My team and I were working over in Greinar Valley, Connecticut, for a woman who called herself "Madame Red." Ms. Red hired us to excavate one of her properties. She was a mysterious employer who refused to disclose her real name or occupation, but provided us with strict regulations concerning our search, as well as a more than generous payment.
You see, my team does many jobs. We steal artifacts, restore paintings, that kind of thing. We had only had two casualties on all our ploys, and stayed strong in our career.
She had us go to a large plain about 20 miles from her house. We began to dig at 6 AM and wasted the whole day searching for the mysterious artifact. We were searching for a "large metal box covered in chains", she said. "Hard to miss," except we didn't have the exact coordinates to dig. And there were only seven of us. Stephen, Victor, John, Drake, Shelby, Kingston, and I: Josephine Anna Yurling.
My family is very famous for the Yurling Foundation, built by my great-great-great-great-grandfather and passed down through the generations. My father - a very serious man - led this company with an iron fist and expected either my brother or me to step up and inherit it. However, my brother was on his fifth sentence to rehab, and I had been investing my time with my own "sideshow", making us both cut off from the family inheritance until we "proved our worth." I knew this wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
It was midnight when Shelby's shovel clanged hard on the ground. We all stopped digging and rushed to where she stood. Using shaving brushes, we dusted off the box that Madame Red had told us to find. She wasn't as specific as she should've been about the "box": it was a coffin.
We connected a crane to the metal chains, and the rest of us worked on digging the box out from the sides. I walked a short distance from the site and dialed our employer's number.
"Miss Red?"
"Ah, yes. Have you found the treasure then?"
"Yeah, we have it. You forgot to mention it was a coffin. And it looks dangerous."
"Well, pumpkin, you have to bring it back to me to be paid. Don't forget that now. I need my treasure before the reward is given, we all know that."
"Yes, ma'am. But-"
"There shouldn't be anything questionable. Grab the artifact, bring it to me, receive money, go away. That was the deal," and with a strong click, she hung up on me.
Shelby seemed mesmerized. A once clear sky was now cluttered in dark and stormy clouds with a haunting full moon foreboding our doom. Shelby began to dig around the site more, determined and eerie. The rest of us stared at the coffin that lay before us now on level ground. There were scratch marks out-dented all over the black box, as well as fist engravings. All we could do was stare at the thing. Shelby came back with a key in her hand. I looked behind her to see a shine about fifty feet away on the ground. I ran to it and found a small jewel box ornate with jewels and glittering. Inside, I found only a garnet pendant hanging on a small, delicate chain of silver. I had a faint vision, a glimpse of a face that made my body fill with warmth and remembrance. Awakening from the vision, I shoved the small pendant in my pocket and turned around just as the team started screaming and grabbing at Shelby. I began to run over to the crowd, realizing Shelby was working on unlocking the padlock connected to all the chains.
"Shelby! No!" I screamed, sprinting to the area, but just as I hit the dirt outskirts of our site, I could hear the click of the unlocking. A flash of lightning suddenly hit the black box, causing everyone to be thrown like rag dolls away from it. Skidding across the dirt from the impact, I could hear the blood-curdling screams of my peers as a haunting figure rose. As I looked one last time at my whole team, I saw the very dark figure grab Shelby and devour her throat, afterwards snapping her in half. I stood terrorized as it went after each of my crew members and mutilated them in such an inhumane way that it made me sick to my stomach. I was frozen in fear just watching it. It stood still and began to look around, and finally made eye contact with me. My senses couldn't take it anymore, I went towards the forest.
I passed every tree and log, jumping over roots and rocks. My downfall was my fear: I blindly ran over the edge of a cliff and rolled down to the bottom. Assessing my injuries, I had one possibly broken ankle. I crawled to the nearest tree with an opening in its roots and hid there, panting, out of breath, afraid. My friend was gone forever. Shelby had been my first friend, and possibly one of my greatest. She would adventure with me, be the mom-friend in our group, always loyal, up until this past trip, where she had been hesitant and shaky the whole time. Stephy was her older brother who lived here and decided to join our troupe, mostly watching out for her. He would be crushed... I mean, defeated… to have seen Shelby's demise.
I could hear footsteps outside my tree. I tried to breathe as quietly as I could and remained as still as possible. From my vantage point, I could see the clearing right outside the tree. The creature who stopped there was unforgettable.
It was a man. Seemingly mid-twenties, he had perfect skin, midnight brown hair, as well as radiant hazel eyes, tall and muscular yet slim. Despite the blood spattered all over his mouth and body, he could've been a model. He looked lost, upset, a little hurt. In shifting my body to see him a little better, I accidentally crunched some leaves.
