Rory
I gasped faintly, eyes widening. The darkness was an illusion as inside the cave was lit up beautifully with crystals that pulsed like a heartbeat. I turned in a circle and gasped again, because movement seemed to make them shine even brighter.
"Come, child of Maren."
My heart jumped and I whirled. There was no one else in the cavern but me, still I felt it. Like a presence encompassing the space around me and invisible eyes peering into the back of my skull.
The skin on the back of my neck rose. Oh gods. The cave was really haunted.
I considered running out of there. But between the spirits of the gods and what awaited me at the pack, I'd gladly let the spirits take my soul.
I began walking, looking for where to take shelter. Every now and then, I heard an echo reverberate off the crystal walls, and I walked a little faster. Perhaps, that was why I didn't see the hole in the earth until it was too late, and I was falling.
A scream tore out of me as I plunged into the dark and crashed hard into what looked like a tomb.
Groaning as I pushed myself upright, I glanced around me. The tomb was stripped bare, save for the altar a few feet away. There was a coffin made of stone resting there, the red moonlight coming in from the hole I had fallen through, casting an eerie glow on it.
I shuddered, muttering under my breath with a scowl. "Fucking creepy. Who buries people in tombs anymore?"
I started to turn my back on it, eager to put as much distance between myself and whatever that was. I'd heard of horror movies from the other slaves in the pack. This was starting to look very much like one and I would not be the curious heroine who was poking her nose where it certainly didn't belong.
I already had enough on my plate to deal with.
But something caught my gaze in the corner. It was a cloak, red and rich, thick enough to warm me up before I froze to death. Problem was, it was sticking out of the coffin.
No, Rory. You are not going to steal a cloak from a corpse.
Whoever is in there is already dead, and if you don't take it, you might very well become a corpse.
A silent battle began in my head and I wandered around the cave for another ten minutes on the off chance that I might find another lying around somewhere. But I didn't and in the end, my need for survival won me out.
I pursed my lip, apologizing to the gods for the sacrilege I was about to commit. I knelt by the coffin and placed my hands on the stone lid. "Whoever you are, I'm sure you'll understand why I need your cloak. Please don't curse me. Or haunt me. Though, I'm not really sure you could do any worse than my current situation."
It took a lot of effort, but when the lid came off, I screamed.