Evermoon

Chapter 16

Mr Warwick stood tall in front of his car looking out onto the street, greeting his neighbour with a smile and a nod he stood watching silently as the garage door slid slowly down. He sipped on his black coffee, his eyes narrowing over the mug as he watched Frankie and her friends leave his neighbour Amanda's house. He vaguely wondered how they knew each other, forgetting temporarily how small Blairs Hollow is. Either way it didn't sit well with him.

As the garage door hit the floor with a small clank and a thud, he continued to wipe down the bonnet of his navy blue car, taking extra care to make sure the small dent was buffed and polished, unseen and untouched.

Having only moved into his house 6 years ago he had time to get to know his neighbours on either side very well. Old Mrs Polly lived on his left and Arnold on his right up until he went missing and Amanda and her husband moved in. Satisfied, he smiled at his reflection in the bonnet, he walked out of the garage and through the door that led to the kitchen, whistling as he went on. He drained the contents of his coffee and put it in the sink with the rest of his dishes for one, rinsing them and putting them to the side to dry.

Now that school was officially over for the summer he had free time to concentrate on his personal studies and hobbies he was too busy to focus on during the school year. He left the kitchen and made his way to his bedroom which also served as his office. Sitting behind the desk he warmed up the laptop, responding to emails from family and friends back home he hadn't seen in a while, he sat there, searching the internet for mundane things, researching and planning trips to fill his summer days. Mr Warwick, was so engrossed with his mundane search he hadn't notice the sun go down to be replaced with the beautiful pale shimmery light of the crescent moon and the twinkly star lights that dotted the dark night sky nor did he notice the drop in temperature that now engulfed his small bedroom-cum-office. He noticed his breath came out in foggy gasps and he shivered. He realised apart from the glow of his laptop, the room was enclosed in darkness, he fiddled for the switch on the little lamp that sat on the corner of his desk among neat little piles of paper, as he did so he accidentally knocked over a pile and he bent down to retrieve them. As he leant to the side, he noticed tendrils of black smoke, noiselessly and eerily slithering along the floor, papers forgotten, he immediately jumped out of his seat and pushed the desk three feet forward, rolling the rug underneath along with it. When he decided it was enough space, he bent down to the ring in the centre of the floor and lifted a small hatch door. A ring ladder could be seen on the side closest to him and a faint light emitted from deep within the dark hole below. Lowering himself, he placed his foot on the third rung and he descended down into the hole.

As he lowered, he made sure to close the hatch above him and a lock and bolt sound could be heard as it sealed behind him. He climbed down the ladder carefully making sure to put his feet squarely in the middle of each rung, the air was still cool but the further down he went it warmed up, causing the smell of earth, rot and decay to permeate his nostrils. He coughed and spluttered, trying not to inhale and taste whatever it was that lingered in the air. 20 feet later and his feet touched the ground, adjusting to the lack of light ahead of him, he put on the only black cloak that hung limply beside the only source of light –a fire burning torch, attached to one of the three walls. He started walking along, in the only direction down a narrow, dirt-walled path; a path so narrow, he felt as if the walls were toppling, collapsing on each other. His footsteps echoed and every now and again, tiny droplets of water dripped onto his black cloak from the ceiling and water rivulets could be seen running vertically down the walls, as if the walls were erected within a body of water. He continued walking down the narrow corridor, every now and again taking a left, then a right. With nothing but the darkness surrounding him and the light to guide him, but he didn't need a guide anymore, he had been through these tunnels more than he could remember.

Eventually, a slight breeze rustled his robes and moments later he entered through a carved archway, into a cave like structure. As he entered the dome, he placed the torch in a sconce along the closest wall and he continued forward before stopping short in front of an altar. The cave was perfectly circular with 7 open archways, evenly spaced out, with the only difference being a different word carved in the middle of each archway, – similar to the one Mr Warwick walked through – and noticed the source of the offending cool air coming from a star shape about the size of a small bathroom window, near the centre of the ceiling.

Thousands of perfectly smooth spherical tiny orbs protruded from the altar, covering every space and crevice possible on the walls of the cement block, giving it a bumpy-bubble wrap effect. One half of the altar was covered with overgrown shrubbery and vines that wrapped itself around each orb it touched, revealing its weathered age, whilst on the other side, bones and half skeletons laid broken, nestled, resting beside, collecting dust and dirt.

The six foot wide altar, took up the majority of the space within the cave and its reflection shimmered all along the cave walls creating tiny spotlights, from the streaming pale burst of moonlight.

Above the altar hung suspended in the air completely on its own, was a large hollow ring shape made from metal. Mr. Warwick looked up through the small hole in the ceiling, noticing it was almost time, he closed his eyes and let his head roll back, placing his hands together, he lifted them and slowly bought his head back up, he recited an incantation.

At this point the moon had lined up perfectly with the small window and its calming pale rays shone through the little hole, aiming directly for the metal shaped ring. As the moonlight glinted off the ring, the metal started to glow a pale white. As it gradually grew brighter, it began rotating clockwise, slowly at first before gaining speed, simultaneously the spherical orbs that lined and protruded from the cement block began to roll back and flutter open one by one revealing eyeballs of all shades of the natural human eye colour of Hazel, Blue, Grey and Green. Wails and screams echoed around the cave in agony from all those who were killed and sacrificed for they're eyes – their essence.

The metal ring began to slow to an average pace, black tendrils began to seep through the centre of the ring, hovering and looping counterclockwise meshing together, with the lit metal ring. Down one of the arched tunnels, real shouts and screams could be heard faintly lost and forgotten, among the tandem of noise.

A black screen, filled up the space in between the infinity looping tendrils of black smoke, creating silence – all that could be heard was static electric.

"Patum, Otum, Stellus, Colorius, Nulei, Geratum, Vitaium" he continued to chant until the static electricity cleared and presented a crystal clear image.

"Marcus" the gravelly voice said.

"Master, its time."