The Curious Case of Jacob's Hallow

by Patrick Walsh

  “I see.” The path they were on was cut short by fallen rubble, but another hole sent them in a new direction. This one branching. They could go left or right, with the former leading up. ‘So what about you? Why exactly do you think Aza is the Nightman?”

  “Because he’s like the rest of them, the freaks. Their powers are evil, even if they won’t admit to it. Then Aza is the strongest of them. He’s the right build, gives off that fear, rumours are floatin around about people seein him at night….” He trailed off as he thought of more, noticing that they had begun ascending.

  “I see. I would not consider that proof of anything really. Especially in light of all you have seen. Why do you think he would be hiding from those things, saving you and the rest of us?” He was genuinely curious, trying to use this prodding to pass the time until he either found his allies or discovered the parchment.

  “To throw me off his scent, what else?” He laughed the words as if it were plainly obvious.

  “Then you must think him quite the showmen.”

  “Listen ya scrawny….” He and Han both jumped back as they rounded another bend.

  They were at a nine way intersection, with statues filling in every gap between the paths. Each one was posed in such a way that it looked like they were about to pounce on the two. This was further exacerbated by the bright lights set into their chests, giving off the appearance of having magic or some Helish weapon. Both boys debated but ended up taking the path that seemed to have the steepest upwards slope. Their back and forth had ceased, being replaced by silence. Han’s mind was trained on what lie ahead while Tom was still irritated by the outsiders lack of manners. Though, what he had brought up began circling around in his head. This all being a trick seemed unreasonable, but it couldn’t disprove everything his dad had said. That was assuming it wasn’t a trick at all, which it most likely was. He was left mulling over doubts both old and new as they drew further up and hopefully back to where they had came from. This proved not to be the case as a room came into view.

  There was a circular doorway ahead of them, ringed with many serpentine eyes. They were merely carved from whatever rock this segment of the tomb was all made of, yet this rendered their hungry gaze no less piercing. Beyond them was what appeared to be a library. Upon entering it they realised it looked just like the one in town. Not an exact duplicate, but built in the same spiraling style with overhanging balconies. The scholar was stunned and confused. He had no real idea what this part of the necropolis was, nothing from the notebooks ever mentioning some kind of living quarters. As far as he knew, this place was solely for the dead. He stopped walking a few shelves in, looking around and wondering what old histories could possibly be hiding down here. While he was closer to neither the parchment or his allies, this was clearly somewhere worth the detour. Excitement over taking him, he nearly clapped his hands together with an exited ramble to follow. That was when he heard it. When both of them heard it. A low, rhythmic dirge being hummed by someone above.

  Their blood suddenly ran cold. It didn’t sound like either Aza or Luke. Could it be Arthur Lore Junior? Part of Han wanted to find out, yet his more reasonable side took hold. Whatever could be living down here was likely no friend of theirs, even if it was somehow Arthur. Instead of prodding further, he put his hand to his lips and motioned for Tom to back out. Yet before they could take even a single step, a round slab spun out from the wall and ceiled off their exit. Three similar sounds were heard echoing out from around the room. Then immediately followed by something else. While he had no way to prove it, Han thought it sounded as if many of the doors had closed while others had come open. It had to be it, otherwise that meant whoever was up above knew they were here. The previous plan was scrapped as he began sneaking deeper into the area in search of these other doors. Tom wanted to find his own way, but his sense of self preservation got the better of his pride.

  Together they crept deeper and deeper into the room, making sure to stay firm against the walls. They didn’t even walk, instead sliding along the slick floor while listening for whoever was above them. Han kept his eyes dead ahead while Tom watched the balconies. The entire trip was slow, stopping whenever they lost track of the humming. Yet despite the wait, they eventually made it to another door. To their horror, it was sealed as well, but the spot they were in gave a perfect view of one that sat open. Again, they slowly inched their way long the wall, but this time Han spotted something. There was a small opening where there were no shelves, instead only a set of desks. It looked like an alchemist's station, being covered with books, papers, and strange instruments. One of said books was different from the rest. Hard covered and set with a metal of some kind ...like a wizard’s tome. Han thought of how old this place could possibly be, what could lie within its pages, what ancient secrets he could learn from it. There was even a direct path from the station to the door. Not one he could see, but one that would have to be there considering the angle it was at. He listened for the haunting dirge one final time. It was far enough away.

