Page 8 of Wednesday
"See what?"
"What lies beneath." Morrow gestured toward the cemetery.
Every instinct warned against following this creature into the darkness. Yet that same dark curiosity that had driven me to explore his chamber pulled at me now.
"Yes," I heard myself say.
Morrow's mouth stretched wide enough to bare his teeth. He extended one long-fingered hand toward me, the black claws gleaming in the porch light. I tucked the locket into my pocket and stepped forward. I did not take his offered hand, but I followed when he turned and walked into the darkness.
I mentally screamed at myself as I followed a corpse-eating monster into the bowels of the cemetery. Self-preservation told me to turn back, but I needed to understand. As we walked deeper into the graveyard, fog curled around the headstones.
Morrow moved silently between the plots, occasionally glancing back at me. Each time, his eyes glowed in the light of my phone’s flashlight, and his lipless mouth curved. I got the impression I amused him. I was not sure if that was a benefit or not.
We bypassed the mausoleum where we had first met, instead approaching a four-sided tombstone. It was over six feet tall and wider than my arm span, the stone sides worn completely smooth. Morrow placed his palm against the center of the side and pushed. Stone grated against stone as a panel swung inward, revealing a gaping darkness beyond.
"Come,” he said.
He stepped into the darkness, then paused when I hesitated. He turned to look at me.
"Are you afraid, Carmen Ruiz?"
"Yes," I admitted. No point lying to a creature who could probably smell my fear.
His lipless mouth curved slightly. "Good. Fear is appropriate. But know that while you keep our bargain, you have nothing to fear from me."
Cold comfort from a corpse-eating monster who killed my predecessor. I took a deep breath and stepped forward, following him down a steep staircase as the stone door closed behind me. Hopefully, I was imagining the finality of it.
Chapter Four
The beam of my flashlight barely cut through the oppressive shadows, and it took all of my focus to navigate the steep, narrow stone steps under my feet. Morrow moved ahead without hesitation, gracefully avoiding the crumbling stairs that almost sent me plunging to my death.
"Mind your step," he said lightly.
As if to punctuate his warning, my foot hit a cracked section. I stumbled down several stairs before catching myself a hairsbreadth from his back. I panted, gripping the wall as I listened to the broken stones falling for far too long. I swallowed hard.
"How deep does this go?" I whispered, mostly to myself.
"Deep enough to escape the notice of the living," Morrow replied. He glanced over his shoulder. “Nearly there.”
The stairway finally ended, opening into a low, narrow tunnel made of pale stone. Morrow crouched, continuing forward on hands and feet without breaking stride. I hunched forward, my shoulders occasionally brushing the rough walls despite my smaller frame.
Morrow turned left at a tunnel intersection and left again a few minutes later. I followed, my breathing getting rougher the further we strayed from the outside. I imagined I could feel the weight of the earth above me. Something small and many-legged scuttled away from my light.
The tunnel widened into a room suddenly, the ceiling far above my head. The walls were covered in rows of small hollows, each one holding scraps of fabric.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"The original cemetery," Morrow replied. "Before the current grounds were established."
Catacombs, he meant. I glanced around, noticing a wider staircase on the other side of the room.
"Early settlers?" I asked, moving closer to peer into one of the holes. The stone beneath was carved with an illegible name and a date. 1763.
"Yes." Morrow gestured toward another wall. "That section holds victims of the yellow fever epidemic that nearly wiped out the settlement in 1795. They were buried quickly, without ceremony."
I swept my light across the area he indicated. There were no dates or names, just a wall of graves.
"How do you know?" I asked.
