The Curious Case of Jacob's Hallow

by Patrick Walsh

  Luke shrugged. “Sounds like a plan to me.” He stepped forwards and gave the handle a few pulls. Aza joined in, followed reluctantly by Tom. After quite a bit of effort it finally opened.

  Aza peered out into the shadows. The only monsters he could see were the statues holding up the weak lights. He nodded to the others and they stepped out, each one straining their ears for what lay beyond their sight. Nothing was heard, but all knew that there were still dozens of those things lurking around. It haunted their minds as they quietly dashed down the walkway and into parts unknown. On their right was the great pillar, to their left was a balcony overlooking oblivion. It was only when they found railings on both sides, and another stairway just ahead, that they were spotted. All heard the screech of rage, but none of them cared. Instead all four picked up their pace and ran into the spiral. Down one floor they went, and out the other side to yet another one of the pillars. This one had not a door, but a carved out walkway leading deep inside.

  On either side of them were large openings protected by metal bars. Each one a mausoleum for a person or family of great importance. Despite the age of this place, the bars had not aged a day, their dark metal glimmering against the violet flames of the statues set between them. Unlike the other pillar, this inner area had a host of angular turns and bends that led in different directions. It was like running through a maze of cages, with a pack of animals rapidly catching up with them. It soon became clear that Han was lost. They backtracked once, twice, three times. Each trip further stalling them. The sounds of their pursuers became louder and louder, until it was clear the wights were crawling through the halls alongside them. Then all of a sudden they hit a dead end.

  Lying just ahead of them was the mouth of some horrible wormlike monstrosity. It had no eyes, but many large teeth. Armor, either metal or part of its body, adorned its head and what they could see of its body. Between its jaws lay a swirl of tongues in place of a door or tunnel. This whole bizarre structure was carved from some deep rock none of them had ever seen. It was dark like the necrite, but not glassy in any way. Instead it looked more like it was cut from black bone and fused together. Yet it was flecked with blue dots, like hundreds of entombed fireflies. It would have been here, at this sinister monument, where they made their last stand. Yet they had Han and his notebook.

  While the other three prepared to fight the monsters, fear and adrenaline running through them, he began meddling with something in the middle of the tongues. As they readied to fight, the sound of their attackers got ever louder. The horrors themselves surely being upon them in a matter of moments. Then the last segment of stone was spun into place and slammed down by a gloved hand. The tongues all split apart, opening a path that lead down a deeper tunnel. All four scurried inside as the first of the screeching wights hauled their rotting carcass around the last turn. They began lurching towards them, fear firing out like a barrage of poison needles. Yet Han had acted faster and pressed a switch on the other side, causing the gateway to seal itself yet again with a satisfying crunch. They could hear the monsters clawing and banging against the door, but unable to pass through for the time being.

  “We...we should be safe from them...at least for now.” Han breathed a sigh of relief and snapped the red notebook shut, the code to the door laying hidden within.

  Aza was leaning against the wall, catching his breath like the rest of them. “Please tell me there aren't gonna be more of those things down here.”

  Han adjusted his glasses and looked down the path. “No. As far as Arthur was concerned, this part of the necropolis has not been touched in ages.”

  He threw his arms up and smiled. “I’ll take that as a victory.”

  “First one of the new Nightwatch.” Luke laughed.

  He was going to reply, but suddenly his gaze fell to Tom. “So what exactly are you doing down here?” There was venom in his words.

  All eyes turned to the tag along, who had done his best to slowly inch away from the trio. “Just a little reconoscence.” He tried to keep up a rough demeanor, but knew very well just how dire of a situation he now found himself in.

  “Where are your cronies then?” Aza looked him up and down as if there were others hiding in his shadow.

  “This is a bit...high risk for them. I’m not sure what all you three are up to, but everyone in Cedric’s Row knows about this place. Not many were willing to go with me and I wasn’t gonna make them.” His hand hovered around his coat pocket, ready to draw his blade when the need inevitably arose.

