Chapter Text
The walls are alive.
That's how it feels, down in the crypt below the ruins. There's the faintest of breezes from the stairway out, blowing at their backs. But it dies the further that they walk in. A purer stillness. There's not exactly noises from the ground around them either. It's pitch black and it's silent and there's stone all around them. Nothing more.
And yet, the feeling of liveliness. Or, unliveliness. Something distinctly wrong.
Fear has a way to play tricks on the mind, Legundo knows. That's all that it is. Fear, and how the eyes will make up things when in darkness. The ears; sounds in silence. When Legundo focuses on their tapping footsteps instead, the creeping in his ears does fade away. Proof that it is all in his head.
Legundo tries to project that to the others. Abolish and Apo seem relatively reasonable people, especially compared to the others that have found Oakhurst at the same time as him. But even they are off-put by their trek down. Looking at the tombs inlaid into the walls like something will pop out.
Maybe that's why Legundo urges them on.
Sure, there's logic in searching a structure which can so easily hide people. Hide a whole army of those who are far more likely to mean harm than the softheaded young adults telling ghosts stories back by the campfire. Legundo is certain that he will be unable to sleep at all unless he checks it out. Ensures that he knows about any nasty surprises waiting for them.
Beyond the logic, well. There isn't any true fear in Legundo's heart. He knows the only things that can harm him are people and animals and diseases. Nothing more supernatural than those known entities. So it's foolish to fear anything else.
Abolish lights a torch, keeping it well in front of him. His face doesn't change much, but there's a tension between his eyebrows. Apo is even worse off. Clutching the hilt of her sword tightly, though still with proper soldier's form. Reasonable people, and yet afraid of long closed coffins and the dark.
So Legundo leads them on to show them that… that nothing! That nothing will happen, because logic is all that matters here. He has his reasons about him, and so too should they!
No need to be afraid of the things that aren't real, when there is so, so much that is.
The unaffected attitude that Legundo is projecting sticks well enough, even if their procession stutters at the wide open room they stumble into. So many winding halls, it's an odd change. Especially when Abolish moves the torch so that they can see how the room sinks down, down, down, a well distance into the ground further.
All alone at the bottom, a stone tomb.
Slightly odd, how the crypt which previously had more traditional inlaid tombs now has one practically on display. But that would be just like a noble. To ensure that his body was made special even where it is rotting. Even compared to other people, all the same in the ways they matter. In how they rot.
Now, there is a special tomb full of rot in a stagnant room. The utter silence being broken somehow feels even more wrong, yet Abolish still walks forwards to take a closer look. Over the stone railing into the pit.
"Well this isn't creepy," Apo says, voice full of distaste and nose wrinkled.
"It's no different from the other tombs. We'll all end up in one someday. Nothing to be creeped out by," Legundo says, voice level. Head level.
"That's the creepy part," Apo says flatly.
The look that she levels him with is so sour that it is nearly amusing. It reminds him a lot of the typical young ones who stick to dry humor and ambivalence in the face of the front. They're always funny, if sometimes inappropriate with how they choose to use their harsh humor.
And it always feels so sickening, how their face finally contort into wide and bright emotion on their corpses. Even their stubborn flatness stripped away.
It's only when Apo starts walking over to Abolish does Legundo notice that she has looked away. That her eyes aren't looking into his, and surely she isn't empty behind the pupils. Surely, because she is walking and breathing and complaining right there and now.
Legundo breathes out, as smoothly as he can manage it. Hard, when his pulse always shoves into his throat as it increases.
Illogical fears. It makes the mind imagine things. See things, that aren't really there anymore. Feel things that aren't true.
Legundo is steadfast in shoving it gone and pushing on ahead. There's no one down here planning an ambush. He's near certain, even through the sharpening paranoia at the back of his head. He has enough proof to talk it down tonight. Only the enemies he knows and can see.
"Nothing regardless," Legundo says, stepping up and making a gesture towards Abolish's elbow. "Perhaps we do head back now. Nothing but our own distaste and nerves to be found here."
Abolish hums noncommittally. The man has a real disinterest to him in a way that Legundo can almost respect. He's pretty certain that even if the moon fell from the sky right before Abolish, he would anything scarcely more than disconcerted.
