Unmasked

by Dale Mayer

“In the first case, it was very fast,” he said. “I can’t guarantee that this dig site will suffer the same scenario, the same time frame, or if, indeed, this will exactly follow the same pattern, but we had less than a handful of days from the time we really clued in to the strangeness of what was going on before things got deadly.”

  “And how many people died?”

  He took a deep breath and said, “Four.”

  She could feel the breath leaving her chest. “That’s a lot of people.”

  He nodded softly. “It is indeed.”

  “And did you also have multiple spirits back then?”

  He dropped his gaze to the table, and then he shook his head. “I’m not sure because we weren’t really aware of what supernatural events were going on. We didn’t recognize the signs early enough. And, by the time we did, all we saw was the negative energy. One very strong and powerful male energy as far as we could tell. A very, very angry energy.”

  “Because you opened his dig site?”

  “Who knows? It’s not like the entity discussed any of this with us.”

  “Understood.” She took another sip of her wine and thought about how strong that feeling was that she had to go back there tomorrow. Then the vile taste hit her—and her stomach curled. Ugh. She slowly replaced the wineglass on the table, then looked up at him. “Not only do I have to return to the site tomorrow but I have to go back to that same hole in the ground Hunter was in today.”

  Sebastian shook his head. “Hell no.”

  She slid her fingers over his hand, entwining their fingers together. “I have to. I have no choice.”

  His glare worried her until she understood the fear in it – the fear for her.

  He gripped her fingers tightly and then nodded. “Then I’m going with you.”

  She stared up at the sky. “Maybe Hunter too.”

  “What are you supposed to do there?”

  “Find something,” she said.

  “Find what?”

  “Find a mask,” she whispered, unable to help herself.

  *

  Sebastian’s heart dropped. “Find a mask? You’re expecting to find a mask there? One of the ones that you drew?”

  She puzzled at his words for a moment. “I don’t know. I feel like a mask was there, but I highly doubt it’s there after all this time. I don’t know if its Linnea telling me to go get it though.”

  “It certainly could be, from her–or the other entity. If you can’t tell, I certainly can’t.” he said, “considering how much Pompeii was completely enveloped by lava and dust. Just buried. But it’s a major excavation to get a mask like that, and we’re not allowed to do it.”

  “Right. I forgot about that.” She looked at him. “I don’t understand what these masks are all about. Did you have a mask in the Mayan expedition?”

  He shook his head. “No. I only heard about the mask from Bruno. Then just because I didn’t doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. I didn’t see the men die so I can’t know.”

  “Do you think it’s the same energy, but now it’s connected to something here, although how it could, I don’t know? I mean, what does this dig site have to do with whatever happened ten years ago at a completely different location?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said gently. “I was told, once the negative energy from the Mayan site had seen me and knew my signature, that it could find me and recognize me later.” He watched as her pupils widened. He gave her a lopsided grin. “Right. I know it all sounds very strange and, in fact, a little on the unnerving side …”

  “Skip the unnerving side,” she said, “that’s downright terrifying.”

  “I just don’t know why the energy would care.”

  “How many people escaped back then?”

  He took a deep breath. “Just me with Hunter’s help.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  She said it in such a way that it was almost like a prayer. She squeezed his fingers and pulled his hand closer to her, so she could hold it with both of her hands. “It’s coming back after you. You escaped. It’s trying to take you out this time.”

  “Not likely.” He chuckled. “First that was a long time ago—why wait ten years?”

  “But you’re at a new dig site, and now we have the same things happening.”

  “Yes. It was also suggested that it’s potentially another pocket of evil energy that has been released. And, because one was released ten years ago, it might have found this one, or this one may have somehow contacted the old one, or they were attracted to each other, so it’s stronger.”

  She started to shake.

  He tucked her up close and said, “I didn’t want to bring this up.”

  “But you have to,” she cried out. “Otherwise I could be walking into a trap.”

  “That’s what I want you to realize. We don’t understand what’s going on here, and you are in danger.”

  “Hell no,” she said. “You’re the one in danger.”

  “No. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my talents. I think I’m the one who may have brought them into being last time. I’m the one who opened a Mayan tomb, at the guidance of the people with me. We didn’t find any valuables at the grave, just the sarcophagus inside. We didn’t get very far down. We didn’t excavate the site. Everything blew up in our face soon afterward and we left.”

  “But that sounds exactly what we just did hours ago, in the caved-in area behind that weird energy barrier.”

  “For the longest time I wondered if there was like a spidery network of dark energy underneath the Earth’s surface, and, if you happened to be unlucky, you’re the one who opens up a pocket where it’s closest to the surface and lets out some of the dark energy,” he said. “I spent a decade studying this topic to find out what the hell was going on at that Mayan site. And honestly I found no answers to support my theory—but that’s not proof either.”

  “Unless it can travel,” she said softly.

  “I thought of that,” he said. “But how?”

  She winced. “It would travel with objects or with … people.”

  He stared at her. “What do you mean, by people?”

