Something smacked Echser in the face, rattling his brain like a dice in a cup. His eyes popped open – then he had to squeeze them shut again. Bright. Everything was so bright! Was this heaven? Or hell? Echser gulped, squinting fearfully at what might be the rest of eternity.

Eternity is rather blue, he decided, almost like the open sky.

A handsome face with a fake smile and two pits of darkness where eyes should be came into focus. "Back again? Good, I was worried you might have left your sanity down there. How was your first adventure as a lich hunter?"

"Craven...?" muttered Echser, then he growled, "Craven!"

Then – to his endless surprise – he balled his right hand to a fist and swung it at the lunatic's face.

The bounty killer caught his punch with a gloved fist, his arm hardly rocking, the smile never wavering. "Now, now... No punching if you please. We are friends, after all."

"Friends?" Echser spat, pulling his hand free. He crawled back until he was with his back against a gravestone. "Friends!? You lunatic! You monster! I almost died down there! I—"

Craven pushed himself up from his kneeling position. "It seems you have braved your adventure well enough. A few scrapes and bruises and those split and torn fingernails... Why, pray tell, did you fight against me when I was pulling you out? Did you forget the rope I tied to your ankle?"

Echser blinked and then groaned. The rope. Of course...

Craven turned away from him, staring pointedly at the open grave. "Anyway, I see no smoke bleeding from this particular wound in the earth. I thus gather you failed in your assigned task? Where you at least successful in retrieving your precious book?"

"No!" shouted Echser, clambering to his feet. "I didn't! A ghoul took it – snatched it away." The alchemist pinched his fingers together so that maybe an inch remained free. "That's how close my face was to this filthy monster's claws. That. Close."

"A ghoul?" somebody asked.

Echser whirled around, startled, and would have fallen into the open grave had Craven's hand not shot out to steady him. Two figures in dark garments and spades in their hands stared at him. It was the old undertaker Hornbach and his assistant – Stefan or somesuch – a brawny youth on the brink of manhood, desperation etched onto his dirty peasant features. According to Craven, the lad had not only discovered the tunnels but also lost his little brother to them.

"You are certain that it was a ghoul?" said Stefan "Could it perhaps have been a child's hand? A boy's? Maybe five years of age? About that tall?"

Echser freed himself from Craven's steadying hand and drew himself up to his full height. "Of course, it was a ghoul! I'm a man of Science! An alchemist well versed in these things! Do you think me a fool?"

The young man's face fell. "No. I... I... I understand."

The old undertaker lifted a gnarly hand to pad his assistant onto the back. "Told ye not ta get yer hopes up, boy. Them ghouls might prefer corpses, but they are not above—"

"I don't want to hear it!" barked Stefan. "Not now, not ever. I know he's still alive, still down there. I just know!"

"Course 'e is," muttered Hornbach. "Course 'e is. Forget I said anythin'"

Craven watched it all with faint amusement. "Be that as it may, since my companion failed in the one task he had" – Echser glared bloody murder at the bounty hunter – "I fear we have to retrieve the bomb."

The alchemist blanched, stumbling back. "Oh no! I'm not going down there ever again. Shoot me if you must, fiend, but I won't do it!"

Craven smiled. "Not even for your precious book?"

"Ha! As if... Have you forgotten? The book is gone!" Echser sniffed. "Probably already devoured by the filthy monster for its leather bindings... Do you even realize what you have done? What has been lost today?"

Craven whipped out that villain's smile. "No master Echser, I think I have forgotten. Would you enlighten me as to the nature of that particular volume and what makes it so special?"

The alchemist's heart almost stopped as the two undertakers perked up at the mention of his name.

"Echser?" said Hornbach, his obscenely bushy eyebrows drawing together in suspicion. "As in Cornelius Echser?"

Stefan's eyes took on a dangerous glint. "The murderous pig who unleashed the vermin plague upon us neigh two winters ago?"

"Erm..." said Echser, struggling for words.

Hornbach squinted. "Ye do look somewhat like 'im... younger, just as tall, but not nearly as fat."

"Ehm..." Echser shot a pleading glance at the lich hunter.

Craven in turn threw up his hands and sighed. "You got us. This truly is Cornelius Echser—" the alchemist's heart stopped, "—Mortin Cornelius Echser – the lunatic you are referring to was his godfather."