Yet, Abolish leans a bit further over the railing. Tilts his head slightly, as he eyes the tomb.
"There's something written on it," Abolish says.
"Names, probably," Legundo says.
Nobles like to have lots and lots of those. A million titles and excuses.
"What a guess," Apo says, snorting.
"No, it's something more than that," Abolish says, squinting slightly.
The light is too poor to make it out from here, if it would even be possible from the distance. Even for people with two healthy eyes. Legundo has no interest in seeing further, not particularly caring for which particular dead man is draped in this box. All the better to forget them in there.
But Abolish turns to one of the old, carved in ladders at the edge of the overhang. Setting about climbing down with only one hand. Precarious in a way that screams of falls and spinal injuries and concussions. Legundo swallows a sigh and a scold, though only because Abolish does seem quite assured in his movements.
"Seriously? Are you going to grave rob?" Apo asks judgmentally.
"No," Abolish says, voice almost echoing from the distance now. "Just checking it out."
"Checking out a corpse. What a weirdo," Apo mutters.
Legundo shrugs, not really disagreeing. Though he supposes that he was the one to goad them in further, so can he really judge? His reasons were sound and logical, at least. And Abolish's are…
Literally incomprehensible, as far a Legundo can tell. Curiosity? Unfounded fears about superstitions?
When the light practically disappears, making it utterly uncomfortably to stand there, Legundo sighs and gently tugs Apo in the direction of the ladder. Better to stick with the torch light. Falls can be quite serious. And these coffins all seem too full to use.
The ladder is old, just like the rest of this place. Worn by time, though not as poorly preserved as it could be, a product of the lack of elements. There's no dank smells of moisture, the room bone dry. Nothing smelling rotted or spoiled from pests soiling things either. This is certainly the finest suite in the place, a room made for the corpse of a king.
Legundo is so focused on his own acerbic musings, alongside standing close enough to keep an eye on Apo's descent, that he almost doesn't hear Abolish's soft gasp.
A turn shows that Abolish is leaning close to the tomb, though seemingly having drawn back with the inhale. His face is surprised, vaguely, before furrowing in concentration. Then he leans in even closer.
"What is it? Something written on it—?" Leguno is cut off.
"Shhh," Abolish shushes him.
Legundo is shocked enough to do so. Though he steps closer and props a hand on his hip. A second from speaking up in spite of the order for silence. Well, Legundo was never the best at not talking when there's air to fill and things to say, let alone things to correct.
Again, Abolish's expression dashes those normal impulses. The surprise is back on the man, but sharper. More keen and bright. Less startled and more a bad realization. A thing confirmed.
This time, Abolish fills the silence.
"There's… noises, coming from within."
They stand in a stunned silence, glancing at the tomb all together then.
But, of course, that is only the reactions to the words. Startling words, creepy words, scary words. But nothing that is actually based in reality and thus:
"Silence makes you hear things. Or perhaps it is the shifting of stone this far down—" Legundo starts.
"No," Abolish says with certainty. "It is coming from inside. It's like… breathing, or something."
"Is this a joke?" Apo asks quietly, not sounding like she is interested in it being a joke very much at all.
Legundo just sighs, before trying again.
"The mind can invent things. It's normal, because we're all freaked out and didn't sleep last night. Let's go now—"
"Listen," Abolish says, slightly more short.
The prospect of it alone, Legundo wants to push back. His lips shove out a little, the idea of indulging such sorts of foolishness. Nothing but encouraging a line of madness.
But Apo steps closer with a demonstrable scowl, though it gives the impression that her face simply looks like that when concentrating. She leans as close as she can seem to manage through her disgust. Her ear is a few inches away from the stone. Her brow furrows further.
Legundo sighs silently and joins her. Because he knows that it will be nothing, and he wants to say it. Wants to say it and be believed. But sometimes when a child thinks there's a monster under the bed, no amount of arguing will outweigh simply looking—
Carefully, he tilts his head a little bit. He pushes back the thinning hair he has around his ears and ensures that there's no fabric from his gown bunched up there. The ruffling of hair and fabric, it can sound so much like:
Breathing.
