Naked BONES OF THE BETRAYED

CHAPTER 5 — The Catacombs Beneath the City

Rain chased them through the back streets of Ardenfall. Marco kept a tight grip on Chris’s arm as they ran, weaving through alleys, jumping puddles, cutting through abandoned construction yards.

Chris stumbled every few steps, still shaking from the pulse that had erupted out of him. “Marco, slow down, please” Chris gasped.

“Can’t,” Marco snapped. “The hunter’s regrouping. If he gets your new marrow signature, he’ll track you like a bloodhound.”

“My what?!”

“Later. Move!”

They turned another corner, and Chris froze. A patrol of three district enforcers stepped onto the street, shields up, nightsticks crackling with low-level shock energy.

“Stop right there!” the lead enforcer barked. “We heard an explosion, identify yourselves!”

Marco muttered, “Oh, for, NOT now.”

Chris whispered frantically, “Marco, what do we”

“Let me do the talking.”

“You? Talking?”

“Better than you glowing!”

The enforcer stepped closer. “State your names.”

Marco threw an arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Evening, officers. Just helping my cousin here. Poor guy fainted, hit his head. Thought we heard a boom, turns out it was just him.”

Chris stared at him. “Marco”

Marco elbowed him. “Shut up and look concussed.”

“I don’t know how to”

“Pretend you’re me before coffee!”

Chris wobbled dramatically. “I… uh… feel dizzy.”

“See?” Marco said. “Guy’s practically dying.”

The enforcer eyed Chris’s soaked clothes, shaking limbs, pale face. “Looks like shock,” the enforcer muttered. “You need a medic?”

“No!” Chris squeaked.

Marco slapped a hand over his mouth. “He means ‘no thank you.’ He’s terrified of hospitals.”

“I am not”

“YES YOU ARE,” Marco hissed.

The enforcer squinted at Chris’s trembling hands. “You sure that’s all? We had reports of a Bonekeeper”

Marco laughed too loudly. “A BONEKEEPER? HA! Do we look like mythological monsters to you?”

Chris coughed. “I could be”

Marco elbowed him harder. “He means NO.”

The enforcer crossed his arms. “We’re doing a sweep. Nobody passes unless we scan them.”

Marco’s smirk died. “…Scan?”

“Bone-core resonance check,” the enforcer said, lifting a scanner. “Standard procedure.”

“Marco…” Chris whispered. “…that will see everything.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Marco whispered back. “Stay calm.”

“I can’t stay calm!”

“Try!”

The enforcer approached with the scanner. Marco grabbed Chris’s shirt collar. “Okay, new plan, RUN!”

“What, Marco”

Marco shoved Chris behind him and threw a flash pellet to the ground. White light exploded. Chris yelped. The enforcers cursed and stumbled back, blinded.

Marco yanked Chris down the alley. “GO, GO, GO!”

“They’ll think we’re criminals!”

“We are criminals right now!”

“That does NOT make me feel better!”

“Not meant to!”

They ran through another alley, hopped a low fence, and slid down a muddy slope behind an old textile factory. Chris gasped, “Is this really necessary?!”

Marco dragged him toward a rusted metal door. “Unless you want a bone hunter carving you up in the street, YES!”

He kicked the door open. A staircase descended into darkness. Chris hesitated. “Marco, what is this place?”

“The entrance.”

“To what?!”

Marco turned, eyes suddenly serious. “To the truth.”

The stairwell was narrow and damp. Their footsteps echoed as they descended deeper, the city noises fading behind them. Chris whispered, “I don’t like this…”

“Focus,” Marco said. “We need to get underground before anyone tracks that pulse you released.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yeah,” Marco muttered. “Nature doesn’t ask for permission.”

They reached a rusted grate door. Marco shoved it aside. A massive chamber stretched below, a cavern carved from ancient stone, lined with bones embedded into the walls like fossilized ribs.

Chris’s breath caught. “What… what is this place?”

Marco stepped forward. “The Catacombs of the Bonekeepers. Older than Ardenfall itself.”

Chris stared at him. “You knew about this?”

“I’ve been here before.”

“With who?”

Marco hesitated. “Someone who taught me how to survive.”

“Another Bonekeeper?”

Marco didn’t answer. Which meant yes. Chris shivered. “Why bring me here?”

“Because the catacombs dampen magical resonance. No trackers. No hunters.”

