Treasure

by K. T. Tomb

  I hadn’t made the connection until that moment, but I ought to have; the very same cold, evil look was the most commonly shared trait between them. I’d seen it in each of them at different times, but never put the two together. With the new information gained, the resemblance was uncanny.

  “I’d sooner die than watch you take the life of another human being. It’s savagery!” Eva screamed.

  “Oh, if you only knew the irony of that statement,” Andres mocked.

  “Let us go this instant! Enrique we trusted you,” she pleaded. “If you have any control over this…” She stopped when she noted that Enrique had averted his eyes and was ignoring her plea. His response seemed to take the last bit of hope from her and she turned her eyes downward as well.

  Andres stepped toward Eva and lifted her chin with his finger. I struggled against my bonds to go to her aid, but there was nothing I could do, except watch; my rage seething to volcanic levels.

  “Such beautiful features,” he cooed. “A virtual Mayan princess.” His eyes trailed downward to her ample bosom. “And very well endowed. A perfect specimen. I can see why my son selected you.”

  Eva spit right on his face. The look of venom in her face made me wonder if the same poison might be in her saliva. It was an irrational hope, but I was grasping for anything at that point.

  Andres barely blinked, but raised an index finger to his cheek to wipe of the deposit and then stuck his slippery finger into his mouth. “Mmmm, a bit sweet and sour at the same time. I think that Kukulkan will be very pleased with you. Though even I am somewhat reluctant to be rid of such beauty.”

  I saw the horror in her eyes as she realized that she was going to be the sacrifice. The same horror had my heart thundering in my chest and I strained with every last ounce of energy in me to break away, but it was simply impossible to overpower the bonds or the three men holding me.

  “Again, if you admire my beauty so much, let me keep it. Let us go. We can pay if that’s what you want. We’ll put together the money. Just name your price. You have to have a price.”

  I wasn’t aware that Eva was wealthy. In fact, I had no idea what social status level she was from. It had never crossed my mind to ask or to even check into it. Did she or her family have the means to buy us out of this mess?

  “There are certain things more important in this world than money,” he snapped. Obviously, the wealth angle wasn’t going to work on Andres. I began to wonder if there was anything that was going to convince him to let us go. My last bit of hope was beginning to wane. I watched the tears begin to trail down Eva’s cheeks as her despair began to take over. In response, tears were threatening to fall over the rims of my eyes as well.

  “Though you are even more dazzling with those tears, my dear, there is no need to cry. Your final moments will be moments of extreme splendor. I’m willing to bet that in the history of Mayan civilization, there has never been one as perfectly suited for the great god than you. Embrace that. Embrace the heritage that comes from a small corner of your own Mayan heart. In fact, Princess…” His tone was like that of a father talking to his three year old. “I think that there is a very good chance that you might actually return with the great Kukulkan at his side and rule the Mayan people for all eternity. You’ll be a queen, powerful and immortal. Over this, there is no reason to shed tears.”

  “But if you have me, then you can let Adam go free, right?”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Rather than begging for her own life, Eva was trying to save mine.

  “No, Eva, you can’t do that. Don’t give in to them. Don’t give in.”

  “Unfortunately,” Andres turned away from Eva and addressed me, “there is nothing that can be done about setting you free, but, as I mentioned before, you will have a spectacular, front row seat as you witness an actual Mayan sacrifice. And, you’ll be witness to the great glory of this beautiful woman in her finest hour, right before you die, of course, but what a way to go out, right?” His smile sickened me. The only recourse I had was to spit on him just like I’d seen Eva do before. For my efforts, I received a backhand across my mouth.

  “Chain them in their chambers until tomorrow. Feed the woman, but don’t bother with this young fool.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Sitting alone, chained to the stone wall inside of a small room not much larger than a department store dressing room and enclosed in much the same way by a heavy, embroidered curtain, there weren’t many encouraging thoughts running through my brain.

  I played back every moment of our spring break trip from the moment that we had gotten off of the plane until the moment that my chain bindings were locked into the heavy steel rings in the stone wall. No matter how many times I replayed it, I couldn’t come up with anything that I might have done differently, except not trusting Enrique to invite us to spend a few days on the “ultimate” Mayan archeology island. I should have known instantly that it was all too good to be true. The problem, however, was that rather than thinking clearly about it being too good to be true, I had focused on the feelings of jealousy that hit me every time Enrique looked at Eva.

