Lena McDermont stood in front of the mirror and smiled at herself. She was a fairly tall woman, with a lithe figure. Her brown hair, which had a subtle curl to it, was twisted into an elegant bun at the back of her head, with a few stray tendrils framing her face. She smoothed out the pale green dress she was wearing, it accented her hazel eyes perfectly, and gave it a test spin. The airy skirt flared out around her before falling against her legs again.
Tonight was going to be a wonderful night. She and her boyfriend, Eric, were celebrating three months together by going to the ballet. She’d been dropping hints for the past three weeks and he’d given her the good news the night before. Swan Lake, starting at seven o’clock, at the Brighton Performing Arts Center.
She glanced over at the clock. Just before six o’clock. Eric should be showing up any second to pick her up.
The thought had no sooner passed through her mind then she heard a loud knock on the door. “Come on in Eric.”
The door opened and Eric Ludy walked into her small apartment. “Hey sexy.”
“Looks who’s talking.” She said with a grin.
He was dressed up in a black suit coat and pants with a white shirt and a tie that, by some miracle, matched her dress. His blond hair was slicked down, rather than spiked up like usual, and he’d shaved the scruff of a beard that she always teased him about.
Kissing him warmly, she glanced over at the clock again. “Did you get directions?”
Nodding, he held up a sheet of paper. “Printed them off-line. We’ll be there in a half an hour.”
She grabbed her purse and nodded. “Lets go.”
An hour later she was sitting in the car, scowling out her window. “Should have stopped at that gas station and asked where we were.” She said finally, glancing over at him.
He was scowling deeply, staring at the dark expanse of road stretching out in front of them. “I told you, it was closed. That’s why the lights were all off.”
She shook her head slightly, leaning her head back against the headrest. “Just turn around as soon as there’s enough space.” The road they were on was uncomfortably narrow with woods growing right up to the edge of the street, and more often than not hanging over and slapping into the windshield.
“Yeah…” He said quietly, obviously biting back a rude remark.
The pair drove in silence for another twenty minutes before either of them spoke again. “Eric… up ahead. It’s a car.”
Off in the distance, the faint flashing of hazard lights on a car could be seen.
He nodded. “I see it. They’ll be blocking the whole road…” But the road began to widen, inch by inch on either side.
Lena watched as the car drew closer, waiting for Eric to slow down. There was someone standing on the side of the car and started waving to him. “Hun… slow down.” She said.
Snorting, Eric shook his head. “I’m not stopping. I want to get out of here, not waste more time on this crappy little road, changing someone’s tire.”
“Stop the car!” She yelled as they blew past the stuck car.
He sighed and hit the brakes, stopping a few hundred yards in front of the car.
“What if that had been us?” She asked coolly, turning to watch as the figure from the parked car jogged up to meet them. “Oh my god…” She said quietly when the light from their brakes shone on the man’s face.
Eric turned in his seat. “What?”
She shut her eyes and slumped down in her seat. “It’s my ex…”
“Stop the car Eric. What if it was us Eric.” He said in a singsong voice.
“Shut up.” She snapped, reaching over to roll down the window.
The man leaned down into her window. “Oh thank you for stopping. Can you believe we’ve been stuck here for over an hour? Four cars went right… past…” He faded off. “Lena…”
She nodded slightly, looking over at him. “Jason.”
He looked exactly the same since they’d broken off their engagement six months earlier. His black hair was still tipped with the same stupid blond highlights she used to tell him made him look like a boy band wannabe. His brown eyes, right then, were wide with shock and disbelief.
Eric leaned forward a bit, mostly to get a better view of the man. “So what’s wrong with your car?”
Jason pulled his eyes away from Lena’s face and looked over at Eric. “I’m not sure. It just… stopped dead. It might be the battery, but the lights are still working, so I don’t think so. Cell phones aren’t working either, not that I could even begin to describe where we are to a tow company.”
Grabbing her purse, Lena pulled out her cell phone and saw that it didn’t have any service bars. She frowned deeply and put it away, looking over at Eric. He was frowning down at his own cell phone as well.
“It’s like a science fiction movie.” Jason said, straightening up again.
The pair climbed out of the car and Eric wrapped an arm around Lena’s waist as they headed back to the car.
Another figure climbed out of the disabled car and a memory, unwanted, unbidden and unwelcome, but horribly familiar, rose in Lena’s mind. Six months earlier she’d left work a few hours early, and had planning on doing nothing more involved than eating some ice cream and curling up with a good book. When she’d gotten back to the apartment that she and Jason shared she’d been greeted with soft music and the gentle flicker of candles. Her first thought had been that he’d planning a surprise for her, but that didn’t make sense, she was supposed to be at work for another two hours. She’d walked into the living room and had been greeted with the sight of her fiancé kissing another woman.
That woman was now standing in front of the car, looking over at Lena with a carefully blank expression on her face. She was wearing a red dress and her hair, which was highlighted with so many different colors that it was impossible to tell what color it was originally, was jutting out in all directions from the ponytail it was pulled back in.
Eric pulled away from her side and walked over to the exposed engine of the car. He bent over it and began fiddling with different things, calling for Jason to try starting it at different times. Finally he straightened up and shook his head. “It’s dead. I have no clue what’s wrong with it. We’ll give you a ride to the next gas station or whatever sign of civilization we find.”
The four of them climbed into the car and drove in silence down the dark road. The only sounds in the car were the occasional rustle of someone shifting in the seat, someone clearing their throat, and the gentle rumble of the wheels on the road.
The road curved to the right and the space around it opened up. The trees were replaced by a wide, stagnate pond on either side. More than once the water had spread across the road and their wheels sent sprays of water out on either side.
“Careful…” Lena said quietly, anxiously watching the road in front of them for more flooded out portions.
Eric didn’t respond, his jaw set as he concentrated on staying on the narrow road. The water began to recede and was replaced by grass. “Ok, as soon as there is enough space I’m going to turn around.” He said, his voice thick with relief. “That was crazy, where did all that water come from?”
Lena turned to look out the back window, but her eyes met with Jason and she turned forward again. “Look out!” She screamed, throwing her hands out in front of her.
There were three people standing in the middle of the road they were driving on, their faces pale and gaunt in the light from the headlights of the car. There was an older man with white hair, and two teenagers, a boy and a girl. All three of them lifted their arms, as if welcoming the accident.
Eric jerked the wheel hard and there was a sickening thud before the wheels left the pavement. The four of them were jostled and thrown around in the car before it came to a stop just inches before slamming into a tree.
Lena threw the door open and ran out, heading back to the road. She’d heard the car hit them, she’d seen their faces just before her nerves gave out and she’d shut her eyes. Her feet hit the ground and she looked around frantically.
There was no sign of the people they’d struck. She found the marks from their wheels in the gravel, and the grass that had been torn up from them driving off the road, but there was no one in the road, there was no sign that there had been anyone else standing in the street.
Jason looked up and down the street in shock. “I saw them. They were right here…” He motioned to a spot in the middle of the road. “Alyssa, you saw them, didn’t you?”
She walked over to him, her face white in the darkness. “Yes. They were beckoning to us.” Leaning against him, she shuddered and hid her face against his chest.
Lena looked away from the pair, squinting up the road. “Are those lights?”
Peering forward, Eric nodded. “Yeah, yeah those are lights. Come on, lets get back into the car and head up there.”
He walked back to the car and pulled it out into the street so that they could all climb inside. They headed up the drive, heading towards the lights in the distance. Finally a large building loomed ahead of them.
“No way…” Lena said quietly, staring up at the huge fortress that was emerging out of the darkness.
The building was massive and had the look of an ancient castle, with high turrets and narrow windows. It was through these windows that they light they’d seen was shining.
Eric parked the car and climbed out, staring up at the building. “This is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it…”
The rest of them climbed out of the car, all of them standing in the glow of the headlights.
Alyssa shook her head. “No way. I’m not going in there. Lets just turn around and head back down the road.”
“I agree.” Lena said firmly, turning to look back the way they’d come. Her stomach lurched and she grabbed Eric’s arm tightly.
The car was still sitting where they’d left it, but a huge, wrought iron gate was separating them from it. The iron was old and rusted, with a huge lock binding it closed. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in at least ten years, possibly more. The gate was connected to a huge wall on either side, made of smooth stone with barbwire lining the top.
