Symbiosis

Chapter 14- Evidence

AN- this was meant to all be one part but It felt better when separated, so here's a quick little chapter, but the next one is hot on it's heels!

*Stephen's POV*

Stephen had a sleepless night. His mind wandered with thoughts of ghosts, haunted dungeons, restless spirits, and every other possible supernatural being that he believed he would encounter the next day. As the sun rose, an exhausted Stephen was already out of the shower and out the door, heading straight to the airport. It was a weekend and right before Christmas, so he knew it wouldn't be easy finding a flight. Luckily, he was able to get a round trip flight to Dublin, where he would return the same night. Stephen flew to Dublin, rented a car, and hastily drove straight to the crypt site.

Before he knew it, he was standing in front of a stone entryway, leading into a dark and dingy corridor. Every muscle in his body was protesting entering the corridor, and his mind was too preoccupied with the fear of angry spirits to help convince him to move. Nonetheless, Stephen entered the pitch-black corridor; The only thing keeping him going was the urge to protect Ant.

...Clunk...

...Clunk...

...Clunk...

The darkness swallowed Stephen whole, his headlamp providing little more than the illusion of comfort. If he had known of the mental torture the dark corridor puts its visitors through, and especially how even Ant had almost succumbed to it on his first visit, Stephen would have turned around and went home at the entrance.

He wasn't brave.

He wasn't gallant.

But He was loyal.

So, Stephen continued walking through the hallway, hypnotized by the rhythmic, yet abrasive, sound of his heavy boots against the cold, hard stone beneath him. As he walked, his footsteps resonated through the darkness and washed out every thought from his mind except for one. One thought that would torture him as long as he was there.

I'm alone.

Loneliness took over Stephen and immediately reminded him of how he had always been alone. How every year as he grew up, he was bullied and tormented. How he was shunned from every social gathering and made to feel worthless. The painful memories swirled around his mind, tainting every moment of happiness he thought of in attempt to fight against these demons. Overcome by this turmoil, he tripped on the uneven ancient floor. Falling to his hands and knees, Stephen noticed small drops dripping from his cheeks. With a deep breath, Stephen let the demons take over. He let them torture him as he sat in the ancient hallway, crying forcefully, hoping to be saved like he had been all those years ago.

By Ant.

The thought of Ant reminded him why he was putting himself through all of this. Ant had been the first person to treat Stephen with an ounce of respect, and ultimately become his first friend. Ant had saved Stephen from himself.

Stephen composed himself and got back on his feet, resolved to protect his first, and his best friend. The man that wouldn't hesitate to do the same for Stephen. With his newfound determination, Stephen wiped as tears and continued venturing through the darkness, convinced that he could handle what was coming. Within a few minutes of walking, the air filled with the scent of a fresh forest and the hallway opened into a vast cavern, filled with living tree trunks along the walls, coated in a glowing moss, and every bit or nature in this glorious room pointing to the far wall. On the far wall Stephen saw exactly what he had seen in the pictures Ant brought back to work: two towering statues looking down over 9 stone coffins.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Stephen willed his legs to carry him towards the coffins. As he approached, he noticed how the statues were graced with a loving expression. As if they were watching over their children. Each coffin was topped with a stone slate with a carving and a name. The carvings, like the pictures showed, depicted the fallen family member along with their name; but what wasn't clear in the picture was the expression of pure rage gracing their facial features. The carvings sent a chill through Stephen's spine, but the next thing he noticed made him want to die right on the spot.

He noticed that each of the coffins had a single stem of a green flower native to the area called, Bells of Ireland. A single, wilting stem. As he moved to the next coffin, one by one, he noticed the same thing, until he reached the final coffin. This coffin had no flower. In fact, it didn't have a carving either. Just a lyric in the Celtic language, and a name.

Declan Joseph Oliver Donnelly.

Stephen took a deep breath and gripped on to the stone slate covering the coffin. He was going to open the coffin, not sure what he was going to find.

He wasn't sure what he even wanted to find.

He slid open the coffin with a loud scrape as the heavy stone was pulled. Stephen looked down slowly and was stunned by the sight of a single stem of flowers, wilting away inside an otherwise empty coffin. Suddenly overwhelmed by an assortment of puzzle pieces falling into place, Stephen bolted out of the cavern, through the hallway, and burst out into the open fields of green, gasping for air and hoping that it would bring a voice of reason to his mind.

Stephen trudged through the tall grass to his car, before getting in heavily and driving back to the Dublin airport with barely enough concentration for him to arrive safely. His mind trying to piece together the fact that Dec was apparently 400 years old and he had somehow entranced Ant into a "relationship". After he decided that his thoughts must be the only explanation and that Dec was really just some evil spirit hell-bent on getting revenge on someone who had wronged him, and that he was using Ant to do that, Stephen realized he had to tell Ant. The rest of his trip home and the remainder of his weekend was filled with contemplation on how to do just that.

Monday arrived and Stephen found himself standing outside Ant's office door. With a deep breath, Steven knocked.