Valerio Manfredi: The Ancient Curse

‘Sonia, there’s no time to explain, but if you are willing to complete the job – that is, to separate all the animal bones from the human bones – please, turn back and do it. Go back down there and sort out all the bones and then don’t move from there. Lock yourself in and open the door only if you hear my voice. Sonia, please, please, please do this for me!’

His voice sounded so desperate that Sonia’s mood changed completely. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’

‘Sonia, when it’s time I’ll tell you everything and you’ll be glad you helped me. Just tell me that you’ll do it, right away.’

‘Maybe there is a way to figure it out. The colour is slightly different, but that means I’ll need a solar colour-temperature light… Right, OK, I think I can handle it. You call Mario and tell him to let me in. I’ll take care of the rest.’

‘Thank you, Sonia. I knew I could count on you. I’ll call Mario right away.’

‘Listen, so when are you coming?’

‘As soon as I can, but I have to find something first. You don’t move from there and don’t open the door for anyone but me, understand?’

‘I understand,’ said Sonia, and hung up. ‘I understand that you’re completely bonkers,’ she continued, mumbling to herself, ‘but I’m too curious to see where this wild ride will end.’

FRANCESCA made her way through the rooms under the Caretti-Riccardi palace, lighting her path with a torch and holding Angelo by the hand. The child was strangely calm and placid.

She whispered, ‘Only you can stop him, little guy. No one else, understand?’

‘Will they kill him?’ asked the boy.

‘Maybe not,’ replied Francesca. ‘Maybe not, if you can stop him.’

She looked at her watch: it was nearly seven o’clock. At that moment the underground chambers filled with the beast’s long howl. A deep, gurgling sound, far and near at the same time, refracted and disrupted by the subterranean labyrinth.

‘I think… he’s still down here. Maybe in that side tunnel we saw yesterday, remember?’

Angelo nodded and tightened his grip on her hand.

‘Maybe we’re still in time to stop him…’

The boy was trembling all over now and squeezing Francesca’s hand hard. She could feel the sweat on his small fingers.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ she told him. ‘We’re trying to save a lot of people. We’re trying to put an end to hatred that has been festering for a very long time, to heal an old, old wound…’

She was talking to herself more than to the child. She didn’t even know if he was listening, but as they walked down the tunnel that led to the old cistern, she had a distinct sensation of heat coming off the boy’s hand, a spark of violent energy that ran up her arm and through her body. Her face felt hot. They were getting closer and closer to the fork where the monster had run off down the secondary tunnel the day before. The snarling was louder now, and clearer, and another noise could be heard as well, still far away for the moment: the sound of claws scratching the tufa as the animal ran towards them.

SONIA SPED through the maze of streets in the old city until she reached the museum. Fabrizio must have phoned, because there was Mario with keys in hand, waiting for her.

‘Back so soon, Dr Vitali? Did you forget something?’

‘Well, yes,’ replied Sonia. ‘I left a book of notes downstairs, and since I had to come back for them, I thought there were still a few things I could usefully do.’

She moved swiftly downstairs to the storeroom with Mario, who inserted a key in the door for her. As Sonia slipped in, she said, ‘Please go on home, Mario. When I’ve finished I’ll set the alarm and pull the main door shut behind me.’

She closed the door before Mario could answer. He slowly climbed the stairs up to the ground floor. He was used to the strange habits of academics and researchers: people who lived in another world, just like Balestra, the director, who closed himself up in his office for weeks on end, studying Lord knows what. He hung the keys on a hook in the security guard’s booth, put on his coat and walked outside. There were just a few steps between the museum entrance and the front door to his house, but he felt as weighed down as if he were wearing shoes of lead. A strange feeling he’d never experienced before.

Meanwhile, in the basement, Sonia switched on the overhead light as well as the spotlight that was trained on the big skeleton standing on a wooden platform at the end of the room. She had wired the bones together using a system of steel bindings she had devised herself. For the first time, she saw it with new eyes: no longer as a palaeozoological specimen but as a fleshless monster, a Cerberus straight out of hell.

She drew in a long breath and approached the pedestal. She had collected all the leftover bone fragments on a piece of white felt. She knelt down and began to pick out the pieces that surely belonged to the human skeleton: fragments of the skull – several of which still bore the marks of the fangs that had crushed it – and of the long bones, the humeri and femurs cruelly snapped by the bite of powerful jaws. She then began to examine the remaining fragments: ribs, vertebrae, phalanxes, astragali…

She sighed. What criteria could she use in separating them? There were certainly a number of options, all of them reliable, but given the conditions and the urgency – what emergency could Fabrizio possibly be on about? – there was just one fast, sure way: colour. The animal bones were a bit darker.

‘I guess I’ll just have to make do with what I have,’ she mused aloud.

She took some of the plastic boxes they used for collecting archaeological finds and stacked them up next to the bone fragments on the white felt. She took a Polaroid camera from her bag, climbed up her improvised staircase and snapped one, two, three shots at slightly different angles. She examined the prints one by one, chose the best and then ran up to the first floor. There was no one in any of the offices. She reached the laboratory and switched on the highest-resolution scanner. She framed a single fragment and took that colour tone setting, then programmed the machine to recognize all objects having the same tone and to highlight them. In just a few minutes the printer provided an image with all the selected fragments. Sonia shut off the machine and the lights and ran back underground, carefully bolting the main door as Fabrizio had ordered. Then she placed the printout on the ground and began to sort out each one of the highlighted fragments, laying them carefully on the wooden pedestal beneath the skeleton.

FRANCESCA grasped Angelo’s hand without taking her eyes off the opening to the tunnel, which was framed by the beam of torchlight.

‘We’re here. Come on, little guy. Let’s give it a go.’

They started to advance, very slowly, clinging to each other, preparing to meet the beast’s charge. And all at once the sound of powerful legs, the scraping of sharp claws on stone, got closer and closer until they were face to face. Huge, dreadful, mouth foaming, eyes shot through with blood, monstrous fangs bared to the root. The child screamed and Francesca shouted out loud to release a burst of unbearable tension. The animal responded with a furious roar. Angelo and Francesca cowered against the wall, overwhelmed by horror. The snarling beast drew closer, a deep rattle coming from its throat, and Francesca understood that what she’d done was insane. She shielded the boy with her own body, hoping that the monster would be sated by her blood alone.

SONIA heard the doorbell ringing insistently and then a furious banging of fists on the door. The main entrance! She’d forgotten the bolt on the door upstairs! She left the room, ran up the steps and towards the door, yelling as she went, ‘Who’s there?’