Eric walked to the gate and grabbed it, shaking it hard. The chain wrapped around the poles clanged loudly against the metal gate. It echoed in the darkness around them, slowly fading off in the horrified silence that surrounded the four people standing there.
Alyssa rushed forward and shook the gate as well. “That’s not possible! It’s not. We just walked through here, there wasn’t a gate!” She pounded on it with the side of her fists.
Jason gently pulled her away from the gate. “It’s ok. It’s ok hun.”
“How is it ok?” Eric asked him, his arms crossed.
Walking over to the gate, Lena slowly ran a hand across the cold metal. It was real, it was really there. First the three people in the road who disappeared, now a gate that hadn’t been there a few seconds prior. “Warning…”
The other three turned to look at her. “What?” Jason asked, frowning deeply.
She turned to look at them all, one hand still resting on the gate. “It was a warning. The people in the road, they were trying to stop us.”
Wrapping an arm around her, Eric looked around. “Well, we can either stand here panicking or do something about it. I say we head up and knock on the door. There are lights on, someone must be home.”
“I agree.” Jason said, nodding.
The group headed towards the looming building. There was a large sign next to the stairs. “Professor Windlenot’s Museum of the Strange and Unusual.” It read, though someone had spray painted Nut over the end of the professor’s name. Underneath was another notice. “Opening soon!”
Lena stared at the sign for a moment before heading up the stairs, not looking back to see if the others were following after her. The sign had said that it was opening soon, but the sign looked as old as the rusted lock holding the gate shut. The stairs wound and twisted upwards, finally leading up to a set of dark black doors.
Eric walked up behind her. “So is this reminding anyone else of a bad horror movie, or is it just me?”
“It’s not just you.” Alyssa said quietly.
Sighing, Jason leaned forward and hit the small button next to the door.
All of them jumped when, instead of a doorbell, a voice started speaking out of a speaker hanging above the door. “Welcome to Professor Windlenot’s Museum of the Strange and Unusual. Unfortunately we are still in construction, preparing our collection of amazing and never before seen exhibits. Please come again soon.”
Lena sighed and shook her head slightly. “This place is deserted. Lets just go and find a way over that wall.”
Everyone nodded and Eric took the lead, heading down the stairs.
“Hey, Alyssa…” Lena said hesitantly as Jason disappeared down the stairs. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Alyssa pushed her hair behind her ear, glancing nervously after Jason before nodding. “Um, sure.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke. “Look, I just wanted to say that I know you didn’t know what was between Jason and I. I know he was probably lying to you too. And it looks like, at least for tonight, we’re stuck together, and I just didn’t want there to be a whole bunch of unnecessary awkwardness between us.” Lena said finally, even finding a smile for the woman.
Sighing with apparent relief, Alyssa broke out in a smile as well. “Oh I can’t tell you what it means for me to hear that. After everything happened I was so worried that you would blame me, that you would hate me. But…” Her face changed, but only slightly. “But then at night, when I was curling up with my boyfriend, not yours, and kissing my boyfriend, not yours, I realized that I really couldn’t care less what you think.” Her smile had hardened and her blue eyes were cold as a winter sky. She looked at Lena for a moment, obviously enjoying the shocked expression on her face, before turning and heading down the stairs.
Lena blinked several times, staring down at the stairs. After a moment the shock wore off and she followed after the group.
“Look…” Eric said, turning to face them with a rather businesslike expression on his face. “The sign and the message both said that the place was under construction. I say we split up and look around for a maintenance shed or something along those lines. That way we can find a ladder or something to get us over that fence. We’ll get back in the car and get the hell out of here. Deal?”
Jason nodded, so did Lena and Alyssa. The two couples broke apart, Lena and Eric heading off to the left, Jason and Alyssa to the right.
Eric rubbed her back gently. “Are you ok? You’re really pale.”
Lena nodded, leaning her cheek against his shoulder for just a moment. “Yeah. I just… First those people in the road and then a gate made out of solid metal. It’s unsettling. And this place makes me uncomfortable.”
He rubbed her neck gently. “We’ll be on our way home soon.”
The path they were on wound around the museum, winding past benches and tables, ending at a stream. On the other bank was a life-sized replica of Stonehenge.
“Find anything?”
They both jumped and whirled around to face Jason and Alyssa, who had walked up behind them without them hearing.
Eric shook his head, his hand clutching his heart. “No, but now I know what a heart attack feels like.” He snapped, turning away and looking at a large white gazebo that was sitting on the edge of the stream. Stepping inside, he walked to a large metal box with a combination dial on the side. “Look at this…” He said, turning the numbers at random.
“Don’t touch it.” Alyssa said sharply. “It’ll set off an alarm or something.”
They all stared at her for a moment before Eric and Jason both began spinning the dials. No alarms sounded in the distance, but there was a large click and the top of the box swung open. Inside were six cogs and a large crank.
Unable to resist the curiosity, Jason grabbed the crank and turned it. There was a distant rumble and several loud clicks. In the stream, stones rose up out of the water, forming a bridge of stepping-stones to the island on the other side.
Eric was the first one across. “There’s a stairway!” He called back to them, staring down at the ground. “I think it leads inside.”
The other three made their way across the stream and into the center of Stonehenge. The ground had opened up, revealing a staircase spiraling down into the darkness.
Jason looked around at the group. “There’ll be a phone inside.”
“Jason no…” Alyssa said, staring down into the darkness. “Lets just go and help each other over the wall.”
Any chance of them being able to follow her suggestion was destroyed by a loud and sudden crash of thunder. The crash faded away into the darkness, but another low rumble sounded, growing steadily louder.
Eric tilted his head to the side. “Sounds like…” The sky opened up and buckets of rain began pounding down on them. “Rain.”
They all scrambled to go down the staircase. At the bottom of the staircase there was a long hallway, only wide enough for them to walk single file.
Lena led the way, shaking her head to get the water out of her eyes. “It’s a lake…” She said in shock as the narrow hallway opened up to a huge underground cavern, most of which filled with a still black lake. There was a boat moored on the bank closest to them, as if waiting.
Walking out on the sandy bank, Jason looked across the lake. “It’s a hallway. Looks like it goes into the museum.” He turned to look at them. “I say we go inside. Find a phone and call for help.”
“No!” Alyssa shouted angrily. “I am not going any further than this. If you three want to go off and play Indiana Jones and the Museum of Creepy Shit that’s fine with me, but I am sitting right here until the rain stops and then I’m finding a way home.” She backed up a few steps and sat down on the sand, glaring up at them.
Lena shook her head and turned to look at the woman, barely holding back a cry of disgust. “Alyssa…” She said quietly.
Jason turned and his face contorted with disgust. “Lyssa… baby stand up and come here.” He said, holding a hand out to her.
“What is it?” She asked in an anguished voice, starting to turn her head.
“Don’t look. Just stand up and come here.” Jason said firmly.
Slowly, she began to rise to her feet, setting one hand behind her to push her up. A miserable and disgusted sound escaped her and she turned around to look at what her hand was resting on. A resounding scream echoed through the cavern and she scrambled to her feet, staring in horror at the corpse she’d nearly sat on.
The man’s body looked almost mummified; the skin was empty and wrinkled. But the snowy white hair and the stereotypical safari clothes were alarmingly familiar to Lena. It was one of the people that had been standing in the street in front of their car, the old man. He was sprawled out, as if he’d been attacked from behind, and there was a small book sitting a few inches away from his hand, as if he’d dropped it while he fell.
No one moved for a few moments, all of them staring in shock at the body lying in the shadows.
“Look…” Eric said, directing their attentions to the hallway that they’d walked through only a few moments before. The rain above had to be torrential because there was a river of water coming out and joining the river. “It’s going to flood in here if that rain keeps up.”
Jason shook his head. “I’m not going swimming with a dead guy.” He said firmly, walking over and climbing into the boat. “We’ll go inside and wait out the rain.”
Eric and Lena climbed on after him. Alyssa was the last and she was holding something in her hand.
“Oh that’s disgusting. You took the dead guy’s book?” Eric asked, staring at the small book in her hand.
Lifting her chin, Alyssa sat down on the side of the small boat. “So? If it was important enough to carry about with him it might have something like a security code inside.”
