by Luke Valen
“Wow. You couldn’t have just said that?” Bryon said.
“Shut up, Bryon,” I said sternly. “Jade, can you open it?” His hands went up in the air.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Jade mumbled. “No.”
“No. What do you mean no?” I spurted out. “All of that, and you can’t even open it? How do you know it even has anything to do with me then?”
“I only have one of the keys,” she said as she pointed toward an oddly shaped indention in the book. “I can’t locate the other. I have been trying to find it ever since I found the book. It just…doesn’t seem to exist.”
“So then, why did you bring me here?” I demanded.
“Because I thought you may know where to find it, seeing as this book has your exact same markings on it. Your birthmark, the book cover. It’s not just coincidence, and everything that is happening to you now and finding me…”
“Nothing is happening. I haven’t seen one of those things in weeks,” I yelled. Jade and Bryon both took a step back. I must have startled them. My mind was reeling with shattered hope. “I haven’t done anything special in weeks! It was just a coincidence. A scientific anomaly.” Frustration became me. The two stood there frozen and silent. I stormed out of the room in a fit of annoyance and anger. Jade had brought me here for nothing. That was the exact reason I never got my hopes up for anything.
“Dean, come back here, bro!” I could hear Bryon calling from down the cavern. It was too late; I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t keep getting my hopes up for an explanation of my life, for something that would never come. I want to just move forward and be happy.
Abigail makes me happy.
Just as I was making my way up the spiral staircase and through the tree trunk, I stopped. Something was pulling at me, pulling at my innermost being to stop. Standing there, I remembered. Through the red rage, I remembered the gift I had, the gift that was given to me at birth. My book. Reaching into my pocket, my fingers traced the outermost markings of the leather-bound journal. The emblem on the front was raised and made of stone. Like it was braille for the blind, my mind read the symbol with great accuracy. I could see it as if it were in front of my eyes at the very moment.
“Dean…you okay?” Bryon saw me standing in the middle of the staircase, frozen. “What’s wrong?”
Turning, I quickly ran down the stairs and past Bryon. A trail of dust followed as I sprinted into the small chamber that Jade was still frozen in.
“Dean, I didn’t mean to—” Jade said.
“It’s fine, move over,” I said grabbing the book from the desk. Gazing upon that lock and recognizing the symbol, I knew this was not a coincidence.
“What are you doing?” Jade asked.
Bryon came rushing into the room. “Dude, you’re really freaking me out.” Jade gave him a pointed look. “Us, freaking us out.”
“I have had this my entire life,” I said, pulling out the leather-bound journal from my pocket. “I never knew what it meant. It is filled with stories and drawings that I could never understand. You’re right, Jade, this isn’t coincidence,” I said as I peeled off the stone engraving from the surface of the journal. “I think this is what you have been looking for.”
Bryon and Jade took a couple steps forward, leaning in. They watched in silence. Returning the stone key to its rightful resting place, I watched as it clicked into position.
We looked at each other in complete awe.
Slowly I turned the coupling clockwise.
Click…
Click…
Click…
CLACK.
The book’s iron-cast guards popped open, dust erupted from the side, top, and bottom. Our hands flew up to guard our eyes from the dust, and Bryon and Jade stood dumbfounded. My mind didn’t know what to believe. Have hope, don’t have hope. It was all too much to take in.
“Well, go on then…Open it,” Jade muttered. I had just been standing there staring. I didn’t know what to feel. The excitement led me to feel hope, though my experience told me not to.
I held the book closed. “Whatever we find in this book, it doesn’t change anything, right? You’ll both still be my friends?” I looked at them for approval.
The two of them nodded in acceptance.
“Yes! Come on already!” Bryon threw up his arms, fists balled as if it was paining him to wait.
I began to slowly pry open the cover. Opening the book was like opening a window to my soul. I felt a sudden rush of life swoop through me as my body was filled with energy. The adrenaline pumped through my veins like a wild fire hose. I was finally going to know who I was—who my family was. Laying my eyes on the first pages, I was flooded with images and words that I could not understand, yet they felt so very familiar.
“What is it! What does it say?” Jade said as she came shoving her way in closer to see.
“What does all of this mean?” Bryon said, leaning over my shoulder.
“Be careful with that! It is very old!” Jade yelled as she swatted away Bryon’s curious hands. “So what is it, Dean?”
“I don’t know,” I said. My eyes were like sponges absorbing as much information as they could. Even with all the visual information, my mind could not seem to piece any of it together.
I stared, hopefully numb at the newfound information.
Jade looked up at me. “What do you mean, you don’t know? You had the key to this. You must know what it means.” Bryon again leaned over my shoulder to get a closer look.
“I mean, I don’t know. I have never seen any of this before. I don’t know how to read any of this.” I flipped from page to page and then pointed the finger at Jade. “How do you not know what language this is? Aren’t you some kind of all-knowing scholar?” Bryon looked at Jade along with me.
“This is different,” Jade answered. “I have never seen a language like this in all my years and all my studies. This is…not human. The typography doesn’t fit any known language.” She gently grabbed the book, first looking at me for approval. “There seems to be no commonality to any of the words either. It is almost erratic and impulsive.”
