This post is an entry into the Scholar and Scribe "Thriller" edition invitational. If you'd like to join the fun, you can find the post HERE - the themes are Horror and Mystery.
Image by Gerd Wittka from Pixabay
"So what do we have here, hmmm ?"
Professor Winter's tone was mild, full of curiosity. But everyone in the tent clustered around the small monitor screen recognised that behind the white hair and impression of eccentric scholasticism was an incredibly sharp mind. One thoroughly at home in the harsh world of university social climbing and project budgets. They knew that if he wasn't suitably impressed, the whole dig would be closed down for good.
It was Doctor John Marsh who replied. He was head of the dig for that year, and had the most to lose if the explanation wasn't convincing enough.
"This is the image generated by our latest geophys survey. We came at it from a new angle, laterally down rather than directly vertical. As you know, we've been excavating Wilsford Long Barrow for five seasons now. The finds have been good, and at the oldest range of the time horizon we'd expect this close to Coneybury Henge, but pretty much what we expected."
Winter tapped his pipe to clear out the ash, a clear signal of irritation. He'd heard all this before.
But Marsh's next sentence cured that. "What you can see on screen here is that what we thought was a relatively normal, if old, multi-chambered long barrow appears to have an additional secret chamber. One blocked off from the rest of the barrow by a pair of large flat sarsens."
"Are you sure about this ?" asked Winter sharply. "Multi-chamber barrows are open-plan, everyone knows that. Wilsford is utterly typical; a passage with three chambers on each side, the bones in each sorted by function."
"Come down and see," was all Marsh said in response.
They went to see the site late that afternoon, when the last rays of the setting sun would illuminate the central passage, although they still had to use torches once they reached the end. The interior of the barrow was constructed of many sets of trilithons; pairs of upright stones as tall as a man with a flat stone laid across the top to support the weight of earth above.
"There," Marsh gestured at the end of the passage. "What we thought was just a large flat sarsen at the end of the passage turns out to be a loose stone propped up and concealing two behind it."
"Well, if you've documented it all thoroughly, let's get it out of the way and see." Winter still had the discipline to ensure archaeological protocols were correctly followed.
With the help of two of the accompanying students they were able to move the sarsen. It was a tight space, and all they could do was move it back and turn it so they could prop it against one side of the passage.
What they saw made all of them gasp. Two smaller flat sarsens standing next to each other like a pair of doors. But more importantly, rock art, as clear as the day it had been made. Some long barrows had spirals or cup and ring art. But none had ever been found with anything like this.
What had been painstakingly carved into the rock had the style of one of those hunting scenes you sometimes see. But there were no aurochs, deer or boars here. The only animals were dogs, clearly working with stick-like figures wielding spears.
At the centre of the piece, drawn larger than the rest, was a human-like figure. It had horns resembling those of a stag on it's head, like a shaman might have had. But it's face was clear, and bore an expression designed to inspire terror. Sharp teeth were clearly visible, and wide staring eyes painted bright white. It's hands and feet were carved to points, suggesting sharp spiky claws at the end of angled, contorted limbs.
Above it was painted a smaller figure, human, and the intermediate size suggested it represented a leader of the spear-bearers. It's spear was on the ground at it's feet, and in it's hands it bore some kind of acute wedge shape pointed down at the shaman's head, touching right between the horns.
"What do you make of it, professor ?"
Marsh was in awe; this was beyond anything he'd ever expected to find. One part of him knew it could make his reputation. But another part made him wonder what would inspire their distant ancestors to make such a terrifying image here at the oldest part of the barrow.
Winter studied the carved art for a long while, and then said with a slightly pompous tone, "What I have discovered here is an unique piece of early Neolithic petroglyphic rock art, including human and anthropoid figures, and painted with soot, chalk and red ochre."
As Marsh listened with growing dismay, Winter carried on.
"I believe we can move one of these smaller sarsens easily enough to determine if there is indeed a hidden chamber, or if it is just an unusual construction technique for the end of the main passageway. Come on students, let's borrow a bit of muscle here."
The two students easily turned the stone. A light patter of dust fell from the ceiling; after all, these slabs of stone hadn't been touched for over six thousand years.
The sight that their torches revealed shocked all of them. Long barrows were communal graves and shrines to their builders. The bones of the dead were exposed until they were de-fleshed, then sorted into the barrows by type. All the skulls went in one chamber, all the leg bones in another, and so forth. Individuals lost their identity and blended into the community of venerated ancestors.
But here, on a shelf at the far end of the small chamber, was propped a single skeleton. Almost a mummy; some connective tissue could still be seen holding the bones together. The skull had stag's horns, attached to the bone, not just some shamanic headdress. The finger and toe bones were fused into long spikes. The teeth were sharp points; it was unclear if they were filed or had grown that way.
Whoever, or whatever, the skeleton belonged to was a giant even by modern standards; at least six foot six tall, even before considering the horns.
Most horrifying of all, the skull was pierced from above by a massive spike of flint, driven in and wedged with the point emerging beneath the jaw.
Behind them, they heard a scraping sound. One of the students got free. The rest of them were too slow, as the sarsen they'd propped up ground over the passage floor to block their escape route.
Then they heard another sound, as the skeleton started to slowly rise from it's millennia-old slumber.
Their battery-powered torches flickered and died, snuffed out like candles in a breeze.
It was pitch black. They could heard each other's breathing, and could hear something else moving slowly and carefully nearby, but could see nothing.
Until a pair of madly staring bright white eyes flashed open in front of them, faintly illuminating sharp teeth in a mouth that snapped open and shut over and over again.