The huge bulk of the mausoleum stood before them, its giant shape blotting out much of the sky full of the moon. The air grew colder as Lilly and Silas crossed the threshold, the temperature plummeting as if they had stepped into the heart of winter. Here, the stone walls felt as if they were pulsating with a life of their own, each breath Lilly took rattling in her chest as the oppressive atmosphere settled over her like a suffocating blanket.
Inside, the air was thick, and heavy with the scent of dampened stone and decay, like death had seeped into and seemed to ooze from every surface after centuries. Lilly went slowly, the beam of her flashlight slicing through the heavy darkness like a knife that failed because the shadows seemed to cling to her, threatening to swallow the light whole.
"Stay close," Silas whispered, his voice no louder than a murmur. She was told once and didn't need to be told again. With every step, Lilly could feel the weight of the mausoleum's ancient magic weighing heavy upon her. The symbols etched into the walls pulsed faintly with an energy that made her skin prickle, a strange hum vibrating through the air, barely perceptible, yet ever there.
Deeper in, it became more detailed: grotesque figures laced with angular patterns whirling toward the heart of the mausoleum.
What does it mean?" Lilly asked, her voice tight.
They're binding runes," Silas said, his eyes fixed on the stonewalls as they walked. "They were carved to hold the entity in the cemetery, not allowing it to break free. Over time, however, the runes' power has vanished.
Lilly's stomach was churning. Sealed here, it was growing in power, feeding off the spirits trapped in West Wood. She pressed on, each step heavier, as the very earth itself was trying to hold her back.
As they kept going further in, the hall opened into one large chamber, arched from above.
The room was colder still than the rest of the mausoleum, a thick layer of dust varnishing the stone floor, undisturbed for years. In the center of the chamber stood a massive sarcophagus, the black stone gleaming faintly in the dim light. Strange, jagged carvings covered the surface, etched so deeply that they seemed to glow with a faint reddish hue.
With a pounding heart, Lilly took a step closer until her gaze was fixed upon the sarcophagus. And from it came an energy, a deep hum that seemed to pulse in time with the beating of her heart.
It is here, Silas said, with a tight grip. The artifact is inside.
Lilly nodded, though her hands shook terribly as she neared the enormous tomb.
It felt alive, as if déjà vu stirred beneath its surface, just waiting for her to make the first move. The dark carvings clashed and spiraled in disturbing patterns of them shadowy figures with long limbs, others of symbols she couldn't define but knew instinctively were ancient and powerful. Her flashlight flickered across the sarcophagus, the shadows like living entities twisting across the walls. "How do we open it?" she asked her voice tight with nerves.
Silas turned to her, his expression drawn. "It's not locked. The weight of the stone and the magic binding is to keep it shut, but the artifact inside is tied to the entity, so touching the sarcophagus might trigger something.".
A cold knot formed in Lilly's stomach. Of course, it wouldn't be simple. Nothing in this place ever was. They'd come too far now, though. If they needed to weaken the entity, that artifact was necessary. Kneeling beside it, she sucked in a deep breath to steady herself. Her hands hovered over the stone lid, tentative, her heart racing in her chest. The cold seemed to seep from the sarcophagus itself, numbing her fingers before she even dared touch it.
Silas stepped closer, his form shimmering faintly in the lack of light. "Be careful," he warned. "Whatever happens, don't lose focus.
She took one last, bracing breath and laid her hands upon cold stone. In an instant, a sharp, biting chill shot through her palms, racing up her arms like ice in her veins. The carvings around the sarcophagus flared with a sudden light deep red glow that seemed to pulse with some unsettling rhythm. Instinctively, she drew back, yet it did not fade.
A low, deep humming started from the sarcophagus as if some faraway drum was beating in measured cadence.
Lilly's breath caught in her throat as the lid of the sarcophagus shifted a subtle beginning, just the slightest tremor; then, with a deep groan, the stone began to move. It was not fast-fast like a curious explosion but steady, as if some unseen force were pushing it aside. The heavy lid slid across the top of the sarcophagus, exposing the interior and its darkness, sending down so much dust and debris from the ceiling.
Lilly's pulse raced with the full opening of the sarcophagus, revealing what was inside.
Wrapped in tattered, decayed cloth, a skeletal figure nested inside the black stone tomb. The bones were yellowed with age, brittle, and ancient, but that wasn't what drew Lilly's gaze. Clutched in the skeleton's bony hands, resting against its chest, was the artifact.
Small, no larger than the palm of her hand, it loomed overwhelmingly.
It was an elaborately carved disc of a dark, shining metal that seemed to waver in the allowable light surface incised with sharp, angular patterns that spiraled inward to converge on a single, dark gemstone in its center. That stone shone faintly, an unwholesome red light pulsating from within as if it were a heart.
The whole artifact bristled with jagged, spiked protrusions jutting from the disc to give an almost star-like aspect, that of some ancient weapon.
The artifact emitted power, a dark malign energy, apparently humming in vibrational tones around the thing. The moment Lilly saw it, she felt its pull, as though the object was calling to her, reaching out to her and begging her to take it.
"It is," Silas whispered, "the heart of the Greys' power."
Lilly's hand quivered as she reached for the artifact. The air around it buzzed with energy, heavier by the second, weighing upon her with the weight of the entity's presence. The farther down her fingers wove in a surreptitious dance over its surface, the stronger the pull the force that was like an alive artifact grasping back toward her in return.
Her heart raced in her ears. The dark red glow of the gemstone flickered as her hand enveloped it, and for a moment, she stopped.
"Lilly," Silas warned, his voice keen. "Once you touch it, there's no going back."
Lilly swallowed hard as her gaze fixed on the artifact. The air within that chamber felt charged, thick with both magic and danger. The weight of it all—the entity, the spirits popped in the cemetery, the power of the artifact—was weighing onto her shoulders, but there was no other choice.
"I know," she whispered, more to herself than to Silas.
And then she reached out, her fingers grazing the cold surface of the artifact.
The moment her skin came into contact with dark metal, a sudden trail of power coursed right through her body. It was as if she had been strung out by some kind of bolt of lightning, or maybe some crazy electrical power, harsh, which threw her backward, head spinning, as the energy thrashed through her veins. Her vision blurred and for one weird second, she felt like falling, tumbling through darkness, weightless, somehow disengaged from the world.
The artifact pulsed in her hand, the gemstone's sickly red glow flaring brighter as eerie shadows danced across the chamber. The air grew thick and stifling; Lilly could feel the entity's presence closing in around her, wrapping around her like a vice.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed down to the ground as the energy of the artifact raged through her in ragged gasps. The energy was too much-too strong. Susan felt it tearing at her very mind, trying to break her trying to take control of her.
"Lilly!" Silas yelled, his voice far away, muffled by the pounding in her ears.
She was paralyzed, her hand clutched around the artifact, its power coursing ceaselessly through her. Her vision blurred; the chamber around her distended and flexed, the walls writhing into eldritch shapes that seemed to pulse and twist in the dark. Then, deep in the back of her mind, she heard it. A voice. Low, guttural, and full of malice.
"You are mine."
Lilly's breath caught in her throat. The entity was inside her head, its presence overwhelming, smothering. She could feel it pushing up against her conscious mind, trying to wriggle deeper into her thoughts, to break her will. The artifact pulsed once more, its steady red glow flaring brighter.
Then, the world went black.