Untitled Story (Will Rename Later): Chapter One

Warning: This Chapter Contains Violence And/Or Gore!  Please Be Advised!

 “Alright Mairyl, you can do this. It can’t be any worse than the mummy you discovered a couple times ago.” I told myself, taking a breath to calm the pounding heart in my chest.

I gripped the crowbar in my hand a little harder, coaxing myself into doing what I had to in order to get the job done. It wasn’t the most difficult challenge I had to face, but it was going to be tricky if I wasn’t going to break anything of value that’d tip people off that something was possibly taken from the place. The place just happened to be a mausoleum in the graveyard just past a church near the outskirts of town. Now the reason I was here… well, I was what I would like to refer to as an artifact retriever, but most people would just call it grave robbing. Nothing I could say or do would change the fact the things I had to retrieve most the time belonged to those of dead people; they had no idea what their trinkets valued to some people in the world. That was where I came in: I would find out where these valuables were located, claim them and return them to my workplace.

I gazed around at the cobwebs and the dust gathering on the surrounding objects, sighing to myself as I wished this was easier than it was going to be. It was a bit dark, despite the moonlight streaming in from the doorway, but it gave off enough light that I could see the bare necessities. Finally using the crowbar in my hands, I carefully jiggled it underneath the stone coffin’s top, just enough to create a fulcrum to pry the lid open. Applying pressure to lift the lid, dust flew up in the air and assaulted my nostrils, causing me to sneeze; unintentional, I pressed down too hard, which made the top come off and crash on the floor, shattering into pieces. Nothing smelled worse than the putrefaction of a body rotting, especially that of a more recent body.

“God almighty… this is why I’d rather be cremated when I die.” I told myself, coughing up a lung and trying not to hurl as I dropped the bar from my fingers.

I watched the dust settle once more, daring to peek into the sarcophagus. I nearly hurled staring at the half decomposed body laying peacefully in death, somewhat regretful that I had to disturb their peace. Normally the corpses I had to deal with were mostly skeletal, but this particular one had to be the most fresh I’ve dealt with. In my line of business, you had to have a strong stomach and apparently watching all the horror films I had didn’t ever prepare me for the real thing. Gaze scanning over the remains, my brow furrowed and a frown came to my lips.

Tonight I was after a sapphire ring and there wasn’t any sign of the blasted thing whatsoever. I couldn’t get mad because I had followed the directions carefully and after consorting with those beyond the veil, I had no doubt in my mind this was the right crypt. I growled in frustration and gave it a once over just to assure it wasn’t there before backing away and groaning loudly.

“Damn it all to Hell… Avron is going to kill me for not bringing this back.” I sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“Mmm, you wouldn’t happen to be looking for this would you?” A voice asked, coming from behind me.

Everything inside churned and I physically cringed hearing the voice. Experience told me that I was going to be in major trouble, especially if he just came around. I bit my inner lip before turning around, glowering at the man standing behind me while he was looking at me smugly. This man was one of the multiple problems I faced, going by the name of Kyron Holzman. Kyron worked for a rivaling company and most the time he was assigned to retrieve the same artifacts that came up. We were about even when it came down to the grind of bringing home the goods.

He happened to be a six foot six inch tall giant, but it didn’t help I was only five foot one. His hair was an ash blonde that was somewhat long, complemented by a five o’clock shadow on the rounded square shaped jaw that would cause any other girl to swoon. He had almond shaped eyes, his irises a dark goldenrod color that could pierce the armor of the one he happened to be eyeing. His shoulders were broad, perfect to play quarterback in football and if you concentrated hard enough on the tightness of his shirt, you could tell he worked out. As far as other girls opinions on him went, they thought he was some god. I despised the guy.

As I looked him over, I noticed there was something small in his fingers from what little light filtered inside from his tall build blocking the doorway. Straining my eyes, I could make out something pale with another small shadow placed in the middle of something shaped as a thin circle. Dread washed through my being as a horrible realization hit me like a ton of bricks. He beat me to the punch on this artifact.

You have got to be kidding me, I thought to myself as my heart sank, finally saying, “How long have you been watching?”

He hummed to himself for a moment or two, finally giving off a smirk. “The whole time. I was waiting for about a half an hour till you finally reared your head around here.”

I knew Avron was going to kill me but to know that Kyron had it in his grasp and I didn’t try to do anything about it, it would make him more irate. I had to do something and that something was sending my foot in the direction of his hand in an attempt to knock the ring out of his grasp. Kyron yelped out as my shoe made contact with his hand, jostling the object in his fingers before it went flying out of his hand, skirting across the stone floor. It might have been a dumb move since there was so little light to see where it went, but Kyron couldn’t have the ring.

We both dove towards where we heard it landed with a quiet clang from how small the piece of jewelry happened to be, not to mention the mausoleum wasn’t too terribly large. Our heads smacked together and I cried out, resisting the urge to pull away to tend the injury, attempting to dive under him as my fingers reached out, grazing the floor to find the small band. Coming up empty handed thus far was completely frustrating and there was one plausible way to relieve the stress: send a fist into the face of the adversary. A small growl was emitted from my lips as the seconds that passed the two of us by could turn the tables at an instant; I couldn’t let the bastard find the prize first.

