… Justin McCartney stood in the main foyer of Carfax, holding an old ledger as he stared at the locked safe in front of him.

In the year and a half that he had worked as an assistant for Simon Shepard, he had never stepped foot inside that safe, nor had he even the slightest clue as to what was hidden in there. The very thought of finding out intrigued him immensely.

"My apologies, Justin" Simon apologized, rushing into the foyer "I was running a little late"

"It's no problem, sir" Justin replied as he saw Garnet enter the foyer "I had arrived only a few minutes ago. I'm ready to work"

"Good" Simon said, gesturing towards Garnet "My daughter will be assisting you today. You two will be checking the inventory in the armory. Just give me a second to open the door to the safe"

Justin's heart soared as he stole a glance at Garnet. He was finally going to see what was behind the secured safe door.

"Is the armory behind the safe?" Justin asked casually, clutching the ledger in his hands. He watched Simon intently to see the code he was about to punch in. After memorizing the code, he quickly wrote it down in the ledger.

"Of course" Simon said, punching in a code in a nearby wall panel. The door gave a small groan as it slowly opened. "I'll be in the upstairs office if you need me"

He handed Garnet a flashlight and watched her go inside the vault with Justin…

… "This is kind of creepy" Garnet said softly, as they descended the winding staircase into a dungeon of sorts "I never knew my dad kept things in such a creepy place"

"Don't worry" Justin said, in a mock-gallant tone "I'll protect you, Garnet! From the bats and bugs and whatever else we find here"

"Gee thanks" Garnet said sarcastically as they reached the final step, in front of a big metal door marked "ARMORY"

"This is it" Justin said, searching for a way to open the door. "Now your father said that there was a secret way to get in here"

"You mean this?" Garnet said, twisting a nearby torch to the right. The heavy door started to open.

"Yes, that" Justin said belatedly, frowning as the door opened all the way. "Shine the flashlight into the room."

Garnet did as she was told and waited for Justin to walk into the room before following suit. She had to keep from laughing as she saw him groping around for a light switch.

After a long moment of scaling his hands along the wall and finding nothing, Justin sighed.

"I'll go grab a torch from the staircase" he said sheepishly, slowly walking out of the room.

Garnet stood there, letting the flashlight beam hit on a set of armor as she waited for Justin to return with a torch to hang in the armory. She felt a little uneasy standing in a room full of armor all alone.

"Sorry about that" Justin said, walking back into the room with two torches "I think this should give us more than enough light"

Justin proceeded to put both torches in holders at opposite ends of the room, lighting up the area drastically.

"Much better" Garnet said, feeling less uneasy as Justin picked up his ledger. "Where shall we start?"

Justin's green eyes fell on a door, marked with a big cross. He knew something valuable and massive waited for him just behind that door, but also knew that it was more than likely locked.

"Let's start with the smaller weapons first" Justin said, averting his eyes from the door to where there some antique revolvers and crossbows…

… He walked along the darkened foyer of Carfax, clad all in black and ready to explore. It was an easy enough matter to chloroform the guards before punching in the secret code to open the sealed vault.

Justin smirked as he grabbed a torch and made his way down the eerie staircase to the armory, where he turned the fake torch to open the heavy door.

"This is it" he said to himself, hoisting the bag over his shoulder as the door opened all the way "I will finally get to see what Shepard has hidden behind that door"

He slowly walked inside, lighting the two torches he and Garnet had left in the room earlier. He then set his bag down and pulled out a few supplies before setting to work.

He took a drill and bore a couple of holes in the door with the cross before sticking some plastic explosive into the recesses. As he worked, he recalled the feeling of curiosity that overcame him when he tried in vain to concentrate on his work. No matter how much he tried to focus on the inventory he had to finish, he couldn't take his mind off of what could be behind that door.

He took out a fuse and stuck it in the putty before turning on the detonator. Shivering with excitement, he slowly made his way out of the armory to set the explosives off.

"I bet there are diamonds" Justin said to himself excitedly "Diamonds and gold, and maybe even rubies"

He crouched behind the armory door and set off the detonator. Within minutes, there was a small explosion and the area filled with smoke. Justin could hear the door groan as the lock gave way and separated from the bolt.

"I think it worked" he exclaimed, rushing into the room to see his handiwork. Much to his chagrin, he saw that the door had been busted open. His heart pounded with excitement as he grabbed a torch and headed into the sealed room.

Much to his dismay, all he could see was a silver coffin lying on a concrete slab in the middle of the empty room. The pedestal was surrounded by a circle of fine powder that resembled ashes.

"What the hell is this?" Justin demanded, putting the torch in the holder "I blew open a door for a bloody coffin? Un-fucking-believable!"

The would-be-thief angrily kicked away at the ashes, breaking whatever kind of circle it formed around the concrete slab. He felt cheated and was about to walk out of the room when he realized that it was filling with mist.

"What the hell?" he whispered, as the mist surrounded him "What's going on here?"

He spun around to see the mist pouring out of the coffin. He had never seen anything like this before.

Part of him wanted to run away from the room…from the armory…and the other part was curious to see what was inside that coffin. Shepard was a morbid bastard to keep a casket in an empty room.

Justin's curiosity got the better of him as he gingerly ran his hands over the coffin.

'Maybe I won't have to go away empty-handed' he thought, searching for a way to open it 'Maybe there's gold and jewels hidden in here!'

His hands came to rest on the cross at the head of the coffin. With a slight flick of the wrist, the cross rotated to the right, unlocking the casket.

"Maybe my bank account will have a nice increase after all" Justin said to himself, as he opened the coffin.

A faint, musty smell invaded his nostrils, making him nauseous as he peered to see what was inside. Much to his horror, it was a corpse…a corpse of a man with graying dark hair.

"Why the hell would Shepard keep a corpse in a locked room?" Justin said, frowning in thought "What kind of a morbid sod!"

Kicking the ashes in disgust, Justin turned to walk out of the room, unaware that the corpse suddenly sat up.

He barely had time to make it to the door leading back into the armory when he found himself knocked down from behind. Justin felt himself being clutched at with inhuman strength and turned to get a look at what was holding him down.

His eyes widened in terror as he realized that it was the corpse from the coffin attacking him. It all happened so fast…the mouth opened to reveal sharp canines before it tore apart the tender flesh of Justin's jugular. Justin's scream quickly became a gurgle as the blood was slowly drained out of his body and into his murderer's parched mouth…