See No Evil (Anthony Lockwood)

chapter 42

Lockwood was the first to step onto the darkened stairs that led down to the basement. His torch shined into the void, barely illuminating the steep staircase. The steps were wooden and rickety. They clearly hadn't been touched in many years.

Lockwood had started walking slowly down the steps, his free arm raised slightly so that Violet would be able to use it for balance if she needed to. Violet held her appreciation on her tongue when she noticed the action, instead allowing a smile to form on her lips. All of his loving gestures were the bane of her existence at times when she was trying so hard to give herself space to heal. Slowly but surely, she was breaking.

"It's getting stronger, but there's still something odd. It's hidden a lot deeper than I thought," Violet said in a hushed voice that still echoed off the walls and filled the nearly empty room in the basement.

"Alright, you just keep your senses up and find it. I'll have your back," Lockwood said as he stepped off the last stair.

Violet nodded and grabbed lightly onto his outstretched arm to keep her balanced as she got off the staircase. She whispered a quiet 'thank you' before beginning to walk around.

It was pitch black with the exception of their torch lights. The room was bare and only a few dust covered chairs and half crushed cardboard boxes sat in one corner. The only other thing Violet could see was a metal shelving unit that was also covered in dust. Some tools were stacked on the shelves, but it was so sparse that it looked more intentional than as if someone had actually used it to store things on.

Lockwood drew his rapier and used it to move aside the cobwebs that hang thickly from the low wooden ceilings and planks that had been placed at certain angles to keep the ceiling from collapsing.

Violet moved her torch to her opposite hand so she could move her dominant hand into the wrist strap on her rapier. She crept towards the metal shelving and upon closer inspection, realized that it barely hid a small square lining in the wall. It looked like a door to a small crawl space that could barely fit a person in.

Violet freed her hands and began to pull the shelving unit out of the way, flinching when a few of the tools fell off and clattered loudly to the floor.

Lockwood spun around when he heard the crashes, "What are you doing?"

"Having tea. What the hell does it look like i'm doing? The source is over here and there just so happens to be a crawl space behind this damn thing. Now are you gonna stand there or are you going to help?" Violet grumbled.

Lockwood quickly came over and helped her move the metal shelving unit aside. He looked closely at the crawl space and pulled open the door. Upon shining his light in, he saw that it was more of a secret tunnel that curved off, making it impossible to see how long the tunnel was or where it led.

Lockwood took a step back, "Should we draw straws?"

Violet scoffed and pushed him out of the way before climbing in, "I'll just go, you big wimp."

Violet slowly and cautiously crawled through, her rapier bumping against the sides of the walls as she turned the corner.

"You see anything?" Lockwood asked worriedly.

"Not yet," she called back.

Lockwood became even more anxious when she fully disappeared from view, tapping his foot anxiously on the floor, "What about now?"

Violet took a deep breath, "No, Lockwood. Still nothing."

Violet rounded one more corner before the tunnel opened up into a big space. It was pitch black, making it look like a sudden drop. Violet paused when she reached it, cringing as she thought about the well at Combe Carey Hall. The vision of her falling into it with all those bodies at the bottom still haunted her mind even months later.