“This isn’t something I thought I’d ever see.” Said Robert, reaching down to collect a skull before haphazardly dropping it back to the pile. “If I had known this place had an open mass grave I would have come sooner. Can you imagine the amazing dreams you could have if you slept here?”

  “Robert! Don’t be morose!” Siouxsie said on the verge of hysterics. “This isn’t the time for the macabre.”

  “What would be a better time, sister?” he asked. “Look at this place. There must be thousands, tens of thousands of bones here. These are the last residents of Spellvale.” Siouxsie continued to pant, trying to catch her breath.

  “Robert, I don’t like this place, I want to leave. I want to get out of here.”

  “You have your broom.” He pointed to the tunnel. Just float back out the way you came down.” She was about to when a strange shuffling noise found their ears. It was coming from the wall to their right. Their ears perked to detect the source of the disturbance when it sounded less like shuffling and more like sliding. That’s when Morell fell into view, crashing into the floor on his shoulder and upside down from the tunnel.

  “Urf.” He grunted. “That wasn’t a good landing. Siouxsie? Are you here? Robert?”

  “It would appear your rescuer has arrived.” Robert said to his twin. “How he’s going to get out is going to be a task in itself.”

  “Morell?” Siouxsie asked “What are you doing down here?” The boy righted himself and got to his feet, mace already in hand.

  “I thought you might be in trouble, so I came to help.” The boy offered.

  “Ah, you see that? Morell is here to help.” Robert quipped.

  “What’s going on down here?” Morell asked as he made his way over, almost stumbling on the uneven surface. “What’s wrong with the ground here?” When he got closer to the light of the fireballs his eyes grew wide with surprise. “What is this?” he said looking all around “Wait a minute. Are these bones? Are these animal bones?”

  “Anyyyy seconnnd nowwww.” Robert said, crossing his arms.

  “Wait a minute! These aren’t animal bones, these are people bones!” Morell yelped, beginning a little dance to get away from the floor. Before anyone could say a word, he was practically walking on air to take a place next to Siouxsie on the raised step. “What is this? What’s happening? Why are we in a tomb?”

  “We were just about to fly out until you joined us.” Siouxsie said. “You shouldn’t have come. Now we have to find a way to get you out.”

  “Oh.” He said, realizing his mistake. “Perhaps I got ahead of myself.”

  “Perhaps.” Siouxsie said. “But at least you’re here to share the darkness.”

  “You two have fun chatting.” Robert huffed. “I’m going to explore. Maybe I can find a way out for Morell before he becomes a permanent resident.” With that, Robert’s shadowy form crunched its way across the bones to leave the two standing in the room of bones alone. For the longest time the two stood huddled together to keep from standing too close to the edge and risk falling into the remains.

  “What shall we chat about?” Siouxsie asked.

  “I haven’t the faintest idea.” Morell said, looking about the room. “It smells horrible down here. Brrrr, and it’s cold. How is it so chilly?”

  “Probably the tortured remnants of the dead witches crying out for the injustice of their executions.” she said sadly.

  “Are these dead witches?”

  “I’m afraid so. This is the aftermath of the dark harvest when men turned against witches and decimated our population. I assumed all the bodies were in the graves we saw when we walked here.

  “It’s all so terrible.” He whispered. “There’s so much…death here.” Siouxsie mounted her broom and levitated a few feet away.

  “Where are you going?!” he asked. “Don’t leave me here!”

  “Then come along. We can’t stay here forever.” She told him. “We have to leave at some point. Come with me so we can find an exit and join the others.”

  “I can’t fly a broom.”

  “Then you’ll just have to walk.”

  “Walk across all these bones?”

  “I’ll light your way.” She said, waving her gel about. “It’s either that or I leave you here to find the exit and you sit in the darkness until we come back.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “N-no.” he stammered as he looked down the prospect of walking across a carpet of remains. “No, I’ll try.” Morell gingerly stepped down from the stone, his foot sinking into the pile all the way up to the ankle. The expression on his face was a grimace of equal parts disgust and terror

  “Well done. Way to be brave.” She encouraged him. He didn’t make it another two steps before his shoe caught the broken ribcage of the departed and sent him sprawling chest-first into the bones. When he looked up, he was face to face with a pair of skulls, their jaws wide open in perpetual silent scream. He scrambled to regain his footing and in doing so tripping upon another body fell backwards into the pile. The second time upright put him on the solid footing he needed.

  “It’s hard to see anything.” He said. “Why don’t you let me hold the gel?”

  “I would but the fire would cook your flesh.” She told him. “But I have another idea. Give me your gel.”

  “What do you want with Jam? How is my gel going to help?”

  “Just give him to me. I have an idea.” Morell reluctantly shrugged his pack off before digging out his pet gel. The purple globule juggled like jelly as he held it in his palm.

  *pip!* it squeaked

  *pip!* came a response from the orange gelatin.

  “Pumpkin? Are you ready to help me?”

  “Pumpkoo!” the orange gel peeped.

  “Here, put Jam on top of Pumpkin.”

  “Won’t it hurt him?” he asked

  “No, Fire doesn’t hurt gels. It’ll be just like the time we escaped through the tunnels from Bohga’s cave. Go ahead.” Morell plopped the dark wine-colored gel on top of Pumpkin and it enveloped half of the light from the other gel without extinguishing it. Just like Pumpkin, Jam began to emit a glow of its own, only this time bathing the chamber in a cool deep purple glow far bigger than the fire itself. Between them the whole area lit up in orange and purples as well as a creepy hue like that of rust where the colors mixed upon the walls.

  “It does work!” he said with some excitement.

  “I told you so. Let’s head down the way that Robert went. Maybe we’ll catch up before he has to come back. Why don’t you walk along the edge? The piles of bones seem to be less deep there.”

  “Good idea.” he said, tromping through the dead. As he made his way over, he couldn’t help but notice that a good number of the dead still had tattered rags that might’ve been clothes long ago. He tried not to step on the skulls but the layers were so deep that the weight of his body crushed several along the way. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered to them. Upon reaching the wall, he hugged it and managed to sidestep his way along without getting tripped up. Siouxsie floated ahead to help light the way forward with Pumpkin’s glow leading them on. The chamber was as long and wide as a village market. Corridors branched off in all directions but none held light of any kind. It was a labyrinth to be sure. Every step was treacherous, and it took far too long just to navigate the one room before starting the next Dripping water could be heard in the shadows as moisture seeped its way down from the surface. Dreary was a good word for this place; a wet, smelly, rank putridness oozing in from every surface to paint a portrait of eeriness unlike any other.

  “Where is your brother?” he asked “I want to find the way out as soon as possible.”

  “Probably lurking and stalking.” She said, her head pivoting about to look closer at the shadows. “I wouldn’t put it past him to do something as juvenile as jump from the shadows in an attempt to spook us.”

  “Like this?” asked an unexpected voice behind them. Morell turned to find himself staring at a pair of yellow with age, jawless skulls glaring at him from a few inches away. Overtaken by fear, Morell staggered backwards until his right foot was tripped by a femur and he went sprawling onto his back once more into the bones.

  “ROBERT THAT’S not funny!” Siouxsie yelled at her twin who was holding a skull from the back in each hand. “You’re going to get someone hurt!”

  “Don’t be such a joy killer.” Robert grumbled. “I’m just having fun with my new friends here.” He flipped the skulls around in his hands to pretend they were alive and talking. “You two don’t mind if we have a little fun with your remains, do you?” he asked.