  She glanced around at the almost empty balcony and whispered, “Possession.”

  He shook his head in denial. “No, no. That’s not the way it was.”

  “Who else escaped with you?” she asked.

  “Just Hunter, but he was brought in to rescue me or rather to rescue all of us but I was the only one left,” he said calmly. “And, as you can tell, he’s as normal as anyone.”

  At that, she laughed aloud. “There is nothing normal about Hunter,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Hunter’s a very capable person.”

  “He’s a very dangerous, capable person,” she corrected. She waited a long moment and then added, “Any chance he’s possessed?”

  Sebastian shook his head. “No. I think I’d have seen it.”

  “Because of the auras?”

  He nodded.

  “Could you be mistaken?” Not giving him a chance to answer, she asked, “What if you were possessed? Would you see it?”

  Again he nodded. “Just like I can see our combined auras when we hold hands, I can my singular aura by holding up my hand too.”

  “Amazing,” Lacey said.

  “I used to play around with all things supernatural before I went to the Mayan expedition. But afterward, it became a major focus of my world,” he said absentmindedly.

  “Of course you did. It explains why, maybe, this entity came toward you. It understood you had some abilities and might see him, might be able to communicate with him. Did you ever wonder what he wanted back then?”

  “No,” Sebastian said. “It seemed so angry. Whether it was irritated because we had opened up his grave or just because we were there or because he was no longer alive … I mean, how does anyone know?”

  “I guess one doesn’t,” she said. “I don’t get the same feeling of anger here. Maybe with the negative
energy but not with Linnea.”

  “The fact that two people, with very different energies, are involved in this is also very odd,” he said. “It makes no sense.”

  “It does if you consider that one might be protecting something or trying to save something, and the other one is trying to stop her.”

  “It’s possible,” he said doubtfully. “But that’s a lot of energy to be utilized to try to save someone.”

  “I think Linnea loved her sister a lot.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “That’s still an awful lot of energy to stay around the Earth for centuries and then to try to save her once we’re here digging up the site.”

  “I think the energy came once I was here. And then with my arrival you came.”

  “And we both arrived later on the same day the tools were vandalized and some were missing, and that event brought me in. Although we didn’t meet until the next morning at the site.”

  She nodded. “So who’s to say who is responsible for what’s going on? We’ll find out tomorrow.”

  “But, for now,” Sebastian said, “we’ll just enjoy our evening together.”

  And indeed they did, at least a little bit more.

  *

  In the morning Lacey got up, dressed and walked toward the dig site with the rest of the gang. She could feel them studying her a little more with every step she took. She gave them all a bright smile. “I was stupid yesterday. I didn’t eat, and I didn’t have enough water. The heat got to me. I’ll do better today, so I’ll be fine.”

  They looked at each other and over at Chana.

  Chana said, “We decided that, because you’re my cousin, I’m the one who should look after you. We can’t have you passing out on the site.”

  Not sure where this had come from or why Chana would choose now to tell her in front of everyone, Lacey nodded slowly. “So what is it that you’re asking me to do?”

  “Stay close.”

  Yet Lacey knew inside she had to return to the other place. “I can as much as I am able to,” she said, “but the boss wanted to take me to another section and get photographs.”

  A snicker came from one of the guys.

  Lacey glanced over at Brian. “I understand you all think something is going on between the two of us. But there’s not—at least not yet. However, if this should develop into something more, it would be interesting to see where it goes,” she said calmly. “I don’t understand why this rumor has been treated like some teenage high-school romance. We’re all adults here. What difference does it make if I end up having a relationship with Sebastian?”

  There was only silence around her.

  She nodded. “Exactly.” And she picked up the pace until she was ahead of them. She walked through the Stabian Gate on her own. As soon as she got to the other side, she felt a sense of peace. She tilted her face up to the sun and smiled.

  The walking was rough because of the Roman road. Rocks were easy to trip on. She had to watch her step. She did have boots on, and that made the going a little easier, but it was easy to catch her foot on an uneven flagstone.

  She carried on to the dig site and stopped for a moment at the top. She pulled out her camera and took a picture of the empty site before the start of the day; she then waited until they all caught up and discussed the tasks for today. She turned to Katie. “Do you have more items for me to photograph for the catalogue?”

  Katie shook her head. “Not right now. By the end of the day I should get on that again.”

  Lacey nodded. “Let me know when you’re ready then, please.” She walked around parts of the dig, taking pictures of new sections, looking for something different. She’d already taken hundreds and hundreds of photos of every individual rock. But she knew she hadn’t included any that were the view from the inside out. She walked down to the deepest section and snapped pictures, looking skyward as the walls rose up and around her. It was an interesting perspective with the trees in the sky.

  As she turned around to face the group of workers, she saw Sebastian, standing with his hands on his hips, glaring at her. She raised both hands in frustration. “Now why am I in trouble?”

  “You were supposed to wait for me this morning.”

  “I was?”

  The others chuckled.

