by Ron Ripley
Josephus licked his swollen lips and asked, “For how long?”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“How long is my sentence?” Josephus said, his voice shaking. “How long must I remain in the crypt before I am brought to trial and sent to prison?”
“This is your prison,” Daniel said in a gentle voice. “Your sentence is death. By starvation. We will waste neither time nor food upon you. Nor will we afford you the opportunity of a trial. Hanging is too good for you, Josephus Wahlen. No. You will know fear. You will know hunger. And you will die in darkness, as did the girl you murdered.”
Silence filled the crypt until Josephus broke it with a single word.
“No,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Daniel said, standing up. He nodded to the man by the door to the pox chamber, and Josephus heard it open. “Will you walk or be dragged in?”
Josephus went to say “walk,” but instead, he screamed.
Before he could stop himself, Josephus began to beg and plead.
The reward, for his efforts, was a kick from Daniel, which broke several of his ribs.
Josephus gagged on the pain, stars exploding around his vision as Daniel grabbed hold of him by the neck of his coat. When Josephus found his voice, he screamed once more. But only once.
Before he could catch his breath for another, Daniel threw him into the pox room. A moment later, the man knelt down beside Josephus, and the hemp rope was quickly cut away.
Within a heartbeat, the door was slammed shut and locked after Daniel left.
Josephus caught his breath, listened, and he heard the sound of his prison cell being sealed.
Josephus was alone in the darkness, and with the dead.
His stomach rumbled.
Chapter 34: Polite Inquiries Are Made, 7:00 AM, May 3rd, 2016
Jenny woke up and stretched, rolled over, and shrieked.
Leo’s eyes widened, and he nearly vanished. For a moment, he was barely visible, merely a hint of a form in his old chair. Then he was solid once more.
He looked around the room and said, “What is it, Jennifer Roy?”
Jenny had to wait a moment for her heart to stop pounding. With a deep breath, she sat up, looked at Leo and said, “I was surprised to see you.”
“Why?” Leo asked, genuinely confused. “Did Sylvia not tell you she was coming to find me?”
“She did,” Jenny admitted.
“This is my house, is it not?” Leo asked, still searching for the reason why Jenny might be confused.
“It is,” Jenny agreed.
“Therefore,” Leo said, “would it not be logical for me to be here if Sylvia sought me out and this house is mine?”
“Never mind, Leo,” Jenny said, sighing. She took the blankets and sheet off, swung her legs off the bed and was glad she had slept in her clothes. Dead or not, it might have proven to be too much for Leo to handle. She leaned forward, took her boots out from under the bed and put them on.
Leo waited politely until she had finished before he said, “Brian Roy is in trouble.”
Jenny nodded.
“Sylvia,” Leo continued, “told me about the situation in which he finds himself. He is bound within a cemetery. A crypt, to be specific?”
“Yes,” Jenny said.
“There is a door, from this world to another, via a fog,” Leo said. “And by means of this fog, the ghost is able to entrap and imprison.”
“Evidently,” Jenny said. Her patience was thin and Leo was always a challenge, alive or dead.
“Our first effort must be to locate this fog,” Leo said after a moment.
Jenny only nodded.
“From there, I will need to try and go into the crypt,” Leo continued. “This way, I will be able to locate Brian. Whether alive or dead, I will be able to find him.”
“Leo,” Jenny said, holding up a hand.
“Yes, Jennifer Roy?” he asked.
“Please,” she said, “I don’t want to entertain the idea of Brian being dead.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it and nodded instead.
Jenny took a deep breath, closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts. Exhaling slowly, she looked once more at Leo. “Now, Leo, do you know how long it will take to find him?”
“I do not,” Leo answered.
“Why, Leo?” she asked, trying to remain patient.
“If this spirit is strong enough to cordon off a large area of the physical world, then there is no telling how much he has manipulated his own world,” Leo said.
“What do you mean?” Jenny said. “I don’t understand.”
“Think of it as construction, Jennifer Roy,” Leo said. “When this building was built, it required a large number of men and materials. If this spirit is strong enough to build a wall of fog, then there is no telling what he may have constructed within the crypt. Some spirits are able to create a single room in which to hide. I suspect there might be more, many more rooms.”
“Jesus,” Jenny muttered. “This keeps getting better and better.”
“Jennifer Roy,” Leo said.
“Yes, Leo?” she asked, looking at him.
“I fail to understand how this situation continues to become better,” he said.
Jenny shook her head, laughed and stood up. “Don’t worry about it, Leo. Don’t worry about it. I need coffee.”
He smiled, then, with a concerned expression he said, “Jennifer Roy, caffeine is a serious addiction.”
Jenny went to reply, stopped herself and decided it was better to get her coffee instead. She wanted to get to Shane’s as soon as possible.
Chapter 35: John Goes Hunting
John didn’t want to hunt Brian.
Then again, he didn’t want to be tormented for decades by this devil either.
And John was fairly certain Josephus Wahlen was about one step below the Devil. As nice as Brian had been, John wasn’t going to suffer for him.
