The Silence Beneath
The Silence Beneath
Title: The Silence Beneath
Author: Opalina Jalcon
From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 1-27-2002
Cold has a way of speaking.
Not with words, but with pressure—slipping beneath leather, settling into bone, reminding you that some places have forgotten the warmth of the living.
This chamber had forgotten.
The earthen walls swallowed every sound I made until even my own breathing felt like an intrusion. Above me, somewhere, the world continued as it always had. Down here... it simply waited.
My gaze settled on the barrier.
Someone had gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure whatever lay beyond would remain exactly where it was. Thick timbers. Iron bars. Not hastily assembled, but deliberately forged into a prison. Above them, a graceful arc of runes shimmered faintly beneath centuries of dust.
Magic.
Not decoration.
Warning.
Or perhaps a promise.
Four scattered bones rested before the barricade like discarded thoughts. No complete skeleton. No story. Just enough remains to remind visitors that death had once kept company here.
I crouched beside them, letting my fingers hover without touching.
"What happened to you?" I murmured.
The chamber answered before the silence could.
Why are all these people dyin?
The words weren't heard with my ears.
They bloomed inside my mind like someone else's forgotten memory.
My heart skipped.
Then another voice drifted through the darkness, hollow and amused.
"Good for them."
I slowly straightened.
There was no body.
No movement.
Only darkness pressing patiently against the edges of my vision.
A nervous smile tugged at my lips despite myself. Fear had always been an odd companion—never quite enough to make me run, only enough to make me ask questions I probably shouldn't.
"Good for who?" I called into the black.
Nothing.
The silence returned, thicker than before.
I let out a slow sigh, crossing my arms as though waiting for an old friend who was fashionably late.
"Come out."
My words drifted away and vanished into the ancient earth.
No answer came.
Only the weight of unseen eyes.
Only the impossible certainty that whatever had whispered to me had heard every word... and had chosen not to reveal itself.
Some doors are built to keep monsters out.
Others are built to keep them in.
Standing before those runes, staring at the barricade that generations had feared enough to reinforce with both iron and magic, I found myself wondering which side of the barrier I was truly standing on.
For the first time since entering the cemetery, I wasn't certain I wanted to know.