So the story gets more interesting, they find footprints and some strange fact that both are too afraid to mention. What shall come next? Read on and we shall see!
As Benjy and Sheryl got deeper and deeper into the catacombs they got more and more nervous at the thought of what they would find at the end. Benjy finally decided that the weird fact that he had noticed earlier was too important to go unmentioned. He would just have to find a way to deal with it if Sheryl laughed at him or bugged him about the fact that he didn't mention it earlier. It was like high school all over again with the totally pointless social drama and worry.
"Hey, umm, Sheryl," he started. "About those footprints back there, umm, I just noticed that even though there were two pairs of prints leading forward to the back of the catacombs, umm, there was only one pair leading away," he said it slowly, with unsure noises in between as he went, but he still was happy he said it. He felt like it was easier to breathe, it was hard enough in the damp atmosphere but that was just too much.
"Yeah I noticed that too, I just thought I might be going crazy with the mold and dampness," she said. She too felt the relief at having that fact out in the open and having mentioned her reasons. Benjy caught on quickly that she was just as uncomfortable as he was so he started to relax a little, not feeling quite as foolish.
"So…" He trailed off. "What do you make of that?"
"Well, the only thing I can think of is one person stayed down here which probably means that they died after they entered the catacombs. We should try and pay attention to the footprints to see where they turn from two pairs to one. Or where one of them looks more like the person was being dragged rather than walking by their own power." She stated all this morbid information as just simple facts despite the churning feeling that was in her stomach.
Finally they reached the end of the catacombs. It was a square room that had a few little niches leading off that weren't worth exploring because they could see where they ended just by lifting up their lights and they didn't have anything interesting in them.
Before they got too far into the end chamber they scoured the floor for the footprints. They found an area that led straight up to a wall where the footprints seemed to show that the person stumbled into the wall. The other person seemed to have paced back and forth between one place and another before leaving alone.
"Sheryl…" Benjy started, becoming truly unnerved by the patterns on the floor.
"Yeah Benjy," she started, seeming confused as to why he was so nervous. Then she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my god!" By this time he had walked to the wall and tapped it.
"It's hollow on the other side," he said, sounding more frightened by the minute.
"Should we?" she asked, not wanting to finish the sentence, afraid that she would choke up from fear.
He took a deep breath before replying, "Yeah."
They worked in silence and by the time there was one brick left, they were pretty sure they had found where the narrator had led Fortunado in the story. Finally they took away the final brick and as soon as it was gone a voice surrounded the chamber. All the bricks they had just taken away from the wall had closed up the space they had come through.
"Who goes there!" the voice screamed. They ran to start taking away the bricks that barricaded them in the chamber, but the voice seemed to take that poorly.
A second later Benjy looked next to him and saw Sheryl lying dead. He bent down, hoping she had just passed out from fright, but she had no pulse, and strangely enough she was already cold. Before he could even stand up he too was killed and the spirit of Fortunado escaped through the hole formed by the one brick they had managed to remove.
Later the other archeologists came down to the catacombs to explore and found the wall with the one hole in it. When they came they found Benjy and Sheryl, still with looks of shock on their faces.
As they bent down to examine them, the wall they had just taken down re-built itself, and this time two voiced echoed in the gloomy dampness. None of the explorers would be found until years later and it was only whispered among the people of the city that because they had disturbed the wrongfully dead, they were never allowed to see light again. The vindictiveness of people was mostly shown in death, they said, and because all of those people had been killed without reason they had to get payback on all of humanity.
Eventually two new, young explorers went down to the catacombs, this time to be greeted by a whole host of voices. And so the story went for years to come until a local leader decided to permanently close the area to stop all those mysterious deaths.
So it's over and no more Sheryl and Bejy. Hope you at least kind of like it :)
