CHAPTER THREEMost people have no idea what a jungle is. I mean, they have this abstract image in their head that it’s hot and thick with trees and animals, but that doesn’t even come close to describing what a jungle is at all. A jungle is a force of nature all on its own, alive. It is alive the way that any predator is alive. It breathes. It sees. It hunts and kills. If you don’t respect the jungle you don’t make it out.
The heat was pressing against the back of my neck as we marched through the trees. David took point, clearing a path, not so much cutting one with a machete as giving himself over to the trees cutting only when necessary. He was always so at home in the jungle. It was as if the trees moved out of his way.
This trek would have been like any other trek through the jungle except something was off. The closer we got to the temple the more I felt we shouldn’t be here. I looked at the others so see if it was just me. It wasn’t. The locals that we got to help us were huddle together speaking in a language I didn’t know. They were speaking quickly almost frantic.
“Something about this place doesn’t feel right,” I said to David.
“I know what you mean,” he replied, “Do you hear that?”
I listened.
“No.”
“Exactly. I don’t hear anything but us. We’re in the middle of the jungle and I don’t hear any birds, wind, streams, there are no sounds of any kind. The jungle is quiet as the grave. It’s never this quiet in the jungle.”
My brother, Joshua came over to me and said, “I don’t feel right about this mission. The villagers over there are protesting going any further. They say this ground is tainted with death. Old death like what ever is here has been killing for a very long time and its desire for it is soaked into the very ground.”
The only excuse I have for what I said next is that I was scared and that what he said is exactly how I was feeling. “What’s wrong with you,” I replied, “how many missions do you think I’ve been on. Do you think we get famous by turning back because a few locals have some scary fables?”
“No, but…”
“Then what makes you think I’m gonna turn back now.”
“But Sita maybe there is something to that Guardian thing. I think…”
“I’m not paying you to think. I’m paying you to translate.”
“But…”
“So translate this to them. They weren’t complaining when they were taking our money, so they and you can shut the **** up and stop being such pussies. This could be the greatest event in our careers. We’re making history, and I’m not jeopardizing that for your gutlessness. They and you need to grow a pair and stop being such bitches.”
I told you I was a bad sister.
The moment I said it I wish I hadn’t. The look in his eyes was so full of hurt that I would have given anything at that moment to chase it away. But I didn’t.
We walked the rest of the way in complete silence, I told myself that I was going to apologize for what I said when were safely back on the plane. That was all I thought about until the jungle broke and we emerged into a grove and at its center loomed an ancient temple, with striking familiarity. A chill shot through my body and a feeling of nostalgia came over me as if I had been here before.
David saw me and asked, “You okay, love?” But something tells me that he had been talking for awhile but I hadn’t heard a word of what he said.
“Yea I’m fine, just a bit of déjà vu.”
The temple was covered with overgrown brush; it looked like nobody had been here for decades. We made our way to the back of the temple where all that stood in our way were two enormous stone doors. This made me nervous because there were no obstacles or traps, no carvings and no second exit. There was nothing but the two stone doors. It was as if the architect were building a prison instead of a temple. Maybe that is just my fear projecting. Inscribed on the doors in Baybayin, an ancient form of Tagalog, a simple warning:
“To Those That Desire Riches and Grace, Beware The Guardian Awaits.”
When I opened the doors a red glimmer shone from the back of the chamber. The glow sparkled off of all the jewels and gold; the majesty was far beyond any of our wildest fantasies.
The ground was littered with the treasure of centuries untold and the bodies of failed attempts, but while my men were preoccupied by the sights around them I was drawn to the back of the temple, to the eerie crimson glow. The shine was haunting because even though it illuminated the room with no apparent source of energy there was only darkness that surrounded it. The shadows were thick like the densest fog. When I touched the glowing stone the darkness peeled back like a cape being flung aside.
When I came in contact it flashed bright as a captive star made of garnet, and when it did it lit all the dormant torches that hung from the walls. The light made us quickly aware of what awaited us behind that darkness. All there really was for us to claim from that chamber was our destiny. Death was there to be paid his due.
