Danielle Cross: Medusa's Wrath- by Mary Thornsberry

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
Greece-2014

Danielle had been excavating Medusa's Tomb, digging into the side of a mountain for five long months and at last it was paying off.
"We found something!" Danielle heard one of the workers yell.
She dropped her brush and ran over to where the other workers were. What she saw sent her jaw to the floor. It was a huge stone wall with the crest of Medusa carved into it.
Danielle ran her hand over the crest.
"This is it!" she said pulling a hammer and chisel out of her tool belt.
She  hit the chisel with the hammer and was shocked when the chisel went right through the wall as if it were tissue paper leaving a gapping hole the wall. Suddenly the wall began to crack and split around the hole and the wall all but disintegrated before their eyes leaving nothing but an open archway.
Danielle put her tool back in her belt and pulled out a small flashlight and walked in. On a wall on the inside she discovered a series of hieroglyphics on a wall that told the story of Medusa from when she was born to when Athena turned her into the hideous creature she's known to be. At her feet she found a small golden box that also had hieroglyphics on it she was just about to read them when she heard one of the workers scream. She ran over to investigate.
"What is it?" She asked and saw the worker on the ground looking up at something, Danielle shined her flashlight in the direction that the worker was looking and almost fell to the ground herself. Standing in front of the them was a grotesque statue of Medusa, her arms with clawed hands extended out as if they could grab you. Her face was that of a haggard old demon with two red gems embedded in her eyes and the snakes in her hair seemed to have a life of their own.
Looking around Danielle noticed Medusa wasn't the only statue in the room there were hundreds of human formed statues standing around Medusa.

At the end of the day Danielle ordered one of the workers to stand guard over the tomb until morning. That night after everyone had fallen asleep Danielle and the other workers were woken up by the sound of screaming coming from the tomb. She grabbed her flashlight and ran for the opening. When she got there the worker she had left guard the tomb was gone and so was one of the gems from Medusa's eyes.
"That thief!" Danielle said in frustration.
Danielle turned and went back to her tent. If she had looked a bit closer she would have seen the stone statue that strangely resembled the missing worker.
The next morning Danielle and the workers boxed up the statue and the small golden box and got them ready to be shipped to the United States. When they removed Medusa from the tomb a cold chill suddenly went through Danielle.
That night, the night she was to fly home, she laid on the cot in the tent wide awake that chill that went through her when they removed Medusa from the tomb was still with her and no amount of blankets could make it go away. After hours of tossing and turning she was finally able to fall asleep.
She was finally on a plane home, Danielle was happy to be going home after five months in Greece, but something plagued her in the back of her mind something bad was going to happen.
Danielle opened her eyes, she must have dozed off she always got drowsy on airplanes. She swallowed and realized her throat was really dry, she pushed the button to call a flight attendant but she got no response. She pushed the button three more times and still got nothing, she got up to look around and received a shock. The flight attendants were gone, in fact everyone was gone, along with the passengers. She made her way to the cockpit door and knocked she knocked several times but no one answered fearing that the pilot and the co pilot disappeared along with everyone else she grabbed a small fire extinguisher from the wall and began hitting the door once, twice, three times until the door finally swung open revealing two empty seats where the pilot and copilot should have been. All of a sudden the plane did a nose dive and all she could see through the front windows was ocean as the plane plummeted down. Danielle felt a hand on her shoulder. When she looked down she saw it was a grotesque gray hand with long talons for nails. In the process of turning around the plane crashed into the ocean.
Danielle sat straight up in her seat, sweat dripping down her face, she was breathing heavily. She felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly had a heart attack. When she turned she saw a flight attendant standing next to her with a name tag that said Holly on it, It had all been a nightmare.
"Are you all right miss?" Holly asked.
Danielle nodded trying to get her breathing under control.
"Bad dream," was all she could say.
"Can I get you anything?" Holly asked.
"Anything with Alcohol please," Danielle answered.