Lena didn’t comment, sitting on the edge of the boat and staring down at the black water as they started to slowly cross the wide stretch of water. The cavern was large and dark, it was impossible to see how far it stretched in either direction. The water made a quiet sloshing sound as it hit the side of the boat. But under that, quiet and subtle, she was certain she heard music, odd, ethereal music that seemed to be coming from the water itself. “Can you guys hear that?” She asked curiously. “That music?”
Eric looked over at her. “What music?” He was sitting next to Alyssa, and without waiting for an answer he began reading the book over her shoulder.
Ignoring a faint twinge of jealousy, Lena looked out over the water again. The music was louder now, though still muffled, as if it was a speaker under the water. “You can’t tell me that you can’t hear-“
The boat rocked violently and everyone had to scramble for a grip, Alyssa crying out.
Jason recovered first, looking around at the others. “Where’s Lena?” He demanded before looking down into water.
Alyssa snorted nastily. “She must have fallen in. What are you doing?” She demanded sharply as Jason pulled off his coat and bent to untie his shoes.
“Yeah, what are you doing?” Eric said, frowning deeply. “She’ll pop up in a second or two.”
Throwing his shoes off, Jason shot them both a dark look. “She can’t swim idiot.” He said before diving into the water. He hadn’t expected it to be so cold, it hit him like a fist in the chest. For a moment he hesitated before diving down into the darkness. The water was murky and he couldn’t see past the reach of his own arms. He groped blindly in the cold, his chest burning for air. Finally he grabbed something and gave a strong jerk.
A corpse floated towards him, the face wrinkled and hollowed out, like the man they’d seen on the banks. He screamed and jerked his hand away, turning around wildly in the water. He couldn’t remember which way was up and the need for air was desperate. His foot hit something and he looked down, expecting to see the corpse, still floating lifelessly in the water. But it wasn’t the corpse it was Lena.
Her eyes were shut and she was floating in the same place where he’d seen the corpse only seconds before. A few bubbles escaped from her nose, but otherwise she showed no signs of life.
He grabbed her and swam hard towards the surface. For a few moments he was positive that they were both going to drown, it was taking all of his determination not to inhale the water surrounding them. Finally they surfaced and he coughed, struggling to hold her head above the water.
The boat was quite a ways away from them, while the shore was only a hundred yards at the most. He adjusted his grip on her and began swimming hard until his feet hit the bottom. He dragged her onto the shore, bending to set his ear against her lips. “She isn’t breathing.” He called to the pair still on the boat.
Eric was twisting the crank that sped the boat frantically, staring at the still body lying on the opposite bank. As soon as the boat’s bottom scraped ground he leapt out and ran over, shoving Jason out of the way. “Lena, Lena!” He yelled, shaking her firmly.
She flopped lifelessly from side to side as he shook her. Her head lolled to one side and she choked suddenly, expelling an alarming amount of water. She didn’t open her eyes, but began breathing slowly and evenly.
He made a relieved sound and stroked her cheek gently. “Lena… Lena wake up.”
Jason rose to his feet, staring down at her. “Give her a few seconds…”
Alyssa made a disgusted sound and stomped over, bending and slapping Lena sharply across the face.
Jerking awake with a scream, Lena thrashed around, knocking Alyssa to the ground. She stared around with wide eyes. “Where is it? Where is it?”
Eric set a hand on her shoulder. “Where is what?”
“Something grabbed me. It… it dragged me through the water.” She said, frowning and looking out at the water, which was already glassy and calm again. Her hand lifted to rub her sore cheek and she slowly rose to her feet. “There’s something in that water.”
Climbing to her feet, Alyssa glared at the woman. “You fell in. There’s nothing in there.” She stumbled slightly in the sand, knocking over a small earthen pot that was sitting next to the doorway.
A gust of wind whipped through the room and a gray fog rose from inside the pot. For a moment it hovered in the air before taking shape. It was an old man, the same old man whose corpse laid on the other bank of the lake. “Fifteen long years in this prison…” He said, looking down at his vaporous hands before noticing the shocked people standing in front of him. “You. Get out. They are evil. I was too old, not fast enough to escape.” He looked at Lena. “The Ixupi feed off of the life essence of the living. Already they have fed off of you. They can only be stopped with their jars and talismans. You must capture them before they are released into the world.” The image of the man began to fade and dissipate. “And they ruined my museum!” He disappeared and a heavy silence fell over the cavern. No one seemed capable of speaking.
Lena backed away from the jar, one hand rising up to grasp her throat. “It fed off of me? Off of my life?”
“Careful, don’t get near the water.” Eric said, catching her arm and pulling her back towards him. “So what do we do now?”
Jason ran a hand through his hair, turning to look back at the lake. “Well we can’t go back. That thing will attack one of us again. I say we go inside, break the front doors open and get the hell out of here.”
Shaking her head, Lena turned away from the lake to look at them all. “I’m not leaving here until I get back whatever that Ixupi or whatever it is took from me.”
“Well this might help…” Alyssa said, looking down at the book in her hands. “It’s about the Ixupi. It says that if you capture the creature in it’s jar, any life essence that it has stolen will be returned to the person. Assuming that they’re still alive.” She added quietly. “If you lose too much of your essence… you’ll end up like him.” And she nodded across the lake where the corpse laid on the sand. Looking back down at the book, she slowly flipped through the pages. “So we find the jar, catch the Ixupi and then leave.”
Eric nodded. “I agree.”
Jason was frowning deeply as he looked around. He grabbed Eric suddenly, pulling the man forward. “Whatever we do, we need to do it fast. The water is spreading and soon we’ll all be swimming.”
Lena looked down at the water. It was slowly filling the grooves that Eric’s heels had left in the sand and she didn’t doubt that it would flood completely within a few minutes. She turned and walked down the hallway, wrapping her arms around herself. It ended rather abruptly with a set of sliding doors. “It’s an elevator.” She told them, hitting the call button. A few moments later the doors swung open and they crowded inside.
The elevator opened up into an office. The walls were covered with maps, bookshelves crammed with books, newspaper clippings and other sorts of information. There was a huge mahogany desk sitting off close to one wall that had obviously been rummaged through.
Eric walked over to the desk, immediately grabbing the phone up off the hook. Whether or not it was still in service, they couldn’t be certain, the cord had been torn out of the back of the phone. “Great…” He snapped, throwing it against the wall. It smashed into half a dozen pieces, littering the floor. After a moment he began rummaging through the drawers.
Jason walked around the room, rubbing his arms. “Man I’m cold.” He said quietly.
Nodding, Lena leaned against the side of the desk. “Me too.” They were both still dripping wet from being in the lake and the office was very cold.
He sighed and walked over to a large fireplace. There was wood piled up to one side and he began tossing it inside. “At least we’ll be able to dry off.”
Lena looked slowly around the office, rubbing her arms. Distantly, almost as if the tune was stuck in the back of her head, she could head music. It was that same eerie music she’d heard right before getting pulled off the boat. “Does anyone else hear that?” She asked curiously.
Eric looked over at her from where he was poking around the desk. “Hear what?”
“Music.” She said, looking over at the other two. “You have to hear it…”
Shaking his head, Jason tilted his head to the side, listening hard. “Nope, sorry.”
“Maybe your brain is waterlogged.” Alyssa said nastily, still reading the book she’d taken from the corpse downstairs.
Lena stared at her for a moment before looking away, searching for the source of the music. After a moment she realized that it was coming from the fire. She turned to look over at Jason, her eyes wide.
He’d turned back to work on the fire and before Lena could shout a warning a huge creature lunged out of the ashes, diving at him. He bellowed with shock and pain, but it was cut short as the Ixupi began feeding off of the man’s life essence and he lost consciousness. It dropped the limp man and snarled at them before sinking back into the ashes and disappearing.
Lena ran forward to pull him away, then made a horrified sound and recoiled.
Jason’s face was hollowed and shriveled, the face of a centuries old corpse that had been buried in dry sands. But as she watched the gray tones faded from his face, the wrinkles smoothed out and once again he looked like himself. She grabbed his hands and dragged him away from the fireplace.
Alyssa knelt next to Jason, pushing Lena’s hands away from him and stroking his cheek gently. “Jason… Jason open your eyes. Look at me sweetie.”
