“Are you those wolves, back in the mansion?”
“The spirits who guided you are our messengers; from our creation, they exist to serve our deeds. For instance, escorting you here to keep you safe for the time being. But now, you are chosen to aid us from our imprisonment.”
The area became silent, as Dom made a long gaze trying to understand their point. The beings waited for his answer.
“I appreciate you are rescuing me, but why is my life valuable? Are you friends with the old man? You two must be powerful, than an ordinary human like me…”
“You possess the powers of the Jaguar, that is what we value… not your strength.”
“The Indian carried a promise, but failed to keep it after the wings of hell stole his soul.”
The other brother, Pu, walked over to the center of the pond, separating his hands while struggling to withstand the chain force. Laying it over the water, he summons a pillar with a dented hole in the surface.
“I have second thoughts…how do I know you are an ally,” Dom asked.
“This chamber was only meant to be opened by the one who wields light aura. Our captor was a traitor centuries ago, a man who served the gods. He betrayed their secrets to practice dark magic, becoming one of the servants of the nine lords. The nine lords were afraid of our might, so they created these shackles to restrain our powers. Trapping us under the Earth to remain here forever.”
“If you are rotting in hell’s dungeon, how was it possible to contact me?” Dom questions.
“We combined small fragments of power to create our messengers, to find the one. Pure energy never has limits against the dark.”
Trust became difficult for him to understand, Dom’s mind was conflicted with many thoughts deciding which one will be the best choice for him to favor.
“The piano demon…what happened to him, did you kill him?”
“In fact, the fiend’s soul is trapped inside my body for now.” Said Que
“Prove it…” Dom said.
The beings grin at each other, Que step forward showing a skull out of his stomach. The head appeared to be the nightmare from the ballroom, only except its eyes were missing from the sockets. Beholding its sight, just made things worse as Dom quickly felt his stomach twisting every second he stares at the demon’s decapitation.
“Ok! Fine, I’ll give you my trust…just get rid of it.”
Que absorbs the head back into his torso, “I am aware we face a terrible threat to humanity…and the god realm.”
“What do you mean?” Dom asked.
“If the elder told you about his past…then you might have known the creation of a monstrosity. This monstrosity possesses the strength of a god and could destroy the universe if freed from its confinement.”
Dom understood part of the situation but never knew a ritual could exist to summon an entity able to destroy realities.
“Denying us will be a mistake…so I will repeat myself. If you free us, we will lend you our powers to defeat the greatest evil…Antonio DeAmora!”
Chills echoed through his spine just of hearing that name, “The Amora’s possess this being you mention?” Dom asked.
“Indeed! This also explains the reason they pursue you constantly; to have the final ingredients to completing the being’s god form.”
“Final Ingredients…me?”
“Before you entered this chain of realities, you were meant to be a sacrifice to the Amora’s. They failed to capture you, and that is why you cannot escape easily from their sight. You are much more valuable than a simple gem.”
Pu stuck his hand inside the dented hole of the pillar. A fountain appears in the middle of the chamber, replacing the archive.
“Now human, taste the waters of the mystical cascade, and relive our past.”
“Use your surroundings to locate the stolen book carefully. Beware of the traps laid ahead of the journey.”
The twins watch as he slowly approaches the fountain. Dom nervously dips his hands into the white waters, sipping it carefully. A revelation came to his mind, taking him away somewhere else. Devoid of thoughts, but speeding rapidly to the end of the light. He held his breath as a flash completely covered his vision breaking into a dimension.
*Gasp* no longer able to contain his breath, Dom discovers he could breathe through the water. He looks around finding a reflection of a forest and village in front of him. Dom struggled to move his muscles, but an overwhelming force prevented him from taking further action. Eventually, he relaxed, hoping the situation will soon resolve itself, and proceeded to glimpse into the brother's past life.
A structure not far from him appeared to be familiar. Crowds of people piled around what seems to be a plaza and two similar children ran out of their hut. “Those must be the bastards in the chamber,” Dom thought.
Force pushes his body to follow the mysterious children, who wore tribal painting and colorful knits covering their privates.
They rallied into the crowd of people near the temple, watching the ceremony occurring at the top of a structure. A man wearing a feather hat stood holding a dagger, praising to the village while two men played loud drums. Dom squinted his eyes trying to unravel the event; Squinting, he saw a man and woman drenched in white, and other strange colors bound to a stone bench by worshippers.
Reminding him of the sacrificial rituals of the Mayan culture, believing this moment is currently the past. The only problem is the language became difficult for him to understand, but he knew they were going to sacrifice the people as offerings for the sun god.
The dagger wielder chanted something before striking them and ripping their chests apart. Grasping a beating heart, and thrown into the fire, the crowd roared with excitement as the ritual became complete. The children who speculate left the ceremony unable to withstand the savagery of these offerings.
