The Den of Souls

The Den of Souls - Chapter Three

I hadn't expected the first room to be the way it was. I had thought they'd take it easy on us, considering it was the first room, but I had been wrong. It was already getting scary.

The first room was modeled after a church. Dim lights and candles lined the sides of the room that casted angry shadows over us. The smell of dead roses wafted towards us. Along the back wall was multicolored stained glass and a dais. In the center of the dais stood a podium with a white cloth over it and behind the podium was a giant wooden cross with a replica of Jesus Christ nailed to it. There was blood flowing freely from his eyes, nose, hands and from his head where a crown of thorns sat. The blood dripped down his body and into a puddle on the ground. In the distance, the cawing of crows could be heard over the eerie music of the dusty old organ playing by itself beside the dais.

Pew after pew lined the inside of the church room. What made everything worse was that there were bodies on them, lying motionless face down or draped haphazardly over the arms. Blood was spilled and splattered all over the floor.

"Holy shit," I heard one of the twins whisper.

"It looks like a murder scene or something," someone else whispered.

By this time, we hadn't even gone inside yet. We still stood inside the cement room as Damien held the metal door open in front of us.

"I don't think I can do this," I muttered under my breath. The only one who heard me was Lily. I clenched my fists into the sides of my shirt and could feel the sweat slowly sliding down the sides of my face as I looked into the church room. I really, really hated stuff like this.

"Oh whatever," Tricia said as she pushed past us. "The guy was right. I paid a lot of money to be here. And it's supposed to be fake anyway."

She stomped her way into the church room, flinching with each step as she stepped in the blood on the floor.

"She's right," Ian said. "Surprisingly." He stepped in between me and Lily and into the church room followed by his brother. Anna towed closely behind them to follow her friend.

Lily grabbed my hand that was fisted at my side and gave me a small encouraging smile.

"Let's do this," she said. She let me go, knowing that I'd come on my own time, and headed in after the others.

I simply stood there and watched as the others looked around. My thoughts drifted back to my grandmother and her sixth senses.

"I know you see them sometimes too, my dear," she had told me one evening. "But as long as you don't bother them, they won't bother you. You'll be safe."

I groaned, remembering her words. Even though this was fake, I couldn't shake off this bad feeling in my gut that prodded at me as I took one small step towards the church room.

"What? You scared?" I heard a voice ask me. I looked up to find Damien smirking down at me from where he stood by the door. His ocean blue eyes twinkled with mischief.

Although I was scared to death, I wouldn't let a complete stranger see that and make fun of me. I stuck out my chin and glared up at him.

"No," I said, hoping my words came out strong. "Why would I be scared? I love this kind of stuff," I lied, echoing what Lily had said earlier.

"Maybe cause you haven't really talked this whole time."

"I might have just been feeling tired," I replied.

"Well, the sweat dripping down your neck says different. Have you seen your hands?" he asked with a laugh as he glanced down at my hands still clenched in my shirt. Quickly, I let go of my shirt and wiped my palms on it to get rid of the clamminess.