Jumping ahead a little, I am still sharing from my short horror story, Shadow Walkers. Sabina, Tessa and Lydia are escaping the catacombs, and the vile monsters (aka jinn) who held Lydia captive.

The floor within the narrow hallway had neatly paved travertine floors and brick walls. Their escort didn’t pause to speak to the men who had obviously been waiting should he need assistance, but instead led them through a labyrinth of hallways, twice requiring them to go through locked doors and once up a flight of stairs. They had gone from rough stone to marble and now they were in a polished black and white marble-tiled hallway with a plush red and gold-bordered carpet runner that muffled the sound of their footsteps, the only noise the group had made since first entering the mysterious bowels of the Vatican.

He paused before a red door and when he pulled it open, Sabina was shocked to see an elevator. The group entered and rode upward, still silent, and still tense. When the cables stilled, they stepped out and followed the priest across the hall. This time when he opened a set of double doors, he stepped aside and said, “Please feel free to get cleaned up. I will have some refreshments and fresh clothing sent up at once. Father Benjamin will be with you as soon as we can get word to him. In the meantime, you are safe here.”

​Before Sabina could reply, he spun on his heels and was on his way back to the elevator, a cell phone to his ear.