The Vampire Prince's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 24 The Durchville Witch

Lucius turned on the flashlight, and the light beam cut through the congealed darkness. Before them, stone stairs descended into the unknown, and nothing else was in sight.

Florian also turned on his flashlight and said, "I will walk in the front. You follow. Try not to make too many sounds.."

Lucius nodded compliantly.

The descending lasted for a while and ended at a doorless gateway prised of two giant weeping angels statues and a tall arch. On the arch was a sentence etched in Latin: Don't Wake the Past.

Behind the gate was an extensive round-shaped chamber. The walls were covered by faded frescos and were evenly separated by three passages (not including the gate). Each entrance was adorned with different arches and ornaments.

Florian shone the flashlight on the floor and revealed a trail of footsteps and blood drops, likely from the five sacrificed slaves. He moved the light further, and suddenly it fell on a distorted face with hollowed eye sockets and a huge gaping mouth.

The sudden revealing elicited a sharp and short cry from Lucius, "what the hell is that?!"

Florian took a few steps closer to examine the macabre corpse, "a mummified body."

It was someone who died a long time ago, possibly a slave from a previous ritual. Florian moved his light beam alongside the wall into the further distance, and more mummified bodies leached out of the sepulchral murkiness. One after another, covering almost half of the floor.

Such a horrendous scene petrified Lucius. He almost dropped his flashlight.

Florian was eerily calm. He carefully examined several corpses and said, "they were all drained. Probably were trying to run away from something chasing them."

Lucius asked shakily, "why are they all looking up?"

Indeed. Many of the corpses kept their eyeball less sockets fixed at something overhead, and their facial features were distorted in extreme fear. Their jaws froze at an unnaturally wide angle as if they were screaming.

An uncanny premonition seized both men, and they hesitantly pointed their flashlights upward. And their eyes widened in fear.

There were legs. Countless dangling half-rotten legs serried together. The upper bodies seemed somehow being pulled into the granite ceiling and merged with the stone.

Several legs were still "fresh" looking, and no sign of putrification or mummification yet, likely belonging to three of the previous five sacrificed slaves. Blood covered their lower body, and their intestines dangled from where the waists met the granite.

Lucius muttered, "what happened to them..."

Apprehension overcast Florian's face, "I should have known...this is the catacomb for those witch vampires. They have slept here for so long that their power corrupted the earth and rock around them."

"And what does that mean?"

"Witches can harness and twist the power of nature. They can communicate with animals, trees, and even rocks and dirt. These old Durchville vamps probably had transformed the rocks around us. They may seem like regular stones, but they are alive. We are like walking inside their guts." Florian's foreboding whisper made Lucius tremble.

"What should we do?"

"They've just fed, and we have some talisman on us. If we are careful, maybe they won't be disturbed. However, going back is probably also a good idea."

Lucius contemplated. His instinct told him to turn and run, but then what? When would he get another chance like this?

"I really need the blood." Lucius implored.