Not breathing, no, no. It's not breathing. Because nothing inside tombs can breathe—
And because it's less of an inhaling and exhaling, that would probably be too quiet to hear through the stone. Maybe it's a wheezing. Or, or, some almost mumble. A tongue repeatedly tapping the top of the mouth on a breath out, producing the softest of sounds. Almost not there, possibly really not there.
"Oh my god," Apo says, backing up quickly. Her eyes are wide. "I heard it too."
Noises like a mouth makes. Noises from within the coffin. Legundo frowns harshly and backs up, shaking his head once. That doesn't make sense.
"It sounded like a person, or something moving, or, or—" Apo stutters.
"Let's not jump to conclusions," Legundo says, holding up his hand.
Though his mind is already running, right towards the ledge. What could it be? His eyes stick to the stone. The carved in curves, almost word-like, but not quite.
"About something that we all heard?!" Apo whisper shouts.
"It could be… some sort of piping? Or an animal," Legundo says, hand compulsively running over his facial hair.
"How would an animal get into there and close it behind them?" Apo argues.
"There might be a crack in from below—" Legundo says.
"Or someone locked a living person in there—!" Apo says harshly.
"Let's just see what it is," Abolish says.
The two of them quiet and turn to him. Seemingly surprised by the admittedly obvious answer. Whether it is strange noises of the earth, or air currents, or a poor animal, or an even poorer person, opening the lid will certainly show them.
And yet it feels like the opposite of obvious. It feels wrong and off-putting and… scary.
Illogical. The worst that is in there is a corpse.
"I guess so," Apo murmurs.
She doesn't seem pleased by the idea, but none of them do. Abolish, strangest of all, with a determined but grim focus. He's the one that leads the charge, stepping up like he's primed to open a stone coffin all on his own. Then he remembers the torch in his hand, certainly necessary for sight if they're going to be opening tombs and not losing their senses.
"Just give us light," Legundo says, deciding that he and Apo are probably the strongest of the three. More so than a butler, anyway.
Abolish doesn't argue, though he sticks close to the tomb, intensely watching it. His free hand is on the hilt of his sword now. The paranoia getting them all.
It will be nothing. Legundo is certain of it. His logic, and the illogical parts of himself—they all agree. It will be nothing, this will be nothing, and his dangers will remain as they are: alive and out there.
Legundo knows this, but he still steps up beside Apo, setting his hands on the edge of the lid. It is luckily an older kind, the sort that is simply a smooth slab of stone, laid right on top. In fact, it does not appear particularly thick. Almost dainty, with so many carvings that it seems like it should have cracked apart ages ago.
But it is pristine. Not even having the stick of years of immobility as they push at the same time. The stone begins grinding away.
It's still heavy, because it's a slab of stone. It still takes all of his focus and strength. Legundo's back twinges and he knows that his muscles will be aching for ages. A few more years and probably he wouldn't be any use in moving it at all.
Combined with Apo though, they shove the lid until a widening, pitch black maw begins to open. There's none of the rotten, decaying smell that he is half expecting, nor anything like an animal who has panicked itself into a mess. Nothing jumps out immediately either, like that animal would.
Nothing. He knows that it's nothing.
Without quite meaning to, the pair of them push the lid to the point that it tips over the other side of the coffin. Quickly, it falls from their fingers, smashing into the ground. The sounds it makes, he's sure that it has cracked, if not broken apart. Thunder roaring in the horrible silence. Not that they could have pulled it back up onto the coffin anyway.
Legundo would feel guilty about exposing a resting place like this, if—
His thoughts screech to a halt and he freezes where he was stepping back. Because Abolish has shoved the torch closer, enough to expose the inside of the coffin. And there's a smear of whiteness, flesh but paler, and things stretched long and thin, curled up. Legundo sweeps his eyes up quickly, trying to take in the—the—
"Shit," Abolish mutters.
There's a twitch through the thing. Enough to lose sight of the form from the parts. To not just see the jumble of disfigured limbs and a shine on black, widened orbs that look so much like eyes.
The noise is louder now. It is breathing, but something layered on top too. The moving of a mouth and the things within it. Like mumbling, but less defined. Less human.
Kind of like the corpse, the creature. Like a body, but less human.
With a blur so fast that Legundo's eyes slam shut, the thing shoots out of the tomb. Apo screams beside him, and he has the instinctive pull of fear that comes from being beside someone who is being attacked. But then there's an awful thudding noise, flesh and bone on stone, at their feet. Not on Apo, but instead beside them.
