author's note |
i'm so excited for this chapter. here's some character reference for my favourite aztec god ~

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

I WASN'T GOOD in a crisis.

But I was significantly better than Valdez Lors.

Though he was no longer hysterical, Lorenne and I could feel the panic radiating from him. We could hear it in his uncertain steps, and see it in the way his flashlight jerked back and forth at the slightest sound. More so his breathing; though quiet, was like a child's after they had cried until they were red in the face.

The only thing that kept me from turning around and snapping at him was Lorenne, and our clasped hands.

Friends held hands and linked arms, didn't they? It was definitely more socially acceptable as females than males. To me though, it felt just as romantic as a boy and a girl. But who was to say that boys and girls couldn't be friends and hold hands?

I glanced down between us as I thought back to our argument. I wanted this to mean something.

My mind was so preoccupied with overthinking that I didn't hear the first time when Lorenne pointed down the tunnel and declared something unusual.

"Look," she repeated in exasperation, "it looks like there's an opening up ahead."

"An exit?" Valdez quipped hopefully.

"A room," Lorenne deadpanned.

"And you think that we should go there?" I asked.

"Would you rather go back and see how the walls have changed?" Lorenne offered.

She raised a fair point. Yet as we made our way towards the archway up ahead, my skin grew cold and every muscle in my body pulled against that direction. As though something was telling me not to go in there. But I held my breath, every step calculated as I felt the earth beneath my feet for anything out of the ordinary. The ground thrummed with some form of life, but otherwise, it felt —dense and thick, as it should.

Then it was dry and crumbly, as we stepped into the dimly illuminated room, the floor layered with cobblestone over the cracking dirt.

Those same golden pillars lined the walls, which were an eroded mesh of mud and large building bricks. Vines snaked between them, while moss caked the cracks and indents in the pillars' design. The source of light it seemed, was coming from the centre of the room; a large granite fountain flowed with glowing azure water. We all shared suspicious looks.

How could the water look so fresh and clean when this underground maze was in the condition that it was? And more importantly —not that my colleagues knew —why was the ground around it so dry?

"Uh...anyone thirsty?" Valdez said uneasily, now characteristically attempting to lighten the situation.

"That's not very funny, Valdez," Lorenne huffed, slowly unweaving her fingers from mine, before walking forward and leaning over the fountain. "What do you think is up with this water anyway?"

"Careful where you step," I then blurted out, my hand flinging out of its own accord. It missed her shoulder by a few inches, causing me to awkwardly retract my arm to my side. "There could be automated traps."

She stiffened and backtracked, coming to a standstill beside me. Valdez glanced at the floor, looking for patterns. "There aren't any clear triggers. But look —there's a plaque here."

At the base of the fountain, was a small golden plaque with a brief inscription. Being the only one who vaguely understood it, I squinted at the writing and read it aloud. "...Whoever is so...fortune? Fortunate," I corrected, "to find the...window, must drink and look in it with an open mind and...spirit."

"What?" Valdez deadpanned. "It actually wants us to drink from it?"

"I don't think it's forcing you," Lorenne assured.

"If anything, I think that we should all be deterred," I spoke up. "There isn't anything fortunate about this."

We stared at the water uneasily, and I could have sworn I could feel it hum just like the ground outside. Only —there was no longer an archway leading out.

Or coming in.

"Where did the tunnels go?" Lorenne whispered, also having noticed. "There was the way we came in and another way out —wasn't there?"

"There was," I confirmed, narrowing my eyes at a line of vines that tried to conceal the thick, watered earth from outside in the tunnels.

Something didn't want us to leave.

Valdez, for whatever reason, looked not nervous or spooked, but guilty and fearful. It almost made me ask him what was the matter, but then he sank to the floor and sat there. He didn't utter a word, his hair falling into his face and obscuring his expression.

Guilty. Why would he feel that way?

If his reasoning was something along the lines of a male's civil duty to a woman or some other misogynistic driven bullshit, then I wasn't even going to bother.

If it was anyone's fault that we were down here, it was my own. If I hadn't felt the ground, or been near them, or even come all the way out here —maybe then it would only be me trapped down here.

I decided that I would have been fine with that.

"Maya," Lorenne then said, looking me directly in the eye. I turned to face her. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Singing," she breathed.

