by K. T. Tomb
“Adam, look out!” Eva squealed just as I raised the trap door to its full height. She was reacting to the snake that had fallen from a hole above and onto my leg. I squealed as well and on reflex, quickly snatched it away and threw it toward the pile at the other side of the pit. “Hand me my light.”
With the flashlight in my hand, I looked up at the wall where snakes continued to fall into the pit, there was another poised to drop right on me. Trying to focus, I turned the light back toward the hole and saw a ladder below.
“What do you see?” Eva asked.
“There’s a ladder. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“What if it falls or there are more snakes?”
“You can risk it or stay with the ones that you can already see. Get moving,” I snapped, regretting the tone, but feeling like there was a need for urgency.
For Eva’s part, she took a deep breath and moved toward the open trap door. “You go first,” she said. “I’ll use the pepper spray to keep the snakes back a little while you start down.”
I took several tentative steps on the ladder and discovered that it was extremely solid, another Mayan marvel. “It’s sturdy, come on.”
I continued downward, not knowing into what we were descending, but believing that anything would be better than being knee-deep in snakes. It was only moments before I felt Eva coming down from above me very rapidly. “What’s the rush?” I called out.
“I ran out of pepper spray.”
Chapter Ten
For some unknown reason, I had counted each rung of the ladder as I stepped on it and was on 97 when my foot came down on solid ground rather than another rung. “I’m at the bottom,” I called out. Eva was only a few rungs above me and she paused.
“I’m going to stay right here while you check things out.”
I had advised her to turn off her flashlight and save the battery, since there was really no point in exploring the walls while we descended on the ladder. I had done the same and clicked my light back on the moment I had both feet on the stone floor. I shined the light in all directions and saw stone walls on all sides except for one. A tunnel opening was in that excepted wall. “There’s a tunnel.”
“Any snakes or worse that I need to know about?” Eva asked.
“No, just a tunnel.”
“Thank God,” she gasped as she moved down the last several rungs and then felt both of her feet on the solid floor.
I shined the light back up the narrow, stone shaft where we had descended on the ladder and saw that the trap door was a very long way away. I saw movement above, like something falling and instinctively drew back. I knew instantly what the object was when I heard Eva scream again and start whirling and fighting with a snake that had landed on her shoulders. Before I could react, she had flung it into the nearest wall and had retreated away from the ladder.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“What the hell do you think?” she snapped. It was the first time that I’d heard her use that tone.
“Sorry,” I replied, feeling a little bit hurt.
“No, Adam, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”
“So, we’re good?”
“We’re good. Thank you for getting me out of there.”
“Well, don’t thank me just yet. Who knows what else we’re going to have to face before we get back to the house.” I started to add, “if we get back to the house,” but decided that I didn’t need to fill her with any more negative thoughts. Letting her know that there might be more challenges was being honest, but there was no sense being hopeless about our chances, even if my own confidence in that department was severely shaken.
Eva had turned on her flashlight and was exploring the small room that we had landed in below the shaft. There were several snakes scattered about on the floor and another dropped in as we stood there. “Let’s get out of here before this area fills up too.”
“Okay. Turn off your light and take my hand. We need to save the battery in at least one of them.” She did more than just take my hand; she wrapped both of her arms around one of my arms and pressed in beside me. Though it made it hard to walk, feeling her so close to me was thrilling in spite of the circumstances and it was giving my confidence a boost. We have to survive this. This is like my fantasy dream and my fantasy girl; it can’t end badly. Who ever heard of a fantasy ending badly?
I wasn’t completely convinced; things were much too real and much too terrifying in that fantasy of mine and I still had no idea where we were or what still lay ahead of us. We continued to follow the tunnel for what seemed like an hour, though it was difficult to tell how long we had been walking or how far we had gone, but I was beginning to see light up ahead. Maybe things were going to work out after all. “There’s light up ahead.”
The announcement brought a little gasp from Eva and she loosened her death grip on my arm, sliding her hand down so that our fingers interlocked. The feeling was starting to feel very natural to me. We continued forward at a quicker pace, confidence growing the closer we came to the light.
When we came to the end of the tunnel, it opened up into a large chamber with a ceiling that was several hundred feet above our heads, the center of which had a large hole; the source of light that we had been following.
On three sides of the chamber were the openings to tunnels; the one that we were coming out of and two others. The fourth wall had an enormous stone statue carved out of it. It was easily recognizable as the image of Kukulkan. The serpent god’s mouth was open and its tongue rolled out in a grotesque pose. Typical of the other images of the Mayan god, it had the feathered headdress and the giant eyes that could see all.
“Wow,” Eva whispered as she studied the massive figure in front of us. “Kukulkan. It must be some sort of temple.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “The worst type.” I drew her attention toward the stone table centered perfectly below the hole in the roof. It was placed directly in front of the image of Kukulkan and between it and the image there was a broad open pit. Eva began to move toward the stone table, still holding my hand and leading me along behind her.