“No hunters?” a new voice said. “That’s optimistic.”

Chris whipped around. A figure stepped out of the shadows, tall, slim, wearing tattered robes stitched with bone-thread. Eyes sharp and disturbingly familiar. A woman. “Marco,” she said. “You brought him.”

Marco nodded. “Yeah. Didn’t have much of a choice.”

Chris tensed. “Who… who are you?”

The woman gave him a slow, studying look. “My name is Lira.”

A faint pulse stirred beneath Chris’s ribs. The bones in the walls hummed. Lira stepped closer. “So. You’re the last Bonekeeper.”

Chris backed away. “No. No, I’m not, I’m just”

Lira cut him off. “Only Bonekeepers hear the dead sing.”

Chris froze. “…How do you know that?”

Lira tapped her temple. “Because I hear them too.”

Chris looked at Marco sharply. “You said you weren’t one of us.”

Marco shrugged. “I’m not. Just a guy who knows things.”

Chris whispered, “And she’s one?”

Lira smirked. “Not exactly. I’m… adjacent.”

Chris blinked. “Adjacent?”

“I was trained by the last Bonekeeper elder before your family was wiped out.”

Chris stiffened. “My… family?”

Lira studied his face. “You really don’t know, do you?”

Chris trembled. “Know what?”

“That you were born in this place,” Lira said softly. “Under these bones. Beneath this city.”

Chris shook his head. “That’s not possible. I grew up in the lower districts. My parents”

“Were not your parents,” Lira said. “They found you outside the catacombs. Injured. Half-dead. Wrapped in bone-thread cloth.”

Chris stared at her. “No,” he whispered. “No, Jenna would have told me”

Lira’s expression hardened. “Jenna was part of the plot to erase your lineage.”

Chris staggered back as if slapped. “Stop lying.”

“She married you to keep you close. To keep you contained. You were always meant to die before awakening.”

“No,” Chris whispered, voice cracking. “She, she loved me”

Lira stepped forward. “If she loved you, why was a hunter sent to kill you today?”

Chris felt his breath collapse. Marco put a hand on his shoulder. “Chris… she’s telling the truth.”

Chris’s legs folded beneath him. He sank to his knees, hands shaking uncontrollably. “No,” he whispered again. “Please—stop—this isn’t— it can’t”

The bones around them hummed. Soft. Sympathetic. We remember… We mourn… We grieve…

Chris covered his ears. “Stop… please stop… I can’t listen anymore…”

Lira knelt before him. “You hear them because you carry their gift.”

“But I don’t want it!” Chris cried. “I don’t want any of this!”

Lira’s voice softened. “All Bonekeepers say that at first.”

“I’m not a Bonekeeper!”

Lira took his hand. The bones in the walls vibrated at her touch, but vibrated stronger at Chris’s. Lira whispered: “Tell that to the dead.”

Chris’s vision blurred. His pulse hammered. His breath trembled. Marco crouched beside him. “Kid… I know this hurts. But you’re not alone.”

Chris looked up, eyes wet. “Why me? Why was I born like this?”

Lira met his gaze.

“Because you are the one they failed to kill.”

A deep rumbling echoed through the catacombs, distant, but growing louder. Marco swore. “They found us.”

Chris’s blood turned to ice. “The hunter?”

Lira’s expression hardened. “Not just him.”

The bones in the walls whispered in terror.

They come… they come… RUN…

Marco stood. “Chris, get up.”

Chris tried, and failed. Lira grabbed his arm. “Get up, Prince.”

Chris gasped. “Don’t call me that”

The rumbling grew into thunder. Torchlight flickered at the far end of the tunnel. Heavy boots marched. Dozens. Marco drew a dagger. “Well. This is about to get unpleasant.”

Chris shook, barely able to breathe. “Marco, I can’t fight them, I can’t”

“Yes, you can,” Marco said.

“No, I can’t!”

Marco crouched down, grabbed Chris by the collar, and looked him dead in the eyes. “You don’t have a choice.”

The first armored figures appeared in the tunnel. Black bone. White visors. Weapons drawn. Lira murmured, “They sent a purge squad.”

Chris’s heart stopped. “A WHAT?”

Marco shoved him behind cover. “Chris! If you can make another shockwave, now would be the PERFECT TIME!”

Chris whispered, “I—I don’t know how”

Lira leaned in close. “Then listen to the dead.”

The bones screamed, and something inside Chris awoke.