The man was still for a long while before shifting and opening his eyes. For a moment he tensed and looked around wildly before sighing and setting a hand over his face. “That was horrible…” He said quietly.
Stroking his hair, Alyssa leaned close towards him. “Just rest, lie still for a few minutes.”
Walking over from the desk, Eric set an old fashioned tape recorder down on the ground. “Look at this…” He said and hit the play button.
There was a mechanical click and the whir as the tape started to play. It was the voice of Professor Windlenot, the ghost they’d seen down by the lake. “Thirtieth of December, nineteen eighty nine. Leaving on an expedition to Egypt in a few hours. Just a few more exhibits and the museum can finally open.” There was a click and silence for a few seconds before another recording began. “Someone has broken into my museum. Two teenagers missing from town, could they be here? I must investigate more thoroughly.” There was a long silence and Eric reached forward to hit the stop button, but at the last moment the man’s voice began again, panicked and stricken. “They have released the Ixupi! The jars and talismans are scattered all over the museum. They are attacking from every direction. I fear that the children have already met their doom. I must…” He fell silent and there was a loud crash, then a loud roar. “No! Stay back! Why did I ever dig you out of the ground? NO!” He screamed and the Ixupi roared again before the tape ended.
Lena rubbed her arms, trying to rid herself of the goosebumps that had risen up while listening to the man’s last minutes. “They’re everywhere. The Ixupi. If we stay we’ll be killed, but if we leave… we’ll never be whole.” She said, looking over at Jason.
Jason met her gaze for a few moments before shaking her head. “I’m not leaving until I get back what they took.”
“Well this might help…” Eric said from the desk. He pulled out a large earthen pot with a symbol painted on the front in a dark brown that looked like dried blood.
Rising shakily to his feet, Jason walked over and looked at the pot. “It looks like it needs a lid. That must be what he meant when he said the jars and talismans being scattered. We’ve got to find them.”
“This place is huge. It’ll take us hours.” Alyssa said, the faintest hint of a whine in her voice. “I’m tired, it’s already past midnight.”
Disgusted, Lena looked away from her and walked through another door. It led her out into the museum itself. The ceiling was three stories high and made entirely of stained glass. There was a staircase at one end of the large space and doors on either side. She stared around in wonder, unable to stop the rising swell of dread. Even if they did manage to avoid the Ixupi it would take them forever to find the pots and lids hidden all over.
Someone caught hold of her shoulders and she gasped, whirling around. “Eric… you scared me.” She said, resting her forehead on his shoulder.
He stroked her hair gently. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired.” She confessed. “And hopeless. This place is huge. We’ll never find all the pots.”
Sighing heavily, he walked over to a large display of different oddities that stretched the length of the main hall. “Well maybe we shouldn’t…”
Looking over at him, she frowned. “What do you mean? We shouldn’t what?”
He turned to look at her, leaning his arm on the display. “Shouldn’t look for them. Like you said, it’s basically hopeless. We should just leave while we have the chance.”
“While we… you mean before you get attacked.” She said angrily. “It doesn’t matter that I’ve had some of my life essence stolen, so long as you get out with all of yours.”
He sighed. “That isn’t what I said.”
Crossing her arms, she walked past him. “Yeah, but it’s what you meant. You want to go, then go. No one is stopping you.” She turned and saw Jason standing in the office door, staring out at them. That only made her feel worse, fighting with her boyfriend in front of her ex-fiancé.
Eric hadn’t noticed Jason. He walked over to her and rubbed her arms gently. “That’s not what I meant either. I just don’t want to see you get hurt again. Better that we leave now and leave a little bit of us behind than if we die here when we could have escaped.”
She set her forehead on his shoulder, sighing heavily. “I can’t leave. I don’t know why… but I can’t leave knowing that these things have fed off of me.” Lifting her head, she saw that Jason had disappeared from the doorway. “I’m just so tired…”
A shrill scream made them jerk apart and run back into the office. “What happened?” Eric asked wildly.
Alyssa was panting, a hand over her heart. “It was a spider…”
Lena shook her head slightly. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She muttered in a disgusted voice.
“It was a really big spider!” She said angrily.
“Look,” Jason said, cutting the argument short. “I say we bed down here for a few hours, I’m exhausted. Then when we wake up we’ll split apart and start looking for the pots. Deal?”
Leaning against him, Alyssa nodded. “Ok. But I’m hungry.”
Eric pulled something out of his pocket and flicked it over at her. “Here, eat a tic-tac and shut up.”
“That was uncalled for.” Jason said angrily.
“Well for Christ’s sake, she just keeps whining.” Eric said in a disgusted voice. “I’m tired, I’m hungry, oh it’s a spider…”
The two men squared off, both of them looking close to throwing a punch. Alyssa was watching with an eager expression on her face.
Lena pushed the pair apart. “Knock it off, both of you.” She said firmly. “Let’s just get some sleep.”
Eric wrapped an arm around her and led her off to one side of the room. They stretched out on the carpet, trying to find a comfortable place to sleep on the hard floor.
Resting her head on her arms, Lena laid out on her side, trying to ignore the way her wet clothes seemed to make her that much colder, the lumpiness of the floor, or the way she could feel Jason’s eyes on her. What she couldn’t ignore was the distant hollow feeling, the feeling that something was missing, that she wasn’t fully whole anymore.
It took a while, but she finally drifted off into a restless sleep, filled with horrible dreams and that eerie music.
When she woke it was to the deafening sound of Eric snoring right in her ear. Pulling away, she sat up and rubbed her stomach. She was starving. And her head was throbbing lightly. She rose to her feet and walked out of the office and into the museum again. It was much brighter now that it was day and it wasn’t as intimidating as before. The gold trim glittered in the light and she was able to appreciate the lavish decorations all around.
She walked across the hall and through a set of doors. Inside the next room there were huge exhibits, things she’d never seen before. There was a huge bronze unicorn and a bird nest that was taller than her. On either side of the next were sets of doors. She went through the doors on the left, which were green and had carved ivy all along them.
That room was wild with different plants that had spread well beyond the boundaries of their jars. Fruits and vegetables hung heavy on the vines and the room was much hotter than any of the ones she’d been in before. The ceiling was made entirely out of glass and the bright sunlight was spilling over the lush greenery.
She plucked a strawberry the size of a small peach and looked at it for a moment. It smelled like a strawberry and was an irresistible shade of red. Her hunger won out over her worry and she bit into it. It was delicious, a welcome relief from the hunger gnawing at her.
“You always eat random food?”
She jumped and whirled around. Jason was standing in the doorway, staring at her. “Bell around your neck… try it.”
He smiled and walked over to her. “You used to tell me that all the time.”
Turning away, she started pulling the vegetables and fruits off of their vines. “This should keep us fed until we find the pots and get out of here.” He set his hand on her shoulder and she shut her eyes for a moment before looking over at him. “Jason… don’t.” Pulling away, she stepped around him and started out of the room, when something caught her eye. “Look…” She said, pointing to a shelf of differently shaped pots.
Jason spotted exactly what she’d been looking at. He picked up one of the pots and looked at it carefully. “It’s another one. Look… it’s got one of those strange symbols.”
“Bring it with.” She said, turning and walking out of the room. When she walked into the office, she was surprised to see Eric and Alyssa, standing close together. It didn’t help that Eric jumped away, looking guilty. “I found some food.”
Alyssa smiled. “Good I’m starving.”
Eric nodded. “Me too.” He walked over and pulled some of the food from her arms, eating hungrily. He didn’t quite meet her eye, looking up at the ceiling instead.
As soon as the group had finished eating they wandered out into the museum proper, none of them certain where to go.
“We should split apart, we’ll cover more ground that way.” Lena said firmly. “One pair take the second floor, one take the first. Find all the pots and lids we can and bring them back here.”
Eric glanced around, his gaze resting on Alyssa for a moment. “Well I don’t think we should split up until we know what, exactly, we’re looking for. How will we know if we’ve found all the pots if we don’t even know how many we’re looking for?”
“I agree.” Alyssa said, nodding. “We should stay together until we know for certain.”
A sudden and powerful urge to punch Alyssa overtook her and Lena struggled against it. “Fine. We’ll stay together until we find some definitive information about how many pots there are.”
