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“It’s not too far and I’ll be right back. Stay here and if you hear shooting, you’ll know I found that snake.”
“It looks like it’s been fed recently and it just wants to hide,” Nox said, then held up a hand when Nelson threw him a disgusted look. “If that makes you feel any better.”
“Stay. Here.”
“Got it!” Nox pressed his back against the wall and held up a thumb. “I’ll call the police.”
“Thank you,” Nelson said, bowing his head. He went to the stairs and began climbing, slowly gliding up the wall as he kept his pistol pointed ahead and at the shadows.
Nox was able to juggle his gun while getting out his phone and dialing 911.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“Hello, my name is Professor Lennox MacIlwraith of Georgetown University. I broke into the old caretaker’s cottage at Edgewood Cemetery with Agent Grady Nelson of the FBI and I’d like to report a shooting,” he said in a breathless rush.
“Sir, please slow down and repeat that,” the operator ordered loudly. He did his best to talk slower and she stopped him a few times for clarification. “Units are en route. Have you been injured and can you tell me how many armed people are on the premises?” She asked calmly.
“How many…?” Nox snorted as he leaned and listened. “Agent Nelson and I are fine. I think there’s just the two of us now and an extremely large reticulated python.”
“A python?”
“And more snakes!” He whispered, then let out a shaky, relieved laugh when Nelson jogged down the stairs. “Oh! We think our six missing girls are here too!” Nox informed her, clapping a hand over his mouth to hold back a scream as he realized how close they could be to finding them.
“What? Sir!”
“Give me that,” Nelson said as he took the phone from Nox. “This is Agent Grady Nelson.”
He had that in hand so Nox went to get a closer look at the dead giant. Nox shuffled closer and stretched so he could raise the front of the burlap hood. He recognized the scruffy goatee, flat nose, and thick, wide, slack lips immediately and gasped.
“It’s Brian MacCrory!”
Nelson had hung up with the dispatcher and was inspecting the basement door. A triskelion and antlers had been spray-painted on it and there was a heavy-duty sliding bolt, a chain lock, and a thick steel drop bar mounted on brackets.
Nox’s heart took off at a wild gallop when Nelson lifted the bar. “They sure didn’t want that door opened.”
There was a strained grunt from Nelson as he set it down, resting it against the wall. “Don’t forget to stay behind me,” he said, taking a small flashlight out of his pocket. He turned it on and nodded for Nox to get the door. Nox pulled it open and they recoiled at the putrid humidity that rolled out. Nelson took a quick look around the wall, throwing a beam of light down the stairs. “Looks clear and like the floor may be wet,” he breathed.
Nelson crouched as he tried a few steps, ducking and swinging the light around and Nox heard him choke back a curse. “It’s them!” He called, his throat clogged with emotion and the light bounced and Nelson had to hold onto the wall. “Get down here, Nox!”
A weak moan drifted from the dark. Then, there was another. And then, another. Nox rushed down the stairs on watery, shaking legs, slipping and missing a few steps. He caught himself with the wall, sliding down until he bumped into Nelson.
“The floor’s not wet,” Nelson said, holding his breath as he stepped off and into a sea of snakes. They curled and coiled around Nelson’s ankle, slapping against the leg of his trousers.
Nox followed the flashlight’s beam, gasping in shock. There had to be thousands of snakes, tangling, hissing, and twisting around Nelson’s feet as he staggered forward. A shredded cry tore from Nox when he saw what Nelson was straining and reaching for across the damp, slithering darkness.
They were there. Suspended by their wrists, their long red hair and naked, shivering bodies limply swaying as they came awake.
“Help us,” a tiny voice begged.
“We’re here!” Nox leaped off the stairs, his boots sliding and squishing as he stumbled to help Nelson. He had lifted one of the girls, reaching up with one hand to free her cuffed wrists from a meat hook. She dropped as soon as Nelson released her and went to the next girl. Nox chanted soothingly when he found his way to one of the hanging bodies, easily boosting her up and unhooking her wrists. He heard her pant out a thank you and there was shouting upstairs and sirens blaring outside.
More bodies with blankets waded in around them. “Cut the light!” Nelson barked when someone found the switch at the top of the stairs, flooding the basement with blinding brightness and brittle shrieks.
Nelson and Nox retreated as all six girls were carried upstairs, onto stretchers, and into ambulances. They were all in rough shape and two were still unconscious when they were taken away. Nox could only nod as he was patted on the back and praised, devastated by what had been done. This wasn’t any kind of victory or a thing he could celebrate.
If they are there, it’s going to be hell if they’re alive and a different kind of hell for us if they’re dead.
Nelson had been right. They’d had a glimpse of hell. Those girls had existed in that black, fetid void for days. He had been vague on the details and Nox was dreading the photos he’d have to dissect later, but Nelson said there was some sort of altar upstairs where the girls had been ‘abused.”
