CHAPTER TEN: A BLACK CRYPT WITH NO NAME

"What's going on?"

"We can't go on from here Mr. Evers I'm afraid!" Ezra explained. "You're going to have to walk on your own. Once you get the key, we'll drive back. Just return to the carriage. Emma and I will take turns watching the horse and appearing inside the manor. Ramsley may need our assistance with something and we cannot keep him waiting."

"Um, alright!" Jamie called and was startled as three ghosts had suddenly appeared in the carriage with him.

"Uh hey there!" he greeted apprehensively.

"Can he see us?" the ghost with a large round face and an enormous bow around his neck asked.

"No, of course not!" another skinnier ghost with sunken-in eyes and a long beard answered.

"Yes I can see you!" Jamie retorted, "I'm looking right at you right now; you and your silly hat and you with your… um… smile…" he finished slowly; looking at the last ghost with an almost comical looking skull's head.

"Don't listen to him!" the skinny ghost replied, "He's lying."

Jamie took a long look at him and sighed. "Whatever I'm leaving I have a key to find…" he muttered.

"I could swear he was looking right at me," the large ghost lamented.

"Maybe he's psychic," the skinny one replied.

Jamie trudged along through the trees having been pointed in the direction of where the mausoleum was located. After about four minutes in the cold however he started to lose his enthusiasm. "What they couldn't have gone I mean they're ghosts for God's sake they can float through stuff and they probably don't even feel the cold…"

He turned his thoughts towards Sarah to try and give himself motivation. She'd probably think the whole story of Elizabeth and Master Gracie was incredibly wonderful. 'Isn't that romantic?' she'd say, 'He was willing to throw everything away for love.'

"Yeah well now he's dead, broke probably and cursed!" Jamie muttered out loud, "Nice move."

He knew Sarah would argue that he'd probably do the same and with that Jamie couldn't argue.

After stepping onto soft, wet ground that sunk beneath his feet, Jamie cussed at his wet feet and probably ruined shoes. "And I don't even get a multi-million dollar sale out of any of this in the end…" he complained bitterly as he marched onward. It just didn't seem fair.

"Okay where is this place?" he called softly into the night, "Where am I even?" This quest seemed hopeless. What were the directions to this mausoleum again? I think the gypsy lady said something about making a left at an oak… Great; glad she was so specific. I should have written the whole thing down. Ugh this is just great…

Suddenly Jamie heard the sounds of voices singing coming from somewhere in the distance. Hoping they could provide some direction, Jamie headed towards whoever the people (or more likely ghosts) were.

What he came across was not ghosts or people. They were busts; statues on the top of five grey pillars stuck in the ground. For a moment, Jamie was too shocked to speak.

He finally found his voice after several seconds, "Excuse me! Hi there, sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you knew where the mausoleum was?" he asked hopefully.

"Down by the old mill stream (old mill stream) where I first met (first met you)," the busts sang in reply.

"Um no I think they said it was an old oak!" Jamie cut in, "She said it was by… uh…"

"By the light, by the light, by the light of the silvery moon!"

"Hey guys you sound fantastic and everything; your harmony is great but I am just trying to help my girlfriend; fiancée I mean. She'll be–"

"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes! She'll be–"

"Agh!" Jamie exclaimed, holding up his arms and the busts stopped hesitantly. "I am trying to find a key. I'm trying to find a key–"

"Where's the key, where's the key, where's the beautiful key? Find the key; find the key! Oh how happy you'll be!"

"The key that I'm trying to find," Jamie stressed, "is in the mausoleum. They key is in the mausoleum!" he repeated quickly, feeling desperate.

"You left your key-eey-eey in a mausoleum!" the busts sang in reply.

Now frustrated, Jamie turned to leave and almost collapsed in satisfaction as he spotted a huge oak tree only a few feet away and several feet behind that stood the entrance to a mausoleum. "There it is!" he exclaimed happily as he ran towards it.

"There it is! There-it-is!" he heard the busts sing out from behind him.

"Thanks for nothing!" he yelled back as he hurried towards his destination.

Jamie stopped as he came within a few feet of the stairs. He looked with apprehension upon the large stone effigy which gave him a sense of true foreboding. He saw a raven perched on the top of the roof. It called out and flew away.

It's that damned bird again! Jamie realized in exasperated disbelief. He was sure that the first bird had been a crow but now seeing this raven which had called out and flew away exactly as the previous bird had earlier that night he was convinced they were one and the same.