  Tom grabbed at the fool, but Han was too quick. Light on his feet, he sped over to the station and snatched the book that lie upon it. Faster then he ever had in his life, he crammed it into his bag and bolted. Tom practically snarled at him, and dashed out from the safety of the wall. Both of them charged around the spiraling shelves and out to what appeared to be freedom. Yet just as they neared it, the doors reversed again. The one they stood in front of was sealed, while others now lay open. Tom spun in a circle, listening for the humming. He couldn’t hear it anymore. Neither of them could. Slowly and delicately, they began backing up to the wall and looked down both the isles. The left side was clear, with another door in sight. That was when they felt it. Not a cold fear like the wights, but….nothing. An oppressive, forceful nothingness. The lights all went out. To their right, against the far corner, were two lights. Eyes.

  The boys jumped as the lights around the room began to flicker on and off. To their terror, it began moving towards them. A flash revealed it to not be walking, but slowly floating above the ground. It was a man, or at least they thought it was. It didn’t matter. Both of them sprinted towards the exit as fast as they could. Again the doors slammed shut while others opened. Tom ripped books from the shelf and began hurling them at their pursuer. All of them missed. The only one that would have made contact stopping mid air and toppling to the ground. Han joined in, though some found themselves shoved into his bag with the tome. Tom noticed and was furious. Though there was little he could do as they dashed around the aisles.

  “Are you seriously still stealing them!?” He grabbed for the bag, only to have Han rip it away.

  “These are vital for my work!” He rushed to another door, but again it slammed shut.

  “You’re gonna get us killed!” He shrieked, turning back to see the glowing eyes still pursuing them.

  “I do not recall asking you to join us on this expedition!” Han tore around the bend and made a straight shot for the door.

  It began to close again, but changed course as he loudly hummed a dreary tune. While Tom had missed it, Han had heard their pursuer make the same sound every time they were stopped from leaving. Sure enough, it was what controlled the doors and allowed them to leap back into the hallways. Faster and faster they ran, not looking back until they reached a sharp turn in the path. He was still standing there on the dark threshold, waving to them. It was not just his eyes that were glowing this time, but a cheshire grin. That was the last they saw as the chamber slowly creaked shut. Yet they still didn’t feel safe. Further and further they ran down the ancient halls, until their legs threatened to give out. The two dropped down in the middle of a hallway, beside a few of the many alcoves that dotted it. They remained there for a long time, gasping for breath and trying to recompose themselves. It was eventually Tom who broke the silence.

  “What happened?” He looked up and down the hall as if expecting it to answer him.

  Han looked over to
him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “What were we running from? He knew he was scared, just not what had caused it.

  Well….well we were walking down the halls, came to that intersection….then we must have run down it. Were we running from something?” He felt as if a memory had gone missing.

  “We must have been.” Tom ran his hands through his hair, frustrated as his inability to remember.

  Han let his eyes wander, noticing that the alcoves had grates where stone should have been. He leaned over and saw what looked to be more of that dark water from the upper levels. It was sluggishly flowing somewhere. Maybe he would investigate if he ever came back….or got out for that matter. In the meantime, he and Tom continued on their upwards journey. Neither knowing where they were going, yet praying this new path would take them back to the main chamber. While Tom and Han wandered the backways, Aza and Luke were left trapped within the crypts. Their skin had been seared by the mysterious arrows, leaving inflamed slash marks all over their body's. Yet when Luke awake the scars were nowhere to be found, as if they had never existed at all. Upon peering out, he found that all the arrows had retracted as well. The two of them were alone once again.