Following back to their hut, an old woman spurred a bucket of cold water over their heads as punishment for disobedience. Leaving them to wither on raw ground, young men rang their necks against the ground throwing insults at them. Spouting their names, “Pu” and “Que.” Whenever they shed a tear, the young men would come around to say, “Crying makes you weaker, you’ll never become a man if you continue this way…the gods will spit you out and throw you into the pits of hell.” The brothers slept through the night on a stack of hard corn deep in the accursed forest. Sometimes the grain would cause them to ache, and pierce their skin if they stayed long enough.
A couple of days after the punishment, the brothers were always in charge of hunting birds and working hard for the family, while their older half-brothers were nourished. The elder siblings carried ill nature for their jealousy of attention and always sought their younger siblings as a mistake in life.
In the next flash, the twins look older and were not slaves to the family, but free men who participate in ball courts against many other competitors. The rules were simple; lives were at stake, as a losing team meant a one-way trip to the afterlife. Pu and Que became the best of players, as they vanquish every challenger who went against them.
Victories came rewarded, fame quickly arouses the brothers, triggering the traits of jealousy and hatred from the lords of the underworld, while the sun god watches in amusement, proud of what his children can achieve. One night, when the twins slept out near the village woods, a man wearing a hood reach out to wake them up.
He was a messenger from the underworld; they were summoned to travel into the depths of hell to participate in a ball game for the lords. The twins discussed it among themselves, before agreeing to terms. They met multiple challenges becoming victorious, but in the end, after winning the final challenge. The brothers prevailed knowing they were to die, so they perish as sacraments.
Furious at the great betrayal, the sun god resurrected their ashes using the river of eternity, to reincarnate them into immortal beings of light and dark. The lords knew of this revival, so they prevented the twins from escaping the underworld. The god
Xibalba, along with the help of a servant, assembled the chains of agony to restrain their powers and throw them into a chamber empty of rescue.
Before Xibalba sealed the entrance, he chanted a strange spell, one that echoed through Dom’s mind.
“K’al…Way…Chan,” the final words made the vision fade in black; Dom was still unable to move his joints after the flashbacks ended. He could again hear the chanting phrase through his ears, almost as if something told him to mimic the line.
“K’al…Way…Chan,” briefly whispered, his perspective began to blur making him temporarily blind. Dom almost lost it, but heartbeats replace the echoes, and soon his breathing cut off shortly. Blinking instantly, he found himself in a room with green concrete walls and a vent shape hole wide enough to fit a single person.
A display panel beside him held irrelevant information on a gold plaque. Observing closer, the descriptions were full of symbols, but Dom’s eyes were able to decipher it due to the Jaguar spirit.
“For those brave enough to enter the serpent’s maze heed my warning. Only those with a pure heart may seek entry…those filled with sin must turn back at once…or bestow upon a terrible fate!” Dom knew that crawling into the hole means no turning back, but his tension got to him quickly as his distrust called out, something will lurk beyond the path. Bending down, the entrance hole did not seem too dark, Dom contemplated, wanting to turn back, but the room was like a purgatory; you can never find an exit. However, the routes ahead lead to unknown directions.
Proceeding with the trial, he crawled under the hole slightly squeezed. The possible direction for him was either at his left or right. Ignorant of the risks, he picks a random direction moving into an extended pathway.
Twisting deeper, a bamboo ladder was in his direction. Pressing his joints against the concrete, he proceeded forward at a faster pace. Reaching out, he found another ladder and pulled his body onto it to climb up; surprisingly, another vent hole was at the end of another ladder.
“No way!”
Dom argued, sticking his head inside and squeezing the rest of his body into the hole. The passage felt narrow almost challenging to catch air as the concrete pressed against his back. Even dragging his arms made the movement painful since the ground below of him felt rough.
Claustrophobia was not an issue, but if the spaces get tighter along the way, he knew breathing would soon be impossible, and insanity will possess him. Appearing in front of him, were three routes, two were large enough to fit a human being, while the other was immensely small only a rodent could pass through.
“This place is unnatural; it expects me to pass through the bigger one, to catch a breath. If I do, a trap could lay somewhere inside. The only way I could escape is controlling my sanity and pass through the smallest.”
He bent his body into the hole to continue struggling hoping it would end soon.
Shimmering light surrounded the passage, Dom hurried through in desperation, climbing his way out from the horrible space. Surfacing into a room, he fell out the passage landing on the floor. Standing, he notices the place appears to be similar to the one at the start. Concrete walls without an exit, with multiple holes to crawl under and a panel right beside him. However, the room felt smaller than before, and the ceiling almost reaches his head. The display panel read out the same sentence, so he knew it was the beginning. Dom realized changes occurred during his time in the tunnels, resulting in a shrink in the room due to a mistake.
“This can’t be! How did I loop back here?”
Dom tried to solve this, but notice a lighter sitting next to the panel stand, burning a small flame. Surprisingly, the blaze grew longer almost attracted to Dom. He touched his pockets finding an object on his right side; retrieving it from his pocket; it was a rock. He felt strange for a moment, wondering how the piece came to be in his possession, curiosity took the better of him as the rock changes color in his hand. Out of nowhere, an idea came to his head, he gave his lighter a try, and there was a sign.
*Flick* it shifted into a tall purple flame burning the rock into small dust, which uncovers hidden secrets on the walls after illuminating closer, the spark of light revealed drawings connecting across the entire room.
