From WHEN DARKNESS COMES
Andi grabbed my hand and half led, half dragged me down the final slope of hillside and into the heart of the collection of headstones filling the isolated cemetery. She pulled me directly to one of the four central mausoleums, not stopping until we were almost within its shadow. The structure loomed above us like a huge iron and marble box; at least fifteen feet tall and just as wide, with perhaps forty feet separating the front wall from the back. Four stone gargoyles guarded the moldering residents inside from positions at each corner of the roof, while two more – at least twice the size of the others – perched from parapets jutting above each side of the dual metal doors barring the front entrance. The massive creatures glared down at us, eyes slitted and fanged mouths gaping wide, clearly indicating that trespassers should tread warily.
Andi paused and laid a tentative hand on one of the doors. I thought the eerie surroundings and my own building unease were causing me to hallucinate as I watched her close her eyes and sniff the air. Without warning, she dropped to her hands and knees, lowered her face to the ground, and again inhaled deeply. She reminded me of an animal sniffing for the spoor of another; a predator searching for a competitor or enemy who may have left his scent behind to mark a claim. She spat once into the dirt, then once more on the paving stones that formed a small porch at the front of the mausoleum. She stood and dusted the dirt from the knees of her jeans. Andi then smiled at me as though nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
I looked at my feet and took a long breath, trying to clear my head and bring myself back to reality. I thought to myself, did I really just witness that? But I knew I had. I wasn’t deluded or hallucinating. This was really happening. However I had gotten to this point, the fact of the matter was that I currently stood in a cemetery located in the middle of nowhere with a creature I barely knew. I loved her with all the passion in my being, but I also had to acknowledge I didn’t know anything about who she was or what she was capable of. I loved her, yes, but that night, for the first time, I realized I did not completely trust her. And I had to admit I might even, perhaps a little, be afraid of her. But it was far too late for that revelation.
“We’re okay,” she said. “We can go in.”
“Go in?” I asked, taking a small involuntary step back. “Why would we want to go in?”
Andi pushed the metal doors and they swung inward, opening under her touch. The metal hinges protested loudly but offered no real resistance. I flinched as the grating screech echoed out through the otherwise perfect silence around us. When quiet reigned once again, I realized I was holding my breath. I think I was waiting for something to rise up out of the ground and raise some kind of objection to the noisy announcement of our presence. But nothing moved, so I forced myself to release the air from my lungs.
The doors of this towering monument to death now stood fully open, but even straining my eyes I could see only shadows inside.
“You don’t want to come in with me?” Andi asked. The smile was still on her face.
“Not really, no,” I replied, still trying to pierce the wall of gloom to see what might be lurking inside – or perhaps what might come rushing out.
Andi pulled her sweatshirt off over her head. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath it. With a careless flip of her wrist, she tossed the garment over her shoulder and let it fall to the ground. Next, her hands went to work unfastening her belt and the clasp of her pants. More articles of clothing followed the first, and soon she stood naked in the moonlight looking questioningly back at me. “I think you do,” she said with a playful cock of her head. She turned and stepped through the inky black doorway without a second glance in my direction.
It took only a few seconds for fear and concern for self-preservation to be swallowed up by a much more primal urge. In my mind’s eye I saw her again just before the shadows claimed her. Her pale skin caressed by the moonlight. The delicate line of her spine and the two shallow dimples that accented her lower back. I saw the round muscles of her buttocks, alternately clenching and relaxing as she walked away from me, and what common sense I still possessed was quickly shouted down by my baser instincts.
“Shit,” I said aloud, knowing I was making the wrong decision but helpless to change it. With the image of Andi’s naked backside held firmly before me like a mental shield against my fears, I followed her into the darkness.
As I stepped through the opening, I stumbled down an unexpected flight of stairs. Fortunately there were only three small steps and I was able to catch myself before falling on my face. I found my balance enough to stop my forward momentum, but the darkness quickly overwhelmed me and I became disoriented anew. I felt suddenly claustrophobic, as if the blackness around me were a physical presence pressing in on me. “Andi?” I called out softly, feeling panic blossoming in my chest. I feared if I tried to speak any louder, I might scream. “Where are you?”
“Shush. I’m right here, Love.” Her voice came from only a few feet away, and the sound of it immediately calmed me. I still felt disoriented, and decidedly confused by Andi’s decision to bring me here, but the panic at least subsided. “Close your eyes and let them adjust. Relax and count to one hundred, slowly.”
I did as she instructed. I counted silently in my head and willed my heart beat to slow back to a reasonable pace. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, I also brought my breathing back to something approximating normal.
“One hundred,” I said aloud a few moments later and opened my eyes. The blackness no longer seemed so complete. I found I could now make out a few details of the mausoleum’s interior. Even as I looked around, my vision continued to improve until the moonlight pouring through the doorway became more than sufficient to move about safely.
The roof, floor and two side walls in the building were covered with something pale and smooth; perhaps marble block or tile. If there were murals or paint of any kind, it was still indistinguishable in the limited light. Ornate stone benches also ran the length of the side walls, and periodic recesses offered ledges where what appeared to be glass bowls had been sporadically placed. A closer look revealed the bowls held unlit candles. Most of the candles already seemed to be burnt and melted to the point of uselessness.
I moved further into the deep, single room of the structure and realized for the first time that the walls were intact along their entire length. There were no windows or openings of any kind. The front door was the only way in and out.
I continued my inspection all the way to the back the wall opposite the doors, where what initially appeared to me to be more flat surface with several symmetrical dark patches of color, I could now identify as a series of physical irregularities of shape along its surface. I reached toward the odd shapes, but stopped myself as I realized what I was seeing. In the minimal lighting I could barely make out sixteen metal plates – four rows of four – set in the wall. Each plate measured approximately three feet square, and each had set in its base, a simple metal handle. The arrangement looked to me almost like a series of file drawers holding what could have been centuries of paper documents. I did not need to pull on one of the handles to know behind those small doors rested not papers, but the decomposing ancestors of Andi’s mysterious friend.
Suddenly remembering Andi and the reason I had even come inside in the first place, I looked around the room once more searching for her. I found her standing off to one side, still by the front doors, arms crossed in front of her breasts and watching me closely.
“Do you see me?” she asked when I turned to face her.
“Yes. I see you.”
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