1. Flight

"OH MY GOD!" Chelsea screamed, releasing the wheel. She threw her arms around Darius' neck and buried her face in his shirt. 

Darius quickly grabbed the wheel and tried to steer the hearse from this treacherous course but it was too late. They were too close.

He'd known it had been a stupid, beyond stupid, idea to let Chelsea drive; this was the first time she'd seen a car let alone been in one. But she had asked so sweetly and smiled so intoxicatingly and Darius had let her sit on his lap and steer the car haphazardly through the molding squash meadow and straight at the oldest catacomb in Scotland. The word ‘stupid’ didn't begin to describe his action. He remember calling, "Turn! Turn!" when he first realized they would collide; as if she knew how to turn.

It seemed this was the price of having fun--well if this were the price and he was already paying then he was going to have some fun!

Darius' grip tightened on the steering wheel and stepped on the gas pedal pushing it as far down as it would go. The hearse jutted forward faster than Darius had ever pushed it before. 

Chelsea squeaked a compliant that was unintelligible through Darius' shirt and her squealing giggles. 

"Hold on!" Darius cried, giving an excitedwhoop!

Chelsea screamed into his chest, holding onto him even tighter. Darius wrapped his arms around her and pushed her down across the seat. He ducked on top of her as the hearse sped towards the looming wall of the catacomb.

CRASH!

The ancient stones shattered at the ramming front end of the hearse, sending the dilapidated wall tumbling like a poorly stacked card house. The wall collapsed, causing the rest of the unstable catacomb to cave in, in an eruption of dust, cobwebs and decaying moss. The dust swarmed around the wreckage like a million angry, ancient bees as loose rock clattered to rest on the ground. 

Inside the buckled wall of the catacomb it was dark. The air was dank, filled with dust and tainted with a smell far more sinister than decay. There was a tense silence in the catacomb that had been broken by the collision and now a presence was awakened. That presence hung in the air like the ominous clouds that hung forever over Scotland, threatening trouble but delaying in its performance of that promise. 

Darius lifted his head from Chelsea's back and looked around. The Hearse was buried under several large rocks and all that met his eyes was a cloak of impenetrable darkness. 

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