Things of Legend

Chapter 02: Unleashed

The door to the chapel creaked softly as it opened, and Dixon looked at Chad with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Creaking old doors, seriously?" Dixon asked. "Can't they do something more legitimate for a haunted house?"

Dixon sighed in disappointment and strode purposefully toward the altar at the far end of the chapel.

Rows of pew benches were lined up on either side of the central aisle. Made from varnished wood, the benches were hard and looked very uncomfortable, but they could seat a dozen people each. Candelabras mounted on the walls near the windows provided only minimal amounts of flickering illumination. At the front of the chapel was a carved table of the same gray stone as the floor. A crimson cloth was draped over the altar, and a gold plated cross sat in the center.

"Here we go," Dixon said as he found the switch at the base of the altar. The switch was nothing more obvious than a thumb sized piece of stone sticking up from the floor. Dixon pushed it down, and a slight click sounded. The floor behind the altar sank an inch before sliding back and out of the way to reveal a set of stone steps leading down into the darkness below the chapel.

Chad knelt down at the top of the steps in order to get a better view of what was below, but he couldn't see anything.

Dixon grabbed one of the candelabras and marched purposefully down the steps.

"Man up," Dixon said over his shoulder when he noticed Chad hadn't moved from the top of the steps.

Chad swallowed hard and dried his sweaty palms on his jeans before following Dixon into the secret room.

Three feet wide pillars of stone supported the ceiling and framed the perfectly square room on all sides. Situated in the center of the space was a gargoyle crouched on a stone pedestal and looking ready to attack intruders.

The gargoyle was vaguely humanoid in shape but larger than Chad or Dixon. Layers of powerful muscles covered the stone creature, and pointed claws were present on its hands and feet. At the end of a long neck, the face of the gargoyle sharpened down into a beak similar to a snapping turtle. A pair of straight horns extended up and back from the top of its skull. Expansive bat like wings were spread out behind and above it, preventing access into the rear of the room.  A pointed tail curled around the feet of the creature like a snake.

Clutched inside the clawed hands of the gargoyle was a stone. The central rectangle of the stone had a pyramid shape mounted above and below to give the elongated stone sharp points at either end. From top to bottom, the stone was covered in glowing red glyphs, pulsing with light from within.

"Dixon," Chad cautioned when his friend reached for the stone. "Do you really want to be messing with that?"

"What is your problem?" Dixon demanded as he turned on Chad. "Haven't you ever heard of fiber optic lighting? It's just a prop. Watch."

Dixon reached out and grabbed the stone. The red glyphs intensified in brightness before leaping off the stone to expand outward in a cloud of crimson. As the cloud rushed away from the stone in all directions, it dispersed to nothing.

"That was weird," Dixon said.

Chad didn't answer, staring wide-eyed at the stone, his face pale. Dixon followed his friend's line of sight and noticed the glyphs had vanished from the stone. Additionally, neither of the two boys could find any indication of where they had originally been.

"Let's get out of here," Chad encouraged.

"Whatever," Dixon answered in a bored tone.

As the two boys climbed the stairs, neither of them noticed the small bits of stone flaking off as the gargoyle's clawed fingers curled ever so slightly.