  Immediately, he rushed over to Aza and began looking him over. The wounds seemed to have vanished on him as well, but he was still out cold. The farmer shook him, then checked for a pulse. He couldn’t tell through his calloused fingers, leading him to panic even more. Luke shouted to him before looking around the grim room. There were three stone coffins, with many sections in the back wall where more were stored. To his surprise, two of the three looked as if they had been blasted with explosives and their contents emptied. Not even the bodies remained. Upon turning to the bars, he noticed they had been blown apart as well. It made him realise that Arthur was likely here at one point or another, but didn’t seem to have left anything behind that he could use.

  As the farmer grew more and more desperate, the puppetmaster slept. His thoughts all tangled and broken. His mind drifting about within webs of memories. He knew that whatever those harpoons were must have some effect on the soul. It was the last thing he thought about before blacking out. Now he was back in the world of ink and darkness. No….no he was outside of it and looking in. There were only a few others there, the rest still awake and going about their day. He felt as if he should be drawn closer, but something was pulling him back. Keeping him pinned in the air. He couldn’t see what it was, only feel its abstract emptiness. That’s when he realized he wasn’t looking down at the shadowy void, he was looking up from it. Everything was twisted upside down. He was somewhere in the pit. Not its bottom, but deep enough to elude the view of the figure lurking around in the sky. She didn’t seem to be looking for anyone this time, or even aware she was there. There was some connection she had, much deeper than the rest of them. That’s when two glowing eyes popped out of the darkness. Wake up.

  Aza’s eyes shot open, causing Luke to jump back in surprise. “What happened?”

  “Those arrows messed us up and I dragged you here. Are ya ok?” His words were riddled with worry.

  “Yeah….” Aza crawled up. “Yeah, I think I’m fine now.”

  Luke looked around again, just trying to stay together. “I’s not really sure what to do now. Han is gone, out there is trapped, and I’s not even sure if we’s goin the right way.”

  “We are.” Aza peered out into the gloom. “We just have to keep following the blood.”

  “Hows you know that?”

  “I don’t really know why.” He stumbled out and found his footing on the path again. “But I do know we need to find that paper, then figure out where Han went.”

  Luke followed as his friend stepped back out onto the perilous path. “You sure you can do this?”

  Aza fluffed his overcoat. “I know we can.”

  With new confidence, Luke followed him and the two continued down the hallway. This time they were slower and far more careful. Each time blood was spotted they would stop, then start again once they knew where they were going. This continued down the hall of crypts until they reached a large room where the spirals in the floor abruptly ended. They were instead replaced by a set of rings with an eye at its center. The ceiling was high and dotted with many blue lights, while the walls were mostly smooth. There were metal doorways on each of them, the one directly across from them sitting open but a crack. Yet what caught their horrified gazes was what lay toppled over in the middle of the floor. It was like a spider made of blades and wire. It’s upper half resembling an elongated human with many grinning heads. Although despite how much of it was metal, there was skin and muscle weaved through its hideous form. It looked to be in poor condition, as if it had lost a fight many eons ago. One of the heads was severed, with many visible wounds riddling its body. They would have thought it dead had it not been for a small white flame at the heart of its skeletal chest. The fire had many wispy arms that spread through the creature’s body and lit up the empty eye sockets. Yet the head was facing the wrong wall, as if it had fallen from its original position.

  They had expected it to lunge at them, but it didn’t even seem aware they were here. It was Aza who spotted the drops of blood near its legs and began following it again. Slowly but surely the two of them maneuvered around the fallen behemoth, making sure not to meet its fiery gaze. Both of them weaved around its mangled body and over to the door that lay beyond. To their shock, the sinister obstacle didn’t seem to feel or hear them. Perhaps only its eyes were still working, though neither wanted to take that bet. The inside of the crypt was different from the others they had just seen. There were shelves and urns, with many stone tables set into the walls. This may have been where the dead were prepared, or used for other rituals. Then they saw him. Leaning against the far wall, near an open urn, was Arthur Lore the Second. To their shock, he looked as if he had died only moments before their arrival. His body was pale, yet did not smell of decay. A shirt stained with crimson was wrapped around his waist, while a pool of blood lay around him.

