Lost Scrolls of the Holy Beclay (Special Edition) (J. K. Haugen's Lost Scrolls Series Book 1)

by J. K. Haugen

  John thought twice about what he was about to do. He asked for forgiveness from the bird. He then lunged forward, reached out with his left hand and grabbed the bird and plunged the knife deep into its breast. He held it with one hand and with the other, he twisted the knife blade. The bird flailed in his hand for a brief second and then stopped, completely, and again for the second time for John, there was complete silence.

  John felt a tear come to his eyes, and he knew then and there, that he would die before he ever used his own hands to take another life. He was appreciative for having the lifesaving meat. He knew that it wasn’t just his life it would be saving, but also Sarah's. It was odd to John but the pheasant he was holding, no longer felt like an animal. He could somehow feel that the bird’s soul had left its now lifeless body and it was nothing more than an empty shell.

  He imagined that the bird was now in a better place. A place filled with peace and that the bird might even be happy to have sacrificed its life, to save John and Sarah. John didn’t actually know if he was really feeling these things, or if he was just trying to justify to himself what he had done.

  He took the pheasants body and cut off its head and hung it from a branch to drain what blood was left. He then took his pocket knife and removed the feathers and cut a slit down the center of the breastplate and removed the organs from inside.

  His hands were bloody and his heart heavy, but for some reason John was not feeling sick like he thought that he would. His entire life, he had what he calls a week stomach, and normally wouldn’t have been able to stand the smell, let alone all of the blood.

  When he was finished, John used the rest of the water in his bottle to clean the bird, which now resembled the small turkey John had purchased from the super market on Thanksgiving last year. He then cleaned his knife and used it to remove the bark from a long and slender branch. He drove the branch through the bird and laid it across the rocks of the fire.

  As the tender meat started to smoke and cook, it began to smell like the KFC John crossed on his way to work every morning. It was a delicious smell. He could hardly wait for the meat to cook fully.

  Sara began to moan a bit as she stretched out her arms over her head. “Good morning, sunshine.” he said to her with a loving grin, as she had done the previous morning.

  “Mmm good morning.” she replied. “Where did you get breakfast?” she asked opening her eyes. “It smells amazing!”

  “Don’t really want to talk about it. Okay?” said John. “But here, you should have some.”

  John pulled a drumstick and thigh from the bird and handed it across the fire over to Sarah. She pulled a small piece of meat from the bone and put it into her mouth. Her eyes closed and the corners of her mouth tightened as she slowly moved her head from side to side. "Mmm mmm mmm!” she said out loud. With her mouth still full she mumbled “Ohhh my gossshhh.” She swallowed and then said, “Wow Johnny, this is the best! It’s Sooooo Good!”

  John smiled and then ate some of the meat himself. “It is good!” he thought to himself in amazement. “A lot better than the turkey I made at home.”

  They continued to sit around the fire and eat until they were both full. John took the rest of the meat from the bones and placed it into a large leaf he had pulled from a nearby plant. He rolled it up, and then placed it inside his bag in the large pocket next to the scrolls.

  John refilled the bottles with water from the stream and placed them into the bag. He noticed Sarah looking at him with an amazed look on her face.

  “What?” asked John?

  “Your arm!” she said quickly.

  Scared to look down he asked, “What’s wrong with it?” He instinctively looked anyway and noticed, that the area that had been swollen and red around his wound, was now completely normal.

  He slowly reached across with his other hand and pulled at the piece of Sarah's shirt she had used as a make-shift bandage and it fell to the ground. “It's gone!” he said. “But how?” Neither one of them could believe their eyes.

  “Johnny, your completely healed” said Sarah in disbelief.

  “There's a small town in central Washington,” he said, “called Soap Lake. We used to go swimming there when I was a kid, it was so much fun, and it’s an incredibly beautiful and stunning area. They get visitors from all over the world to bathe in the waters because of the lake’s high concentration of minerals. Maybe that’s what’s going on here.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Well,” he began, “they say the waters have healing properties. In fact, some of the homes there even used to have the water pumped into their bathrooms from the lake so they could bathe in the healing waters.”

  “Wow,” said Sarah, “could that be what happened to your arm?”

  “Maybe,” said John, “it's hard to tell. Soap Lake actually got its name from its soapy appearance that it has. It looks that way because of all the minerals in the water. This water however, is really clean looking and clean tasting. It’s not soapy at all.”

  “Well, whatever the reason, it’s about time we ran into some good luck on this road trip.” said Sarah with a smile, as she reached out her hand and touched John’s forehead. “Fevers gone too” she said as she shook her head in disbelief.

  As they started to pick up all their belongings from around the camp, John looked over at Sarah and said, “Hey, I think we should talk about the scrolls.”

  “Ok!” she said with a grin. She had been waiting for this since they left the lab.

  “I can read them… I have been reading them.” he said calmly, not sure how Sarah would respond.

  “What? No way!” she said with excitement, “Why haven’t you said anything? Oh never mind that… What do they say?”

  She grabbed John and sat him down on the ground. “Tell me everything!” she said with a bit of force.