  “So you expectin to catch us in the act or sumthin.” Luke sounded less angry then Aza, but was still displeased to see him. “Summonin demons or some other monster?”

  “Sumthin like that. An...an if ya kill me down here, they’ll know you did it! My dad’s got men in Cedric's Row waiting for me to report in.”

  Aza just rolled his eyes and began walking towards him. Tom drew his blade, only to have it punched from his hand by a barrage of threads. All three could feel an unnatural fear snaking from Aza as he got inches from his panicked adversary. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have saved your life. We are down here to help defeat whoever is controlling those wights outside the door. If you want to follow us, an maybe learn a thing or two, then we have no problems, but if you get in our way, or try and hurt them, I will end you.” He stepped back, the other two moving away from him.

  “Noted….” Tom picked up his dagger and sheathed it.

  “Wait, what was that?” Aza pointed to his coat pocket.

  Tom’s hand fell to it and pushed the writhing creature deeper inside. “Nothing.”

  “That’s the same color transponder as some of the officers use. I’m guessing from the same pod.” His eyes narrowed.

  “Yeah...what of it…” He stepped back, ready to grab his weapon again. Though it seemed like that wouldn’t help.

  “You lied. There is no one waiting for you. Barnabee sent ya, didn’t he?” Luke crossed his arms, a solemn look across his face.

  Tom didn’t reply, but all three knew it was true.

  “Well then.” Han’s eyes fell to the coat pocket. “In that case, you will have to surrender it.”

  He looked to the outstretched hand, fearing what would happen if he gave it up, but unable to take on the three of them. The creature was reluctantly placed into the scholar’s hand, and then bag. Tom knew he would need to get ahold of the thing again, for his own sake and that of his father. Yet for now it would remain where it was. He’d just have to stick closer to the outsider then he would like.

  “Now then, let us find this parchment and be done with this rotten endeavour.” The four followed him, with Aza once again being nudged to the front.

  True to the entryway, the tunnel was round and segmented like the throat of some large beast, lacking stairs in favor of many gradual slopes and bends. They walked for a very long time, feeling as if this whole thing were nothing more than a dead end. That was until they glimpsed an opening in the distance, a bright light emanating from it. Just as they were about to emerge, someone stepped on the wrong stone. It was either Tom or Han. Neither knew, and neither would ever know. The wall and floor spun in an arch, dropping them down a slick tunnel and into darkness. Aza and Luke were knocked back by the trap, unable to do anything as it locked back into place. They tried to set it off again, to call for Han, but all was in vain. They were left alone as the other two shot down into the unknown.

  Chapter 15: Tomb of the Fallen

  “Han! Dullahan!” Luke was kneeling down and shouting into the floor.

  Aza was sliding his feet around in an attempt to find whatever triggered the trap. Yet after minutes of fruitless searching, he was forced to give up. “I don’t think we’re gonna be able to find it. Then even if we did, they were sliding away.”

  Luke sighed and got up. “So what’s we gonna do then?”

  He mulled it over and glanced back towards the opening at the end of the tunnel. “It sounded like this place w
as isolated So maybe if we keep going we can find them. Though I’m not sure if their path would have any way of crossing ours….”

  The farmer snapped his fingers. “Hey! Maybe is like The Hero’s Challenge.”

  Aza thought to that book. “The Hero lost his friends to a trap in the fortress. There was a pit of spines, but they used the whip to avoid them and swing to a doorway….that the guards used to pull out the bodies!” He started back down the path. “We’ll need to find somewhere out of the way, like a servant's hall.

  “Heh, how big could this place be anyhow?” Luke hopped up and ran after him.

  Soon enough, the two emerged from the tunnel and into a massive chamber. Even after all they had seen, it took their breath away. Eight other entryways curved around the walls, the room itself posing an unnatural stillness not found anywhere else. It was as if time itself were frozen. There were no sounds. No movements. No flickers of light. Even above they had been able to hear the rocks creak or water drip in from the sea. Yet not here. Not the monsters, Tobias, Barnabee, or even the witch had set foot in this ancient place.

