The Keepers

Chapter 20

"No." Marcus' refusal echoed through the dreary landscape.

Josie stopped next to a broken tombstone, turned around, and shrugged her shoulders. "Very well. Stay put then. I'll only be, but a minute."

She watched the boy crouch at the base of the barren tree and wrap his arms around his knees in protection from the cold. Pulling her hood up and covering her long, dark hair, Josie started off in the direction of the mysterious crypt.

Or rather, what she suspected to be the right direction. The increasingly blizzard-like conditions didn't help as the girl stumbled between the raised graves, venturing deeper and deeper into the burial grounds. Sharp, crystallized snowflakes hit her unprotected face, stinging the soft flesh. Her nose was also going numb from the frigid temperature, but Josie kept putting one foot in front of the other, determined to get her answer.

The quiet was unnerving; not even the wind seemed to be making any noise in the place reserved for the dead. Pulling her hands into her sleeves, Josie raised them to her face when movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention. Her heart beat rapidly as she turned her head, but the heavy snowfall blocked everything further than a few feet away.

She was sure she'd seen something and this time, it had to be more than just the trees. No matter. She had her objectives, and no invisible obstacle was going to stop her. If the foe decided to materialize, she'd deal with it in due course.

Straining to normalize her breath, Josie willed herself to ignore her fears and keep going. Spinning on her heels, she found something in her way and let out a small shriek in surprise. All her courage dissipated and she almost bolted straight back to Marcus' side before realizing she'd almost smacked into a statue of a woeful-looking angel pointing upward.

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, the girl began to giggle. Why, she'd almost cowered in fright from a piece of rock! She would have continued on laughing nonsensically, too if the wind hadn't howled and reminded her time was of the essence. Drawing her cloak even closer around herself, Josie stepped around the angel and spotted a familiar-looking crypt.

Trudging through the blizzard, the girl wiggled her toes between steps to keep them warm. It was no use. By the time she reached the small, stone building's entrance, her bootie was full of wet snow.

After pushing open the unsecured iron gate, Josie stepped up onto the raised floor. Cautiously inching forward out of trepidation - both from slipping and from being so close to seeing the name on the tomb - it took her many, agonizingly long seconds to reach the back wall.

The surface was covered with a thin layer of frost blown in through the window openings on either side. Josie recalled the approximate location of the blank tablet the two mysterious women etched in front of her, and she stopped in front of that spot. Raising her hand, she wiped the smooth stone in one smooth arc.

The act revealed two letters more or less in the middle of the tablet: N-B.

Josie froze, her hand still resting on the cold surface in front of her. Her name contained those letters. If she continued to clear away the snow, would she reveal her full moniker? Would the name JOSEPHINE LYTTLETON-BRADLEY stare back at her?

With her fingers now shaking, she was less sure she wanted to know. She continued to glare at the two telltale letters for a few more seconds until a bone chilling screamed pierced the quiet.

"Marcus!" Josie exhaled the exclamation. Turning toward the exit, she instinctively began running to her friend. She got all the way to the crypt's iron gate when she abruptly stopped. Without thinking, she reversed course and returned to the wall of tombs. Using her sleeve, she hastily scrubbed off the frozen snowflakes around the two already revealed letters.