Secrets In The Bones: The Curse of Blood Bay

Forty-seven

'Click... Clunk,'

A well-oiled or well-used look for sure - it unlocked with ease. With a quick twist of the handle, the door sprung free - barely an inch, enough to mess with our sense of smell. It stunk of many things I had trouble dissecting, except for one very prominent scent: blood.

"Seems like there's no escaping it, eh?" I gave Skip an almost apologetic smile.

"Dammed if we do, dammed if we don't, lad, no time to waste." He was right, as always. It just wasn't the most appetising of aromas to welcome us.

The door swung open with a creak. Immediately in front were wooden steps descending; the walls were rough stone with a flimsy handrail on the left. I used my werewolf eyes to navigate, as I couldn't find a light switch or cord. Our path was a steep one that seemed to plunge into never-ending darkness. I lost count of how many, at least fifty, maybe more. The stench grew with the darkness as narrow stone walls widened to almost cavern-sized space, with the roughness of a cave. Except with the position of the house, that wasn't possible.

Skip stayed close; we bumped shoulders several times as we walked. This was no ordinary basement, a winding stone walkway that would've taken us under several houses at least. We moved slowly, with no sound except our heels and heartbeats pounding between our ears. The walls were full of dampness tinged with sea salt, and the whooshes of wind were gathering speed. The first real sign of any purpose was a vent with ducting running from the ceiling along the wall that suddenly veered left. I was busy following the ducting when...

'Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom,'

A loud series of booms echoed through the space as a big fluorescent light rocked on one by one. Illuminating just how big and disgusting the place was. We found ourselves in a huge underground home-type layout. Except that ducting led into a wall next to black cell bars that formed a gated door. Beyond where we stood were a patch of darkness and another walkway by the looks of things.

These walls, though, were littered with tables, some wood and others metal. Test tubes, beakers, lidded jars of strange-looking ingredients and Bunson burners. That reminded me of the cave I was taken to when I got shot. Who I believed to be Jean Cortez had saved me. Like that place, the same articles and pictures hung on the walls.

I moved around slowly; several diagrams caught my eye. First, they appeared to be experiments—a body on a table with electric conductors. Then I got to the juicy stuff and more on what I'd already heard. The nemeton. So many variations, including a tree, but one titled 'Cruden Bay' looked fucking crazy. A throwback to the pyramids. Made of stone, only smaller, a flight of steps leading up to a stone chair with clamps on the wrists, ankles and head. Scribbles mentioned 'sacrifice' with two narrow cutouts running to a large, elevated pit. 'Blood' and 'Lazarus Pit' were written beside them.

A picture was forming in my head, and I didn't like it one bit. Other diagrams showed lunar events like the blood moon not so long ago. 'Winter Solstice and Unholy One,' scribbled in places. The image of the huge pit played on my mind with what Anna's skeleton says, 'Or will a bloody pool be your fate,' Everything pointed to Ruth trying to resurrect someone, but who?

There were many jars of herbs and books, even skeletal remains, all with vampire fangs. Even a multifunctional gurney with leather straps. Ruth had been delving into some dangerous stuff. Anything that speaks of resurrection makes me think of zombies. Nobody wanted that. Skip seemed in awe of what he saw. He walked with eyes fixed on the walls; another step forward, I heard...

'Click,'

It came from the floor. Skip was standing on 'zero', and there were others, too. It was laid out to resemble a game kids played at school. A series of stone floor tiles stopped at the wall, zero through to nine, going one tile, then two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two and then one. If that tile could be pressed down, it had to utilise a code, possibly one that opened the prison-like gate.