  The ceiling stretched on for hundreds of feet, ten massive pillars holding it up while faint lights at its peak gave a dim illumination. At the exact enter, sitting against the far wall, was a statue standing taller than even the lighthouse. A humanoid body draped in a frayed robe. Metal claws perching themselves upon the arms of a great throne. Countless barbed tentacles wrapped and coiled around skulls at its base. It wore a breastplate made from hundreds of screaming faces, all twisted in agony. Four horns protruded from a metal mask that bit into its head, being smears for eyes and a simple smile like a theatre mask. There were nine other heads winding around the edges of the seat, each one looking like the mouth of whatever the tunnel was sculpted to look like. On either side was a hallway leading further into this ancient tomb, and at its base was a gaping pit. No railing, no great carvings, merely a massive abyss leading deeper than any other part of the necropolis. The statues of the Vorustrow skittered about in their memories. It was like those mausoleums, only there was no sarcophagus or casket to be found in front of it. Only the abyss.

  “What...what is that?” Luke was afraid to go any further. This whole place felt wrong, as if millions of ancient eyes were now focused upon them.

  Aza slowly stepped forwards. “I...I have no idea…” He should have felt afraid like his friend, but he didn’t. There was something familiar about this. Something he had seen or felt before. His eyes fell to the pit, as memories of his last dream spun and weaved around in his head. The sensation of falling. Of dropping into nothingness. Yet that wasn’t true. There was something at the bottom. Something that had always been there.

  “Aza! What in tarnation?”

  He felt himself ripped back by Luke, then realised he had been walking towards the drop. His eyes blinked a few times as he reigned in his wandering mind. “I’m sorry….I don’t know what came over me.”

  Luke wasn’t buying it. “Something from the dream wasn’t it?” He looked to the statue looming over them.

  “What? Why and how would you know that.” He looked his friend up and down as if he were some delusion or even a dream himself.

  “Because you was speakin out loud or sumthin.” He pointed to the pit. “What exactly is down there?”

  “I don’t know….that might have been why I was walking towards it.” A chill ran up his spine as he stepped back and looked around the quiet grave. “So which way? I’d guess those all lead back out, so it's just the two on either side of….whoever that is.”

  Luke was still worried, but looked to the large hallways near the statue. “Right?”

  Aza nodded. “A lot better than my first choice.”

  The two slowly headed for the hallway, weary of any more traps that could be waiting for them. None came up, yet both were put at an unease upon leaving the chamber. It felt as if it were calling them back, its alien stillness slithering in to give chase. Yet upon looking behind them, there was nothing. Only the journey ahead.

  This new floor just before them was segmented into many spirals that bled and overlapped into one another. Though what really caught their eye were the circular carvings set into the walls. It seemed clear to them that they were meant to slide open upon something being triggered. What would set them off they didn’t know, but Aza had an idea. Despite the spirals looking to be placed without rhyme or reason, he noticed a few of them formed a path. All led to dead ends say for a single through line that crept on down the tunnel. He slowly inched his way onto it, followed by Luke. Just like the maze that had brought them here, there were metal bars that guarded mausoleums set into the walls. Though this time there were far more of them. One after the next, stacked higher than either of them could see, with seemingly no means of access. Then again, the living were not meant to dwell in this ancient tomb. Only the long dead.

  “We even sure there ever was anyone down here to clean out the traps?” Despite what he said, Luke whispered his words.

  “We have to hope so, otherwise I’m not sure how we’re ever gonna find him or that paper. Or even a way out of here ourselves.” His foot slid over the spiral. “I don’t intend for the first mission of the new Nightwatch to be its last.”

  His friend nodded. “So I’m thinking left now.”

  Aza too was looking to the three small openings at the end wall of this massive hallway. His eyes scanning over the paths as they quickly neared them.“Why’s that?”

  “That….I think.” Luke pointed up ahead to a dark stain on the floor

  Aza directed them over to it and knelt down. It was blood, fresh blood at that. “Wait, so did they come through here ...then get stuck in another trap?” His mind was puzzling to think of where it could have come from.