Finally, the flinch is over and Legundo can open his eyes. Not that it does any good. The torch, being drawn back along with Abolish, is a flickering line of broken flames. Not enough to make out anything except long blue strands spilling over the edge of the tomb and the movement of overlapping white parts.
Legundo yanks his sword from his hip. He doesn't know, he doesn't know. It's nothing, nothing, nothing. Nothing that he knows.
But he swings his sword before him like he would if it was a person attacking him in the dark. It hits flesh like it would a person. The thing yelps like a person, struck by a sword.
Legundo almost stutters, but backs up swiftly instead. Sword still held out before him, angled to shield as much of his abdomen as he can. He backs towards Apo, because Abolish is split from them, pushed back by the—by their attacker.
The yelping doesn't stop. It withers into something else. Animalistic, like a dying thing, but still wrong. It's hissing, almost. Hissing and whining and growling.
Less that human, it's not—Legundo feels like he's fighting the worst of the corpses that he has made. All the parts that he's littered the ground with, jumbled together and coming back for him while crying. And fighting.
This time, Legundo can be better about directing his sword, because the thing isn't quiet. Stumbling its way over, he can hear right where it is. Right where to put his sword.
Except that he's barely halfway through the swing when the thing is suddenly much closer. Much, much closer. On top of him, like it crossed the distance in less than a blink. Legundo jerks back as fingers clash against his face, paired with that awful hissing, more violent now. It is definitely hissing. Definitely some sort of awful unreal thing. It smells like blood.
Where nails try to dig into his face and rend the skin from his skull, there is a strange feeling. Scratching, yes, but barely. Not the sharpened tips of nails or claws, but instead an irregular jaggedness, tangled strangely within the softness of flesh. Not flesh that wraps around the outside of the body, oh no. But the kind that is inside, so much softer and gentler. Legundo thinks they are his own insides, expect for how the stinging of pain is too pale to be anything so deep and rending.
With a snarl, the creature's body hits his. It feels like bones wrapped in skin and nothing else. There's force behind it, but not enough, because there is just so little of the thing. Not even the strain of a young dead body over Legundo's shoulders, dragging it all the way to a grave.
Still, the force and his flinching backwards, Legundo knocks into Apo. She shouts as the pair of them fall, him half landing on her. He would feel bad if he wasn't fully absorbed in the survival situation. Roughly, Legundo shoves the thing off of him.
It goes, flung away like the withered form would suggest it would be. Another yelping cry, awful and garbled. Gods, the sounds are so awful. Dead things, noises only dead people make. But worse, because it's twisting them and making them inhuman.
Then the cries turns far too human and real, like a boy shouting. Which might be worse. That's all it takes before it crosses the distance, there again too quickly. Legundo doesn't let himself blink, so he sees teeth this time. Sharp and overly long, like the rest of the thing.
They're heading towards his face. For the small scratches left there, targets for where to cut and shred him. To pull his whole face off, it must be the worst way to go and Legundo almost laughs at the ironic justice of that. Though the fact that it's not a human doing it is so wrong.
Apo is trying to scramble away, out from under him. Hopefully to get around them and drive her sword properly into the monster—
As quick as a match sparked, the torch is shoved right beside them. So close that Legundo's skin stings from it.
The sudden change from darkness to light hurts. His eyes want to close. They water, when he forcibly keeps them parted. Trying to shove again despite the disorientation.
It doesn't matter, because the creature falls away from him. Not pushed away. It's half on top of Legundo, simply collapsed and writhing, until it claws away.
Away from the light.
If the fire burned Legundo's, then it sets the thing on fire. It screams, shrieks, and covers its face. All the while kicking and flailing blindly to get away from the light. Literally, as it smashes into the stone wall behind it. But that doesn't stop it. It keeps digging it's feet into the ground and shoving away, like it can break through the walls. Anything to escape.
With a particularly mournful cry, the creature curls to the side. Both arms up over its face, long blue strands—blue hair—spilling over it too. Anything to cover its eyes more. Cowered into a stooped over ball.
