Author's note: If you have not yet read parts One and Two of "To Dance with the Dead", please go to the Horror Archive and click on the parts you have missed. Thank you, TDS.

The air, though cold, had a musty, ancient taste to it, as if undisturbed by the faintest movement of fresh air for millennia. Thoughts of Lovecraftian horror flooded my fevered brain as I strained my ears to catch the slightest sound from up and down that dimly lighted passage, the ends of which appeared to fade away in the misty haze in both directions. Only a chill silence assailed my senses, but even that did little to ease my growing fear.

Nearing panic, I turned back to the stairway, preparing to run back up the stairs, but the darkness therein halted me. Only a small amount of dim light entered the stairwell, illuminating but the first six feet of winding stairs and as I stared into the featureless darkness above me, I knew that I was not brave enough to leave even this meager light to once again enter that Stygian realm. At least in my present position I would be able to see my way as I moved about and I shuddered yet again at the prospect of once more fighting my way through that unknown blackness in an attempt to find an exit. I was obviously still lost, but I tried to calm myself, somewhat, with the hopeful assurance that there must be another way out of this crypt, other than the one I had used to gain entry.

Steeling myself as best I could and taking a deep breath, I moved out into the middle of the passage, wishing to keep as much distance as possible between myself and the marble enclosed tombs that lined the walls. One direction appearing as good as the other, I started off in a direction which I hoped would lead me to the front of the building, assuming the most likelihood of an ascending stairway lying in that area. The light--what there was of it--came from behind stone outcroppings near the low ceiling, but as I slowly traversed the passage, I noticed that in some areas the lights were dark. Whether that section of lights were burned out or were dark for some other reason, I could not know, but passing through those areas of shadow was extremely disheartening and I hurried my steps each time I approached one of those lightless sections.