Billy Bones: Beyond the Grave

Chapter 13

I pictured what I wanted in my head and commanded the Golem to go after Romulus. Its eyes lit up. Thudding the ground, it took a cumbersome step forward.

That’s when I realized I’d made a huge mistake.

Romulus looked back and leapt before the Golem could reach down and pick him up. It was too slow.

The man gritted his teeth. “You tricky, conniving, little wretch!” he yelled. “A fair trade?”

I felt hands behind me tugging on the ropes. I turned to look, but couldn’t see who was there. “Shh,” I heard Kenji’s voice say.

The ropes loosened.

I decided to wait and see what Liz would do, leaving the now-loosened ropes to appear as if they still held me.

The Golem marched toward Romulus. Liz cast an angry glance at me.

“My master said not to trust you,” he hissed. “She said you might try to fool me.”

Romulus side-stepped the Golem once more and held up the ring. “You’ll never get it now!” he said. “I will find another way to get this to the Reaper!”

He buckled at the knees and dropped to the ground. The ring rolled away from him, clinking along the stone floor. Romulus got up in a flash and started swinging at some invisible presence behind him. I realized it had to be Miesha.

From inside his jacket he pulled out a glass globe. He threw it to the ground, and its contents exploded in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke dissipated, Kenji and Miesha became visible. Romulus was nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s change places,” I heard his voice say. “Now, let’s see who’s invisible.”

Liz tried to put the antidote into her bag, but it was snatched from her hands before she could get it in there. It was flung aside smashing against the stone pillar. Then Liz slumped to the ground as something hit her in the back of the head.

The Golem, since his target was no longer visible, decided to go after the closest thing in its path — Kenji. I concentrated hard to tell it to stand still, but it was no use. The thing had gone haywire.

I let the ropes drop and ran to Miesha’s side.

“Turn your back to mine!” she said.

I did as she told me and felt an invisible punch to my gut.

“So,” Romulus’s voice said. “This was a trap, was it? Well, we’ll see who gets what in the end, won’t we?”

Miesha groaned as she took a punch as well. She swung back, but she stumbled behind me as she missed.

“What do we do?” she asked, swinging at air once more.

“I think we need to get that ring,” I said. That’s when I noticed it rising up from the ground. Romulus had it back.

“This ring?” he said.

I sighed. “Can it get any worse?”

Then moaning and the sounds of wicked cackling echoed from the spiraled stairs.

Hovering cloaked men and women with skeleton heads were descending the stairs with hordes of walking dead.

“That was not meant to be a challenge,” I muttered.

“Zombies,” Miesha muttered. “I hate zombies!”

Kenji swept around the corner, having outrun the Golem. He pointed to the ones with the skeleton heads. “And Necromancers!”