...Red as blood. Dark as night. Secrets in manuscripts line the wall. Pieces of parchment, seemingly oh so harmless. Don't you know that history is doomed to repeat itself?...
Serena
I looked upon the tourists with pity on my face. I hoped they couldn't read it. I was forbidden to give any other words then the warnings already hidden in the manuscripts along the tunnel walls. There, along the walls, locked in case after case held the accounts of the cathedral. The horrors of the things that took place above these tunnels... and the same that could be found below.
I smiled at the youngest tourist, a small innocent child with dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes.
She's a pure one. She'll make it. I think to myself.
Her parents on the other hand... clearly two steps away from a divorce and already with a look of pure torture inside their eyes. They had no idea what tortures the tunnels could hold.
Please, spare them, for the sake of the innocent... I thought into the tunnel. No answer returned and I knew no mercy would be given.
I forced a light smile, "The tunnels are dangerous. There are parts dark as night and dangers at every turn. If you choose to continue down this current path the results could be disastrous. If you so choose to take your chances please sign the parchment and add your story to the tunnel walls."
The parents signed first and then the mother guided the child's hand. I watched in silence as the walked into the tunnel. From the moment they stepped into the entrance of the tunnel the parchment began to to smoke. Then, word after word scribbled across the page by seemingly no one. Then, it stopped.
Emerging from the tunnel was the young girl, pure of heart. She looked at me with sad eyes.
"It-it was beautiful," she said, "but mommy wouldn't stop screaming... and daddy..."
the girl began to sob.
"Where are they?"
Another day. Another death.
I took the girl under my arm and slowly wiped my thumb across her forehead, clearing her mind of the traumatizing events. The girls eyes turned a beautiful blue and she once again slipped into the tunnel. A new keeper of the tunnel. A new guide through the darkness. A hope for the pure of heart.
Oh, young one. For you the tunnel will give you every beauty there is to see and fill your heart with hope. If only your parents hearts hadn't been filled with hate... If only they hadn't poisoned each other with the cruel words and neglect that now had taken them to their grave. The tunnel had made their deepest most inner thought spring to life and now they were gone... Forever doomed to remain another story on the wall.
I tied a crimson ribbon on the rolled parchment and slid it into a hole on the tunnel wall, locking a piece of glass over top.