HUES OF A MURDER

Chapter 14: Purple Hyacinths

The trap door had opened to the insides of a coffin! Cyan felt claustrophobic. He had a hard time breathing. 'This is not the time to freak out', he told himself. He took deep breaths and tried to calm himself.

"Cy?" Scarlett' voice seemed distant. It brought him back to the present. He looked around the coffin to find a lever. He pulled it. The lid of the coffin slid open. 

"I found an exit. Can you climb up after me?" he looked down. He climbed out of the coffin and showed the light so Scarlett can climb up. She put her flash light in her pant pocket and climbed up.

"It's a coffin!" Scarlett's eyes widened.

They looked around. They were inside the Greywich mausoleum.

There were two similar coffins on either side of the one they come out of. The middle one was a ruse.

A secret passage! They did find it out!

All three coffins were made of marble. Unlike the middle one, the other two had names engraved on them. There were remnants of candles at the floor on one end of both coffins. The wax had formed a grotesque fresco in the floor.

Cyan read the names in the coffin. 'Percival Greywich' and 'Yolanda Greywich'. He remembered that Percival was the Greywich patriarch.

The chapel-like room was huge with a column of pillars on either side. Beyond the columns, a narrow space led to the walls with vaults holding caskets.

On one side was a huge door way with two doors. On either side were tall narrow lancet windows with coloured glass representing angels. On the opposite side was a huge Palladian window through which they could see the moon.

The light from the window fell on a small marble coffin for a child. The name 'Mauve Greywich' was engraved in it. Beneath the window were two narrow marble shelves with some urns. On either side of the windows were frescoes of a grey wolf with back ground of a forest. Cyan thought it was weird.

They tried the door and found it was open. A cool breeze hit them and they both shivered. They were amidst a sea of graves. There were statues of angels in various poses scattered across. "This must be the Greywich cemetery," Scarlett stated.

On the steps of the mausoleum, was a vase full of purple hyacinths. It was fresh. Like someone had just left it there. They found some fresh flowers on a couple of graves. All purple hyacinths.

Cyan felt the entire scenario as uncanny. Why would someone put flowers on forgotten graves? He read the names of the graves. Some were erased by weathers. They all had a wolf etched in the head stones. He found an unnamed grave with just the head of a wolf engraved in it. He wondered why there was no name.

"Cy," He turned around to find Scarlett hugging herself, standing against the wall of the mausoleum. "Let's go, please. I don't like this," her voice was laced with fear.

He chided himself for not realizing that this might be scary for her. "Let's go," he went to her.

They entered the mausoleum and closed the door. The door made no noise. They entered the open coffin and once he stepped into the ladder, Cyan turned the lever to close the coffin. They descended and walked back to the study. When they reached the study, he slid the back panel of the armoire. The lock clicked into place. Now the armoire was just an armoire. They hurried back.

While they were in the yellow room, the unmistakable sound of the front door opening resonated across the house. The duo looked fearfully at each other. Cyan put his finger to his lips and grabbed Scarlett's hand and led her to the sunroom. He looked around and found a sofa against a wall and quickly hid with her behind it.