I am the unending disappointment.
“Hmmm,” Bryon mumbled, placing his hand on his mouth.
“There are over seven thousand languages in the world today,” Jade spoke quickly. “Of which only about twenty-three are actually spoken. Of the seven thousand, I have researched over two-thirds that number and not one looks like this.”
“So that means you have one third to go then, doesn’t it?” I said madly. My wrist beginning to flicker a lowly red. Jade and Bryon took a step back, just before Jade moved back toward me.
“Dean, that could take years to complete.” Jade’s voice was soft. She placed her small hand on the top of my shoulder. I couldn’t move. My mind continued to be tricked into hoping for something that would never be. She must have felt my sadness, my rejected happiness. Her other arm hand grabbed mine.
“Well, then you better get on it,” I snarled, pulling my hand away from hers.
Jade pulled her hands close to her body. “That could take years even if I—”
“Look at this.” Bryon had been flipping through the pages. “He looks just like you.”
I broke my red gaze from Jade. We both turned to look.
Right there underneath Bryon’s bony finger was a man. A man covered in shining golden armor from head to toe. My emblem imprinted on his chest. He stood there, wielding a golden sword covered in flames by his side. There he was staring back into our eyes on the steps of what looked like the gates to a massive towering structure with a blinding light being emitted from its innermost.
“Dude, that is totally you!” Bryon got louder as his excitement rose.
“That’s not me. That is obviously someone else.” Despite my protest, I wondered. Was that me? My eyes focused. “I mean, look at the way he stands. I don’t stand like that. And look at his eyes—they are completely different.” I tried to find
flaws. Lies.
But he looked exactly like me.
“Dean,” Jade said in a stern tone as if to say shut up.
Okay, so I knew it—I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it. That was me, but when and how?
“How…” I stuttered.
“I don’t know,” Jade said, moving in front of my eye line. “But there is a lot of research to be done. I think it would be smart if you two stayed here for a while. I have a couple extra rooms just next to the main chamber and plenty of food and water,” Jade said, offering her hospitality. “With everything going on, I’m sure we are not the only ones looking into this. It might not be safe out there.”
“Dang, girl, how big is this place?” Bryon questioned. “You’ve been holding out on me,” he said as he made his way back into the main chamber. “I get the bigger one!”
“Jade, you really believe that could be me?” I asked, still in the small room holding the book.
“I don’t know,” she said as she also made her way down the corridor and into the main cavern.
The walls all seemed so alive now. My mind was racing.
There were so many questions and thoughts rattling around in my brain, I couldn’t make sense of any of them. I don’t ever remember being like that or looking like that. There was no residual memory left in my mind that could tell me anything or give me anything to hold on to. The one resounding thought that kept repeating itself was that of my parents. If that was me…then who were they?
“Dean…” Jade called from the big cavern. “Come on, let me show you where you will be staying.”
With that, I left the book open on the table, hoping that the answers would leap off the page in the night and creep down the hall and into my mind’s eye so I could see clearly and understand all that was happening. Jade led me down the hall into the main chamber, which was still nicely lit by candles all around. From there she took me across the room, through an archway supported by stone beams, and into a medium-sized room made entirely of dirt and stone. There in the middle was a twin-sized bed with a hand-stitched quilt and feather pillow. A small dresser stood by its side.
“This is you,” she said. “Dean, we are going to figure this out,” Jade added, grabbing my hands. Her green eyes stared deeply into mine. “I promise.”
“Thank you,” I said. She let go of my hands and turned to leave. “Jade.”
She stopped in the doorway. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry if I scared you earlier.”
“It’s fine. Sleep well,” she said and left the room.
The smoke danced in the air as I blew out the candles and sat on the bed. The adrenaline had filled my body so quickly that I now became weak as it slowly dissipated from my being.
Being in the underground was an odd feeling as there was no sense of time. No sun, no moon. No light, no dark. As I lay down on the cozy twin bed, I stared up at the ceiling. Nothing but dirt. All around me, nothing but dirt wall. No pictures, mirrors, decorations…just dirt.
This must be what it feels like to be buried alive.
I pulled the quilted sheets over my body and slowly allowed my eyes to close. Abigail’s face popped into my head like a familiar ghost. Comforted by her eyes, my mind slipped into its restful abyss.
CHAPTER 9
NILE
The smell of fresh roasted coffee beans filled my nostrils, awakening my senses. I hadn’t slept that good in as long as I could remember. A proper bed, blankets, and a warm place—I felt like royalty in this dirt hole in the ground. Reluctant to leave my warm nesting place, I reached my toes out from under the covers.
The cold, hard ground met my feet, awakening the rest of my senses. Stretching my limbs, I made my drowsy way into the main chamber and followed the smell of caffeine.
“Ah, Dean! You’re awake!” Jade said, already busy at a table.
“Is that coffee I smell?” I stretched my arms over my head one more time, taking in a deep breath.
“I went out and got us some breakfast. I figured bagels and coffee is a common good?” Jade said.
“You figured right!” Bryon said, sprinting in from the other bedroom and diving straight into the bag of bagels and slurping his coffee. “Mmmm . . .” Still in his pajamas, headphones around his neck, and hair a mess, his eyes lit up.
