“In fact, I think I’m in love with you.”
He stopped tapping and stared at her, his heart now clinking and clunking, instead. “You think or you know?” he asked, taking a step forward.
A loudcrackechoed around them, followed by a rumble that seemed to be coming from the walls and floor.
Shit!A cave-in!
“Angélica, get back here!” He reached for her outstretched hand. “The ceiling is coming down!”
Before he could grab her, the floor under his feet swayed, seeming to turn soft for a split second.
“Quint!” she cried, starting back through the wall-door.
Then the floor went out from under him.
He fell, tumbling down with dust and grit and pieces of the floor. When he came to a stop, he lay facedown on a hard stone floor. A rock thumped heavily next to him, followed by thecrackof wood splintering.
“Quint!” Angélica called down from above him.
He rolled onto his back, surrounded by the musty smell of dirt and rock dust. Light shined across the rubble next to him. His flashlight! It hadn’t broken.
At least there was a bright spot in all of this, literally.
“Quint! Talk to me!” she called again, shining her light down in his face.
“I’m alive.” He shielded the beam. “I think.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not joking. Let me check if all of my pieces and parts are still attached.”
He sat up, reaching for his flashlight. He moved his arms and legs, patted down his torso, and then stood. “Good news, I’m still in one piece.” Not even a bloody scratch. How in the hell had he managed that?
“Thank God,” she said. “You fell through the floor.”
“I noticed.”
He shined his light around the room—a high-ceilinged rock-walled chamber. In the middle sat an altar stone. The long bench was painted blood red. Carvings of creepy-looking bat heads were at each end, ears tall and pointy, same as the teeth in each gaping mouth.
He aimed the beam lower at the floor surrounding the altar. There were bones. Lots of bones. Human-sized bones.
Oh, fuck.
A scratching, scuffing sound came from his left.
He turned, aiming his light at another tunnel leading off into the dark.
More bones littered the opening.
Click, click, click, click.
The sound came from the tunnel. Claws on stone? Not too close. Yet.
Double fuck!
“I have some good news and bad news,” he said in a loud whisper, taking a step back from the tunnel.
“What?” Angélica asked.
