The Desire of a Hybrid

Chapter 36- The Crypt

The Crypt of the Capuchin Friars turned out to be a few eerie rooms filled to the brim with skulls. It should have been no surprise as the catacombs were meant to be tombs, but they were everywhere. Skulls lined the walls and the ceilings and the resting places of the dead themselves until there was no place free of them. I couldn't help the nagging feeling that their soulless pits were watching us, studying us, taunting us. 

It was nine o'clock in the evening and there was nobody in sight. Tourists weren't allowed anywhere near the tombs at night and whilst that was good for us now, I didn't like how isolated I felt. The only light we had was a large lantern Dev was holding, which he'd found in an old caretaker cupboard on the way here. The bulb flickered occasionally but other than that the light was strong, revealing the eerie nature of the tomb in its entirety. 

The place wasn't beautiful. It couldn't be any further away from beauty. But it was strangely captivating; a haunting dedication to death and its victims in a way that was neither sad nor bitter. I'd never seen anywhere like it. 

Dev, on the other hand, wasn't impressed. "Of all the places The Oracle could send us, why did she choose here?" 

I rolled my eyes. "Were you expecting us to hear about one of the oldest books in the world over a picnic in Hyde Park?" 

"No," he said, bothered by my sarcasm. "But it didn't have to be in some horrible tomb full of skulls."

He had a point but I ignored him. We couldn't really question The Oracle's decisions when we didn't know enough about the situation to make our own way. Unfortunately the only thing we could do right now was follow her advice blindly, even if it seemed illogical. 

The corridor we were walking through suddenly opened up to the largest room we'd seen so far. The small hall had the most elaborate decorations of all of the tombs, with skulls in a gold coating lined in swirled patterns all over the walls and ceilings. Three solitary figures stood guard over the far wall where the designs were the most captivating, dressed in plain brown robes from head to toe. At first I felt a sudden shock and a pang of fear when I saw them, but as I looked closer I realised that they were most certainly dead, for which I was thankful. They must have just been the monks this tomb was based around. 

"This place keeps getting better and better." 

I turned around and smirked. Dev had gone slightly pale and was pointedly avoiding my gaze. "Are you, like, okay?" 

He glared at me as I tried and failed to smother a laugh. "I don't like tombs you know, like any other normal person." 

"But you're a demon." 

"And?" 

"You were born in Hell."

"So?" 

I couldn't help but let out another chuckle. "So you're scared of tombs and yet you come from the biggest tomb in the entire universe?" 

He paused for a second. 

"Okay, you might have a point there." 

I grinned and was about to make another snarky comment before Dev suddenly dropped the big lantern. It landed on the ground with a smash and everything went black. 

I created a tiny fireball in my palm to give us some sort of light, but it was nowhere as powerful as the lantern. I gave Dev a glare. "What did you do that for?" 

He stayed silent but I could see him shaking in the firelight. 

"Well?" 

"Roman..."