Chapter 9 – Shadows Among the Graves
Rain began falling before sunset.
The Ashcroft family cemetery stood deep inside the woods.
Old marble headstones leaned with age.
Grace noticed one grave without a name.
Only a number.
Twelve.
Charles frowned.
"There shouldn't be an unmarked grave."
Workers cleared away the weeds.
The stone shifted easily.
Too easily.
It wasn't a grave.
It was another entrance.
Cold air rushed upward.
A staircase disappeared beneath the earth.
Charles turned toward his security team.
"No one goes alone."
The group descended carefully.
At the bottom waited another underground corridor.
Unlike the first one...
This hallway was clean.
Recently cleaned.
The lights suddenly flickered on by themselves.
Someone had restored the electricity.
Grace whispered,
"We're not alone."
A distant door slowly creaked open.
May you like
Then closed again.
End of Chapter 9
