Rising from the Ashes (Andrew and Lauren)

"Holy crap, I've never seen a gold pendant this massive in my life! Look at it—it's carved with dragons and phoenixes. No doubt it's worth at least a few million!"

The two men were panting hard, eyes bloodshot, completely overtaken by greed.

After looting one side chamber, they immediately turned and rushed into the next, tearing through it like rabid dogs.

Lenny, with his long horse-like face, grew impatient with how slow things were going. He said, "Darius, we should split up. It'll be faster that way."noveldrama

The short, stocky Darius chuckled awkwardly. "Fine by me, but let's be clear- whatever we find, it's finders keepers. No splitting."

Lenny had no objections and nodded quickly. "Fair enough. Whatever you find is yours to keep."

Without another word, the two men darted off in opposite directions, each chasing treasure on their own.

Darius pretended to charge into one side chamber. A sinister smirk crept across his face when he glanced back and saw that Lenny was not paying him any attention.

He scoffed and mumbled, "Lenny, you really think you can outsmart me? You've got a long way to go."

Darius doubled back along the hallway and returned to a side chamber they had already searched earlier. It looked the same as all the others, except for one detail -the stone coffin in this room was still completely sealed.

He jammed his torch into a nearby wall bracket, cracked his knuckles, and rubbed his palms together in anticipation.

He thought, 'Out of more than ten rooms, this is the only coffin that hasn't been disturbed. Whatever's inside has to be worth a fortune. Jackpot! Blood Ghouls? I don't buy into that crap. Even if one popped out, I wouldn't be scared.'

As he pushed with all his strength to pry open the stone coffin lid, he kept laughing to himself.

Darius had grown up among outlaws and had heard every crazy ghost story in the book

According to legend, if you came across a Blood Ghoul-basically a supercharged, undead monster-in an underground crypt, the best way to deabwith it was either with

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spike dipped in holy water or an old ritual.

That ritual involved burning myrrh and mimicking a monk's apology tour.

Usually, if the ghoul had already been exposed to light, burning the myrrh alone could send it back into dormancy.

While Darius had no myrrh with him the torches on the wall were good enough. In his mind, adaptability was survival, and he felt pretty damn proud of himself for thinking on his feet.

Sure, Andrew was a beast in a fight.

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Hell, the man even managed to scare off that massive Dire Tiger. Even though he had unmatched brute strength Darius was not some slouch either. At least he had the

guts to mess with the coffin when the others did not even dare touch it.

With two loud cracks, he finally pried the stone lid open just enough to create a small gap. He paused, catching his breath, trying to recover his strength, then jogged over to the door to peek outside.

The underground tunnel beyond was dead silent.

Lenny was still buried in his own loot pile, completely unaware of what Darius was doing.

He mumbled, Idiot. All that junk he's hoarding has a price ceiling. Best case, he might sneak out with a few million bucks worth of trinkets. But me? I just need one priceless item, and KIT be living the dream with beautiful women left and right!"

Darius had it all figured out and ran back to the coffin. With the flickering torchlight behind him, he leaned close to the small gap and peeked inside with one squinted eye.

What he saw made him gasp so sharply that he nearly lost his balance.