Part 4: The Sarcophagus
‘I pray no one unearth this tomb, unleashing that evil upon the world again.’
“I mean-obviously, of course, it’s in, uhm, it’s in Polish but if my, uh, my translation is correct, well, that is what is says,” Professor Kozlov said nervously as he removed his glasses from his face and wiped the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his jacket.
“And what does it say after that?” Private Babin, the young soldier sitting across from the professor, nervously asked as they sat on the hardwood floor of the home’s old library where the group of men nervously waited for their next action. The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves that reached floor to ceiling and were filled with old dusty books. Each was leather bound and organized by size and color, but none were as important as the small tattered notebook the professor clutched tightly in his hand “Surely it has to say something! There has to be a way out of here!”
“Nothing, there’s nothing after that. Just drawings of these strange glyphs and this cross.” He quickly rifled through the pages towards the end of the book where the drawing of the large ornate cross was scribbled. He opened the book wide and showed the other two men that were with him, “there’s nothing else! It is useless, the sun will set soon and that thing will wake up and and it will be, you know, it will be hungry and we will be stuck here.”
“Cut that shit!” Sergeant Gorky, the older, more rugged and seasoned soldier said sternly. The squadron that once numbered ten was down to these three and he was taking the lead, “we have to keep pressing forward if we're going to survive. Now, which door did you come through to end up here?”
“I, uhm, I was in the kitchen.” Babin began to hesitantly explain, “there was a door that swung both ways. That’s the door I used to get in the kitchen and when I turned around to leave, I ended up here.”
“And you?” Gorky said as he motioned towards the professor.
“I...I can’t explain it but I was in a bedroom on the second floor. I heard, well, I thought I heard a child’s voice coming from the closet”, the professor furled his brow in confusion as he explained, “and I opened the closet door and I ended up here...but...that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Doesn’t matter now, we need to pick one of these doors and go through it. Now!” The older soldier readied his weapon and began marching towards the entrance to the library. He reached out for the handle but before he could grab the ornate brass knob he was stopped by the professor.
“And how do you know that door won’t just lead you right back here? Or worse, that room with the wolves.”
“We can’t just sit here and wait for nightfall to come! We’ve got to keep pressing forwards!”
“Guys?”
“I understand your desire to move captain”
“It’s sergeant”
“...yes, sergeant, I understand your desire to move but this house seems to be some sort of quantum entangled labyrinth…”
“Guys…”
“Quantum what? Professor listen, you may want to stay here with your precious books, but me? I want to survive.”
“Books? Maybe if you read a book or two you would listen to reason instead of-”
“Guys! Guys! Guys!” The young soldier Babin shouted to be heard, a tactic that worked. In unison the old soldier and the professor said what and turned to face the younger soldier who had his gun nervously pointed at the corner of the room, “Shh..sh...she!”
Professor Kozlov and Sergeant Gorky turned their attention to the corner where they saw a tall woman wearing a long white wedding gown with the veil pulled down over her face. In her hand she held a small white candle that, although was burning, produced no light. Her hands were skeletal and her entire form was see through.
“The window.” She whispered as the three men nervously huddled together and backed as far away from her as they could.
“The-the window?” The professor questioned but the woman just repeated herself in her low, soft whisper as she motioned to her left again.
“I, uh, I think she wants us to go through the window,” Babin said nervously as the spectral woman repeating herself again.
“That...that’s a...a ghost,” the once composed older soldier Gorky now stammered to speak, “I’m not listening to no goddamn ghost”
Again the woman repeated herself and although his companions protested in whispers, the professor made his way towards the window. He unlatched it slowly but when he began to open it, the window slammed closed and the woman appeared in front of him which startled him and sent him falling to the ground. Still in a whisper, but with a much more harsh tone she once again repeated, “the window,” but this time she pointed to her right. The professor turned his gaze to see she was pointing at a large mirror hanging on the wall.
“Th..this window?” He asked nervously to the specter who responded only with a nod before vanishing. The professor stood up slowly and made his way in front of the large mirror on the wall. Although everything in the old house was covered in a layer of dust from years of neglect, the glass on the mirror was clean and without blemish.
“What is it?” Private Babin nervously asked.
“It’s...it’s a mirror but...it curiously casts no reflection.” Although he was terrified, the professor’s inquisitive mind got the best of him and he slowly began to reach his hand towards the mirror. When his hand came in contact with the glass it rippled as if made of water and his hand passed through. “Guys! I feel a breeze! This leads outside, I’m going through.”
Without hesitation the professor climbed through the large ornate mirror that hung on the wall. He was then followed by the young soldier and finally by the older soldier but as they made their way through they realized the mirror did not lead outside, instead it brought the three men into a dark, damp catacomb devoid of all light except the flickering of a few candelabras with large red candles.
“Oh what the hell! That goddamn ghost tricked us!” Sergeant Gorky shouted harshly, his voice echoed throughout the chamber but the professor and younger soldier did not acknowledge him. Instead their eyes were fixed on a large black sarcophagus in the center of the room. With a lack of response, Gorky himself spotted the sarcophagus, “….is….is that it?” he whispered.
The small squadron of men had been sent to the most remote area of Siberia to investigate reports of sightings of a creature. A creature whispered about in folklore and legends. A flesh eating beast with superhuman strength, strong enough to rip through an entire platoon of Russian soldiers and a Panzer division. The men all doubted its existence, fairy tales and old wives tales they had called it but now, after climbing through a mirror in a haunted house, they believed. The three men slowly crept to the edge of the sarcophagus and hesitantly peered inside to gaze upon the multicolored bones of the skeletal creature of lore.
“Professor, what are we supposed to do now?” Gorky whispered, hoping that the professor would have an answer.
Confused and overwhelmed, the professor’s mind had not yet processed everything he had just witnessed. He stood in silence as the synapses in his brain fired into overdrive trying to make sense of everything. Suddenly, a thought hit him like a ton of bricks, he knew what he needed to defeat the creature…
“The cross!” he shouted loudly. “But where is it?”
STAY TUNED FOR PART FIVE TOMORROW
Want to subscribe to our newsletter so you won’t miss the next short story? Just sign up HERE
Want more frightful fiction? Just search below:
