THE GROUND WAS rocky, and uneven.

The sparse foliage peaking out through the cracks of gravel and granite boulders was brown, withering. It was a fairly unsafe area to walk through, let alone to attempt to excavate.

I was standing by a small quarry, my heart stuck in my throat, and my knees shaking as I deliberated on walking up to the beautiful woman who was briefing the rest of the crew. The distance between us is telling, a part of me realised. Close, but not yet there.

Perhaps it should remain that way.

Her face was animated, and her skin flushed, but her eyes were pink from crying and the colour of her irises was dull. When she had finished speaking, she smiled weakly and turned —and met my gaze. She softly bit her lip in contemplation. But upon weighing out her options, she faltered and marched off.

Away from me.

My feet moved forward of their own accord.

"Lorenne —!" As I then called out her name, I slipped and fell on my backside into the ditch.

"Miss García, are you all right?!" someone called.

"What happened?"

"Miss García just fell!"

Everyone then seemed frantic and startled by my little accident, but there was only one person's reaction about which I cared.

Lorenne paused and turned back, staring down at me as I spat out dirt that lingered on me. Despite being upset, she rushed over and offered her hand to me. I hesitated for a moment, guilt proving to be a greater obstacle, but she encouraged me to take it.

I gripped it and she then pulled me up to my feet. After a medical examination for any sprains or twists, the commotion then died down and the crew dispersed, leaving Lorenne and me secluded.

"Are you...okay?" Lorenne asked.

I nodded, dusting myself off.

"No, I mean are you okay?" she reiterated. "Especially concerning earlier on the ferry."

I recalled Valdez's words, that Lorenne had been so worried. "I'm fine, I promise," I assured her. "It was only three minutes."

"It could have been six minutes," she hissed, her frustration finally coming out. "You could have...died. Are the visions always that deadly?"

"No," I murmured. "I was underwater this time."

Lorenne looked like she was about to snap someone's neck. "I know...you say that you have no control over them," she said through her teeth, "but if they could so easily kill you, Maya —I don't know what I..."

She trailed off and abruptly turned away, trying to regain her composure. Guilt piled on top of guilt, and my chest began to constrict, blocking air.

I wasn't sure if her concern for me was warranted, on the level that wasn't as a friend. I wouldn't want me to die either, but she was pinning me as the culprit responsible for all of my afflictions.

I wasn't to blame. This was a curse.

"What...what do you want me to do?" I asked. "It's been my problem to deal with up until now. Why do you want to involve yourself in it? With me?"

Lorenne whirled around, and marched right up to me. My breathing stilled as I dared to meet her eye. She was barely five centimetres away. "I just want you to talk to me," she said quietly.

She then folded her arms and glanced at her shoes. I still had to apologise for something. I swallowed the lump in my throat and mumbled out, "I'm sorry."

She kicked a stone. "For what?"

"For avoiding you," I quipped. "I was...scared," I finally admitted. She looked up, her expression one of skepticism. "When this morning happened, I was startled. I didn't know how to react to it, so I tried to avoid it completely. But now, I know that wasn't fair to you. And I'm sorry," I repeated, earnestly looking into her eyes. "I'm also sorry for causing you worry. But you don't have to —I can handle it on my own."

Lorenne's lips were pressed into a tight line, and her eyes were narrowed at me. I tried to read her expression, but it wouldn't give anything away.

"I was worried about you," was her response.

Then she wouldn't say anything more. We simply stared, my heart beating erratically and my mind swimming in unanswered questions. I supposed that it had been naïve of me to think that Lorenne would forgive me and give me a straightforward answer to a question I had been asking for a while.

"Do you...hate me now?" I whispered.

"Hate you?" she echoed, her voice flat. "Maya —when you decided to avoid me, I felt like I had made a mistake." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear bashfully. "It really hurt when you suddenly pulled away. I was prepared to give you space, but when you went under..." her voice broke, and so did my heart, "I was so suddenly terrified —I didn't know why."

"I don't want to burden you like that," I said earnestly.

She managed a small smile. "Well, friends look out for each other, don't they?"

