365 Days (Part 2) | ✓

279. Flashlight

279. Flashlight: Imagine going somewhere very dark with only a flashlight to guide you.

Let's play with an unusual point of view!

*
"Just an amateur," you mutter, as you trod through the piles of dead leaves and darkness. "Don't even have a degree or a certificate, and here I am doing field work. Who knows what kind of freaky stuff is out here?" You glance around, waving your flashlight so you can see in the otherwise pitch black. Thick layers of leaves overhead shut out the light of the moon. It's reassuring to hear your own voice... to have something else in your ears but a ringing silence.

Was there even anything alive in here?

The forest looked the same in each direction except down. Your superiors said the weird markings etched into the rock pathway led to a simple cave with more etchings inside. It was a new find, and when it got to the media, the world would be buzzing. No one knew which ancient peoples made such strange, runic carvings. Maybe they had discovered a new civilization.

Until then, though, you were a part of a small team of people sent to catalog and excavate the site before word got out of his existence. Then archaeologists from around the world would want to be involved, and it would be a warzone between them.

At first, you had been excited to be included, until you realized you were little more than an errand runner. Whatever they wanted, you did. If only they gave you a chance to prove yourself...

The brick pathway branched off to three separate sites. One was a well, but it had long since dried up. The second path led to a strange mound of rocks that they assumed to be a tomb. The third led to the cave, where several of your bosses were camping out for the night, loathe to return to their hotel in the nearby town because they thought they were on the verge of a discovery. That was your destination, with a package of oreos and coffees they had requested. You felt like a fool, and it wasn't great you were having to walk in a creepy forest in the middle of the night.

If you aimed your flashlight into the trees, you kept thinking you saw something, but it was probably just your eyes playing tricks on you. However, you didn't like that jump in your heart when you thought you saw something, so you kept your eyes and flashlight pointed at the stone pathway. Your superiors would be angry if they knew you were walking on it, but after being sent on such menial tasks the entire dig, you didn't particularly care

Instead you stared at the symbols, trying as everyone else did to puzzle them out. Steadily you walked on, concentrating on the curly lines and even shapes. How had the ancient people managed to carve such perfect circles and squares?

It seemed like you walked forever -- actually it seemed far too long. You raised your head and looked around, but the forest looked the same. You saw something from the corner of your eye -- something white -- but by the time you've realized it, it's gone.

With a shudder you keep walking... until the pathway ends.

You look up, confused, but you’re not at the cave. Somehow you've walked to the strange pile of large, smooth rocks that's even more puzzling to the archaeologists than the unreadable runes. Your flashlight glides over the polished surfaces of the boulders, and you have an irresistible desire to find out what they cover...

So you start to move away the boulders.

*

Happy Halloween... 😈 For the first time, I'm going to intentionally make a two-part story. The second installment will be on Day 281.