Chapter 16

Madison was a bit flabbergasted when Lindsey suggested that she'd go with her but didn't want to pass up on this opportunity. Kris thought it was odd and eyed Lindsey warily but decided to let it go.

"Dress for the concert. I want to head straight for the arena when we're finished," instructed Lindsey.

Madison opted for casual, selecting a simple boat neck top paired with jeans. She wanted Richie's gift to be the highlight of her outfit and this would show it off nicely. Donning plain hoop earrings and sensible sandals, she was ready.

As she led the way out of the hotel, she heard a clack, clack, whomp, clack, clack, whomp coming up behind her, and turned to find the source of the noise. Lindsey was hobbling along behind her wearing stilettos with her ankles giving way every other step. "Lindsey! Why are wearing those? You're going to kill yourself before we even get to the church."

"This is how we always dress for a Bon Jovi concert," she informed Madison. "I'm fine. Now let's go before we're late."

Clack, clack, whomp, clack, clack, whomp.....

They opted to take a cab for the three miles to save time and Lindsey's feet. In less than ten minutes, they were standing in front of the Temple Church.

Temple Church
Built by the Knights Templar, Temple Church consists of two parts; The Round and the Chancel. The Round Church, consecrated in 1185, was designed after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, considered by the Crusaders to be the holiest place in the world. It is in the nave of the Round Church where the effigies of the knights lay in eternal silence.

"Ewwww!" Lindsey was squealing - and clacking - around the effigies, "what the hell are these, mummies?"

"Shhh! What's wrong with you?" Madison was mortified, "we're in a church. And no, those are not mummies. They're just stone effigies."

"Effi....what?"

"Effigies. Like statues. There are ten of them."

"Why are they lying down, then? And there are only nine statues. That one over there is just a slab."

This was true, for while nine of the effigies depicted the knights in various positions of repose, one sported what appeared to be a sarcophagus lid. Madison walked closer to it to read the sign at its foot: Attribution Unknown

"I'm not sure what that means." She didn't really care, either, as she was mesmerized by the sense of history as she crossed to the far side and touched the stained and crumbling walls of the many arches, imagining the stories they held. Between the arches of the alcoves, grotesque heads protruded from the mortarboard, seeming to mock her attempts to cajole them into telling her their secrets.

She was holding the pendant and scanning the alcoves for any significance to the writing that was on it, trying to recall what part the Temple played in the novel.

"What are you looking for?"

"To see if there's a connection to this pendant here."

Lindsey came up and took a closer look at the pendant. "I don't know. Part of it looks like those spirally designs," she pointed up towards to top of the polished dark marble columns. The columns, which were leaning outward at an odd angle, were not original to the structure and they contrasted with the ancient scroll work.

"Hmmm, maybe, but those designs are quite common. There must be something else." Madison smoothed her fingers over the etchings and scanned the nave. The high arches and the detailed stained glass windows offered no clues however, and crestfallen, she decided that this was not the place she was looking for. Could it be that I missed something at Westminster?

"Can we go now? This place creeps me out." Lindsey was starting to whine.

Madison sighed, but since they were not looking for the Holy Grail, agreed. If they hurry, they might be able to still make it to the sound check. Or at least catch the end of it. It was getting pretty late and if they kept dawdling, they might miss the start of the concert.

As they started out for the exit, Madison noticed a small set of stairs leading downward. "Let's check this out. Maybe there's something interesting down there."

They reached the bottom and seeing a door slightly ajar, pushed it and entered a small, dark room. "There's nothing in here, and it's dark and spooky. Let's get out of here." Lindsey was getting agitated at the delays.

"Fine." They turned to leave just as they heard the door close with a definitive click.

*****

"We're locked in!" Lindsey was hysterical. "Someone is trying to trap us here!"

"Calm down. It probably just closed on its own." Madison groped through the dark and found the handle. "It's locked."

"See what you did? I shouldn't have come with you. We're going to die here!" She was screaming.

"Lindsey! Stop!" Madison could not think with all the screeching. "I'm sure someone will come down soon," she said, her shaky voice betraying her confidence.

"No! Please, just get it open. I can't stay here, I can't..." Lindsey was sobbing now.

It dawned on Madison that Lindsey was claustrophobic and her initial irritation turned to sympathy. "Look, it's going to be okay." She put her arms around Lindsey and held her. Lindsey was resistant at first but then leaned into Madison and sobbed into her shoulder.

"Oh, my god. This place...it's dark and closed in...it's like a tomb..."

"Shhh, it's okay. We'll get out, I promise."

They stood there, Madison with her arms around Lindsey, for what seemed like an eternity. It could have been an hour, or it could have been a few minutes. It was hard to tell the passing of time when you were standing in total darkness.

"Aren't you afraid of anything?"

"Sure, I'm afraid of life, of failure, spiders..."

"No, I don't mean stuff like that." Lindsey suddenly remembered something in her purse and dug through it. After a few moments she produced the object in triumph.

Madison jumped back from the flickering flame coming from the lighter in Lindsey's hand. "What are you doing?"

"Getting some light into this god forsaken place. What's wrong?"

Madison fought to keep her fear in check as she knew that Lindsey needed that tiny bit of illumination more than she needed the solace of the darkness. Lindsey watched her as she backed away from the only source of comfort in the room.

"You're afraid of fire! Why?"

"Someone close to me died because of it."




They heard the turning of a key and suddenly the door swung open, flooding the room with the light coming from outside. "What are you people doing in here? This place is off limits to the public."

"Sorry, we thought there was more to see down here." Lindsey and Madison could not get out of there fast enough.

"This used to be a prison cell during the days of the Knights Templar," the church staffer told them, "it's a good thing I thought I heard voices down here."




"Nina will never let me live it down. She used to torment me when we were kids because of my fear of closed, dark spaces."

"Nina does not need to know."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Madison?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

Madison smiled a genuine smile for the first time at Lindsey. "Come on, we've most likely missed the first few minutes of the concert."

"How are we going to explain that?"

"We'll just tell them that we were in prison."

Laughing, they hurried off to find a cab.

Clack, clack, whomp, clack, clack, whomp.....

*****