  “I dunno.” While everything was tinged with a blue, the farmer could see fairly well. “There’s another one by the opening.

  Aza followed his gaze and then the trail of blood that lead off into a new segment. Once again, there were mausoleums set into the walls, only the ceilings were now far lower. The twisted statues from above had also returned, bearing small orbs of blue fire. While they failed to provide enough light for Luke, Aza was able to see more of the blood drippings spaced out among the stones. Infact, in his state of growing fear, he focused too much on them. His careless boot strayed from the path and was met with the rapid creaking of ancient gears. Within an instant, a harpoon of black metal shot through the air and down to the floor, triggering a release that kept it locked in place. It did not have a chain attached, but instead a trail of violet lightning that wound together like tread.

  Both of them reared back, not struck by it yet feeling a twisting pain as if they had been slashed. Aza screamed in agony as his ears were pierced by a high pitched screech, like that of a rabid bat. He felt as if he were being ripped in two, causing him to falter and nearly collapse. Despite the burning pain, Luke grabbed him. Aza couldn’t think, only stagger, as Luke set off another one. A second burning slash bit into his body, almost causing him to fall as well. He couldn’t see enough to plot a path, only barrel ahead and prey that they could find something. Some place to hide or end to this tunnel. More and more of the harpoons fired down. Some nearly hit, others were delayed or outright failed. Luke began to hear the screeching as well, as if all the arrows were screaming in pain. He couldn’t go on much longer. Aza could barely stand, his strength all but gone. Luke’s mind was focused, but his body was in agony. It was as if threads of fire were cutting into his flesh, searing him from the inside out. Just as he thought his legs were going to fail him, he saw it. One of the mausoleums was missing its bars. One, two, five more torturous steps until he swung inside. The two collapsed and drifted off into unconsciousness.

  While they slept, Han and Tom made their way down a ruined hallway. The chute had narrowed, getting ever steeper and faster. Just as they thought it would go on forever, they were shot into a dark chamber. It was pitch black, except for a se
t of blue lights on a raised platform. Tom was terrified, feeling around blindly. Han would have likely done the same had it not been for all the other horrors he had already seen or read about. Instead, he adjusted his glasses and peered around in the darkness. It became very clear what had happened here. This was a square room with no doors and no windows. There wasn’t any way to escape, not for people like them. It was designed to let its victims slowly waste away, as they screamed into the earth for help that would never come. Yet whoever had set off the trap before them had been significantly stronger than he or Tom. The lights were not on a raised platform, but a hallway now visible due to a massive hole blown into the side of the pit. Han had crawled up the pile of rubble around it, with Tom in toe. Now they were wandering blindly in the dim light, hoping to find some way back onto the main path.

  “So where exactly are you from outsider? Han?” He spoke his name as if asking if it was real or not.

  “Dellathorn. I am an agent of the Paladin Order, sent here to figure out what exactly is going on in this town.” He peered around for any branches in this narrow path.

  “The Paladins?” He blinked a few times. “Horse crap! If what dad said about them is true then what in the Abyss are you doin with Aza and his lackey?”

  “He saved me the night I arrived here, though now I am quite curious. How is it that people like Aggie or your dad know about us but others do not? Is it some class issue? I was made aware your father once held quite a bit of money before losing it.”

  Tom was enraged at the mention of his family’s great humiliation. “He didn’t lose it! There were just some unfortunate circumstances and some deals that didn’t pay off like they should have. It wasn’t his fault!”

  “That is nice and all, but does not answer my question. Were the two just duping me or is my group really not known around this area?”

  “Assuming you even are a Paladin, yes they’re obviously trickin ya. Though, the fact you’re dumb enough to buy into anything they said seems to disprove your little claim.” He was expecting to see a look of offense, but only received a hand gesturing him to go on an answer the question. “But no. People like the mayor know the Paladins pretty well, otherwise it's just the land owners and whoever is close enough to them to hear about it.”