Suddenly, the torches on the two statues beside the entrance door spontaneously burst into flame. Jamie took a step back and considered the situation. Scared or not, he had to do this for Sarah. He couldn't turn back now.

He walked up the stairs and stood in front of the door. It gave him courage to pretend Sarah was there with him on his not-so-fun adventure and so he did just that. "Look," he declared, pointing at the inscription on a plaque, "It's a warning."

'Now how do you know that?' Sarah would ask him.

"I studied Latin for a couple years… My mom said it was a dead language." And now we see how right she was Jamie concluded as he looked around him.

'Well what's it say Jamie?'

"Beware all who enter; here lies the passage to the dead."

'Well shall we go in?'

I dunno Sarah

'We came all this way Jamie…You scared?'

"Listen I'm going in okay? Here's what we're going to do. I'll go in first and you stay out here. Then I'll come back and tell you everything and we'll go home okay?" But Jamie knew that Sarah would be right on his arm coming with him. Partner though all things.

"Twenty minutes tops," he assured himself as he grabbed hold of the large bolt holding the door locked and shut. He pulled with all his might and it slowly pulled back and unlocked the door. Then he grabbed hold of the door and eased it open. There were cobwebs absolutely everywhere on the other side. And if there was one thing Jamie could not stand, that one thing was spiders. He grabbed one of the metal torches from the statues (which now that he got a closer look at them were very uninviting with their veiled faces) and used the flame to eat away the webs. The stone of the entranceway did not catch fire and so Jamie proceeded down the stone steps deeper and deeper into the ground.

After at least fifty steps spiralling down, he finally arrived in the chamber. "Okay then. Now what was it that gypsy told me to look for?" he asked the silence. "Look for a crypt…A crypt with…"

"A crypt with no name!" a voice answered.

Jamie cried out and found Emma had materialized behind him.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I forgot that scares you."

"Dear Lord! Don't ever do that to someone –especially in a crypt! God!

What are you doing here anyway?" he asked in a slightly more gentle tone.

"I was worried you wouldn't find it," she explained. "She said 'Find the black crypt with no name or soon your fate will be the same.'"

The two turned their attention to their surroundings and immediately saw what they were looking for right in the middle of the room. A wrought iron bridge led over the murky water that went over almost the entire floor of the mausoleum. What looked like hundreds of urns and caskets lined the walls.

Jamie felt unnerved but he found himself moving forward anyway: crossing the bridge and arriving in front of the tar black sepulchre. "Alright then let's just get this over with I suppose. Could you, uh, hold this for a moment?" Jamie inquired as he saw no place to put his torch.

Emma obliged and Jamie set to work pushing back the lid of the coffin. In truth, he was scared out of his mind. What if he fell in? What if it stank? What if suddenly the light revealed a rotting corpse rather than just a skeleton? But he had to be fearless in front of Emma –and for Sarah too.

Sure enough, the lid fell back with a loud smash and Jamie saw the corpse lying within. It was mostly bone with dried out pieces of flesh still clinging to random bits of it. The man was dressed in a faded purple ensemble; much of it now moth-eaten to the point that Jamie wasn't sure what sort of clothing it had been previously. In between its bony hands stuck out the edge of an intricate metal handle.

Knowing Emma wasn't going to retrieve the key, Jamie had to make his move. "Uh, excuse me one second," he spoke to the corpse, "Sorry to bother you. I just…" "Oh God," he muttered when the key didn't come freely. He was going to have to touch the corpse. The fingers were cool to the touch; though not as cold as he'd anticipated. Jamie still groaned in disgust as he pried the key out and pulled off a piece of cobweb praying it wasn't actually dead skin.

"Okay that wasn't so hard was it?" he proclaimed nervously as he turned to leave. He wanted Emma to think he was unfazed by having to touch the dead man. And he wasn't going to stick around here any longer. The heavy lid could remain where it was without harming anyone. They were all dead in here anyway.

Emma smiled at Jamie and handed him back the torch. "That gypsy lady had me thinking it was going to be all hard or something and–" Jamie cut himself off as he heard something behind him.

They both turned slowly in fear to find out what was making the low hissing noise. Jamie became absolutely terrified as he witnessed the last second of the corpse sit up and turn its head towards them. It opened its mouth in a silent snarl.

In utter shock, Jamie felt the key slip from his hands and land with a reverberating splash in the water below him.

Author's Note: I split Jamie's chapter into two for an easier read. In honor of Halloween (I know I'm a bit late) I am releasing both Jamie AND Sarah's narratives tonight! Thanks for your continued readership! Please don't be spooked and not leave a comment!