  John took his bag and removed the first scroll, “You’re not gonna believe all this.” he said, as he began to read the scrolls. Sarah listened to each word intently, never taking her eyes off of John.

  He continued to read from the first scroll to the next and so on. Her eyes got bigger and her mouth went from a smile, to an “ah” look as he started to read the last page he’d gotten to last night that talked about the man in the white robe.

  She was as confused and intrigued as John had been. So much so, that she really wasn’t sure if John had made some of it up. She didn’t know if he could actually read the text like he told her he could, or if he was just translating the language and making assumptions about what the pictures meant. After all, she couldn’t see the letters and words change like John could. However, she couldn’t think of any reason why John would lie to her about something like this. She was fairly sure that he had been honest with her up to this point.

  She decided that he must actually be seeing what he said he was. “But what should we do about it now?” she thought, “We have got to get to safety, and get these scrolls back to the lab where they will be safe.”

  John showed her the Key of Tamarac and showed her the pocket it had come from. She was completely overwhelmed like he had been. John was very happy that he no longer had to keep this secret. He felt relieved that now he would have someone to share the burden of the knowledge with. Although he was still not convinced that anything the book had said was even true.

  There were still a little more than ten pages left, however they decided to pack up the scrolls into the bag and continue to try to find help. As John reached for his bag, he noticed it moving and it startled him, “What the hell?” John said to Sarah, pointing at his bag.

  He ran over and grabbed the bottom of the bag and shook it. He jumped as something popped out and ran towards the bushes. Sarah laughed out loud at his sheepedness.

  “Just one of those damn pheasants!” he yelled back at her. “It got into my bag. He must ‘a been look'n for food,” he said as he picked up his bag and looked inside, “Dang! He got the rest of the meat, that’s
kinda gross if you think about it,” he joked, “he might’ve just eaten the rest of one of his family.” he chuckled as Sarah rolled her eyes at him. “Dang, and he spilled one of the water bottles too.” he complained. “The lid must have been loose. It spilled all over the box and key. Good thing we had the scrolls or they might’ve been ruined.”

  “Give it here!” said Sarah. “I'll refill it and carry the water in my bag again, and let you carry the light stuff.”

  She took the water from him, smiled and then said, “Especially since you screamed like a little girl, after your bag started move'n and a tiny little bird jumped out at ya.” She shook her head and laughed, and then held the bottle under the water to fill it up.

  John took the rag that he had wrapped around his arm and wiped out the inside and outside of the box so that he could lay the scrolls back into it. Within a few moments the box was beginning to look clean and vibrant. So much so, that the pearl and golden colors on it, almost looked as if they were glowing.

  It had the most amazing bright colors mixed into it. Colors, that John didn’t even know existed. Sarah even noticed, “Wow, we never touched any of these with water, we were afraid of destroying them, but look how much detail you can see now.” she said with excitement in her eyes.

  John noticed that as the box was turned, the colors also turned. They seemed to be moving. Not like the two tone paint on his 67 firebird. Where, if you look one way, it looks black than black cherry if you look at it again in the sun. The colors were actually moving and changing.

  “Is it electric?” John asked Sarah, showing her the moving colors. “This is exactly what happens when I see the letters and words change.” he told her.

  “I don’t know Johnny,” she said, in a confused tone, “but why can I see this happening on the box, but not with the words on the scrolls? We need to get go'n,” she added. “We’re losing daylight again.

  John dropped the box into his bag and threw it over his shoulder. They continued to follow the waterway not really talking at all. Both of them lost in thought and daydreams about the potentially incredible adventure they were about to find themselves in the middle of. They had come to a midpoint on the mountain, where the ground had become flat and even.

  They noticed a prairie-like clearing that was a couple of acres in size. It was filled with tall green grass and purple and bright yellow flowers that covered large patches of ground. The waterway flowed and curved its way between the patches of wildflowers. It was like someone had placed them there like landscaping of some kind. Sarah was wondering to herself if this remarkable place was what Greenland might have looked like 200,000 plus years ago, when there was no ice that covered its land.

  John could see himself building a log cabin here and settling down with a wife and a couple of children. He imagined a walking bridge stepping over the stream, with a dog and a couple of horses in the prairie. “Looks like Heaven” he said out loud to Sarah.

  “Yeah,” she replied with a soft and amazed tone in her voice, “or Eden maybe.”

  Chapter 4

  ~The Wishing Well~

  They decided that the prairie was a great place to spend the night. It was peaceful and calm. “I could spend the rest of my life right here.” thought John. He sat on an old tree stump next to Sarah. “Doesn't get much better than this!” he said.

  “No doubt,” replied Sarah, “What an incredibly beautiful place.”

  John reached down and picked a small yellow flower and handed it to Sarah. “Absolutely beautiful!” he said, looking at her and smiling. She smiled and poked the stem of the flower into her hair.

  Their eyes met and John leaned in close to kiss her. She had been waiting for him to make a move, “About time!” she thought to herself. Sarah closed her eyes, reached for John and pulled him in close. Just as he felt his lips begin to touch hers, he lost his balance and fell off the log.