For a moment, they all watch it while panting for breath. Legundo keeps his sword up, ready for it to lunge again. But it just stays like that. Crying and whimpering and dripping awful, agonized sounds.
Abolish sighs sadly.
Legundo risks looking at him. There's horror on his face, but more than that, he really does look sad. The awful kind, that comes from seeing something so terrible. Which this is, but it's more than that.
Abolish seems to understand something horribly terrible.
"What the fuck? What the fuck?!" Apo repeats, standing unsteadily. "What—?"
"I don't know." Is all that Legundo can say.
"Is that a person or a, a possessed corpse?" Apo asks, panic bright.
"It's not…" But Legundo can't finish.
Because he has no idea.
Like this, it seems like a human. An awful one; Legundo could name every bone in its arms, shoulder, back, jutting out far too far. The skin is near translucent, colorless except the fire dancing on it. Swaths of hair cover it, but only from the head. Too long for a person to grow, surely, but still like the cascading hair of a young person.
Every horrid sound jerks its shoulder. Occasionally, its foot slips a little, where it's braced on the ground. It has to reposition.
Too human. But Legundo saw it, he knows it's not really—
Abolish steps closer. Legundo raises his hand, about to yank him back, but then he stops himself. Instead, he watches. And then when Abolish stops a couple feet right in front of it, he tentatively follows. Sword held out. Because Abolish doesn't have a sword in his hand. And he desperately has to see something to make this all make sense.
The closer light does show more. But it worsens the sickly, razor's edge in Legundo's stomach.
Because the hands held over its head down don't have nails or claws. Don't have the tips of fingers at all. But instead of it being something strange born into the creature, whatever it is, Legundo is quiet certain that they are human hands. Just… ground down, right from the tips to the first or second knuckle, depending which finger. The thumbs are even more discernible, too discernible as truly human.
Peeking out from the bent arms and long hair and curved over form, more red shines sharply against the white. It centers on the breastbone, though stretching unevenly in all directions.
Flesh, peeled back. Bones too. And the dark, jumbled mess of insides, on display. Half rended out.
It really is like a corpse. But alive, still moving.
How is it possible?
Shortly, Legundo inspects the others beside him. Apo has slipped over, looking with disgust and horror. Abolish, more subdued, but all there. Like they're all seeing the same thing. Not just Legundo being haunted by the terrors and madness.
The only thing that convinced him of that, despite the others seeing it too, is the fact that from the short glimpses of face that he catches are of no one that Legundo recognizes. None of the countless boys from his nightmares.
Something else. Something all its own. Something not huma—
"It's a person," Abolish says, voice assured, despite being grim.
"That thing is not a person!" Apo yells quietly.
"It is," Abolish says. Unmoved. "They are. Used to be human, too."
"They can't—all that stuff about—" Apo stutters, failing.
"It's a disease? Some sort of… rabid infection," Legundo says, desperately grasping for a branch that he understands. Something that peeled away the skin in parts and made it attack and be scared of light. That's possible, right?
But the tree is gone.
"Of a sort. It's infectious. Don't let them bite you," Abolish says, nodding.
"This can't be? Seriously?" Apo asks, looking towards Abolish, then Legundo.
Legundo just shakes his head. He doesn't know.
Abolish sighs. This one is heavier, exhausted, and pained and sad and annoyed. Which is sort of unbelievable, because Legundo can't imagining feeling anything but confused and horrified ever again.
"Context: I am an agent for an organization which, yes, handles things like… this. Monsters, people would call them. But they are just creatures of our world like any other, it's not some fantastical thing," Abolish says, low and clipped.
The thing doesn't respond to the words at all. But the sounds make it twitch and let out more garbled noises. Press its wrists to its ears. Pointed ears…
"You know about these things?" Apo asks sharply.
"Yes," Abolish says simply. "We handle the ones who hurt humans, and help the ones who are good."
"Good?!" Apo asks, sharper.
"I told you, they're a person. They used to be a human, and then they were turned into, well, a vampire," Abolish says, gesturing with the light.
A small hiss escapes. The thing curls up more.
"Vampire? Like, like the mad man was raving about?" Legundo asks. He squeezes his sword.
"I don't know what he was on about, but this is a vampire. It's pretty obvious, if you know the signs. And I've met plenty of vampires before, I'm certain of it," Abolish says, sighing again.