Shockingly, half of the ceiling had dry bloodstains perhaps dating back to old years. Some were long claw scratches from the roof to the floor, looking closely at the lower side of the right wall; contain a perfect output of what seems to be a map to a labyrinth. Dom inspects the map, noticing tunnels connect to a square object in the center.
“Must be that damn book I’m looking for, I’m guessing these marks traced across the tunnel routes, must be a trail leading into the center. Now it makes sense, every time I run into a blockage, I’ll return to this room…and I will be crush if I continue failing constantly.” Dom tries to memorize the image and goes prone preparing to journey back to the tunnels once more.
This time the hole was darker than before, with cobwebs hung all over it. Dom flicks the light emitting a purple flame, waving it around to dissolve the webs. A smell came to his nostrils as he traveled further, only discovering a route available, while the other demolished behind the ruble.
The tunnel did not felt narrow as the rest, but a nearby noise alerted him greatly. He had no idea where did it came from, but something fast moved across the tunnels, gaining to his direction.
*Hiss* nervously turning around; a blue snake slithered through his leg. Dom panicked crawling hastily through the tunnels hoping to shake off the reptile. He thought of using the lighter, but both arms could not reach it behind since the walls lock his shoulders in place.
Aimlessly turning from different directions, the snake slithered from his back and reaching to the neck. Dom notices this, so he used the lighter to scorch the snake off his upper part. The snake hissed scurried clinging back to his leg using its fangs. Dom soon found an exit, but his expectations fell into failure. Falling off the tunnel, he returns to the same room only without the serpent. Dom knew the holes were not safe but intrigued to understand the sudden disappearance of the creature.
“Damn! The bastard got away…did it knew, I will be looping back here? Is it waiting for me in the maze?”
The ceiling forced him to lay low weakening his wits. Desperate to re-enter the tunnels, Dom decides to sprint through as quickly as possible to lead the snake into the center. Memorizing the routes from the map, Dom scurries from hole to hole not minding the narrow passageway.
*Hiss* Dom waves the lighter finding the snake slithering behind. Catching up, biting most of his flesh in an attempt to subdue him. He ignores the pain trying to retreat towards the center, praying the creature would not kill him before getting there.
The painful bites from the snake made his body sicken. Dom spotted a light ahead, thinking the center is just near to reach. When saliva drips over his shoulder, the creature bit him over the neck. Making Dom stagger, determination stuck with him until his escape from grasp to obtain the enchanted book.
Exiting the tunnel, Dom falls into a new room free from tight spaces. The snake came alongside hissing aggressively; Dom quickly stood up using the lighter as a defensive. A thick glass protected the book on a large column, with a closed eye at the center of the cover.
The snake stood on its tail, taking a battle stance while circling the room carefully. Dom had a plan, but it would be dangerous enough to come out alive. His movements were paused slowly spreading his joints apart; the creature widely opens its jaw, launching itself towards him. Before landing a bite, Dom was able to catch the snake before biting his neck. The animal struggled to try to break free while Dom burnt it quickly with the lighter.
*Hiss* the flames spread across melting the creature’s skin. It squirmed so violently before collapsing on the ground, to swallow wholly by the fire. Soon after, blue smoke smelted from within its surface, and many human faces filled with dire, escape through a wall freed from agony. Dom could not believe his eyes, so he rubs them to make sure no hal
lucinations fool him.
“Yea…finally” His vision turn fuzzy almost giving him motion sickness, and the bite marks on his body suddenly covered like a dark mantle. He looks at the hand holding the lighter, noticing the spark vanish. Throwing it away, sweat drip across his face forcing him to grip his stomach.
“Blahhh!” Vomiting over the floor, as Dom’s hearing, became hard to listen as his vision transition to a black and white perspective. He has a toxin cling to his body, slowly damaging his internal system.
“Damn it…that bastard…not even this ability could help me cure the poison. I must retrieve this book and ask those gods for help, or I will be just another victim.”
Dom leans over lifting the glass from the column clenching the book. However, the close eye on the cover slowly opens, shining a ray of red light that knocks him backward. Then, a mechanism triggered under the column, and water began flowing out from hidden gaps, filling the room. Nausea peckers him frequently, forcing him to stand after feeling the water.
Dom started to worry; no exit was discovered around the room making it impossible to escape this trap. For a moment, he thought this was an illusion, and everything was because of the poison. On the other hand, the water level began rising to his chest, as he sits in a hopeless corner wondering when the misery will end.
“Over here…”
A voice whisper, Dom look to a direction finding a blue spirit close to him.
“Thank you, senor; you freed us from our incarceration…I am grateful. The lord of the underworld kept us sealed for many centuries…now I must pay our debt to you.” The spirit heads over to the wall phasing its arm through the concrete.
“Salvation can be found here,”
The spirit crosses into the wall leaving Dom speechless, directing his attention to the surface, he quickly investigates thinking an impossible idea yet. Praying his instincts were right, he taps the wall feeling a soft moistness coming from the concrete.
Behind the Lock Page 9