Jeremiah leaned closer. “Yeah, you’re right. And look at this… the path runs all the way off campus, through the woods and—” He stopped abruptly. “Well, obviously it’s not on the map, because it’s not university land, but if you keep heading that exact way through the woods, you’ll eventually end up at the Dionysus estate.”
A chill crawled over my skin.
“What if this isn’t actually an old path that no longer exists?” I whispered, pointing to the dotted line again. “What if it’s still there? Underground?”
Jeremiah looked up at me, eyes wide. “You think the ossuary secretly connects to the estate?”
“Maybe, yeah. I mean, Piermont definitely wanted me to find something here, and this feels like it could be it.”
We both stared down at the line on the blueprint, the ink barely visible after so many years.
“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Jeremiah finally said, raising a brow.
I nodded. “Let’s go to the ossuary.”
By the timeJeremiah and I reached the Chapel of Saints, the late afternoon sun hung low behind the trees, casting long bars of light through the stained-glass windows.
When Jeremiah pushed one of the doors open, the hinges groaned in protest, the sound echoing through the empty interior.
“This place is so creepy,” Jeremiah muttered, his voice too loud in the stillness. “That bone chandelier has always freaked me out.”
We moved toward the back of the chapel, where a sign reading ‘Ossuary This Way’with an arrow directed us to a narrow staircase leading downward.
The stairs descended steeply into darkness, the air growing colder with every step. My phone’s flashlight beam trembled as we reached the bottom.
The ossuary was bigger than I expected. Three of the lengthy walls were made entirely of stacked skulls and bones, sealed behind iron grates. Each recess held neat, symmetrical arrangements, like the dead had been cataloged rather than mourned.
The fourth wall held multiple sealed niches with names and dates engraved on them, like a mausoleum wall. Those must’ve been the burial slots that the sorority girl mentioned to me on my first day here; the places where the university’s founders and other important figures were interred.
“God, I’ve always thought this place was so fucked up,” Jeremiah whispered, his breath fogging the air. “I mean, bodies on a campus? Seriously?”
I barely heard him. My attention had caught on something else; a section of the mausoleum wall on the edge that didn’t quite match the rest. The stone there looked a little newer and smoother than the others, and there were no inscriptions or nameplates on it, even though there was clearly space for more.
“Jer,” I said quietly, moving closer. “Look at this.”
He joined me, frowning as I ran my hand over the block. It jutted out just slightly from the others, like it wasn’t quite seated properly.
“What if—” I pressed my palm against it, but nothing happened. “Never mind,” I muttered, shoulders slumping.
“Wait. Let me try.” Jeremiah pressed his own hand against it, much harder than I could manage.
The stone shifted beneath his hand with a dullclick.Then a low rumble echoed through the chamber as the wall cracked open along a hidden seam, revealing a narrow space behind it; black and cold and impossibly deep.
Jeremiah swore under his breath. “No fucking way.”
My flashlight beam barely pierced the darkness beyond the opening. It wasn’t just a hollow. It was a tunnel.
My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. “It’s here,” I whispered. “I can’t believe we actually found it.”
“Violet…” Jeremiah’s voice was tight. “We shouldn’t go in there. Not yet.”
He was right. Every rational part of me was screaming to close the wall and walk away.
“Yeah,” I finally said, forcing a breath. “We need a plan first. And we should tell the others.”
Jeremiah nodded, visibly relieved as we both stepped back. “Good call.”
We resealed the entrance and climbed the stairs in silence. When we stepped back out into the cold air, the chapel door creaked shut behind us, the sound echoing like a warning.