Echser's heart started beating again, tentatively, quite so as if it wasn't sure it was a good idea.

Hornbach hawked and spat. "So I was right. Ye really are kin to that filth?"

"Erm..." Echser stared at Craven, his gaze pleading. The bounty hunter just looked at him, a faint smile on his face. Is that lunatic trying to get me killed? He looked back to the two undertakers, offering a cautious, "Yes...?"

Stefan was still glowering, turning the spade in his hands as an executioner might an ax. "My mother, she... she died thanks to your godfather and his blasphemous experiments."

"Uhm... I... I'm sorry?"

"Sorry?" spat Stefan. "You're sorry and still you took up the same foul profession as an alchemist? How sorry can you—"

Craven cut the young man off by starting to laugh. At least, it might have been a laugh, but there was little joy to it.

"What's so funny?" growled Stefan.

"The two of you are," replied Craven. "Even though he needed some encouragement, there still is a man who just risked his life to solve your cities troubles and rescue your brother. Yet still, you seem ready to lynch him for his kinship to a man he has not seen since his childhood days. Can you truly claim nobody in the history of your family caused any harm to others? Should I prosecute you for their sins?"

Craven's words chipped at the ire of the two, quickly leaving them standing there with cast-down gazes.

"Er, apologies, master alchemist," said Hornbach after a while. "We wasn't thinkin' right. We all lost someone to the chaos that the mad 'on brought over us, we did."

"Aye," said Stefan, grinding his teeth together, still fighting his anger it seemed. "I too apologize."

"It's quite all right," piped Echser. "No harm done."

"Excellent!" said Craven, slapping his hands together. "Now that this is out of the way, let us not dally. The shadows lengthen and we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Grab a shovel, Mortin; I have a good idea where you left that bomb. Seems like you and our two new friends have a lot of digging to do..."

Echser groaned, not sure if in relief or in despair, one thought tumbling through his mind as he reached for a nearby shovel. Why me? Why do these things always happen to me?

***

It took them well over four hours to dig down into the tunnels and probably would have gone a lot faster had Craven not insisted that Echser bend his back to the task as well. Mortin knew that he had many, many virtues – digging holes was decidedly not one of them. More than once, Hornbach and Stefan seemed to consider accidentally braining him with their spades, just so they could get him out of the way. Especially Stefan dug into the soil as if it was an enemy, glaring balefully at Echser when he got in his way, which granted was quite often. The injustice of it all was staggering. As if he wanted to be down here and grub in the earth like a filthy mole!

Stefan did not take a break once, digging like a man possessed, while old Hornbach and Echser – both not the youngest anymore – took turns in helping him. Craven just watched over them and the graveyard in general, cleaning his various weapons while apparently not having a care in the world... the bastard.

Echser groaned with relief when their shovels finally connected with the tunnels. They broke through, and thankfully, the bomb was still there. They lit it, then sealed both tunnel entrances with boards and covered everything with a few handfuls of earth so that nothing of the colorful, sweet-smelling smoke would escape.

"I must commend you on a job well done, meine Herren," said Craven. "Now, master Stefan, you better hurry to those street urchins we talked about and sent them on the hunt. Pray tell them to scour the area around the graveyard and check any sewer grate, any old cellar, anything really connected to the underground to see if red smoke is pouring out somewhere. Also, let them know them to use their noses. If they smell..." He turned toward Echser. "What is the smoke supposed to smell like, my friend?"

"Uhm... Cherry. It smells of cherries."

"There you go. Tell them, that they will receive a handful of copper for any entrance they find."

"Entrance?" asked Stefan.

"But of course. The smoke will fill the tunnels and slowly drift upwards. It should gather around any of the larger entrances to the world below and concentrate around the nest itself, where there is likely to be more space. Now go, time is of the essence."

Stefan looked as if he wanted to say something but then just snapped his mouth shut and hurried away.

Craven turned to Echser and Hornbach. "We will cover the graveyard. Pay particular attention to any of the mausoleums and shout if you find something."

And just like, the hunt was afoot.

****************************

Greetings friends of ghoulish entertainment!

I hope, you are still having fun. With this chapter, the story is well within the 10k word range. Wish me luck for the next round of the OpenNovellaContest!

And while you are at it, press your second thumb for our ghoul 'n ghost hunters as well. 

I have a feeling they might need it...

M.