I moseyed on over at a good early-morning pace.
“Dean, come look at this.” Jade pointed to the book. “I found a few things this morning while you were still sleeping.” She placed it on a large tree stump in the main chamber, away from its resting place.
“How long have you been up?” I asked, making my way first to the coffee.
“I couldn’t sleep much after everything. There was just too much on my mind, so I went back to the book. There was something that I had to see. Come look at this,” she urged. Her dark black hair was up in a messy bun, and now that she mentioned it, it was obvious she hadn’t slept. Her hands were shaky from all the coffee and Red Bull she must have used to fuel her all-nighter.
As I sipped my coffee, the warm liquid flowed throughout my body, bringing to life the sleeping cells in a caffeine tidal wave of energy. “What is that?” I asked, standing next to her and peering over the book as I tried to make sense of what she was showing me.
“Maybe we can’t understand the language just yet, but the pictures…we can understand those. I think this book is all about you, similar to a biography. Your symbol is all over it from cover to cover.” Jade quickly flipped through the pages like a flip-book.
“DUDE,” Bryon gurgled, spilling crumbs out of his mouth and onto the book.
“Ugh, Bryon, chew with your mouth closed,” I said.
“Sorry.” More crumbs.
“Ah!” Jade said as she brushed them off, giving Bryon a death stare. He seemed to say sorry with his eyes, and she looked back to the book. “Look, here you are with your sword, the same one we had seen earlier with your mark engraved. And here you are again in the armor, but look how these people are looking at you, like some kind of god.”
This was insane. I looked like some type of warrior. I wished I could remember this. The people in the images had their hands raised and their heads bowed. Some were interlocking arms and dancing with joyous smiles on their faces.
“Here is one of you in battle fighting some weird creature. The same creatures you have been describing to us, the demons,” Jade said zealously, looking from me to the book and back to me, pointing to the photo.
“Okay, so what does all that mean? That I am immortal and don’t remember it? How is that possible?” I said, stepping back.
“I don’t know. All I know is there is actually a lot of Hebrew and Aramaic written in here. Those parts I can understand.” She flipped to another page. “Look here. It says something about a being—you—coming down from the heavens in a cloud of flames to save the people from the Anubis.” Jade was tracing her fingers along the lines as she translated.
“The Anubis?” I asked.
I was being sarcastic—I had no clue who Anubis was.
“YES! THE ANUBIS!” Jade was wide-eyed. She was clearly too excited to catch my sarcasm.
“I know you are all excited, but what is an Anubis?” Bryon asked, stuffing his already-full mouth with more and more bagels. We looked over to him, and he shrugged, cheeks bulging.
“Jade. Please inform this uneducated hermit who Anubis is.” I crossed my arms. I really wanted to know too. This was just getting good.
“Anubis was believed to be the Egyptian god of the dead,” Jade explained. “A demon some even said that would bring to life an army of the dead to enslave the world.” She turned the page, revealing a closer, more-detailed image of Anubis. A large muscular creature, with a wolflike face covered in gold jewelry and wielding a large spear.
“So I came down in a…cloud of flames and fought this god of the dead?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“YES! And you would win!” Her arms went flying in the air in victory.
/> “So then why don’t I remember any of this?” I asked. I couldn’t match her enthusiasm quite yet. “I feel like something so extreme and awesome, I’d definitely remember. Especially fighting a god.”
“It could be some form of amnesia. Here is my theory.” She began pacing back and forth. Bryon and I stepped back to allow her room to think and explain. The main chamber was quiet in its anticipation of what she would say next. We stood by the desk as she paced her way to the bookshelf along one of the walls and then back and forth. “You came down here on a mission any number of years ago, and someone trapped you here.”
Her arms went flying again. Bryon and I gave quick glances to each other. I wished I could see what she was seeing in her head right now. It must be an adventure in there. This small Latina had a lot of fire.
“They stopped you from returning to wherever it is you came from and suppressed your memories. Someone who doesn’t want you interfering with their plans. Someone like a god of the dead, someone trying to take over the world once and for all,” Jade said, making her way over to a small leather chair next to the desk Bryon and I were at and dropping down into it, developing the story.
“Jade, let’s think logically for one second here,” I said, spinning her chair around to face the book on the desk. “If someone had done all that, then why in the past sixteen years have they not taken over the world yet with an army of zombies or demons or whatever it is you say they are?” I asked.
“Yeah, Jade, how do you explain that?” Bryon mumbled as pieces of bagel fell out of his overstuffed mouth. Disgusting. I’m gonna teach this guy to close his mouth while he eats someday.
“Well…I hadn’t got that far yet,” Jade said, looking up at me. “It is just a theory, and I believe that if someone is trying to do so, then they are working very hard at it as we speak, and we must begin work as well.” She slammed her hands on the table.
I was lost. “What do you mean we must begin work?”
“I mean, you need to remember. We need to start your training; we need to find your armor and sword. Maybe that will spark your memory and bring back what you lost. Let me see that book of yours again.” She reached out with a demanding hand for the journal in my back pocket.