They walked through a large, golden set of double doors that opened up on a huge wing of the museum. But on closer inspection, the size of the room was an illusion due to the way that the floors and walls were painted.
In the center of the room was a huge exhibit. Lena headed over to it without really knowing why. A few moments later she figured it out. The myth of the Ixupi was written on several golden plaques in front of a curving wooden display. There were ten places carved into the wood, with names in front of them.
“Ash, wood, crystal, earth, cloth, metal, tar, water, wax, lightening…” Jason read aloud. “Ten spots. Ten Ixupi loose out there.”
Lena wasn’t listening. She was staring avidly at a large, deadly sharp sacrificial dagger that was hanging above the exhibit. There was something that looked like dried blood on it.
Eric walked up behind her, setting a hand on her shoulder. “This dagger was used to sacrifice a human to the gods in an attempt to find a way to contain their evil powers. These ten pots and their talismans were given to the people to help stop the deaths. Each pot holds one of ten elemental Ixupi. The blood of the sacrifice still stains the blade of the dagger.” He read aloud.
She pulled away from him, walking away from the exhibit. “That’s disgusting.” She said firmly. “He should have left them buried. He shouldn’t have brought them here.” Faintly she heard a familiar song, that same eerie song. She frowned and wrapped her arms around herself. Each time she had heard the song there had been an attack. First herself on the boat, that had been the water Ixupi apparently, and then in the office. The ash Ixupi had fed off of Jason.
The music got louder, though she hadn’t moved. “Guys…” She said quietly, looking around. “Guys I think…” The hairs on the back of her neck rose up and she looked down at her feet. She’d wandered off onto a pile of sand decorating the floor leading to a large statue of the Sphinx. “Earth…” She said quietly and ran off of the sand just as the Ixupi attacked.
It snarled and reached for her as she fell hard on the floor, but obviously couldn’t move past the boundaries of its elemental prison. Snarling again in frustration, it sank silently into the sand, disappearing from view.
She was shaking hard as she rose to her feet, staring down at the sand. “That was way too close…”
Jason sighed and shook his head. “Look, now that we know how many pots and lids we’re looking for, I saw we split apart and start looking. But everyone needs to be careful. Very, very careful.”
Alyssa walked away from the group, leaning against the wall. “Well we should-“ She yelled in alarm as the wall she was against slid open and she fell through.
Eric and Jason ran over to help. Eric had just stepped through when the wall slid shut, nearly taking Jason’s hand off.
“Hey!” Jason yelled, pounding on the wall.
Lena was staring at the place where the wall had slid shut. She’d been absolutely certain that Alyssa had shot her a malicious grin right before the wall had slid shut, as if she’d planned it that way.
Jason stopped pounding on the wall and began feeling around for the trigger. “Is there a way to open it from in there?” He called out.
Eric’s voice came through the wall, muffled. “No, there’s no switch. We’re going to go down the passage, it looks like there is a staircase down here. We’ll find a way out and meet up with you later.”
“Wait a minute!” Jason yelled angrily, but no one answered. “Hey!”
Shaking her head, Lena wrapped her arms around herself again. “Pretty shitty feeling, isn’t it?” She asked before turning and walking back out into the hall.
Walking up behind her, Jason frowned deeply. “That wasn’t fair.”
She shook her head again. “Don’t ever talk to me about what’s fair and what isn’t. Now lets just start looking.” He might have wanted to continue the argument, he looked very much like he did, but she didn’t care. There was no point in milling over ancient history.
They began searching the museum, room by room. The pots and talismans began showing up in the oddest places, including inside a sarcophagus and inside a musical puzzle.
One of the rooms they found was devoted to the mysteries of the sea. A massive statue of Poseidon stood at the front of the room and the walls were covered with murals of different legends and myths, including Atlantis, Odysseus and many others. At the back of the room was a large statue of a siren, the myth written out on a plaque with a large red button on the bottom.
Jason glanced at her before hitting the button. Almost immediately a voice, hypnotic and hauntingly beautiful, surrounded them. There were no words, but it still seemed to speak to them both. When it faded away, he immediately reached forward to push it again, but she stopped him. “What?”
“We don’t have time for this.” She said, turning away and walking over towards a large pipe organ with clamshell keys. She pushed down on one of the buttons and it mimicked the first note of the siren’s song. “Hey… play that again.” She said after testing each of the buttons.
He smirked. “Thought we didn’t have time.” But he pressed the button again before walking over to stand by her.
She listened hard, then began pressing down the keys. It took a few tries, but finally she got the song down. No sooner had she hit the last key than a large stone face that had been hanging on the wall swung open, showing a passageway. “Excellent… lets go.”
The passageway seemed to slope downward and rather suddenly forked in two directions.
“It’s a maze…” Jason said, staring down each corridor. “Which way should we go?”
Lena chewed on the inside of her lip, looking down both paths. “Right. I read somewhere that mazes favor right turns. I think.”
Nodding, he started down the path. “Right it is then.” They walked in silence for a while, making random left or right turns whenever they came to a parting. “Can I ask you a personal question?” He asked finally, pausing to look back at her.
She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head and going past him. “No.”
The answer stunned him. “I… why?”
“Because it’s not any of your business, to be very honest.” She said, turning down a corridor that led to a dead end. “Damnit.” When she turned around, he was standing in front of her, blocking the hall. “Jason come on… there is something a little more iportant going on than you wondering what I’ve been doing with Eric.”
He stared at her for a moment, not moving out of the way. “Lena…” But he couldn’t seem to find words, his hand moving to touch her arm.
Her heart couldn’t decide if it wanted to be in the pit of her stomach or inside of her throat, jumping from one place to the other. When he leaned down and kissed her, she started to melt before pushing him away hard. “Are you completely unable to be faithful to one person at a time?” She demanded, shoving past him and storming off through the maze, taking turns at random.
Jason hurried after her, catching her arm and turning her around to face him. “Tell me that meant nothing to you.”
She jerked her arm free, glaring up at him. “Oh it meant plenty. It means you are a completely selfish little ass who cares only for himself and what he wants. It means that I’m lucky to have gotten out when I did because if I hadn’t caught you then, you probably would have done it all the time.”
“How can you be so…” He groped around for a word and couldn’t find one, so he settled for a shrug. “So whatever about this? Don’t you miss me, miss us at all?”
Snorting softly, she leaned against the wall of the maze. “Miss being cheated on? Hardly.”
He made a desporate sound. “I didn’t cheat!”
She laughed loudly. “What the hell would you call it then?”
“A mistake. A one time, meant nothing, lapse of sanity mistake.”
For a long moment, she stared at him sadly before turning away. “Then why are you still with her?” There was no answer and she nodded. “Exactly. You made a choice Jason, a cold, one-sided, cruel choice. No one forced you to do it, no one kept you prisoner. And if you want me to tell you that I’ve cried myself to sleep every night, that I shut myself off from the world, saving myself for you, that no one could compare… you’re wasting your time. I moved on, I’m not going to waste my time missing someone who turned his back on me. And if you knew me at all… you should have known that.”
Without warning the maze opened up on a large room with rocks jutting out of the floor and large tar pits all over, the bones of unfortunate animals that had fallen inside it sticking out.
Lena walked over to one of the large rocks sticking out of the ground, sitting down on it and staring miserably at the bubbling tar. She should have felt better for getting all of that off of her chest, but she only felt worse. When she looked up Jason was carefully stepping from stone to stone across the tar, heading for a small clearing in the corner where an earthen pot was sitting. She sighed and looked back down at the ground, chewing on the inside of her lip.
There was an intense silence in the large room. There was only the occasional burbling sound of the tar and, so faint that it was hardly audible, soft music. It took a few minutes before the music filtered through her preoccupied mind and she gasped, jumping to her feet.
Jason was staring in the corner, holding the pot and staring with wide eyes at the tar Ixupi that was blocking his path back through the tar. He didn’t seem capable of speaking and the pot was shaking slightly in his hands.
She realized two things in quick succession. If he was attacked he would drop the pot and it would break, and if he was attacked the Ixupi would continue to feed off of him until he was dead. She walked to the edge of the tar and, bracing herself, planted one foot in it. “Hey! Free meal over here!” She yelled at the Ixupi.