  She opened her arms and said, “Well, I’m here. You found me easily anyway.”

  He motioned at her to get out of the pit. “Hunter is here too.”

  The others looked at each other and then around the dig site.

  She ignored them, climbed back up to the top and said, “What does he want me to take pictures of?”

  Sebastian glanced at the rest of his crew, saying, “I’ll be back in about an hour.” And he led her away to the section where they had been yesterday.

  When she realized exactly where they were going, she smiled and picked up the pace.

  Chapter 20

  “Think about how you feel as you approach this area,” Sebastian said. “Think about who may be affecting how you feel. Think about voices in your head, voices around you, people urging you to move on, people urging you to stop.” He paused. “Imagine yourself surrounded by white light—pure love.”

  She nodded. “I know what you’re saying in theory,” she said slowly. “But I’m not sure I know how to tell the difference between the voices.”

  “Which is why I want you to think about it. Stop here and”—he pulled her to a halt—“close your eyes. What is it you’re doing here, and where is it you need to go?”

  She stood for a long moment and turned slightly, then pivoted a little more. She held out her right arm and said, “I’m going there. I’m going there because Linnea wants me to.”

  “Is it Linnea who wants the mask?”

  Lacey thought about it and then nodded. “Yes. Linnea wants the mask.”

  “Good. Why does Linnea want the mask?”

  “And that’s when the answers stop,” Lacey said with a frown. “I’m not exactly sure why.”

  “It’s up to you to find out,” he said. “If these spirits want our help, they have to give us answers.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “Linnea says I’ll know when I get the mask.”

  “Interesting. Ask her what happens if we can’t find it.”

  “She says we will.” She winced, looking at Sebastian. “Honestly that’s all I can tell you. She seems to think we’ll trip over it.”

  “And you probably will, considering what I can see from here,” Hunter said as he stood at the opening to the cave-in.

  She wanted to rush toward him, but Sebastian held her back. “Oh, no you don’t,” he said. “You stay here and continually register how you feel and who you’re getting these feelings from. Stay in the ball of white light.”

  “Okay.” She slowly stopped again, turning to look at him. “You think the only feelings I have are ones other people are putting in me?”

  “It’s certainly possible,” he said. “If you think about it, they affect everything we do. I want you to be sure you can separate Linnea’s feelings from your feelings and from this other entity’s feelings.”

  “Is there any chance only Linnea is here?”

  “There’s a chance for all kinds of things,” he said. “So I want you to be very careful. You have to take in the information, but you must also take a moment to digest who it came from and why.”

  She nodded, as he led her toward Hunter.

  As they approached, Hunter squatted down and pointed into a section of the cave-in. “I see something down there.”

  She peered in beside him and could see the glint of something in the darkness. “I have no clue what that is though,” she said.

  “I’ll check it out,” Hunter said. “I was already down there once yesterday. I know how unstable it is.”

  She nodded. “Can you retrieve it?”

  He shrugged, walked back around to where the cave-in was more of a slope and carefully made his way down. Once he was in the center of the
hole, he turned and said, “I can’t see it from here.”

  She studied the interior and then pointed out where a glint of metal was.

  He followed her directions and then crouched. “Something is definitely here. I don’t know that I can lift it out though.”

  “You’ve got to try,” she urged. “For all we know, when we come back again, it’ll be missing.” She watched but could only see his back as he tried to pull something from the dirt.

  Sebastian frowned, standing at her side. “This should be excavated properly.”

  Hunter turned and grinned up at him. “Then get your shovels and come on down here and join me.”

  “You know how much trouble we’ll get in, right?” Sebastian growled. He made his way around to the opening Hunter had used to get in. As he descended, he turned and looked up at Lacey. “Don’t you move.”

  She stuck out her tongue at him but stayed where she was.

  Apparently satisfied that she would listen to him, Sebastian descended to Hunter’s side.

  She shifted a little so she could watch the men. Sebastian leaned over, grabbed whatever item it was Hunter was fighting with, and the two pulled. A weird popping, sucking sound followed, and then dust rose all around them followed by a low rumbling. She could hear the men cry out.

  “Hunter, Sebastian, get up here right now. Hurry, hurry.”

  She could hear the men scrambling up out of the hole, but they were hidden in the cloud of dust. She couldn’t stop thinking about Sebastian’s theory about unleashing a spider network of evil from inside the ground, ugly rumbling shifted beneath her feet.

  “It feels like an earthquake,” she yelled. “Get out! Get out while you can!”

  She raced to the other side and tried to peer into the caved-in area. A hand landed beside her. She reached down, grabbed the arm and pulled.

  Hunter came up first. “Move back so we can get up.”

  “What happened?” she asked, backing up.

  “I don’t know,” Hunter said. “But it’s like the ground fell away from us.”

  She looked down to see Sebastian clinging to the edge of a rock. He moved very carefully, using his feet and hands, but the ground beneath him was gone. The additional further cave-in had taken away the rocks and surrounding vegetation farther down.