“It’s amazing,” she said, as we examined the swivel mechanism under the table. “A sacrificial table with a swivel. They likely pulled that lever to release the catch in the cogwheel and then dumped the body into the pit once the ceremony was over.”
As I examined the table something struck me suddenly. On an ancient, sacrificial table, there might be ancient, dark stains where blood had soaked into the stone thousands of years before, but on closer examination, it looked to me like the stains were extremely new. A sudden shiver went through me. “Eva. This table has been used very recently,” I whispered.
“No way. Are you serious?”
“Look at those blood stains. Those are recent.”
“Oh my God.” She placed her hand over her mouth.
“The equinox will be at noon tomorrow. What do you want to bet…?”
“There will be a sacrifice here tomorrow?” she finished the question.
“Knowing Mayan engineering and astronomic accuracy, I’d be willing to wager that hole is placed perfectly so that the exact moment that the equinox sun shoots a ray of light through it, it will be focused directly on this table.”
“That would be entirely correct.” I recognized the deep voice behind us and its suddenness made both of us leap and spin around. Before I could react, the speaker and six other men moved up rapidly to surround us and block our escape. “So, you made it out of the pit of snakes, then,” he laughed. The voice, the face, the laugh and the eyes all belonged to Andres, our former caretaker. He waved at the six men accompanying him. “Tie them up.”
Chapter Eleven
There was another face in the group that I recognized, but the rest were completely unknown to me. “You’re the one that set the trap and put the snakes into the pit.” My recognition of Andres and Enrique made my anger well up suddenly and my confidence along with it, tho
ugh my bound hands made me pretty much useless.
“I had to see if you were worthy,” Andres responded.
“And the snake in my shower?” Eva asked.
“Let’s call it a little tease, shall we?” His laughter came from his chest.
I focused my eyes upon Enrique and attempted to bore a hole through him with my blazing stare. He turned his eyes downward and refused to meet my gaze. Was he ashamed of his part in what had to be a set up?
“You are quite correct in your assessment of the table. It is another engineering marvel of the Mayans, my people, I should add. You are also correct that the hole above us is perfectly positioned to allow the rays of the sun from the equinox to be above the sacrificial table at the precise moment that midday arrives, just twice a year. In truth, it is a spectacular feat, especially for an ancient people without the sophistication of computers and other electronic devices. It was, no doubt, a superior culture and a people with minds far superior to those of your arrogant generation.”
“We’re arrogant?” Eva snapped. “In spite of our technology, we don’t sacrifice human beings. We’re beyond that savagery!”
I was proud that though she was frightened, she still had a lot of fight in her. Perhaps it was a scorn that was similar to that which I felt when I recognized two of our captors.
“You’re beyond that savagery? Explain to me about abortions and euthanasia; sacrifices that are made to your gods, to the gods of convenience and selfishness?” He paused and smiled. “To tell you the truth, I like you two. You’re very knowledgeable, you’re intelligent, you’re sensible and quite thorough. You’re admirable for your generation and I’m actually pretty impressed.”
“Then let us go!” Eva snapped.
“I like you,” he laughed. “You’ve got plenty of fire and spunk in you. I wonder if you’re a descendent of the Mayans. There is certainly some of ancient Mexico’s bloodline in you. I can tell by your bone structure, your intelligence and your spirit. Might you be baked from the mixture of yellow and white corn?”
I knew that he was referring to the ancient creation story of the Mayans and I also made note of the fact that what I had read in his eyes before was showing itself in full force as he spoke. Why hadn’t I trusted my instincts about him; about Enrique too? It was too late to worry about either. I could only hope that the intelligence that he saw in us and those things that he found “admirable” could convince him to let us go. I decided to take a chance.
“If you admire us so much,” I jumped in, “then let us continue studying what we came here to study. We can tell the world about the genius of the Mayan culture. We’re not talking about just the papers that we have to write to finish our class and graduate, but more research. We can draw attention to the Mayans, their religion and their culture. We can work with you instead of against you. There’s no point in being at odds here.”
“Very nice try, Señor Adam, but you were also correct in the wager that you were willing to make a few moments ago. Tomorrow is, indeed, the spring equinox and we are, indeed, going to have a sacrifice. It’s really too bad that you had not mentioned any dollar amount for your wager, I’d willingly pay it on behalf of Miss Eva.” His eyes danced with delight, proud of his cleverness.
“To be sure, you’re going to get a front row seat that will enlighten you a great deal about your studies of the ancient Mayans, because tomorrow’s ceremony hasn’t changed in thousands of years. You see, ever since Kukulkan sailed away from the mainland on his raft of snakes and vowed to return again, secret sacrifices have been carried out twice per year in this very temple. The priesthood has been passed down from generation to generation and the rituals taught in precisely the same manner down to the very last detail. I’m passing it all along to my son too. You are lucky enough to be able to take part in the very first sacrifice carried out by my son. I think that you’ll recall meeting him: Enrique.” He turned and waved a hand toward Enrique.