“Are you insane?” Jason shouted at her as the Ixupi turned to look at her, slowly moving across the tar.
She looked over at him. “Run idiot. If it gets you there you’ll be drained.”
Tucking the pot under his arm, he began stepping quickly from stone to stone.
Watching him anxiously, she almost forgot about the Ixupi until the music around her got louder and louder. She turned and looked across the tar, it was a lot closer than she’d have liked.
“Get out of there!”
“Thank you Captain Obvious!” She snapped, trying to step back, but the tar held her foot in place. “No… no let go…” She said, grabbing her ankle and pulling roughly at it. Glancing up, she locked eyes with the Ixupi and stopped struggling.
The Ixupi was black and made of rolling waves of tar. It’s eyes were dark and didn’t break away from hers, holding her captive with them.
Jason was nearly across the river of tar when he dropped the pot. It fell into the tar with a plopping sound and he cursed loudly, bending and trying to pull it out. “Lena get out of there!” He yelled angrily.
But she didn’t hear him, frozen in the piercing gaze. Her hands hung uselessly at her sides and her face was blank and empty. Without warning a voice, the voice of the Ixupi, filled her head.
“Do not struggle. You know you are the sacrifice, become the sacrifice. Let me feed. Surrender to me.”
It was right in front of her, face to face with her. She couldn’t move, she didn’t want to move. She would become the sacrifice, she wouldn’t fight it. It leaned forward and reached its arms out to her, as if to embrace her. She gasped softly as it began to feed, suddenly aware of Jason’s shouts, the putrid stink of the thing in front of her, and the horrible draining sensation. A few seconds later the world went dark, the Ixupi’s voice still whispering in her ears.
“Lena? Lena?” Jason’s voice echoed through her head, calling her out of the darkness.
She shifted slightly and opened her eyes. She was lying on her back on the ground, her head throbbing slightly. “My head…”
He stroked her hair gently. “What were you thinking? You just stood there and let it get you.”
Shaky and disorientated, she sat up and looked at the tar a few feet away. “I… I got scared and froze up. That’s all.” She lied, not about to tell him that the Ixupi had spoken to her. She didn’t want to believe it herself. “Come on, lets get out of here.” Rising to her feet, she stumbled and nearly fell, grabbing Jason’s arm to keep from falling over. “Did you get the pot?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I got it. But why did you do that? I mean…”
She shook her head. “Just forget about it. I just want to go home.” Walking back into the maze, it look them a lot longer to find the way out than it had to find the tar room. Neither of them seemed inclined to speak, too much had been said and done between them.
They finally found their way out and, collecting the pots they’d left in the doorway of each room, returned to the main hall of the museum. There was no sign of Alyssa and Eric.
Jason lined up the six pots that they’d found, trying each of the three lids on them in turn. “Hey, one of them fits.” He looked over at her, frowning deeply.
She was sitting on the floor, her arms on her knees and her forehead resting on her arms.
“Are you ok?” He asked, walking over and sitting next to her.
Nodding, she didn’t lift her head. “Yeah. It just takes a lot out of you. And… it’s weird… I just have this feeling that…”
He reached out and rubbed her back gently. “That what?”
Turning her head, she rested her cheek on her arm and peered at him. “That I’m not going to make it out of here alive.”
“Lena…” He said immediately, shaking his head. “We’re all going to be fine. We’ll get out of here, don’t worry. We’ll get out of here and have a few drinks and it’ll all seem a lot less real.” As he spoke he was teasing her hair gently.
She shut her eyes and sighed softly, leaning towards him for a moment before alarms and bells began going off in her head. She pulled away and rose to her feet. “So one of the lids fit?” Walking over, she picked up the pot and considered the marking on the front. “I wonder which one it is…”
Jason rose to his feet and walked over to her. “It’s ash. I remember from the exhibit.”
Turning the pot and talisman slowly in her hand, she seemed to come to a decision and turned, walking quickly back towards Professor Windlenot’s office. Jason asked her what she was doing, but she didn’t answer. In truth, she didn’t exactly know herself.
She stood in front of the fireplace where Jason had been attacked, holding the pot out in front of her. Her heart was pounding, if this didn’t work she was going to get attacked again. Soft music began tinkling in her ears as she stepped closer and closer to the fireplace.
The Ixupi attacked without any real warning, but its snarl of eagerness turned into one of fear and rage when she thrust the pot into its face.
The earthen pot grew burning hot in her hands, but she willed herself not to drop it. With a scream of rage, the Ixupi burst into a cloud of ash and, swirling around in an invisible wind, was sucked into the pot. The lid flew out of her hand and slammed into place, sealing shut as if it and the pot had never been apart.
Jason made a strange sound and she turned to face him, her eyes widening. He had an ethereal blue glow all around him and his eyes were wide with shock. A moment later the light faded and he panted softly, his eyes bright and his face flush. “Wow…” He said quietly.
“Your life essence… you got it back.” Lena said quietly, walking over to him.
He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes still over bright. “I feel great. Like… like I’m waking from a really bad dream and all the world is bright and wonderful.” His hands moved out, wrapping around her waist and pulling her close.
She stepped away from him. “Come on, we need to keep looking.”
He looked vaguely insulted. “What, no kiss?”
Turning to look at him, she realized he was serious. “Um… no.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head slightly. Apparently getting life essence back made you act stupid, not a side effect she would have expected. “I can think of one or two reasons.” She said firmly before turning and walking out of the room, shaking her head slightly.
He started to speak again but she held up a hand to silence him, tilting her head to the side. “I hear something…” She said quietly, listening hard.
There was a soft thud, then silence, then another thud, then silence. It sounded horribly like someone who’d been hung, swinging against something solid. There were no other sounds beside that one in the large hall.
She walked forward slowly, peeking around a large display case that ran the length of the room. “Alyssa!”
Alyssa was sitting on the floor, her knees clutched tight to her chest. She rocked back, banging her head on the display case, before leaning forward again. Her face was chalk white and she was mumbling silently to herself, her lips moving fast.
Lena handed the captured Ixupi off to Jason, crouching in front of the woman. “Alyssa…” She said quietly, reaching out and touching her cheek gently.
Letting out a huge sob, Alyssa threw her arms around Lena’s neck and began sobbing uncontrollably. “I couldn’t… he just…. too many…” She couldn’t get a full sentence out.
Stroking her hair gently, Lena glanced over at Jason before pushing Alyssa back. “Calm down Alyssa. Deep breath in… good. One more… now tell me what happened.”
Shutting her eyes, Alyssa let a few more sobs escape before managing to regain control of herself. “We were searching for more pots… we found a lot of lids, but only three pots. We went into a room… they were everywhere. Eric pushed me into a corner, but they just kept attacking. I think he’s…. he’s…” She dissolved into tears again, covering her face.
Lena turned to look up at Jason, her eyes wide.
“I’ll go find him.” He said firmly, turning and running up the golden staircase.
Still sobbing, Alyssa buried her face in Lena’s shoulder again. “I just want to go home. Please let me go home.”
Lena rubbed her back gently. “It’s ok. If you found three pots, we’re only missing one. We’ll catch the Ixupi and go home. Eric will be fine, he will.”
It took some time, but the woman calmed down enough that she managed to stop crying. She looked at the line of pots and talismans and then around the room. “It’ll be ok…” She kept whispering softly to herself.
Lena couldn’t stop pacing, alternately chewing on the inside of her lip and her nails. “It’s been too long. I should go up and look for them.”
“No, don’t leave me.” Alyssa said, grabbing her skirt in one hand. “Please, stay with me…” She looked up at her, then looked past her, up at something behind her. “It’s… it’s the last pot.”
Turning so quickly that her skirt tore, Lena turned and stared up at the crystal chandelier hanging next to the staircase. Alyssa was right, the last pot was nestled in the woven strands of crystal beads. “We’ve got to get it down.” She said firmly.
Alyssa rose to her feet, slowly walking up the stairs. “Maybe… if you climb up there and pass it down.”
Lena climbed up the stairs, looking at the chandelier. “It’s… yeah, I’ll do it.” She said, pulling off her shoes. “Give me a boost up.”