"So, you can kill it?" Apo asks, slightly quiet, like it will hear.
If it does, it doesn't react.
"If I need to, I can," Abolish says.
"It attacked us," Legundo says.
Abolish sighs, rubbing his forehead with his gloved hand. He really does look like someone having a particularly bad day at work. Which is ridiculous, given the horror scene before them.
Then again, Legundo kind of gets that, as a surgeon. Exhaustion and irritation in front of wretched, broken bodies.
His hand is shaking around his sword's hilt. He squeezes harder to stop it, but that makes his knuckles ache from overextension. The reminder has him swallowing hard.
"They're starving and injured and… messed up," Abolish says.
"It's a monster that attacked us! It tried to eat Legundo!" Apo hisses.
"They're a person," Abolish repeats. Again. "Vampires have the same minds as humans. They have vampiric instincts which can take over and make them attack like that, but they're still a person. Like a human lashing out in self defense when afraid—"
"We freed it and it immediately tried to eat us. That's different," Apo says, backing up a little.
"They're starving and don't know what's happening. If they will badly hurt or kill someone, then I will kill them. But otherwise, they need to be properly assessed before they are executed. If it's needed," Abolish says.
Which is really so rational and level headed.
If they were talking about a human, anyway.
"That thing… it wasn't thinking. It's not thinking at all. That's not a person," Legundo says.
It's a dead thing. Dead things can't come back. Can't come back and hurt him, drag him down to be with them.
"Vampires are fully conscious beings. We just… caught this one at a bad time. Obviously," Abolish says, gesturing a little more generally.
Again, they look around. The crypt, the awful tomb. The inside of the stone lid… there's deep and overlapping lines. Jagged and random.
Claw marks.
Legundo has to fight to not close his eyes.
"Is this… its home?" Apo asks.
"No," Abolish says bluntly. "Someone locked them in the tomb. An attempt to kill them, or just torture them. Regardless, they were trapped and tortured in there for however long. That's why they're like this."
Inside of a tomb…
It'd be pitch black. Less light than even the halls winding down to this crypt. Absolutely no breeze. Nothing to feel but the stone, a few inches in every way. Noise would have to be loud or close to get through the stone.
No light. No sight. No sound. No anything.
The thought is enough to make Legundo uncomfortable. Even if it is a creature or an animal or something, it sounds like torture. Abolish is right about that, at least. If someone was put in there for even a few days…
Just barely, one of the thin arms begins to drip down. To set the mangled hand on the floor and move.
Abolish shoves the torch closer immediately. The thing hisses into a cry, curling away harder.
It's sad and animalistic.
"I get what you're saying... But even if it was a person, it's obviously something else now. It's not safe to have around here," Legundo says grimly.
"It's… think if it was a human. Would you say to kill them right this second? Or wait?" Abolish asks.
"If they were acting like this, then yes," Apo says bluntly.
Legundo is prone to agree. Sure, if someone is mad or ailing, all treatments should be explored. But that's not this. Not this level of violence and base wrongness.
It's like allowing a powder keg to lie in a camp. A stray spark or light, that's all it would take.
But in this case, the opposite.
A small ember from the torch floats down. Pretty and harmless, almost. It makes the thing whimper, like a child watching their entire family brought down before them, knowing they're next.
Afraid. Obviously.
"People act awful when they're… hungry, or scared. But how can you know that this isn't different? That this is a person? And how can you explain the behavior?" Legundo asks, not sure who he is supposed to be thinking about right now. The thing or the people. His head is racing too quick. His hand is still shaking.
"You're not understanding," Abolish says, shaking his head, a little roughly.
Finally, the horror comes back to the man's face. Or maybe, it just isn't hidden as well.
It's a deep, swelling horror, pulling his lips back.
"Vampires are immortal. They don't die of natural causes. It could've been locked in that tomb forever."
For a moment, Legundo thinks that Abolish is saying it could have, if they didn't find it. If they didn't open the lid and let it out. Then it would have been in there forever. That they have saved it from something too awful to imagine.
But Abolish's expression sinks in, and so too does the true meaning.
It could have been locked in that tomb forever.
Before now.
"Oh," Legundo says.
And he feels that sick, hollow horror too.