Chapter Five
~Claire~
“No!” I screamed, sitting up in bed and clutching the covers to my heaving chest. My heart was racing and for a moment I looked around in the dark, trying desperately to remember where I was.
I struggled to catch my breath, swiping tears from my cheeks as the dream quickly began to fade around the edges. There had been a candlelit room, a handsome man and then…pain.
“What the hell?” I whispered, forcing myself to inhale deeply as I blinked the tears away.
I glanced over at the clock and flopped back onto my pillow with a groan. Five in the morning. There was no way I was getting back to sleep. The sun would be up soon, and I was meeting Colton’s family at nine to inspect the tomb.
With a heavy sigh, I climbed out of bed and got into the shower. The hot water felt incredible, and I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against the wall as I let the jets pound against my back.
The image of a man bathing beneath a waterfall flashed through my mind, like a scene from a long-forgotten movie or something. But it was crystal clear. I could see the water sluicing over his muscled torso, dripping from his dark hair and clinging to his thick eyelashes.
I opened my eyes and wondered if maybe I’d fallen asleep again. That was the last time I’d eat a Reuben at ten o’clock at night.
By six I was dressed, my backpack stuffed with tools strapped to my back, and downstairs, grabbing a coffee before heading out of the resort to explore the island.
Colton said they would all meet me at the tomb, so I figured that would give me a few hours to look around and see if there was anything else that maybe I’d missed during my cursory inspection the day before.
The sun was shining brightly overhead already, not a single cloud in the clear, blue sky and it was pleasantly warm. I wandered around the perimeter for a while, listening the waves of the lake lap against the shore.
It was beautiful and so peaceful. I could totally understand why the monsters had wanted someplace like this as a refuge.
Yes, more and more of them were interested in integrating with humans openly, but there was still mistrust amongst them, and I really couldn’t blame them.
From the Salem Witch Trials, to the hunting of wolves for sport, to the general human obsession with the supernatural, it was far easier to fear us than to allow their truths to be known.
I was fortunate to be included in the trusted norms amongst them. I truly wanted to help them with their history, and they could obviously tell that I respected them, and they returned it to me in full.
Before I even realized where I was headed, I found myself deep into the woods once more, my feet seeming to carry me of their own volition toward the ruins I’d come to see.
I walked into the cave slowly, the light from outside bright enough now to see more than I’d been able to by flashlight. It was obvious that whoever had been laid to rest in this place, had been cared for.
In the back corner of the room sat a few chairs, where maybe someone had sat, watching over this person. A small oil lamp lay busted on the ground next to a toppled table.
There was a small wooden crate that I’d also missed on my last inspection on the other side of the cavern. I dropped my backpack to the floor as I lowered myself to the ground and turned the small brass key that was still sitting in the lock.
If this were an actual mummification, I would have expected to find canopic jars inside, containing the organs of the person interred. However, the box seemed to contain trinkets instead. Maybe things that were of importance to the person inside the coffin.
A lace handkerchief, yellowed with age, it’s edges frayed and worn. A piece of paper, that could have been a photograph, but was damaged beyond any recognition. The withered stem of a rose, it’s thorns brittle and sharp, sitting in the ashes that could only have come from the flower’s former petals. And two gold bands, sitting side by side in the bottom of the trunk, haphazardly as if they’d been tossed there as an afterthought.
I picked them up gingerly, holding both bands in my palm as I turned them to watch them glitter in the light. There was something so achingly familiar about the weight of them, that tears pricked my eyes as I stared down them.
Outside a massive rumble of thunder sounded, though the sky hadn’t seemed to have darkened at all.
“Stop that,” I hissed.
Gooseflesh prickled over my skin as the sounds outside ceased. For just a moment, it felt as though there was a presence inside the cave with me. I turned slowly to look toward the coffin, almost expecting to see its resident pushing the lid off and climbing out.
But I was alone.
“God, Claire,” I admonished myself. “Don’t be stupid.”
I returned the rings to the box and closed the lid, turning the key to lock it once more. Most likely I would be taking these things with me when I left the island to catalog them and store them, but it felt more respectful to leave things the way I’d found them for now.
I stood up and walked back to the sarcophagus, placing my palms flat on the lid and closing my eyes, listening intently as if I expected to hear someone inside, but there was only silence.