It took some doing, but she finally pulled herself up onto the chandelier. She grabbed the pot and shifted to hand it down to Alyssa. As the other woman grabbed the pot a soft music unconnected with the crystal gently hitting itself filled Lena’s ears. “Oh shit, Alyssa there’s one coming. Hurry, help me down.” She said anxiously, glancing up at the ceiling and lowering herself down slowly, waiting for Alyssa to catch her legs and guide her back.
After a few moments she glanced over her shoulder. The other woman was gone. “Alyssa!” She yelled loudly, the music growing louder. She looked up and saw a form rising out of several of the crystal strands. “Alyssa you bitch get back here!”
Sensing easy prey, the crystal Ixupi took its time approaching her, leering and seeming to grin at her.
She stared at it for a moment before looking down at the ground two stories below her. She could let go and fall, probably to her death, if not several broken bones, or she could let the creature feed off of her before falling when she lost consciousness. The eerie music grew louder as the creature got closer.
Terrified tears slipped down her cheeks as she shut her eyes tightly, forcing herself to let go of the chandelier. She only fell a few feet before stopping suddenly. Her eyes flew open and she screamed, the Ixupi’s face only inches from hers, its clawlike hands clutching her wrists. “No! Let me go!” The shout was broken off rather abruptly as it began to feed and the world slipped away from her.
Her first thought, as she regained consciousness, was that she had to have hurt her wrists in the fall, because they were both throbbing painfully. She opened her eyes and realized that she wasn’t in the main hall, but was facing the Ixupi exhibit, and that her hands were tied tightly, the rope connecting them looped over a hook hanging from the wooden sign. Her feet were barely touching the floor and the strain on her wrists was making them ache.
Someone was walking behind her and she turned, trying to see who it was. After a moment Eric walked into her view, smiling in a distant and entirely inhuman way. “Wakey wakey.”
“Let me down.” She said firmly, jerking hard at her wrists. “What the hell is going on? You let me down right now.”
He reached out, stroking her cheek gently. “Don’t worry, there’s no reason to be scared. You see-“
She cut him off. “Scared? You think I’m scared? I’m pissed off, you ass. Let me down right now or I swear to god I’ll make sure you spend the next half of your life in a jail cell for kidnapping! Scared? Hardly. You let me down right now do you hear me?”
Someone else walked into view. It was Alyssa. She lifted a hand, and the sacrificial dagger they’d seen before glinted evilly in the light. She dragged it sharply down the woman’s cheek without warning. “You were saying? About not being scared?”
Lena stared at her with wide eyes, feeling as her cheek began to bleed. The blade had been razor sharp, there wasn’t even any pain, yet. “Why are you doing this?” She asked after a few moments.
Alyssa smiled, considering the dagger in her hands. “They got the myth wrong. The king didn’t sacrifice someone in order to stop the Ixupi… he offered his dearest child in order to gain power over the creatures, to use them as a deadly weapon. The sacrifice was given to the Ixupi, to appease their unending hunger. In return they served him unquestioningly. He gained more and more power through them. When he died the rituals were lost, but I’ve found them.” She lifted up the blue book that she’d taken from Windlenot’s body. “Old man dug too deeply, but it was helpful. It made my search a lot less difficult.”
Lena listened with a sort of helpless horror. “You’re insane…” She said quietly, looking over at Eric. He was standing off to the side, staring at her without seeing her, listening without really comprehending. “What did you do to him?”
“The same thing I did to Jason.” She said with a cold smile. “Men are horribly easy to control, if you know the right way to handle them. You could call it hypnotisim… witchcraft… voodoo… anything really. But he obeys me, just as Jason did. Of course he was harder to control. It took a lot to get him to turn away from you. And it was very tiring to listen to him, crying and calling your name in his sleep. I doubt you can comprehend how much he truly loves you… it’s sickening really.”
Lena had a sort of ringing in her ears as she listened to the woman speak. She didn’t even realize it, but she was clenching her hands and trying to twist herself free from the ropes binding her.
“I needed to get you here, I needed the sacrifice to complete the ritual.”
Frustration welled up inside of Lena. “I’m not a damned sacrifice!” She yelled, but even as she said it she knew it to be a lie. Hadn’t the tar Ixupi called her the sacrifice, and hadn’t she known then that it was true?
Alyssa laughed. “Don’t make stupid lies Lena. You know it’s true, deep inside of you.” She opened the blue book up and read aloud. “Only the true sacrifice will hear the creatures approach. Only the true sacrifice will know the words to speak, to call them forth and finish the ritual.”
As she read aloud, Eric started to place certain items around her. A bowl of water, a pile of ashes, a wax candle, a glob of tar, a wooden statue, a few bronze coins, a huge quartz crystal, a bundle of linen cloth, a jar of earth, and a small jar that looked like it held a tiny bolt of real lightening. He placed them in a circle around her.
Lena watched with rising terror. They were really going to do it, they were going to let those monsters suck her dry. “Eric stop… stop!” She kicked her leg out and caught him in his shoulder, but he hardly shifted at all. “Are you insane? There isn’t a way to control them. They’ll kill us all if you let them out!”
Alyssa smiled slightly. “No, they’ll only kill one of us. Now summon them.”
“No.”
She walked out of her view, dangling the dagger in her hand. Eric grabbed hold of Lena and turned her so that she could see what the woman was doing.
Jason was unconscious on the ground, his hands tied tightly to a post in the ground. His left eye was swollen and bruised and Alyssa was slowly dragging the blade against his skin, slicing his face open.
“Stop it!” Lena yelled, struggling hard. “Stop it! Leave him alone!”
Placing the blade under his throat, Alyssa looked up at her and smiled. “Summon them, or I cut his throat.”
“Don’t…” Jason murmured softly, his eyes fluttering open. “Don’t Lena… don’t do it.”
She stared at him, the cuts all over his face were bleeding in earnest now. Her face was hopeless and she was terrified. While her own death was certain, she couldn’t let Jason be killed. “Don’t hurt him…”
Another smile toyed across Alyssa’s face. “Don’t make me. Now summon the Ixupi and die your destined death.”
A sob escaped Lena and she bowed her head. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say.” She confessed miserably.
Alyssa raised the dagger and slammed it down into Jason’s leg. The man yelled in pain, his head falling back. “Do you know now?”
Lena stared at the dagger, buried all the way to the handle in Jason’s leg. There wasn’t any secret knowledge hidden in her mind, she had no idea how to call the Ixupi to her. “I… I…” The other woman lifted the dagger and slammed it down into his other leg. “I summon you forth!” She screamed suddenly, the words coming from some other level of consciousness. “I summon you forth, creatures of darkness, spawn of the underworld.”
“Lena don’t!” Jason yelled, but his voice was tense with pain and fear.
She looked at him, her eyes sad. “I’m sorry.” She whispered softly before looking down at the ground in front of her. “I summon you forth, creatures of darkness, spawn of the underworld. Come to me, the true and rightful sacrifice. Come to your new mistress. She offers my life in exchange for your servitude. As my blood flows, as my breath grows still, I release you from your prison and bind you to her for all the ages.” She fell silent, tears sliding down her cheeks.
Alyssa watched hungrily, walking away from Jason and standing in front of her. “Are they coming? Did it work?”
But the question didn’t need to be answered in words. From each of the different elemental piles situated around Lena an Ixupi rose up. The hideous creatures swayed in front of her, not attacking just then, but staring at her with a sort of reverence.
Jason pulled hard at his binds. “Lena! NO! Stay away from her!” He screamed loudly.
Lena didn’t hear him. All she could hear was the rhythmic chanting of the Ixupi around her, calling her to surrender herself to them. “I am the sacrifice…” She said quietly, shutting her eyes. “Take my life and be free.”
A few moments later there was only pain in her world as the Ixupi closed in on her, dragging their ragged claws down her skin. She clenched her jaw and tilted her head back, certain she could hear her flesh ripping.
“Feed us, release us, feed us, release us.” They chanted as they tore her flesh, shredding it cruelly with long swipes of their claws.
Under the pain there was a faint and terrifying sense of familiarity to her. As if this pain was something she’d felt before, many times before.
The world was starting to darken as she lost more and more blood. Even the pain was fading into a sort of haze. But then, as one, the Ixupi began to feed. She screamed loudly and became away of several things. She could hear Jason’s screams of rage and horror, Alyssa’s eager urging, the sound of her own blood dripping on the floor. The power of the Ixupi feeding off of her made the ropes binding her burst, but the creatures didn’t let her fall, clutching her tightly.