My heart skipped a beat. The word 'friends' cut in a way I hadn't anticipated. As though it was an imposed idea that I had no right to go against. It was at that point that I realised that Lorenne was a genuine person with her own feelings and thoughts. I had set her on a pedestal and at the same time, expected her to reach out to me. Maybe I was taking advantage of her kind and loving nature. I was being too forward, as I always had been.

How many times will it have to end up this way?

So, I ended up agreeing. "Of course," I quipped.

Emotion flickered in her eyes.

"Well, we have work to do. We should get to the site," I managed before she could say anything; my feet already having forgotten their lesson before and marching off towards the sound of chatter.

I usually kept to myself at sites, so I wasn't unaccustomed to sitting at a distance on a lone boulder, my nose buried in my notebook. It allowed me on this occasion to spare myself the embarrassment of a few minutes ago, and interacting with the directory.

I knew it was petty, but I also knew that it could end badly if I tried to include myself, now or ever again. This was where I was at my best: alone, and focused.

At least I had something with which to distract myself.

I fought off the sense of pathetic self pity and attempted to appear indifferent. I didn't need to start feeling inferior and weak —not with everything else going on around me. I needed to remain cool and collected, and maybe even a little bit nonchalant.

I now knew how important it was not to allow people to see that they got to you. If they saw how strong and self assured you could be, they wouldn't bother you. However, I was still learning when it came to wearing my heart on my sleeve.

The first time a crush had gone to shit I still had to sit next to her for the rest of the semester. It was only two weeks, but she ended up in a completely different class after examinations.

No one said anything about it —aloud.

I knew they were judging me, wondering what I had done to drive the poor prettiest girl in the class away. I moved seats and kept to the back, hoping to go unnoticed. Eventually, I did become invisible.

I preferred it that way. I didn't have to talk to anyone; I didn't have to engage; and I didn't have to embarrass myself as a result. That resolve tended not to exist momentarily whenever I saw someone attractive. It always found a way to bite me in the ass, though.

Always harder.

Just as it was now —though it could have been due to the rock on which I was sitting.

The site where we were supposed to be digging was near the earlier discovered temple ruins, which were overrun by both dead and ample vegetation. Though erosion and weathering had claimed the once beautiful façade, I glanced over the writings that were visible, and a foreboding gnawed at me.

"Do you know what they say?" Valdez came over and asked me, frowning at them as well.

"It's not exactly coherent," I said, frowning at my notebook nestled in my hand, while the other hovered my pencil over a page. "It's basically a warning. If I had to fill it in, it would be 'beware. temple of Huitzilopochtli. god of the sun, war and sacrifice. If human blood touches the sacred place, a curse will befell their children; and their children's children.' But that's a little poetic licence," I added sheepishly.

"Sounds believable," Valdez sighed.

Lorenne, who was standing beside him, then said that the last few lines sounded ominous.

I pushed away the feeling of my heart being ripped out of my chest and focused on the writings.

I knew at what she was getting —that part about the curse. She was right to point it out. It wasn't just something to do with me —the atmosphere felt off where we were standing. As though I were standing in two completely different places at the same time.

I then stood up and took a step forward —a sharp pain then suddenly shot up every vein in my right leg. I winced and fell to my knees.

Lorenne and Valdez were instantly next to me, asking what the matter was. The crew looked on uncertainly, unsure of whether or not this was part of protocol. I could barley hear them. A low hissing sound was resonating in my skull, while lightning crackled through the ground and held my feet down in some sort of closed circuit.

"Oh my God," Lorenne rasped, her eyes locked on my legs. The lightning seemed to be real —my veins were pulsating with glowing white light.

"Your eyes, Maya," Valdez hissed. "They're sparking."

I could feel the electrical discharges. Something then compelled me to place my hands on the ground, and feel the soil. A shiver ran down my spine at the image my mind conjured based on what my hands could sense. It was something unlike we had ever found.

"Maya," Valdez then said, vaguely gaining my attention. "What can you see?"

My hands flinched back. "...We shouldn't dig here."

As if to prove my point, the ground suddenly vanished and I was swallowed up in darkness. Only this time, Valdez and Lorenne were taken with me.

author's note |
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