I hadn’t made the connection until that moment, but I ought to have; the very same cold, evil look was the most commonly shared trait between them. I’d seen it in each of them at different times, but never put the two together. With the new information gained, the resemblance was uncanny.
“I’d sooner die than watch you take the life of another human being. It’s savagery!” Eva screamed.
“Oh, if you only knew the irony of that statement,” Andres mocked.
“Let us go this instant! Enrique we trusted you,” she pleaded. “If you have any control over this…” She stopped when she noted that Enrique had averted his eyes and was ignoring her plea. His response seemed to take the last bit of hope from her and she turned her eyes downward as well.
Andres stepped toward Eva and lifted her chin with his finger. I struggled against my bonds to go to her aid, but there was nothing I could do, but watch; my rage seething to volcanic levels.
“Such beautiful features,” he cooed. “A virtual Mayan princess.” His eyes trailed downward to her ample bosom. “And very well endowed. A perfect specimen. I can see why my son selected you.”
Eva spit right on his face. The look of venom in her face made me wonder if the same poison might be in her saliva. It was an irrational hope, but I was grasping for anything at that point.
Andres barely blinked, but raised and index finger to his cheek to wipe of the deposit and then stuck his slippery finger into his mouth. “Mmmm, a bit sweet and sour at the same time. I think that Kukulkan will be very pleased with you. Though even I am somewhat reluctant to be rid of such beauty.”
I saw the horror in her eyes as she realized that she was going to be the sacrifice. The same horror had my heart thundering in my chest and I strained with every last ounce of energy in me to break away, but it was simply impossible to overpower the bonds or the three men holding me.
“Again, if you admire my beauty so much, let me keep it. Let us go. We can pay if that’s what you want. We’ll put together the money. Just name your price. You have to have a price.”
I wasn’t aware that Eva was wealthy. In fact, I had no idea what social status level she was from. It had never crossed my mind to ask or to even check into it. Did she or her family have the means to buy us out of this mess?
“There are certain things more important in this world than money,” he snapped. Obviously, the wealth angle wasn’t going to work on Andres. I began to wonder if there was anything that was going to convince him to let us go. My last bit of hope was beginning to wane. I watched the tears begin to trail down Eva’s cheeks as her despair began to take over. In response, tears were threatening to fall over the rims of my eyes as well.
“Though you are even more dazzling with those tears, my dear, there is no need to cry. Your final moments will be moments of extreme splendor. I’m willing to bet that in the history of Mayan civilization, there has never been one as perfectly suited for the great god than you. Embrace that. Embrace the heritage that comes from a small corner of your own Mayan heart. In fact, Princess…” His tone was like that of a father talking to his three year old. “I think that there is a very good chance that you might actually return with the great Kukulkan at his side and rule the Mayan people for all eternity. You’ll be a queen, powerful and immortal. Over this, there is no reason to shed tears.”
“But if you have me, then you can let Adam go free, right?”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Rather than begging for her own life, Eva was trying to save mine.
“No, Eva, you can’t do that. Don’t give in to them. Don’t give in.”
“Unfortunately,” Andres turned away from Eva and addressed me, “there is nothing that can be done about setting you free, but, as I mentioned before, you will have a spectacular, front row seat as you witness an actual Mayan sacrifice. And, you’ll be witness to the great glory of this beautiful woman in her finest hour, right before you die, of course, but what a way to go out, right?” His smile sickened me. The only recourse I had was to spit on him just like
I’d seen Eva do before. For my efforts, I received a backhand across my mouth.
“Chain them in their chambers until tomorrow. Feed the woman, but don’t bother with this young fool.”
Chapter Twelve
Sitting alone, chained to the stone wall inside of a small room not much larger than a department store dressing room and enclosed in much the same way by a heavy, embroidered curtain, there weren’t many encouraging thoughts running through my brain. I played back every moment of our spring break trip from the moment that we had gotten off of the plane until the moment that my chain bindings were locked into the heavy steel rings in the stone wall. No matter how many times I replayed it, I couldn’t come up with anything that I might have done differently, except not trusting Enrique to invite us to spend a few days on the “ultimate” Mayan archeology island. I should have known instantly that it was all too good to be true. The problem, however, was that rather than thinking clearly about it being too good to be true, I had focused on the feelings of jealousy that hit me every time Enrique looked at Eva.
What really hurt my conscience the most was the fact that I had sensed that something was wrong several times, but I’d ignored the warning signs and fallen right into the trap that had been set for the two of us. We’d even been warned straight out by the dark figure that appeared out of the jungle, but we hadn’t believed him. I was wishing that I had followed his advice, but then again, sitting chained to a wall in a dressing-room cell afforded one numerous opportunities to second guess oneself and take a long look at hindsight. The one thing that was still a little bit confusing to me was the way that Enrique had been while Andres – surprise, surprise, his evil father – was talking to us after we’d been captured. He’d seemed to be ashamed and kept avoiding our eyes whenever we looked at him. I had tried to bore a hole through him, but he wouldn’t look me in the eyes while I did it. To what extent was he involved?