Magdala’s heroic charge into the shop went unanswered.
Sweat breaking out on her brow, Magdala scoured the shop for any sign that she hadn’t just heard the wind, that she wasn’t trespassing without any cause. After seeing and hearing nothing, Magdala put her hand to her heart and breathed slow. This was the location the flower stall owner had given Taylor, and now that she’d already broken down the door, she might as well look around. If only she’d brought a lamp… She felt around the shelves in the dark, finding books, strangely cool to the touch figurines, and absolutely nothing alarming. Moving to the walls, her fingers probed the shadows and found teeth.
“Aaah!” When Magdala snatched her hand away, her fingers hit tinkling glass. Was that a lamp? She felt around again, more cautiously this time, and found a glass jar affixed to a metal holding set into the wall. Standing on tip toe, she got her fingers into the jar and touched the liquid inside. “Nqeoum.” As expected, it was animal fat and firewater, the usual lamp oil mixture. She pulled the lamp off its fixture and focused on the oil’s surface. “Nqerm.“
The oil sparked and filled the shop with a pale yellow light, banishing the gloom. Letting out a shuddering sigh, Magdala raised the lamp to see what she’d touched earlier. It was a skull that sat atop a full sized and fully assembled skeleton, one of three standing against the shop’s wall. Nauseated and fascinated, Magdala brought the lamp closer to the skeleton and placed her finger on a rib. “Nqeoum.” Calcium, phosphorus, carbon-
Magdala recoiled and wiped her hand on her leggings. Sure, the whole thing was held up with rods and wires, but each and every single bone was realb and it was all for sale. Dead bodies should not be treated like this.
Magdala frowned. Why was she appalled at this, but not at the fact that Dwayne, a living human being, had been sold at auction? Disquieted, Magdala turned away from the skeletons and back to the shelves, which were jam packed with books and figurines. Most of the books were in Vanurian, though a few were in Yaniti. After a few moments, Magdala found what she was looking for, the Book of Phons in Souran. Cracking it open, she balanced the book in one hand and held her lamp high in the other. “‘The Age of Gods and Heretics ended with the First Wish’,” she read. “Our-“
“Mmmuah…”
Upstairs.
Magdala dropped the book, fumbled for a concussive, and looked up.
The groan sounded again. Mmmuah…”
Gulping, Magdala inched her way to the back of the shop where a flight of stairs ran along the back wall and up to the second floor. Clutching her concussive, Magdala climbed the staircase, listening hard for any cries for help. As she ascended, the flickering pale lamp light revealed bare roof beams and nothing else. She reached the top and pushed her lamp out into the darkness. Its light revealed human shapes rocking from side to side in the center of the room, quietly moaning.
Despite the way her chest tightened, Magdala cleared her throat. “Excuse me?”
As one, they faced her, their pale eyes wide open. “Mmmmuahraaah!”
They surged forward, some on all fours, some in a strange hopping leap, all with their mouths open and screaming. Magdala screamed back and threw her concussive into their midst. When it exploded, its blast threw her back into the wall and sent a half dozen of the things tumbling over the stair railing and down to the first floor. Her head and ears ringing, Magdala got to her feet, looked up, and whimpered. Her concussive had blown away limbs, but all of the fiends were recovering, their eyes still locked on her. Her breath catching in her throat, she looked downstairs. The six that had fallen down there had twisted limps, but they were getting to their feet too.
They were coming for her, she’d cut herself off from escape, and worse, she was alone.
Admaeus Speaks 
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