The world was darkening, tendrils of fog were obscuring her vision. Her heartbeat was slowing, she could feel it struggling to pump what little blood left in her body. She couldn’t breathe, and she was so tired. Her eyes shut and she let out a huge sigh, but didn’t draw another breath.
Jason watched in horror as Lena fell to the ground, her eyes open and glassy. “No…”
The Ixupi moved away from the lifeless body, no longer captive to their elements but free to move as they like, and turned towards Alyssa. One by one the grotesque creatures bowed to their new mistress, waiting for orders.
Alyssa stared at them with a hungry look in her eyes. She shifted her gaze down to Jason, grinning. “I suppose you always knew she was special. And we never could have gotten everything ready if you hadn’t kept her occupied. And now… you can serve another purpose.”
“What, are you going to kill me too?” He snarled at her.
She laughed. “Of course I am. Do you think I’m going to leave a witness to this? Not,” She added with a laugh. “That anyone would believe you. But that’s beside the point.”
“Uhh… Alyssa?” Eric said from off to one side.
“Be quiet.” She snapped. “I haven’t given you leave to speak. Now, my dark minions will drain you. And there will be nothing left to remind the world that you once existed.”
Eric spoke again, his voice more insistant. “Alyssa this, um….”
She turned to look at him. “What you idiot?” But at the look on his face, which was both shocked and afraid, she turned to look at what had him so scared.
Lena was no longer lying on the ground, but was standing, her feet hovering a few inches from the ground. Her eyes were glowing a strange blue and, as the three dismayed people watched, her wounds sealed themselves. The last of the marks to disappear was the long cut along the side of her face, the blood seeping back into the wound before it disappeared.
Alyssa went white, staring at the woman in front of her. “It’s not possible. It’s not possible!”
Lena shifted her eyes over at her. “A great many things beyond your comprehension are possible.” She said, and her voice had a power that radiated from it, making it echo around them. “You seek to control the Ixupi, you believe that by giving the sacrifice, you have won their obedience. You are a fool.”
As she was speaking, Eric had picked up the sacrificial dagger and was slowly creeping up behind the woman. Before Jason had a chance to yell a warning the woman had turned and lifted one hand.
Eric yelled as he lifted off of the ground, the dagger flying out of his hand. He remained in the air, uselessly moving his arms and legs, as if he hoped to swim back to the ground. “Let me down! Let me down!”
Lena turned away from him, looking back at Alyssa. “You hope for power and control. But you are already their slave. It is only a matter of time before they turn on you and the world you unleashed them upon.”
Alyssa was flipping through the blue book in her hands, looking frantic. “No. The ritual is complete, you’re dead! I control the Ixupi, they belong to me!”
The book flew out of the woman’s hands and Lena slowly drew closer to her. The Ixupi hissed and retreated, seeming to be afraid of the woman. “That book is the work of imagination, not truth.” She turned and looked at the plaque that told the story of the Ixupi. “The king sacrificed me, his dearest child, to gain control and use the Ixupi as his private army. His power spread, but the Ixupi overtook him and used him to increase their power. The people suffering resurrected me with their prayers and pleas for help. I brought with me ten pots and their talismans from my eternal rest. They alone could hold the Ixupi.” The pots and talismans seemed to appear out of nothing, circling around the woman.
Alyssa watched her with wide eyes before sprinting over to where the dagger had fallen. She grabbed the dagger and threw it hard at the woman, tumbling backwards on the sand-covered ground.
The dagger flew right at Lena, but before it go close enough to strike her it burst into flames and was reduced to nothing more than ash. She turned to look at Alyssa, lifting one hand and holding it out to the woman. “The sands of time will swallow the greatest of powers.”
The woman started to rise to her feet when the sand she was sitting on became thick and liquid. “What… this isn’t possible!” She yelled, struggling to free herself from the quicksand that was drawing her down.
It didn’t take more than a minute before the woman had disappeared beneath the sand, her hand the last thing to be swallowed up.
Lena turned and looked back at Eric, who was staring at her in horror. She waved a hand and he fell to the ground, immediately curling up into a tight ball. “Go… leave this place and never speak of what you have seen.” She said firmly.
He scrambled to his feet and sprinted out of the room without glancing back once.
She turned and looked down at Jason, the sharpness in her gaze softening. With a motion of her hand the ropes holding him snapped.
Jason stared up at her, hardly feeling it as the wounds on his face and legs sealed themselves up. “Who… who are you?”
A smile passed over her face. “I am Lena. A different conscious form, but still the same woman.” She lifted her hand and he was lifted off of the ground and set lightly on his feet.
He stared at her, looking wary and confused. “I don’t understand. You were… you died.”
She nodded. “I did. But I am the sacrifice and that is my duty.” Her eyes snapped over to the side where the Ixupi were slinking away in all directions. Throwing out one hand, the pots and talismans flew at the creatures. They screamed and snarled with fury as they were recaptured, the pots sealing themselves tightly. “Your duty will be to guard after the sacred vessles. Keep the secrets safe and never let the Ixupi escape.”
The pots settled on the floor next to him, but he stared up at her anxiously. “Wait… will you… will she…”
“She will wake shortly after I fade. Let her rest and keep her close, your love for each other will mean your survival.” She said calmly. “You know what Alyssa did, bewitched your mind to disobey your heart. Now you must let your heart disobey your mind.”
He nodded. “Yes… anything. I love her, you… her…”
“Her.” She said with a laugh.
“Her.” He said firmly. “I will do anything for her.” As he spoke, he noticed that she had lowered to the ground and the glow in her eyes was beginning to fade away.
She shut her eyes. “I shall hold you to that oath.” Her voice no longer echoed, but wavered and sounded weak. “She will need rest… just be there with her.”
He ran forward and caught her as she went limp, carefully easing her to the ground. Cradling her head in his lap, he stroked her cheek gently. “Lena? Lena…”
There were voices calling, but they were muffled, as if hearing them under water. People calling her name, a familiar man’s voice and others, some old and some young, all strange and familiar at the same time, calling her out of the suffocating darkness.
Lena shifted slightly and opened her eyes. The exhaustion she felt was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. It took a few seconds before she realized Jason was holding her. “Is it over?” She asked quietly.
He nodded. “Yes, it’s over. Lena… do you remember anything?”
“More than you can imagine.” She murmured, shutting her eyes again. Throughout history she had done this, dying to stop the Ixupi, reawakening to protect humanity from knowledge of their existence, being reborn to do it all over again.
Stroking her hair, he looked around at the pots sitting around them. “So what do we do now?”
“Well…” She said, looking up at him. “I’m not sure. I suppose we just… carry on.”
He frowned deeply. “What if they get out?”
“That’s why I’m here… “ She said quietly, looking around them. “To stop them from getting too far out.” Sighing softly, she turned and hid her face against his chest. “Jason… do you still have my ring?”
He looked down at her. “Of course I do.”
She smiled at him. “Good, I want it back.”
Laughing, he hugged her close. “Wonderful.”
They laid out on the ground, curling up in each other’s arms. The clouds that had been blocking the sun drifted away and the room filled with bright light. The many different treasures all around the room glittered and shone with a sort of wonder that hadn’t been evident earlier.
Jason looked around slowly. “You know… without the killer Ixupi coming out from all angles, it’s actually pretty cool in here.”
Lena smiled and nodded. “Once we’ve rested some we’ll have a good look around.”
Curling up, they relaxed and drifted off into something like sleep. The captive Ixupi seemed to stand guard over them.
“Lena?”
“Hmm…” She said sleepily.
He stroked her hair gently. “You can’t still… levitate and make things float, can you?”
Lifting her head, she grinned and touched his cheek lightly. “Guess we’ll find out if you get me really, really mad, won’t we?”
They both laughed and he hugged her close. “Fair enough.”
She shut her eyes and sighed softly. A hundred lifetimes’ worth of memories were running slowly through her mind, but they weren’t at all unpleasant. In each of them she saw Jason at her side and a blissful happiness around them. Drifting to sleep, she knew that her work that lifetime had finished. Life could take the lead now, until the next time someone released the creatures from their prisons.