  Sarah laughed hysterically. She opened her eyes just in time to see the surprised look on Johns face, with his eyes opened wide and his lips still puckered like a fish. He fell to the ground laughing. “Think that’s funny huh?” he asked with a playful grin.

  He quickly reached up and grabbed Sarah and pulled her down off the log. They fell back to the ground together, with her landing on top of him. She lowered her head, looked into his eyes and planted her lips onto his. “Wow,” thought John, “should ‘a done that a long time ago.” He had never felt anyone's lips so soft. Her bottom lip just seemed to fit in between his. He softly sucked on her lip which drove Sarah crazy and that made her kiss him even harder.

  He reached out his hand and ran his fingers up through her long soft hair. She felt a slight chill and goose bumps as his hand ran along the bottom of her ear, across her neck and gently squeezed the hair at the back of her head. They both rolled over, their bodies entangled, wrapped up in each other’s arms. John felt himself getting more and more excited as he could feel Sarah moving her hips back and forth to the rhythm of their heavy breathing.

  She had her legs tightly wrapped around him and was scratching her nails into his back as she playfully made a growling noise. Her body began moving faster. The tighter and closer, that John held her, the more they were both overcome with an animalistic-like rage and passion.

  She felt his hot breath on her neck and his tongue lightly moving down towards her shoulder. He grabbed the front of her flight jacket and ripped it open. As the snaps popped and pulled apart he leaned in close to her again and softly nibbled on her neck, slowly moving up to her earlobe.

  Her body began to quake and tremble as his hand moved up the side of her torso just under her breast. She could barely control herself and her head tossed back with ecstasy. Just as she almost couldn’t take anymore without completely bursting, she rolled him over to his back and straddled him. She pulled his shirt off over his head. As she was reaching down and grabbing his belt to begin loosening it...she stopped...

  “Oh my God,” she said almost completely out of breath, “what are we doing?” She bent over and rested her topless body on his. Her long red curls covered the both of them. They were both breathing heavily and the sweat from their bodies felt slippery as her breasts rubbed against his chest.

  She moved down, softly kissed Johns bare chest and said, “I’m so sorry Johnny, I know I kinda started all this, but I just can’t.”

  John looked up at her and noticed that she had begun to softly cry. “It’s ok.” he said. “I'm not sure what just happened, or what came over the two of us even, but there's nothing to be sorry for. We barely know each other, and I'll be here, when we're both ready.”

  She smiled at him as she pushed off the ground and swung her legs off of him. She got to her feet, put her arms through the arms of her jacket and snapped the front, covering herself.

  John sat up and reached for her hand. As their hands touched and his fingers wrapped around hers, he said again, “When we're both ready.” He squeezed her hand and smiled, “Anyone know where I can get a cold shower?” he asked with a grin, moving his eyes from side to side as if talking to an invisible group of people.

  Sarah smiled and helped to pull him to his feet. They both began to walk back to the log where they had been sitting.

  As John took a step he felt the ground suddenly give way. He felt a rumble and heard Sarah scream, as they both fell under the earth. They hit the ground below with a thud and Sarah once again had landed right on top of him.

  “You ok?” he asked, “Thought we were done with all the earth shattering stuff” he said.

  She laughed and rolled off of him once more and asked, “What was that?”

  “Not sure,” he said, “where are we?” They had fallen into what seemed like, some kind of cave or tunnel. It was damp and dark, and he could hear the sound of running water echoing off the walls. “Must be some kind of underground river.” he said.

  He grabbed at some tree roots that were hanging down alongside of the hole they had fallen through. He tried to pull hims
elf up, putting his foot up on the wall and yanking on the root. He heard a cracking sound as the root broke sending him falling back again to the ground. “Well, we're not getting back up this way.” he said, looking up at Sarah.

  “Maybe there's another way out” she yelled back at him. She had walked a ways down the tunnel. She noticed that the large cavern-like room they had landed in seemed to open into a hallway of sorts. It was a small tunnel just large enough for the two of them to walk down.

  They couldn’t tell how far it went. It was way too dark. John took his shirt off and wrapped it tightly around a piece of tree root that had broken off when he fell. He took out his lighter and flicked the roller with his thumb. “Damn!” he said in frustration. “It won’t light.”

  “What is that?” asked Sarah looking behind him, “Something’s glowing in your bag.” It was the box. After John had washed it with the water, they noticed it changing color and getting brighter. They hadn’t noticed however, just how bright, until now that they were in the pitch black darkness of the cave.

  John pulled the box out from his bag and held it in front of them and they began walking down the narrow passage way. It seemed the closer they got to the sound of the running water, the brighter the box was glowing. The walls of the passage were smooth like marble and incredibly clean. It was strange to John that they were so spotless. It was more like a hospital hallway, rather than a cave hundreds of feet beneath the ground.

  “Are we in some kind of building or maybe a bunker?” John asked out loud. He aimed the box up and down like a flashlight. They noticed, that every hundred feet or so, there was a circle etched in the wall of the passage way. It looked like an oval picture frame.

  They stopped and examined one and saw shapes and pictures engraved in it. “It looks like a map of some kind” said Sarah.

  “That’s it!” said John with excitement in his voice. “You are here!” he laughed. “Could it really be that easy?”