The Great Showman (and The Mermaid in the Glass Case)

The Graverobbers

   I stopped, stock still at the end of the passageway and peered downwards into the gloomy vault below. It was particularly dark in this part of the mausoleum as the daylight let in through the door did not reach this far along the gangway. Above me some of the tiles had come lose from the roof and there was a tiny gap that let in a thin slither of light that allowed me to see into the murky unknown below. This shard of light permitted me, to  just about see the outline of some stone steps leading downwards. I could still hear Billy and Jonah shouting obscenities at me from the door. Calling for me to "Hurry up vermin, or we will get caught." And "You nearly had it then mole snatch the treasure right away."  I could hear the frustration in their voices, but again I chose to ignore them. Making a decision in those fateful seconds to seize this opportunity to sate my curiosity and satisfy my inquiring mind. So, determined, I turned my back on Billy and Jonah and the cemetery green, and began my descent into the subterranean vault below. 

   If Billy and Jonah had called out to me, as I made my way tentatively down the steep stone steps. I wasn't sure? I was no longer listening to their cruel mockery of me, and I had stopped paying any attention to them.  My mind was busy with a multitude of ponderances, a legion of allures and fascinations. I was focusing solely on what I might find at the when I reached the bottom. As I descended further down, I thought that if Billy and Jonah had cried out to me, I could no longer hear them. 

   When I did reach the bottom I was almost in complete darkness. I was about to give up and retreat when I noticed by chance, that someone had left a small oil lamp next to the bottom step and when I picked it up, I could see there was only a tiny amount of oil left in the base. I turned the key and a very small blue flame flickered into life. As I knew that the oil would burn out quickly I kept the flame low. Holding it up as high as I could and shining the dim light around the sombre chamber. I quickly realised I was in a type of crypt, with tunnels haphazardly chiselled and-hacked. Roughly-hewn out of the very stone. At first I thought that the walls of these tunnels were decorated with pale, opaque-looking stones lining the walls in neat rows. In the dull light they looked like strings of pearls, similar to those I had seen on the necklaces of some ladies from our church. As I stepped further along the passageway into the gloom I heard something crack under my foot. The ground felt very uneven here, like there were stones littering the pathway. I felt something sharp brushed against my ankle. As I neared the walls and held the lamp up close to examine them, I got a shock when two empty eye-like cavities stared back at me. I stepped back a little but shone the lamp closer and was confronted by a crooked row of teeth which confirmed to me that these were not stones at all, or jewels lining the walls but skulls, pressed into the stonework. They must have been placed there by someone I thought, as they were too succinct in design, and too perfectly positioned to be formed by accident. Again I was fascinated by who might do this? I did not feel any real aversion, revulsion or fear. Even when I saw something wriggle inside one of the empty eye sockets in a particularly large skull, and a small lizard slithered out of the cavity, and dropped onto the floor in front of me. It quickly scurried off and was lost in the darkness. 

     I shone the torch down into one of the long labyrinth-like maze of tunnels and saw that I could not enter it because it was stacked to the roof with bones.  The one next to it seemed to be clear and as I shone light as far as it would stretch into its dark reaches, I could see that the walls were covered in what looked like pagan paintings, symbols and drawings, scrawled over every aspect of its' uneven surface  I walked a little further inside and there appeared to be a little stone altar at the end. The lamp flame fluttered. There was a festering foulness to the air down here and I wondered at the risk of breathing in too much of the rancid atmosphere, but decided to continue anyway. The candle spluttered again and flickered out for a few seconds and I feared it would be extinguished completely. I was greatly relieved when it sputtered back into life, but I realised that if the oil burnt out entirely, that I would be plunged into absolute darkness down here and I may struggle to find my way out. It was a shame I thought for I would have loved to investigate those inscriptions further. I decided that for now it was not the right time for me, but I hoped I would be able to return at  some point in the future to better investigate properly. The flame flickered again. Then for no apparent reason, it suddenly blazed bright with an odd, large bright- blue  flame. It was only for a few seconds but it was an odd occurrence which caused it smoke and let out a wispy trail of blue-black vapour. The flame quickly went back to its original low, dim state but it was an anomaly that I could not explain.