I frowned as I then watched her twirl and dance around the fountain, giggling hysterically. I looked back at Valdez —he was now staring at nothing, hunched up and holding his head as though he were in pain.

I opened my mouth to say something, but my movements felt wrong, weird. Slow. I was moving too slowly. My words came out long and exaggerated, in slow motion. I looked around the room. My eyes landed on a pair of heavily outline glowing golden eyes, the only features on an otherwise covered dark bronzed face.

Our eyes widened at the same time, as having spotted each other —the heavy slow feeling in my body broke away. Lorenne stopped dancing, and Valdez, suddenly calm, looked up in confusion.

We all stared at the golden eyes.

A body then emerged from the mass of vines and shadows that had encased them, tall and toned, marked with ancient Mayan art. He wore only a long red and gold and white loincloth underneath a massive red fur cloak, held together at his neck by a large woven leaf fibre collar. In his right hand, he wielded a decorated spear, which I supposed matched his outfit.

And on his head of long grassy coils of hair, sat a headdress of red feathers and a coyote skull.

He stomped his foot. "Tricks...not...as planned," he hissed. "Stupid non humans..."

That statement flew right over my head as I froze and the breath in my lungs stilled. A god.

A god was here, standing in front of me —in front of us. I glanced at Lorenne and Valdez just to make sure I wasn't having another vision. Sure enough, we all seemed to be seeing the same thing.

I blinked. The god was still there, standing across the room. "Who...who are you?" I asked.

His focus strayed solely on me. "Maya," he said. "No. None. You...not meant to be...here."

"What?"

"He knows your name," Lorenne gasped, her hands comically over her mouth.

Valdez had blanched, looking almost as pale as the bricks beneath our feet. The god then seemed to notice, and met the archaeologist's gaze. There was an emotion in his eyes, one for which I couldn't find a name.

Then he said, "I...sorry, Valdez."

Valdez paused at the sound of his name. Though he didn't really understand the rest of the sentence, his eyes narrowed at the tone, at the sadness.

My brows rose. "Who are you?" I asked the god again.

His gaze shifted back to me. He lowered his spear. "What matters...who you are."

"Why?" I questioned.

"People...come for one...Reverse fate," he tried. "Unworthy...punished. Those I...favour...rewarded."

I considered the bits and pieces that I had understood carefully. If he did all of that, could he maybe...reverse my curse? He must know about it, since he called me by name. Maybe he knew me, too.

"Maya, what is he saying?" Lorenne asked anxiously.

I had momentarily forgotten it wasn't just the two do us in here having a conversation. "He...he's saying that he can reverse fate. Change destiny."

Valdez gasped. "You want him to take away your curse."

"I sure hope he can," I breathed, looking back at the god. He stared back at me, not giving any confirmation nor denial of the possibility.

"Maya," Lorenne then quipped, grabbing hold of my arm. Her eyes were filled with apprehension. "If he can take your curse away, wouldn't that mean...you have to give up your gift, as well?"

I hesitated. What would happen to my income if I could no longer aid these excursions? Yet all the same, I didn't want to deal with the visions anymore. I didn't want to deal with the gods, and if I could get out of this and leave it behind me, I would. Dealing with all I had had to up until now was going to kill me some day.

"I think that it's worth the risk," I told Lorenne.

Her lips pressed into a tight line and her grip tightened, tugging me closer. I wondered why she cared so much, and why she was trying to stop me. But then she let me go, and edged away self consciously.

"Your fate," the god then said. "...bonded...with hers."

"Her?" I repeated, gesturing to Lorenne.

"Me?" she mumbled, her brows rising.

The god walked forward, sighing deeply before he reached for the cloth over his nose and mouth and pulled it down. His teeth —they were long, thin and slender...like a coyote's. We all inhaled sharply.

Then he shifted —the fur cloak stretched and coated his skin as his limbs became leaner with less muscle. The skull on his headdress merged with his own, until he resembled a large wolf-man.

"What the —" Valdez started.

"You...want to see...reasons? All...You want to see...past lives?" the god offered.

"Past lives?" I repeated. "What do you mean?"

The god then glanced back at me, his gold eyes set and narrowed. "Follow," he ordered, before leaping into the fountain and disappearing into the water.