Author's Note: What's up, guys (and possibly females). Soooo... I didn't keep up with the chapter a week thing for very long, did I? Ah, well. Just in case you were wondering, my stroke-inflicted family member has finally stabilized, and the job search is going well. In other words, MOAR CHAPTARS! Well, I've bored you enough for today, so ON WITH THE CHAPTAR!
August 2, 2013 6:01 PM
In front of Lakeview Sheriff's Office
Sam's POV
"So that's what happened." Drake concluded. "Now, y'all have to promise me that you will not speak of this to anyone. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Drake." Seth said.
"Crystal." I replied.
He looked at us strangely, just for a second, then began walking out.
"You comin' or what?"
August 2, 2013 6:08 PM
Theodore's Bar
I quickly glanced around as we entered the bar. It was a pretty typical-looking establishment, with a brown wooden counter to our left, and some tables and booths over to our right. There was a wide variety of different types of liquor and wine on the bartender's side of the counter, and some patrons on the customer's side. The entire place was covered in neon signs for differing brands of alcohol. The paint underneath the signs was brown, matching the color of the stools and booths.
Drake led us to one of the booths, and we all sat down. As soon as we sat, some kind of bar worker walked up to us. She was about 5' 9" and rather slim. She had straight, brown hair that came part of the way down her back and brown eyes. She was wearing a collared, white, button up shirt and a yellow skirt that came down to her knees as part of her uniform.
"Hey, Drake. Who're your friends?"
"Ah, hello Diana. This is Seth, my cousin. And the tall one over here is Sam." He gestured to each of us as he spoke.
"'Lo, gentlemen. Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Three of the usual." Drake spoke.
"Anything you want, babe." She winked at him and laughed at her sarcastic comment. It was obvious that those two had known each other for a while. She walked over to the bartender's counter and got three drinks ready.
She walked back and handed us the drinks, some kind of mixture of rum and...something. I wasn't exactly sure what.
"Well, bottoms up, guys." Drake said.
August 2, 2013 8:05 PM
Theodore's Bar
Drake's POV
Several hours and many drinks later, or so it seemed, and Seth's face was extremely red, and his words were starting to slur. Sam seemed to be faring better, but he seemed to be losing some of his inhibitions.
As if proving my point, Sam leaned over and whispered, "Dude, Diana. No offense, but I'd totally tap that."
Seth seemed to hear him and sniggered. "Oh, I'd do more than that."
I could feel my face heating up.
"That's..."
"Oh, look at 'im, he's red!" Sam was laughing hard now.
"Can we change the subject?" I must have somehow had more tolerance to alcohol than these guys, because I still felt pretty normal. That or I might have had less to drink.
"TO FREEDOM!" Sam stood up and yelled, causing everyone to yell something or other back.
Just as Seth was about to stand up and add something else, another voice popped into the conversation.
"So these are the so called 'men' that pass for soldiers these days, huh." The voice was surprisingly feeble and shaky, starkly contrasting to the words that came out of the man's mouth.
"What did you say?" Sam's voice was low and threatening. I looked over at him. His face was completely devoid of expression, and the sparkle in his eyes from the alcohol had faded completely, replaced with a steely, unfriendly glare. Seth looked pretty much the same, but still seemed to sense the shift in mood and was quiet.
"You heard me, I said the military now is full of nothing but sniveling cowards and wusses." The voice belonged to an older man who was sitting at the table right beside us. He wore a green collared shirt and khaki pants. His white hair (or what was left of it) was combed down in an apparent attempt to hide his balding.
Sam turned to him and growled, "Could beat your ass any day, old man."
"Now, now. There's no need for violence, Sam." They ignored me and kept talking
"Now, I obviously cannot fight you, too old. Coulda kicked the living shit out of you back in my day, though. Here, how about we have a little wager then, to prove you are as brave as you so obviously think you are. If you stay in the Copan ruins overnight tonight and come back here tomorrow, I'll concede that you are braver than I ever could've been and pay you $150. Deal?"
Sam pushed his way past Seth and glanced back at us.
"If my buddy comes too, will you pay him?"
"Sure, take as many people as you'd like. Won't help you!" He snickered to himself.
"Deal."
The old man looked stunned for a moment, then grinned.
"See you tomorrow, then."
Sam turned to Seth.
"Come on. We have to show this old bastard what we're made of."
They both got up, left some money on the table, and left. I followed. I couldn't let them go to the Copan ruins by themselves, especially after what happened to Palmer.
"Guys, I don't want you to do this, especially after what happened. Can you just swallow your pride and not?"
"After what that old fuck said? Hell no!" Sam was clearly angered.
"Alright, then at least let me come with you. Just so I know you two will be okay."
"Sure, the more the merrier."
"Okay, then let's meet back here with our stuff in about 30 minutes. Sound good?"
They both nodded. In the cooler night air, Seth seemed to have sobered up quite a bit and was able to keep up with the conversation again.
"I'll see what we can do. Ms. Jensen may be able to help us out." He said.
