You could feel it in the air, the brittle dry breeze that sweeps across your face, making your nose sting just for a moment letting you know the fall has arrived. The sound of the leaves skipping across the pavement breaking the silence in between each gust of wind. These are the sounds of Halloween. We could smell the pumpkins in the air as we walked back from a friends halloween party.

Jack offered to walk me home he used the excuse “ Pretty girls like yourself shouldn’t be alone.” I didn’t reject the offer it is eerie walking home late at night, plus Jack makes me feel safe.

I’ve had a crush on him for a long time, his blonde hair is silky to the touch, his eyes are like sunshine through whisky, he's irresistible. As I was daydreaming of the man walking next to me I must have not noticed that he was talking to me until I heard him say “Bella!”, I snapped out of my trance, still hazy over all of it. “What?” I replied. “I know a shortcut to your place, want to take it?” he asked. “S-sure” I stuttered.

As we were walking we turned into an alleyway, the ground must have been paved a long time ago considering I was stumbling on every pothole there was, the walls were covered with foul graffiti that left disgust to my eyes,and trash shuffling at our feet. I was nervous, Jack must have sense this because he began to hum. It distracted me from the eeriness of the alleyway. I stayed quiet while listening to him. I tried guessing the song he was humming it was on the tip of my tongue. Just as I remembered the name of the song we came to the end of the alley. There was a huge field with lampposts lining a walkway.

. “Jack?” I said. “Where are we?” he paused for a moment. I could see the way his eyebrows were contorting as if he was trying to figure out what to say. “I figured since it’s almost halloween, we could go out to the Catacombs.” He said. I thought this through, a little baffled that he wanted to go to the Catacombs with me. I replied “I’ve never seen them before, so why not?

At this we headed down the walkway. I started to get butterflies in my stomach thinking about being with Jack. I was attracted to him, just like the moths were attracted to the 1800’s style lamp posts outside the catacombs entrance. We approached an iron gate that was aged with rust, as I touched the gate I could feel the rust fall off like fine powder sifting out of my hands. I was mesmerized as I watched it gently find its place along the stairs. Jack looked at my hands and then laughed. He slowly grabbed one hand and wrapped it around the outside, his touch sent electricity through my arm, I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. He wiped the rust off with his other hand making sure he got all of it. When he let go, I felt his hand linger for a second longer almost like he didn't want to let go. He cleared his throat and opened the gate. As the gate opened it let out an agonizing wail, almost as if it someone stuck a nail in their foot, that broke the silence in the field and echoed down the corridors of the catacombs. I felt a shiver go down my spine. We stayed quiet for a minute, listening, I observed the door frame, it looked damp as if hours before someone dumped water along the concrete, there was patches of moss growing along it, and branches arching around the frame like skeleton hands claiming the departed. I looked up at Jack “Ladies first” he said. I inhaled that last refreshing breathe before I walked in.

Walking in I couldn’t see anything, I put my hands out in front of me and shimmied my way to a solid source to prop up against. It took about 45 seconds until I found a solid source to lean against. On first touch it felt curved, I followed the curve until it led to two holes, at first i thought I was caressing a bowling ball, until jack shined his flashlight on me, momentarily blinding me. As my sight adjusted to the sudden presence of light, I looked down to what my hand was still instinctively caressing. In that moment, my heart leaped into my throat, my mouth got dry like I was eating cotton balls. I jumped back, causing a domino effect of sound at my feet. I stood still and did a 360 in the circular room we were in. The entire wall was covered in human bones, some of them were just hanging on by cobwebs****, as I took a step to get a closer look more noise was originating down by my feet, I was standing on, and desecrating, a skeleton causing the bones to scatter away from the place they once were laided. Jack must have sensed my alertness because he came to my side immediately. Are you okay? Do you want to leave? He whispered which seemed all to loud for the pounding in my ears from my heartbeat. “No”, I said. “I didn’t expect to see human remains as soon as I stepped in none the less caressing a head the second I walk in.” As I said this he was staring down the hall, until his eyes fixed on me when he noticed I was staring at him. “ Sorry, I should have warned you, this is your first time down here I should have gone in first.” I was about to say it was okay but he then interrupted and said “ you never know what could be down here.” I thought this was weird but brushed it off considering that sometimes animals do get into the catacombs.