He had left the cannibal’s chamber as quickly as he could. With some distance between himself and Josephus, John had made a decision, and he moved with purpose.
John could hear the other dead whisper around him, but he paid them no mind.
They chatted among themselves about the fear some people had of spiders. When he had left them, they were wondering whether it would be better to be eaten by one large spider, or several hundred little ones.
The next door, John found, had led to a hall. The hall led to a rectangular corridor full of windows, each one looking into yet another room.
Whereupon there were more doors.
Hallways. Rooms. Doors. Windows.
None of them held Brian.
Or any trace of him.
Finally, with his patience nearing its end, John came to a small room, roughly the size of a broom closet, and he sat down. He was angry.
He doubted Josephus would accept anything other than Brian’s exact location.
John was certain he didn’t want to see another vicious display of Josephus’ anger.
“Do you think there’s a chance?”
John looked around.
Brian had spoken. The man’s voice had come from the other side of the wall.
“Always a chance,” an unknown man replied. “We’ll have to go out later after we sleep.”
“Christ,” Brian said.
“What?” the other asked.
“I just want to be out now,” Brian answered.
The man chuckled. “I’ve wanted the same thing for a very long time.”
There was a lull in the conversation and then Brian asked, “What about Josephus?”
“What about him?” the man replied.
“Will we meet him in the fog?” Brian said.
“Doubt it,” the other said. “He stays in mostly, unless he wraps the fog around the cemetery. Don’t think he’ll do it soon, though. He usually doesn’t.”
“Alright,” Brian said. “Guess I need to try and sleep.”
“The b
oth of us,” the man said. “The both of us.”
The conversation ended, and John stood up.
I may not be able to reach him, John thought. But, at least I know what he’ll be doing.
Armed with the information, John left the room and made his way back towards Josephus Wahlen.
Chapter 36: 125 Berkley Street, 8:15 AM, May 3rd, 2016
“I am impressed,” Leo said.
Jenny looked over at the ghost, still slightly disturbed at being able to see through him when the sun peered through the overhead clouds. She asked, “Why are you impressed, Leo?”
“The house in front of us,” Leo said. “I can see the multiple levels which extend beyond its physical form. Whoever constructed them was exceptionally strong.”
“Leo,” Jenny said, “are you okay?”
“I am dead, Jennifer,” Leo replied.
She shook her head. “I know. I mean, well, you look a little, ah, thinner. I can see through you.”
Leo nodded. “I am not feeling quite as strong as I usually do. When I am weaker, I lack the ability to be as solid as you normally see me. Does this explain my ‘thinness,’ Jennifer?”
Jenny was about to answer when she was distracted by the front door being opened. Shane came out, zipping up his sweatshirt and closing the door behind him.
“Are you going to lock it?” Jenny asked.
Shane grinned at her. “No need. Anyone breaks in, the ghosts will take care of it.”
Leo solidified slightly, and Shane paused in surprise.
“Good morning, Shane Ryan,” Leo said cheerfully.
“Good morning, Leo,” Shane said, shaking his head. “Glad you’re here.”
“Thank you,” Leo said. “I am glad I am here as well.”
Shane chuckled. “Alright. So, what’s the plan then?”
“We go to Wood’s Cemetery in Mont Vernon,” Jenny said. “We find the marsh. We find the fog. We get my husband out.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Shane said. “Anything else?”
Jenny nodded. “Kill anything that gets in my way.”
“I like it,” Shane said. “We’ll, I’m ready if you are.”
“Damn straight,” Jenny replied. She looked at Leo. “Anything you can think of, Leo?”
“In regards to our plan of action?” Leo asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“All I can add,” Leo said, “is we must be wary. If the fog is a true portal, then we must not underestimate the one who opened it. To do so, would be the death of both of you, and possibly the banishment of myself to the afterlife.”
“Oh,” Shane said. “Good. So long as there isn’t any pressure.”
Jenny gave both the dead man and the living one a hard smile. “No. No pressure at all.”
She led the way to her car and tried to ignore the way Leo passed through the glass and steel to sit in the back seat. For a moment, her mind attempted to understand the physics of such a move, but then she shook the idea away.
She got into the car, waited until Shane was in, and then started the engine.
It was time to find Brian.
Chapter 37: The Escape Begins
Brian woke up with a start. For a moment, he lay panting on the floor, staring up at the plain, unadorned ceiling. When his heart returned to a normal rhythm, he sat up and saw Jacob.
The older man was braiding a rope out of strips of cloth. He paused, looked at Brian and asked gently, “Who’s the King?”
Brian almost asked ‘what’, but he stopped himself.
He had been dreaming of the King of Middlebury. The nightmare of the Sanitarium. In the dream, he had been trapped in the tunnels beneath, a faceless man hunting him.
“Before this little journey into, well, whatever it is,” Brian said, grimacing as he stretched. “I did a little bit of ghost hunting.”
“Ghost hunting?” Jacob asked. “Now why in the hell would you do something like that?”
Brian shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Jacob shook his head, finished the last of the braid and tied it off. “You need to rethink your idea of a good time, Brian.”