August 2, 2013 8:46 PM
In front of Theodore's Bar
I arrived a little early, so by the time they came, I was sitting around, waiting. Somehow, they had acquired sleeping bags, and if the bulges at their right sides were what I thought they were, guns from Ms. Jensen. She never ceased to impress with her generosity.
"Here, let's get going. I just want to get this over with." I said.
I had found a ton of old camping equipment in my garage from my younger days, and a lot of it was still intact. I had a tent, three high powered flashlights, and a couple of canteens with me. I gave Seth and Sam each a canteen and a lantern, and instructed us to be on our way.
We said very little as we walked down the dirt road that led to the abandoned excavation site. I guessed that everyone was quieted by the strange, unwelcoming air the entire place gave off. It certainly felt like the site of countless suicides and murders.
We stepped off of the main road, and made it to the actual site of the ruins within minutes. Seth and Sam stopped and stared in awe. The ruins consisted of a ring of massive stone pillars, with one at the very center and 6 others surrounding it. All of the pillars were covered by strange engravings and glyphs. On each one there was what looked like a square door cut out of the rock, yet the door was closed shut. Surrounding the entire thing was rusted excavation equipment and huge construction machines, like a crane.
"What's this? A door?" Seth asked, indicating to the square, door-shaped indent in the rock.
"When they were first excavating this place, they found those doors. Apparently, they were sealed in a way that if the excavation team broke in, the pillar would collapse. So they just left it alone. And before you ask, no, I have no idea why they just left the equipment here."
We circled about the ruins for a while, taking in the sights.
"I think we should camp near the middle pillar, with the road in front of us." Sam said.
"Why?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be better to be next to the road?"
"No," he said. "If there is something out there, then we need some kind of cover to hide behind if we hear it. If we were next to the road, then we would be out in the open."
"Sounds reasonable enough. Then, we set up camp here. By the way, do you honestly think the guns are necessary?"
Seth pulled out a pistol that I recognized as a Tac .45 military issue pistol, and Sam unholstered his Beretta 9mm pistol.
"Better safe than sorry."
"Ms. Jensen is too kind. But how exactly did she get those?"
"Dude, these are 'souvenirs' from the military."
"Oh." I guessed by the way he emphasized 'souvenirs' that his weapon was probably pilfered out of some cache somewhere.
We ended up setting up our tent right in front of the middle pillar, and right beside the door thing to boot. No more words were spoken between us as we set up sleeping bags, turned out the lanterns, and got ready to sleep.
"G'night, guys." Seth said.
"Night." Sam said.
"G'night, you two." I said.
We all seemed to drift off to sleep very quickly, as I heard them snoring almost immediately. Pretty soon, my eyelids became too heavy to keep open, and I joined them in the realm of sleep.
Within my dream, I had the strangest sensation of floating through nothingness. I couldn't even describe it, but it was something like flying, but without the wind in your face. So I floated for what seemed like forever. Suddenly, a blue butterfly floated across my field of vision.
"Greetings, young one. I bear important information that you would do well to heed."
Now I was really confused. How was the butterfly speaking? I shrugged it off as dream logic.
"Tonight, you must unleash the power of your inner self. No matter what it may be, you must accept it. It could be the strength of a hero of legends, or the ravenous hunger of a demon, but you must realize that it is only a part of your inner self. If you do, then it shall protect you from whatever is to come. Remember this, Drake. Now, you are needed in the real world. Goodbye..."
I awoke with a start. 'What the hell was that?' I remembered thinking to myself. I looked at the other two in the tent, and saw that they were fast asleep. I smiled, and laid back down. It was only a dream, right? 'Now, if only I could get this headache to go away, I'd be great.' There was a throbbing in my right temple that just seemed to come out of nowhere.
Thinking this, I started to feel my consciousness drift off again, when suddenly Seth, then Sam, jumped out of their sleeping bags. I was so surprised that I ended up jumping to my feet.
"What the hell, guys? I'm trying to sleep here!" I said.
"Sorry, Drake. Seth, I had that weird dream again. With the butterfly man!"
"Really! So did I! According to him, something big is going to go down tonight."
"Wait, what?! I thought that was some kind of nightmare from bein' around all of the booze and smoke of the bar for too long! You sayin' you guys had it too?"
"Yeah, multiple times. Which means that whatever he was trying to warn us about involves you too, Drake."
"Yeah, I guess. Wait, what the hell was that!"
We all froze. Then it came again. Some sort of scratching sound echoed from our right.
"Sam, what's to our right?" Seth asked.
"Nothing, but..." He trailed off.
I realized what he was going to say even before it came out of his mouth. I even joined in.
"The door in the pillar."
MOAR AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, that's another chapter finished. Will there be head shooting goodness in the next one? You'll just have to wait and see. Anywho, please drop a review if there is anything you would like to say. I do shoutouts, you know!
Also, my name is faver18 or faver1987 all around the internet, so if you see me, please stop and say hi! I'll bake you cookies! Alright, see ya next chapter, guys!
P.S. Shoutout to WolfieRed23, for taking the time to PM me. You have a fan in me, brother (or sister)!