Resting on a solid gold throne was an immense sentinel, clad in scarlet and ebony armor and wrapped in chains. The chains were connect end to end with two colossal blades that rested across the beast’s shoulders, as amazing and terrifying as this situation had become all I was focused on was what lay embedded in the titan’s chest.
He stood up; towering over us all and said only one thing, “I am Guardian and your end is come. Time to DIE!”
With a lightning quick gesture he whipped the chain and it coiled itself around Joshua and lifted him into the air. That snapped me out of my daze and I screamed, “NO!”
He moved with a grace something of his size had no business of possessing. It was like a great cat and a dancer combined. It was almost like he was swimming through the air. It was unnerving.
I tried to help him but David stopped me. “No! Let go of me David!”
“You’ll be killed,” he warned.
“Sita…?” Joshua called to me.
“No! Stop it, please… I’m supposed to protect him! He’s my little brother…”
The blade seemed to awaken like a mighty snake beckoned by its master. My eyes were instantly hot and my chest tight with the urge to scream. It all happened in slow motion. The blade glided toward Joshua’s head like it was barely moving at all. But that wasn’t right. I think my sense of time had dilated from shock.
Once the Guardian decapitated my brother then crushed his body like an over ripened fruit time went back to normal.
No… actually it seemed to speed up as if it needed to work a little harder to get back to normal. He tossed Joshua away like some useless refuse.
“He’s all I have…” squeezed out of me in a choked whisper.
I dropped to my knees, my whole body trembling and did nothing. Even when my exterior seems calm, I have never stopped crying over my brother. All my men opened fire and he shrugged the bullets off like gnats and worked his way through us like a butcher sent by Satan himself.
The gun blasts in the small chamber were like deafening concussion grenades and it made the screams seem miles away. Their bodies smacked the ground with wet plops and it laughed. The blood rained down over the chamber like a gruesome spring shower.
All who were left was David and me. Dread, the feeling of imminent doom, filled me. I knew that it was time for me to die. The Guardian had had its fun and now he wanted to end it, he began to twirl the chain. He spun it faster and faster until all you could see was a golden blur.
David pulled from his side his machete and made some distance between him and me. The Guardian threw the blade at David with so much power it was like it was shot from a cannon. David rolled to the side and the shining weapon struck the ground with devastating force.
The blade chased David around the room always inches from killing my love. But David had always been supernaturally swift. He made a sharp turn and ran straight at the Guardian with a battle cry, the machete poised to strike. The blade came, spinning back, toward David.
I shut my eyes and screamed, “NO!!!”
Then everything was silence. When I opened my eyes the Guardian was lying on its side with the blade plunged hilt deep into the Heart. It was leaking some sparkling red fluid on the ground. David was on one knee.
I ran to my fiancé and put my hand on his shoulder and he coughed up blood and fell to all fours. He looked at me with bloody tears welling in his eyes. He held on to himself, his whole body was oddly still, as if he were afraid of what would happen if he moved.
He spoke around blood thick in his throat, his last words, “Sita I love yo… Oh my God! Run, run for your life, please, plea…” then burst into an ungainly tangle of arms and legs.
His blood was all I could see as it splashed on my face and crept around my knees, warm, almost hot with the adrenaline.
The heat behind my eyes that had already been there exploded into hot streams down my face. When I turned around looming over me in all his diabolical grandeur was The Guardian. I tried to scream but he gripped his massive hand over my face and lifted me high into the air. He brought my face close to his. I looked into his eyes and they were just black wells. I felt myself fall down, impossibly down, into those black pits.
I was cold and lonely and the only warmth was the tears running hot and steady down my face. His grip on my face tightened and I suddenly couldn’t breathe, but before I had the chance to suffocate he snapped my neck with a flick of his wrist, and so I died.
Thanks guys that have been reading and for those of you that don't know this book is released and available at amazon.com as well as here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/3820976 For those of you not hooked maybe this chapter will do it, and just like before the next chapter will be released next friday.