His head twitched over to my area, seemingly surveying the area. He looked around, not finding anything, then cautiously glided toward my tree. Grabbing it by the bottom of the stump visible, he lifted the tree with his bare hands to cause the tree to topple over. There I sat, vulnerable to anything that he would do. I was ready, though. I grabbed piles of leaves and threw them at him. He chuckled to himself a little, then bent down and grabbed my hands. I felt like... I knew him. Where? My consciousness began slipping away as he stared at me with those luscious eyes. I kept grabbing at the last remaining glimpses of light to keep myself from going under, trying to stay awake. He laid me down and started shedding me. First, my large jacket that held the box, then my sweater, followed by my kitty-cat shirt. The cold woke some strange senses I wasn't aware of, or used to. What was it? Who am I? Then he worked down to my combat boots and my jeans. I was lying in the leaves in my bra and thong. Great. I slowly got a grip back on reality. I couldn't move my body, but I could move my head. At first, I thought he had left me, but he was rummaging through my jacket, ripping it apart, probably to find the box. I had stuffed it in a secret pocket, hoping Shelby wouldn't notice, but this guy easily ripped my jacket open to grab it. My thoughts tried taking me to another realm, thinking of my team and all our ventures, but all I wanted to focus on was him. He was stroking the box, protecting it. I found it endearing.
He noticed my presence and smiled.
"This belonged to mother," he said. "I'm not sure why it wasn't buried with her, but I'm glad you kept it safe." The way he said "you" made it seem like he knew me, but he couldn't know me. He sprouted from a coffin, and we had never met before this moment.
He kneeled over me and began stroking my stomach. Butterflies began to sprout in my stomach, my skin burning and... Craving? That couldn't be right. Nothing seemed real. He bent down and gently set his lips on mine. There was a fiery passion that swelled, so much said in such a little touch.
Bang.
A bullet wound could be seen in his shoulder. He lifted himself off of me and darkened. His eyes turned black, and his teeth sharpened. Fear filled every pore in my body, knowing he wasn't a creature one should mess with. A figure was in the distance, holding a shotgun.
He crawled over to my injured ankle and held it, soothingly.
"I'm sorry," he said. No sooner did he say that when he stuck his teeth into my ankle. An unbearable pain filled with uncertain memories and distant truths all came as a whirlwind at once. It took all I had not to scream out. I thought I was going to die, in which I would not give him the satisfaction of hearing my cries. He pushed himself off my foot — causing pain, of course — and wiped away at his mouth. He crawled back to my head and cradled my face for a little bit, singing strange yet beautiful songs under his breath. I tried to fight the growing sleepy feeling, knowing he was trying to put me under.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three more bullet holes could be seen in his torso. He snarled, and the dark features came back. I hadn't even noticed they left. He gave one more longing look toward me, then pounced toward the sniper. Once the creature left my sight, I gained immediate control of my senses.
Kingston came from behind, stopping and staring at my almost naked body lying in the leaves.
"Are you enjoying the merchandise?" I asked him. Kingston gave a heroic guffaw and looked through my clothing items. Everything had been destroyed by the creature, all for that tiny box. I tried to stand up, but my ankle sent jolts of pain through me. My head began to spin as I kept working at sitting up. I was positive I either had a concussion or was blind; my head was in so much pain I couldn't even see.
Kingston took off his jacket and wrapped it around me, scooping me up as we kept listening for any signs of the creature. He carried me the whole trip to get out of the woods. As soon as we hit the edge of the woods and out into the street, I heard a terrifying howl full of remorse and despair. My heart longed to get to the owner of the howl. I need to help him. Kingston kept hold of me and walked down the street with me as I struggled in his arms. I began to cry and yell, needing and wanting to go to him. After we got out of range of the howls, I felt released. A large fatigue fell upon me, but I refused to let sleep win until Kingston and I got to a safe place.
A few miles ahead on the road, we hit a motel. Kingston had money on him, and we rented a room for the night. There was only one bed, but that was okay. We shared it. I wore his jacket and he shed everything except his boxers and t-shirt. We slipped under the covers, and he held me close as I finally let sleep take me.
The next morning, I didn't know where I was. Alone in a motel room, I was terrified and didn't know what was going on. I looked at what I was wearing, and then the night before hit me all at once. I got sick. I was vomiting for a few minutes before Kingston returned to the room. He brought a change of clothes, as well as a box of Lucky Charms. My favorite. We would've talked, had we known what to say. We sat in the bed together.
Waiting for what was to come.