I attempted to knock him off balance, barely getting him to fall to the floor. He just laughed and when our gazes met, he just had amusement lighting his eyes before my fingers curled into a fist and threw it into his face. Blood exploded from his nose like a faucet from the impact, causing him to howl in pain. His elbow dug into my ribcage in response, knocking not only my body back towards the sarcophagus, but the breath out of my lungs from how hard he threw his arm.

My back screamed in agony from the impact, the stone seeming harder than normal. I slumped against the resting place for the dead, struggling to regain the lost breath whilst watching Kyron try desperately to staunch the blood flow from his nose, the front of his shirt soaked with the liquid. I knew I only had so long before he’d get back to his feet and look for the ring we were both desperate to claim, so I looked around for anything to assist me in taking the giant down. A nasty grin donned my lips as my fingers wrapped around the crowbar I dropped earlier, enjoying the weight in my hand. Ignoring the protest from my back, I scrambled to my own feet with the steel bar in my fingers, launching myself at the man.

Something I wasn’t expecting was for him to turn and grab my weapon with his free hand, still holding his nose with the other. He glared as he used his body weight as leverage to throw me off balance; my grip loosened on the rod and he seized the opportunity to violently yank it out of my hands, skinning everything it came in contact with. I yelled out, looking to my palms. Blood began seeping out of the pores and I snarled under my breath. Drawing my blood signed a person’s death warrant and sent my anger soaring sky high. That’s what got me into trouble this time around.

Eye twitching in anger as I tried to knock Kyron’s legs out from under him, more pain struck my side as I realized the bar came swinging at me and landed on my body. The wind got knocked out of me once again and I went crashing into the floor, hitting my head with a sickening thud against the stone. I laid there dazed for a moment or two, groaning softly as I pushed myself back up, withholding from hurling on the ground. From being near the doorway, I had a better view of the small room and something shiny appeared before my eyes when I turned to see where the adversary stood. Only problem with my being able to see it, I knew Kyron would be able to also should he try hard enough. He finally pulled his hand away from his nose, wrinkling it a bit before smirking in satisfaction

“Don’t you think about it little girl. You’re already a fool for trying to best me. Why don’t you just walk out of here with what little dignity you have left?” He suggested, his foot launching into my stomach before I slammed into the doorway.

I winced and crashed onto the floor, coughing and struggling to breathe again. “Damn it.”

“As I said before, just leave with what little dignity you have left.” He said once more.

I coughed again, a metallic taste resting on my tongue. A small groan escaped my mouth while I attempted to get up a second time, praying that Kyron didn’t see the ring on the floor. He walked over and hovered above my body, just daring me to rise from my spot. As I looked around, I realized my chances of getting out of this situation were next to nothing.

“Because you know I don’t give in easily.” I spat the blood accumulating in my mouth out, still struggling to at least push myself up.

I never knew I could hurt so much in my entire life and normally I had a high pain tolerance. Every breath came labored, my stomach kept churning and the headache I had I swore was going to split my head in two. It took everything in me to not puke all over the floor, let alone keep steady before the arm I was trying to push myself up with gave out. Groaning softly as my head smacked my arm, I tried getting up a second time, finally emptying the contents of my stomach, dropping to the floor before blacking out for a few moments.

Regaining consciousness, I looked around in a confused manner when I didn’t quite recognize where I was at, nor remember how I got there in the first place. I could recall I had something important to find and as I picked my brain for what it could possibly be, I vaguely remembered it was something blue I was after, but the fog in my mind wouldn’t tell me much more than that. I furrowed my brow since it didn’t seem quite right while my hand came to my head again as it pulsed in irritation, but a noise shifted my attention and another growl escaped my body seeing Kyron.

There was a worried look on his face that disappeared as soon as I looked at him, but his tone didn’t hide it as he asked, “Mairyl, are you okay?”

“Why the hell are you asking me that?” - I snapped, attempting to get up with little success - “What the hell happened?” A splitting headache took my thoughts away from my investigation.

“You don’t remember what happened?” His brow furrowed in confusion.

“Would I be asking if I did?” I snapped, frowning as a ringing started in my ear.

“No, you wouldn’t. Do you per chance remember what you were doing?” Was his next question.

I shook my head, the fogginess still attached to my head. “I think I lost my ring.”

“Your ring?” He sounded the utmost confused, but it didn’t stop him from extending a hand toward me.

Reluctantly I took it and sat up, nodding my head despite how I felt inside. “I… I don’t know why I’d have lost it in here though…”

I listened to him sigh softly, but he reached into his pocket and set a small band with a little dark stone in the middle on my palm. “This ring?”

I picked it up with the other hand and studied it carefully, a sort of familiarity striking about it even though I couldn’t quite place how I knew it. “Yeah… thanks… but I thought we were enemies.”

“I think we should get you to a hospital, get your head checked out.” He answered, completely disregarding the statement I had made about being enemies. Something didn’t bode well inside, but with all the fuzziness clouding my mind, I wasn’t about to give a damn.

Kyron kept quiet but assisted me to my feet, slowly escorting me out of the mausoleum to his vehicle. “Wait, what about my car?” I asked, taking a look back at it.

“You’re in no shape to be driving. I’m sure someone can come back and get it for you.” He frowned, rounding the car and opening the passenger door.

Everything still felt wrong and no matter how much I could protest, I was in no position to deny the help. I slipped into the front seat and put my seatbelt on, resting against the back and headrest, fighting to keep conscious. Despite my best efforts, I failed miserably.