  Aza was confused beyond belief. He walked forwards and carefully examined the body. The man looked exactly like he had all those years ago, as if he hadn’t aged a day. Yet now he was as pale as the wights, his eyes staring vacantly into the darkness. Within an icy hand was another red notebook, a sister to the one Han possessed. He plucked it from the body and began flipping through the pages, not fully sure as to what he might be looking for. The last entry was dated nearly ten years ago, trailing off as the life faded from the author’s body. Aza scanned it over, and than over again. He flipped through page after page for several minutes, trying to see if the parchment was stashed inside. It wasn’t, and the two were left with the morbid task of searching his body for it. Again it wasn’t there, or in the urn he had died by. This drove Aza to flip through the pages again while Luke peered around the tables.

  “Any idea why he looks so...preserved.” Luke turned to the body again.

  “No.” His eyes scanned over some of the last entries, rage billowing up when he reached the last one. “You bastard.”

  “What?”

  Aza laughed and roughly crammed the notebook into one of his pockets. “It isn’t here. It was in that urn at one point but he moved it. I’m guessing he was gonna throw that damn notebook in instead.”

  “So where is it then.”

  He shrugged. “Doesn’t say. It just insults Barnabee and directs you to what he claims is the first of many riddles. This was all a waste of time.”

  “No it wasn’t.” Luke stepped forwards. “Once we get Han back I’m sure he’ll have some way to figure em out.”

  He was still upset, but nodded in agreement. “I suppose so. Now let's get on that.”

  Aza strode directly out, stopping to look over the fallen creature again and plot out a course. Luke, on the other hand, knelt down next to the body and closed its empty eyes. He gave a short prayer before standing back up and joining his friend. The two began a
pproaching the abomination, but suddenly something unexpected happened. It was a coincidence, or maybe their movements in the normally undisturbed cavern. One of the heads gave way as the last piece of wire was bent fully out of shape. The white fire of its three good eyes was now focused on them.

  They could hear it fall, but couldn’t run in time, only back away as the amalgamation of twisted metal sprung to life. Luke drew his axes, though planned to use the other room as a place to hide opposed to taking the behemoth head on. Aza on the other hand sprung into action. Force, more than he could generate with his own arms, could be channeled through the threads. Exactly how much seemed to change and grow the more he practiced. Today he would push both to the limit.

  Clanging and sputtering echoed around the chamber as the many bladed legs shot out to heave up the twisted body they were fused to. Aza fired two massive webs of glowing string from his palms. The outer ones ensnared the closest legs while any in the middle twisted together and punched the beast right in its torso. The skittering horror fell back as Aza pulled the legs out from under it. It blindly swung one at him, missing by only a few feet. Now in range, Luke ran forwards and sliced open a fleshy hose hanging down from the underside of the leg. Blood poured out and the creature gave an agonizing wail like two pieces of glass scraping against one another. Yet Aza didn’t relent. He fought with its flailing body, moving it closer and closer to the hallway they had come from. Luke realised what he was trying to do, and then what would happen when the creature set off the floor traps.

  The thing tore and thrashed, Aza hopping from one stone to the next in a desperate attempt to avoid a violent end. Despite all its efforts, it only took a minute more for the first of the amalgamation’s arms to hit the hallway. Harpoons fired one after another, the guardian fighting back and ripping them from the walls. Yet the more it struggled the further in it was drawn. Luke pulled Aza away and the threads dissipated. The two ran back into the room and slid down behind the furthest of the stone tables. They threw their hands to their ears right before a loud explosion rocked the crossroads just outside. It traveled up the hallway, crippling the traps and ripping through the guardian's metal body. The door to their temporary sanctuary was blasted inwards, collapsing onto the floor and spitting debris into the air. It took a few minutes for all the dust to settle, drawn out by all the other hallways now exposed to the chamber. Once they could see again, Aza led the charge back up the now ruined hallway. Gates were smashed in and stone strewn about the once pristine floor, yet the path was more then usable. Infact, other hallways had been exposed as parts of the wall had come crashing down. Luke and Aza began running through the ruin, only to see two figures emerge from the blasted wreckage. It was their missing companions.