Chapter 35: The Crypt Cavern

March 1999

Our steps took us first down the quartz-lined passageway, and then up steps, carved into the sudden incline of rock. There were niches carved into the rock, containing candles, lit and flickering against the rock walls. I was so thankful there were more lights to guide our way though I knew Tayla could find her way in total darkness. Walking around down here in total darkness was unimaginable. The sound of dripping water had ceased, but the dampness was still evident as ever. We climbed until the top of the stairs revealed torches burning brightly. As we approached the top, I saw a ghastly site. A long, cavernous hall, that was dark, but lit with hundreds of torches. They burned like a blanket of stars cast up into the night sky. The torches lit up the entrances to many holes inside the walls. I could see some movement inside the holes, and then it hit me. As we move closer out into the openness of the great cavern hall, I could see long dark rectangular shapes inside the holes carved into the walls. The shapes were coffins. This was the cavern of crypts. Each of the holes inside the rock was a small crypt, holding a single coffin, which in turn held the body of a vampire by day, and was empty by night. I could see candlelight inside many of them, with shadows of human figures inside them, but no bodies themselves. It was weird to say the least, but still nothing gross or disgusting had I seen yet. The cavern torches burned brighter as Tayla drew near to them, and the light increased inside the vast room. The ceiling was so high it must have been at least seven to eight stories high. No wonder Tayla’s underworld was so deep. It had to be to have massive rooms this size.

There were a few noticeable figures walking about, and they immediately began to appear close to Tayla, as if they had telepathically announced a visit from the Queen. I heard the fluttering of wings, with squeaking and chirping sounds, and pitter-patter of paws, along with the clip-clop of hooves on the stone floor. Before I knew it, there was a complete menagerie of beasts surrounding us. However, these beasts were no one’s petting zoo. The array of winged, hoofed and ferried creatures that stood before us were the most ugly and disgusting creatures I had ever seen. The winged creatures I would have expected to be bats and some were. Some were extremely large vultures. Now, I need to tell you that I think vultures are some of the ugliest creatures God ever created. I know they have a purpose, and that they support the environment, but they are still ugly and disgusting. The sounds that this collection of foul creatures made were disgusting as well, not to mention the smell. It was a nauseating smell. I do not think I will ever get it out of my nostrils, as I can still smell decaying flesh, as well as old blood. Tayla giggled, as she knew what my sense of smell was going through.

“Enough to make you sick, yes?” she asked. She looked back at all these creatures and waved her arms. In the blink of an eye, there stood not a petting zoo for the insane, but a group of attractive human creatures. They were a mix of male and females, dressed nicely in modern dress, and the smell that disgusted me, was somehow gone. I was relieved that I did not have to look at the site of that anymore. Nevertheless, the site forever etched itself into my memory, and I was sure I would have nightmares later when I went to sleep.

“Yes, it was beginning to make me sick, but thank you for taking that away! I’m afraid I will have nightmares now.” I shook my head in a gesture to shrug off the memory. I knew that was useless. The images of dried blood, and body fluids as well as bits of flesh clinging to the beaks and fur of these creatures would haunt me for some time to come. I tried to imagine where this had come from, and how it must have felt. My mind had no doubts the victims were alive at the time of their demise and devouring. “Nightmares consist of the sum of all our fears. You, as a human, naturally fear death, and anything that is a part of it. You fear your mortality, as well you should. You should fear that you would have to hold on to it. I have been a mortal, and now an immortal. Death is a transformation, reserved for all of us.” She spoke to me with large deep blue eyes, which were transfixed upon me. Her eyes were intensely blue in the light but in the dark, they burned red as rubies held up to the sunlight.

“You speak of death in such a way that coincides with that which my Heavenly Father speaks of,” I stated.

“And what would that be, my dear Malcolm?” She asked me, her voice inquisitive, yet somewhat disbelieving that I would know anything about death.

“Humans do fear death, but Christians as a rule don’t. We do tend to hang on to life, even if we try to live on through some other means, such as our children, or to leave some legacy that others will have something to always remember us. I do think you are right for us to fear holding on to mortality, as we humans will never just die. This book,” I pointed to the bulge in my jacket under the coat she had brought me, “States that it is appointed for man to die once and then after that the judgment. I cannot say what has happened in your case, but perhaps your judgment has not taken place yet. Maybe for these others it has. But since you have retained your human half, perhaps you have not been judged yet, because you have never really died.”

I could not believe what I had just said. Perhaps she did not either. Nevertheless, she still had her soul. One of the most powerful demons ever to come from Hell held it hostage. I could not really explain it, for I was not sure of anything regarding why these creatures were in a world where they were not supposed to exist.

“You doubt your own explanations, and your own reasoning,

Malcolm. How am I supposed to believe what you tell me?”

She was right. I hung my head, and rung my hands, resigning myself that we were going to have to figure this out altogether. I knew either the answer was in my Bible, or the angels who surrounded me would give me an answer. I looked around at the group of unfortunate beings whose universe was to be eternal night. Forever darkness. That was it! Souls cast into the outer darkness along with weeping and gnashing of teeth! That was scriptural. Moreover, these beings had some teeth! I really did not know what to make of all this. Tayla had warned me for what I was to see down here. I see now that warnings were futile. Nothing could have prepared me for the crypt cavern’s beings in their unnatural state. However, that was not the worst that I was to see. It was as if I were Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the last ghost, at the end of his night’s adventure. Still, I needed to steel myself for what else lay ahead. “Screw thy courage to the sticking place!” I thought, remembering my Shakespeare. I think that verse was from Mac Beth. “Come with me Malcolm! There is much more for us to see. We have not been down here long enough to see everything. I do not think we will have enough time to see everything before I will have to retire to my chambers. I will give you a choice regarding that.” We were walking straight through the crypt cavern. I was being careful to not trip over the rocks and boulders that jutted up from the cavern floor. The cavern of the crypts was an ugly place to say the least. Up to this point, I had seen beauty, sophistication, and a greater display of wealth more than I had expected in the Upper Estate. What I had seen here was ugliness, darkness, and danger. The danger was more evident than anything I had seen. The look on the vampire’s faces was something I do not think I will ever forget. It was the look of being lost, and of emptiness. It was pitiful. I had passed through the Gates of Hell, for I had met the lost souls in person, and these were only a few of the inhabitants of this depressing place.