The silence in the cemetery was thick, save for the soft crunch of gravel beneath Lilly's boots as she tailed Silas deeper into the labyrinth of gravestones. An unsaid weight rested upon her chest, making the whole thing quite burdensome. The night was cooler than it had been, the bitter air stinging her cheeks as the wind whipped through branches of skeletal trees lining the path. The cemetery felt alive with tension, thick with anticipation.
But for the very first time in her life, Lilly really felt how critical a situation she had gotten herself into. It wasn't about finding the answers any longer; all of this was about survival.
It had been more than a threat, some entity Silas described — a force that had the power to consume the souls of both the dead and the living. And if they couldn't find the artifact and stop it, there wouldn't be anything left of West Wood Cemetery. Perhaps even the town itself. Her hands were shaking only slightly as she clung tightly to her flashlight, its beam casting long shadows on the ancient gravestones. She couldn't afford to let herself think about what might happen if they failed, because they simply had no choice but to succeed.
Silas strode on before her, his ghostly form flickering faintly in the moonlight.
Although he had no body, Lilly could feel the tautness in him, the purpose with which he moved — yet with reserve. He was leading her deeper into the heart of the cemetery, further than Lilly had ever gone — one of the oldest and most secluded parts of West Wood.
It was a part of the cemetery rarely visited, even by those who came to tend graves or leave flowers for long-departed loved ones. Here, the Grey family had laid to rest their most powerful secrets.
Her mind was racing a mile a minute with all that Silas had said. The artifact they were searching for was a key piece of the Grey family's dark magic — something they had used to summon and bind the entity during their rituals. Silas had mentioned that the artifact was buried somewhere in the cemetery, but over time, its exact whereabouts had been lost. Without it, they had no chance of weakening its hold.
But Silas had not told her everything — she could tell by the way he'd hesitated when she pushed him for details. There was something about the artifact that unsettled him, something he was not ready to share just yet. Lilly knew better than to push too hard right now. They had to focus on the task at hand.
"What does the artifact look like?" Lilly asked, snapping herself back to the present as they detoured by a huge headstone that had fallen over — weathered and unreadable.
Silas peered back over his shoulder, his face unreadable in the dim light of the lone lamp post behind them. "It's old, very old. It was passed through the Grey family for generations, but even for them, its origins go further back. It is no ordinary object, for it holds dark magic within. You will know it when you see it."
Lilly's stomach heaved at the thought. She wasn't too sure she liked the idea of touching anything that had been used in rituals to conjure something as formidable as what they were dealing with. But there was, unfortunately, no other choice. The only way to end the entity was to find the artifact and use it to sever the creature's connection to the cemetery.
They walked several more minutes in silence, the weight of the night pressing down on them like a smothering blanket. The deeper they journeyed into the woods, the more oppressive the atmosphere grew. Lilly felt the spirits around her, their restless energy buzzing in the air. Some were watching her, she was sure. She had grown somewhat used to the presence of ghosts, but tonight felt different.
The spirits were agitated in this graveyard, where the prevailing energy disruption intensified.
It was getting stronger.
A few times, Lilly could have sworn she saw movement out of the corner of her eye — a shadow slipping between gravestones, a flicker of something dark just beyond the reach of her flashlight. Yet every time she turned to look, there was nothing there: silence.
"We're getting close," Silas said in a low tone that was almost a whisper. "It's directly ahead."
As they came to the part of the yard that was much, much older than the rest, Lilly's pulse quickened. The gravestones here were more ancient, their surfaces worn smooth from centuries of exposure to the elements. Some of them were cracked, others leaned at odd angles, as if they had been forgotten even by time itself.
In the center of the clearing stood a large, dilapidated mausoleum, its stone walls thickly covered with moss and ivy vines. The entrance was sealed shut with an iron gate, but in many ways, Lilly could feel the darkness emanating from within, even at that distance. The air surrounding the crypt felt thick, heavy with the weight of something ancient and malevolent.
"This is it," Silas said, stopping only a few feet from the mausoleum's entrance. "The artifact is buried inside."
The mausoleum faced her, its stone eyes staring back with cold rigidity. Lilly's heart pounded in her chest, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She could feel the entity a bit stronger now, as if it knew what they were doing — aware that they were closing in on the key to its destruction.
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. "How do we get inside?"
Silas's face turned grim. "Now, this is the tricky part. The mausoleum was shut long ago, after the last of the Grey family had been laid to rest here. The iron gate has spells cast on it to reinforce it — supposed to keep intruders out."
Lilly swallowed hard. "And you're saying we're the intruders."
Silas didn't smile as he nodded. "In a way, yes. But we don't have the time to worry about that now. We have to get inside."
Lilly stared at the gate, her mind racing. She wasn't a magician, and she had no idea how to break through magical barriers. But she had learned one thing in West Wood — where there was dark magic, there was often a way to counteract it. And that generally involved blood or sacrifice.
She hesitated a second, then moved forward. Her hand was trembling a little as it reached for the iron gate. The instant her fingers touched the cold metal, a jolt of energy surged through her, something like static electricity, but much, much stronger. She gasped, yanking her hand back as a sharp pain shot up her arm.
"It's warded," Silas warned. "Only someone with Grey blood could open it."
Lilly bit her lip, stalling for time. "Then how do we — "
She didn't get to finish her sentence before the ground beneath them shook. A low, grave echo grated through the night in the graveyard, and Lilly felt the unmistakable presence of the entity standing too close, watching, waiting.
"We don't have much time," Silas said urgently. "It's waking up."
Lilly's heart was racing. They couldn't afford to wait any longer. The entity was too strong to confront head-on, but if they could just make it inside the mausoleum and find the artifact, they might have some kind of fighting chance. She needed to think — and think fast. Then, one thing struck her.
"Blood," she muttered to herself, her mind racing. "It's always something to do with blood in these cases, isn't it?"
Without hesitation, Lilly reached into her jacket and pulled out a small pocket knife. She pressed the blade against her palm, hard; the blade bit into her skin, and a thin line of blood welled from the cut. She wasn't a Grey by blood, but perhaps — perhaps — the graveyard would take her offering. She stepped forward again, and her shaking hand pressed her bloodied palm against the iron gate.
For a second, nothing happened, and Lilly's heart sank. But then it whined, and the old rusted metal gave way to the touch of her hand, taking the impression of her bloody palm, the start of creaking open.