29: Secrets of the Church
Hermia, whose eyes had blazed with fire, was taken off-guard. She looked at Phantasia, her mouth attempting to form words before they finally came out. “Why is everyone at our school such a freak?” she said, her voice a shrill cry, “I’m fetching Horatio – put that corset away before he sees it! And then we’re going to look at these ‘crypts’, or whatever they are.”
After she disappeared outside, Ceres and Korrigan relaxed. The red mark Hermia’s hand left on Korrigan’s face had already faded away.
“Don’t mind her;” said Ceres, “She ain’t the most tactful of types. Guess we’re quite a bunch of characters, eh?”
“Oh, I’ve known worse,” said Phantasia.
Korrigan’s face lit up with glee. “Ooh, gossip? You hang around with…with everybody! Oh wow, I’ve never noticed that before! Guess we’re the last ones on the list, huh? Well, I guess there’re a couple of the boys I’ve not seen you around with, but they’re the anti-social guys like Tennyson and Blake and Dant—no wait, you even hang around with Dante!”
“When he lets me,”
“Oh, that is so unlike him. I tried so hard to get him to talk, but he’s so totally besotted with Deneb that he tries to hide whenever we’re around,”
“Who ain’t besotted with Deneb?” asked Ceres, “She’s clever, pretty, polite – poor Dante don’t stand a chance,”
“It’s really sweet though! You know, I heard he tried writing her a love letter once! Can you believe that? Dante writing a love letter! I so wanna read it!”
“Are you girls finished gossiping about boys yet,” said Hermia, Horatio at her side like a loyal pet, “I’d like to get home before sundown, if that’s okay with you?”
It’s about time! Phantasia moved towards the aisle. “Well, the stairs are over–”
“Don’t worry!” cried Ceres, “I remember where they were!” She darted past Phantasia, a blur of purple hair and earth-tone clothes. “It’s right ‘ere!” she said, standing by an archway leading deeper into the church. Korrigan and Phantasia ran to meet her, while Hermia and Horatio were content to walk until the last few paces. Once they were all gathered, Phantasia and Ceres lead them through the antechambers to the stairway, the humans taking out torches to light the darkness, which they’d picked up en route to the church.
“Why are do you want to poke around such a grotty place, anyway?” asked Hermia, “There’s not going to be anything down here,”
“Well, there’re rats,” said Ceres, “An’ I remember there being this massive spider when I came down here. It was as big as my face!”
Horatio stopped and took a nervous step back up the stairs. Hermia grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. “There’s no way you’re getting out of this,” she said, “If I have to go down there, so do you!”
They emerged into the church cellar. Ceres and Hermia swept their flashlights around, illuminating walls of dust-covered webbing and the remains of wooden barrels eroded away from a combination of harsh weather and nesting rodents. The humans broke into a fit of coughing, which Phantasia tried to politely imitate.
“This place smells like death,” wheezed Hermia, “Why are we down here?”
“It wasn’t this bad a year ago,” said Ceres, who had pulled her bandanna down to cover her mouth.
“Just follow me,” said Phantasia, “It’ll get better soon!” Or at least she hoped it would. Unlike the cellar, the crypts had been sealed in a magical vacuum for centuries, so there’d be no stale stench of ammonia from the bustling community of rats she’d been cultivating. She led the group through the wreckage gathered over the centuries, doing her best to emit a calming aura that would keep the rodents from reacting to their intrusion. A broken wall led through to a claustrophobic crypt stuffed with more nests, burrows and death.
“This place is creepy,” said a shuddering Hermia.
“This place is awesome,” replied Ceres, daring to poke some thick webbing with her finger.
