The Hall of Heroes

7. - By the last dark of the night

Neither Tereza nor Fanda had any idea what was happening to Alois. Vaguely, they thought that ordinary spiders do not kill their prey outright, especially if they have another one in store. So they could still hope he was alive.

"Can you hear me?" Fanda shouted into the darkness of the tomb as soon as he got to his feet and collected his breath. At first, he fancied he could only hear distant sobbing.

"Yes!" he heard shortly after. "It got Alois!" Tereza shouted, her voice failing.

"I know! It worked! His plan worked!" Fanda shouted back.

"Stubborn idiot!" He heard from inside. He chuckled to himself, thinking that maybe somehow, Alois could hear it.

"Is it dark outside?" Fanda heard in a moment.

He looked about and saw that the sky was dark, but the stars were getting dim, there were only a few of them visible and the color of the sky was not pitch-black, but rather dim gray.

"Yea. But I think the sunrise is coming." he shouted back. "Do you have the clock?"

"Yes, I'm watching it. And the ground clock is ready."

"Okay." Fanda shouted and sat down with his back to the wall close to the gate.

There was not much to be seen outside, because everything in the mountain gorge around him was covered in shade and it was quite chilly up here, so he got cold pretty fast. Time started crawling too slow and the cold made Fanda want to stand up and do something. He started pacing about.

"What are you doing?" He heard Tereza shouting.

"Just walking. It's cold out here." He answered.

"Oh." She shouted.

That one sound made him realize what kind of a situation he was in. It had been a long time since he could speak with Tereza in this way, alone. They were not alone per say, or at least they fancied they were not, but what he would say to her now would not be heard or remembered by anyone else.

"Say, Tereza." He started.

"Yeeah?" He heard her shouting.

"I, uh... Just wanted to talk. It's cold out here, you know."

It was quite a lame excuse and they both knew it. Still, Tereza answered in a shout, "Okaay."

That gave Fanda a boost.

"You know, uh... I actually didn't want to go. Out on this trip. I thought of escaping. I felt like I would be useless and only slow you guys down. But I told myself hey, if you can show at least a little use, then maybe Tereza will notice. And just look at me. It was actually me who got the Wise Woman's riddle right. Heh."

There was no answer. Tereza was evidently not impressed.

„Heey, uh... I uh, I know I've been avoiding you." he shouted. "Ever since that time down by the river."

A clink of something resonated in the tomb, like a small stone falling from the high ceiling. Other than that there was a deep silence in the dark.

"I know I like... wasn't being fair with you. I can see it now, but I couldn't see it then. Remember when we took that long walk by the river and we held hands and laughed all the way? And then, when we met the girls from the village and they asked if we were dating and I said no. You looked at me funny and I didn't know why.

"I can see it all now. You wanted me to take you seriously, but I was like, only playing. Only having a trial run at loving. Even though when we were together, I knew we were dating. For real.

"But back then, I saw nothing wrong with doing that to you. I guess I... wasn't sure of myself more than of you. I wanted to know that I wouldn't get burned by love like so many others. All those people in the fairy tales. My boss. Even my parents got each other burned. And all the while I was actually doing the burning to someone else. To you."

There was still no answer.

"Tereza, I just... This whole trip has made me think of what we had and what I want and all. I mean, look at us. Seems like it's only the two of us left. And I feel that... we work pretty well together."

His shouting resonated in the tomb, coming back to him in an echo. But other than that, there was no other sound.

"What I mean is... if we get out of this, I..." But then, he stopped short, because he noticed the first rays of the Sun.

"Tereza! The Sun! The Sun's coming up!"

He heard a low cursing from deep inside the cave and then the scurrying of Tereza's feet running on the stone floor.

Since Tereza had set everything up in advance, all she had to do now was look at the clock and move the heavy long hand of the ancient clock mechanism to match it. So she stood by the long hand and moved it to match the mechanical clock. And then, at one moment, she was lifted up and hurled through the air by a sudden shockwave.

Fanda saw the first rays of the sun hitting the top of the tomb and realized there was a hole in the face of the tomb through which the sun could come through. And that was the last thing he would see with his very own eyes for quite some time.

The light from outside traveled through some inner vents or channels and found its way through into the back chamber, hitting the clock face from right above. The numbers on the clock face started shining with a strange blue light and the hands of the clock started humming as though they were vibrating wildly. And then, the statues that were placed along the walls started shining in the same pale blue light.

Tereza crawled to one corner of the room and put up her hands to cover her face. A strange ghost-like shape that looked like a long-dead withered skeleton flowed out of one of the statues in the room. Another one was quick to follow and soon, the whole ceiling was crowded with glowing, skeleton-like specters that floated about, seemingly confused and without purpose. They made no noise, but with every single new specter that appeared, the vibrating hum of the clock hands grew stronger.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tereza thought she saw some of the spectres float out of the room. Most of them mingled and clashed into each other in a commotion that resembled a circular whirlpool of pale blue light up at the ceiling of the crypt right above the center of the clock face.

Tereza watched this bewildering sight with horror in her eyes. And then, one particularly awful specter stopped in mid-air and glared down right at her.

And then, it plunged towards her with its mouth gaping and Tereza screamed.