Sam Walker and the Grim Reaper Services (ONC 2021)

9 - A Serial Killer's Gift

Sam looked at Cate in consternation. "You think he'll be okay if we just wait for him out here?"

"Go," Cate ordered, pointing to the tunnel.

Grumbling, Sam crawled into the tunnel, the damp smell of earth clinging to his nostrils. The walls and ground were hard packed, old support beams lining the tunnel's ceiling. Ahead of him, he could see the moving shadow that was the Grim Reaper. He heard shuffling behind him and a cough that sounded like Raj.

Sam had no idea how long he had crawled before the dim shape ahead of him suddenly vanished, displaying a thinning darkness in front of him. Increasing his pace, he climbed out into what appeared to be an underground cave or something similar, with space to stand up and move. The clinging darkness was also much fainter here, allowing Sam to make out some of his surroundings.

The cave seemed to have six sides, with the tunnel on one side and four sides dedicated to deep niches with wooden boards or boxes slung across them. The one directly across from the tunnel had another tunnel dug into it, this one larger.

"Where are we?" Sam asked, furrowing his brow. "I've never even heard rumors of this place."

"Whoa," Raj breathed behind him. "Is this an old mine?"

"A mine for what?" Sam asked, glancing at the Grim Reaper. "Cate said there's death in here. What did she mean?"

The Grim Reaper didn't answer, pivoting slowly as he gazed around the space. Marcus emerged from the tunnel, followed a couple moments later by Cate. The five stood in the center, gazing around at the niches and the tunnel opposite them as Cate's magic filled the air with glowing blue light.

"What are those niches for?" Marcus wondered. "I doubt they're just there to sport benches. I don't think people came down here to take a load off."

Sam wandered over to one of the niches and glanced down at it. His eyes widened. "No, they certainly did not come here to sit."

The old, partially rotted wooden boards displayed dark stains that Sam suspected were bloodstains. An ancient carving knife stuck out of the wood, its blade partly rusted.

"Someone died here," Sam said quietly. "Killed, more like."

"Over here, too," Marcus called. "I found a knife. And a club."

The Grim Reaper and Cate hurried over to the other two niches. "Okay, these two are coffins," Cate announced. Sam walked over to her as she lifted the lid. "Oh, my."

A skeleton rested on the bottom of the coffin, cobwebs strung across the bones. The Grim Reaper pushed back the lid of the other coffin to reveal another set of bones. "Two dead people, respectfully buried. I see little signs of trauma. This one here, looks like a natural death."

"This one isn't," Cate said, gesturing to the skeleton's neck. "Neck was snapped. Probably by a hanging." She touched the skull. "He's from the colonial era, too."

"So is she," the Grim Reaper added, frowning down at the skeleton. "Husband and wife, perhaps? I sense no genetic similarity."

"Perhaps," Cate agreed.

Raj froze. "I think I know what this place is."

Everyone looked at him. "You do?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"You know how I've been doing research with one of my history professors?" Raj asked. "On ULD's founding and Liberty's origins?"

Confused, Marcus and Sam nodded.

"To make a long story short, there were a series of unsolved disappearances in Liberty, before ULD was founded," Raj explained. "Kids and adults who vanished and were never seen again. The bodies were never found, either. My professor and I have developed a theory that the disappearances may have been linked to a serial killer and that there was a mass gravesite somewhere local, where the killer deposited his victims when he was finished with them."