliver of bone wrapped in feathers and some kind of elastic leather like material. “Take a look now,” he says.
The opening beyond the bookcase seems lighter now. The shadows are still there but you no longer are left feeling something is about to jump out from them.
“Melody,” calls Joe.
“What,” you ask, turning back round.
“Just remember not to look behind you when you’re leading Lisa back up from the underworld,” he quips.
“Ha ha,” you grumble, turning back round. It’s bad enough having to go past that, what did Joe call it, fear ward without having to put up with his wisecracking as well. How does he even know about your history with Lisa? You’ve got half a mind to tell him to go down there instead.
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