The Monstrium

Chapter 4~ Hallowed

Lucas was feeling worse than the dead he was walking over.

"Did it have to be a graveyard?" Aidan inquired.

Theodora frowned, glancing at the partially cloaked Fairlane, peeking out from under some broken limbs.

She led the group between grave stones and statues, heading toward a stone building. Rising in front of them was a mausoleum.

"The cemetery is one of the few places that the creatures of the night can not enter without invitation. We should be safe from them, at least for a little while." "Um, speaking of creatures of the night," Aidan began,"what just happened exactly?"

Lucas sighed,"I did something horrible." Claudia touched his arm gently,"Luke, that book controls people, it makes you unlock it." Lucas shook his head, unable to look directly at her,"I doesn't matter. I screwed up. All of this is my fault." Theodora shook her head,"Lucas, I know you may feel that you are to blame, but the only thing you are guilty for is trying to help us. The Monstrium tricked you, made you see things."

"Wait, you guys weren't in danger?", Aidan asked. Theodora shook her head,"The Book made you two perceive the scene differently than you should have. It contorts people to its dark intentions; makes you see what it wants you to see so you will open it."

"But there was broken furniture",Lucas frowned,"and a huge claw mark on the wall." "A glamour projected to bend you to its will. None of that was there. And it wouldn't have if I hadn't dropped the key",Claudia informed.

"The key on the floor- that was real?", both boys seemed to ask in unison. Theodora gave a nod,"We had just imprisoned an entity I had just...produced when Claudia lost the key. Without a Blackwell holding the key or the book, the evil within it took over, locking us from the attic."

"Why do you keep that book if it's so evil?", Lucas asked. Claudia frowned,"The Monstrium isn't evil. It's actually the opposite. The book is what keeps the evil from getting out. The things inside it are what make it so dark."

"How'd you even get that book, Ms. Blackwell?", Aidan asked. Theodora paused, gazing at the stone door of the mausoleum in front them.

"A family tradition passed down for generations", she said almost in a murmur,"a curse we Blackwells have been afflicted with for centuries." Claudia frowned,"Too bad all that good was for nothing. Over five hundreds years worth of monsters have been unleashed."

Theodora grabbed one of the gargoyles that flanked the doorway by the head, turning it clockwise. The stone door let out a rough sigh, and opened up. Lucas almost asked how she knew that when he noticed the name BLACKWELL engraved into the stone above the door.

Claudia grinned at the boy's awestruck expressions,"The Blackwell family seem to horde secrets."

They walked inside to find a dusty crypt, withered flowers drooping from vases. Blades of moonlight blades through the Rose window, highlighting the particles of dust. A stone coffin rose up in the center of the room.

Theodora gestured around awkwardly,"You are welcome to sit, Boys." Lucas and Aidan took a stone bench beside the wall, and Claudia hopped onto the sarcophagus. Theodora gently placed the Monstrium in her lap. The book gave a small growl.

After a moment of tense silence, Luke had to speak up.

"If I can ask, who was that man that came out of the Monstrium? And what was he trying to free?", he asked. Theodora looked to the book-creature in her lap,"That man was the first monster I ever created. His name is Malphas, and he is quite wicked. As for the entity he was trying to release, I'm afraid that being is known as Timor. He was the first monster ever imprisoned inside the book, and the most powerful."