“I did,” Brian replied. “I took the job as caretaker here and swore off anything else to do with ghosts.”
“Guess they decided differently,” Jacob said. “Here, catch.”
He tossed an end of the rope to Brian, who caught it easily. Brian gave it a couple of tugs, found the braid to be strong and asked, “What’s this for?”
“Going to tie us together,” Jacob said. “This place gets a little hairy, and you don’t know it the way I do.”
Brian nodded.
“I’ll tie one end around my waist, you tie the other around your waist, and we’ll have about six feet of slack between,” Jacob said. “We keep moving. We don’t stop.”
“Like the French Foreign Legion,” Brian said.
“Yes,” Jacob agreed. “March or die.”
Brian stood up. He looked at Jacob and said, “We’re going to make it out of here.”
After a moment, Jacob said softly, “I’ve been trying for years. I’ll give it another go, of course, but you need to understand, I haven’t found the way out, yet. And I look each and every time I walk out the door.”
“I know,” Brian said, “but this time is different.”
Jacob didn’t answer. He stood up, tied one end of the rope around his waist and nodded for Brian to do the same.
Brian did so, making sure it was tight. “Do we need to bring anything?”
“No,” Jacob said, shaking his head. “Funny thing about the fog, when you’re done trying to escape, just turn around and the way back in, is there. Waiting for you.”
The idea of it sent a chill down Brian’s back. “Sounds absolutely terrible.”
“It is,” Jacob said, smiling tightly. “It sure is.”
The older man looked around, nodded to himself, and without another word, turned to the door. He opened it quickly.
Beyond him, Brian saw a long, seemingly endless hallway made of dull glass walls and ceiling. The floor was made of packed dirt.
Jacob glanced at Brian and said, “Keep your eyes on me. Don’t look left. Don’t look right. There are things on the other side of the glass which aren’t good to see.”
Brian looked again and caught a glimpse of something fish-belly white. With a shock, he realized it was a face, the mouth was a vivid red, looking like a gaping wound. The eyes were black sockets, the nose gone. The flesh was flabby and jiggled obscenely as the creature turned its attention to the door.
“That’s Bob,” Jacob said softly. “He’s the welcoming committee. He’s the prettiest one. The others, well, they’re even more disturbing.”
Brian swallowed nervously, locked his eyes on Jacob and said, “Let’s go.”
Jacob nodded, turned away and began to walk down the hall.
Brian made sure to keep his eyes fixed firmly on the back of Jacob’s skull, and did his best to ignore the shapes pressing themselves to the glass.
Chapter 38: In the Crypt, 1842
He remembered the feast before he had been caught and imprisoned.
Josephus had eaten all of them. Every delectable bit of the young women he had slain. Sacrificed. He had devoured their souls, and he was stronger than anyone could imagine.
Yet the strength he had imbued did not permit him to escape the crypt.
It was a spiritual superiority, not physical.
So he remained trapped.
At first, he had gagged down the old and rotten flesh of Marcus Wetherbee, who had died a few weeks earlier of an unknown disease. His body had been placed in the pox crypt. Its rotting smell had gone from nauseating to delectable, the hungrier Josephus had become.
Water, too, had been a concern, but there was a small tunnel in the back of the pox crypt.
And it led to a small stream.
Josephus had heard the whisper of the water as it moved, and at first, he had be
lieved it was only a hallucination. Yet, he had followed the tunnel, squeezed through narrow choke points where the whole weight of the earth seemed to press down upon him. Then he was through.
He could see nothing at all in the darkness, but he had crawled forward cautiously. His fingers had found the cold water, and he had drunk from the stream deeply.
Water was not all there was in the little cave he had found. There was so much more.
He had found slow moving fish, and plants which had drifted through. Even the occasional rat drew in.
Josephus had eaten everything he could catch and kill. Nothing was too foul; not when he was starving. As he ate and kept himself alive, Josephus planned his revenge.
Escape, he knew, was not an option open to him.
His vengeance would come soon. He would punish them for centuries.
Josephus lay upon his back, his left hand caressing the water while his right made swirls on the dirt floor of the cave. Although he could see nothing, he stared up. He recalled the eyes of the girls, how each had popped sensually in his mouth. He remembered the taste of them.
Josephus shuddered and was surprised as he felt a door open between the worlds.
The shadow behind reality stepped forward, and Josephus plunged in with his bounty of souls.
His body trembled once and then went still. His hands went limp. A small minnow, drawn by the sudden motion in the water, swam up to the fingers which broke the surface. It found the flesh, nipped at it, and then swam away.
It would return when the flesh fell away from the bone.
Josephus stood above his body, looked around the cave and saw it for the first time. He smiled, turned to the enslaved girls and said coldly, “It is time.”
Chapter 39: Wood’s Cemetery, 9:15 AM, May 3rd, 2016
Jenny parked the car, turned off the engine and got out.
Leo was already standing beside the trunk and looking far thinner than before. Shane came out into the open air, a moment later.
“This place is bad,” Leo said. He looked at Jenny. “It is very bad.”
Jenny nodded. She knew it. Brian was trapped.