  What really hurt my conscience the most was the fact that I had sensed that something was wrong several times, but I’d ignored the warning signs and fallen right into the trap which had been set for the two of us. We’d even been warned straight out by the dark figure, which had appeared out of the jungle, but we hadn’t believed him either. I was wishing that I had followed his advice, but then again, sitting chained to a wall in a dressing-room cell afforded one numerous opportunities to second guess oneself and take a long, painful look at hindsight. The one thing that was still a little bit confusing to me was the way that Enrique had been while Andres—surprise, surprise, his evil father—was talking to us after we’d been captured. He’d seemed to be ashamed and kept avoiding our eyes whenever we looked at him. I had tried to bore a hole through him, but he wouldn’t look me in the eyes while I did it. To what extent was he involved?

  With thoughts of my own blame in the entire situation crowding my mind, I still stopped and focused on some of those intense, special moments that Eva and I had shared. Those thoughts would warm me for a moment as I remembered the sound of her voice, her touch and the feel of her lips on mine. The vision of her nude body was there too, but it had faded a bit and had long since been crowded out by sweeter memories of looking into her sparkling eyes. But none of those moments could eclipse the last vision of her that I had in my head; the vision of tears streaming down her face as she begged for my life to be spared. Was it the last vision I would have of her before I died or would it be a vision an infinite number of times more horrible as Enrique plunged a stone knife into her chest, cut out her still-beating heart and raised it toward the image of Kukulkan?

  The thought of helplessly looking on while she was sacrificed to the stone image of some ancient, mythical god was so unbelievable to me that it drew deep sobs out of my chest; sobs that were coupled with a maddening rage. I worked at my bonds, hoping that there was some give in them somewhere. I had tried brute force a number of times without success and I had followed it up with more thoughtful, intellectual ideas for getting free, but none had brought any results. I was still chained to the wall and running out of both luck and time.

  My thoughts returned to the fantasy that had been running through my head for… well, since the first time that I had seen Eva, however long that was. Those impossible fantasies had, little by little, begun to take shape into something completely unbelievable. The ecstatic feeling of her touch and her lips pressed against mine had been such a silly, distant dream only a week before; just a few days before. My heart wasn’t finished just yet and it wanted more of whatever future we might have together, though that future, for all practical purposes seemed to be very grim and very short. Still, there was something deeper inside of me that simply would give up hope. Love will find a way, right?

  With that hope as my focus, I tried to calm my mind, clear it of
everything that threatened to hurl me back into despair. If Eva and I were going to get out of this, it was going to take every bit of rational intelligence that I had. Where was the best place to start? A little before noon on March 20th—which was anywhere from 8 to 15 hours away by my best guess—Eva was going to be led out into the Temple of Kukulkan in order to be sacrificed. What did I know about Mayan sacrifices?

  I tried to recall all that I had read about the Mayan equinox ceremony and the process of human sacrifice in general. There was, of course, a great deal of speculation into exactly what took place during the ceremony, but at that point, it was all that I had to go on. I could only hope that historians and archeologists had been correct. The problem was that most of the actual, historical documentation came from the explorer Cortez and his descriptions were of the Aztecs. The Mayan ceremonies could have been completely different. I pushed the doubts aside and focused on what I had learned, hoping and praying that I would at least be able to find an opportunity in the process, somewhere, to disrupt things and save Eva. Losing my own life wasn’t nearly as important as making certain that Eva was saved.

  It was said that most human sacrifices had been voluntary in nature; however, there was plenty of speculation that many of the earlier sacrifices had been provided for from slaves of the Aztecs or Mayans. With voluntary sacrifices, the one who was going to be sacrificed went through a number of cleansing and preparation ceremonies, spending a great deal of that time in prayer, for obvious reasons. When it came time to come forth for the ceremony, the volunteer was often drugged with a very heavy narcotic that would cause hallucinations. It was speculated that whatever drug was used had a similar effect as an LSD trip, though I wasn’t sure how anyone knew that for sure and had often wondered if the person who had written about it had actually been on an acid trip.

  It was said that even under the effects of the narcotic, some who were led to be sacrificed shed tears, screamed and struggled or relieved themselves as they were being led up to the temple; all of those things made them unworthy of being used as a sacrifice and those individuals were taken aside and killed for fear that they would be an insult to the gods. It was critical that the one to be sacrificed came forth in silent dignity so as not to be an insult to the gods. Since their captors only had one shot at a successful sacrifice, it was essential that it not be botched.

  In a willing person, an LSD-like drug might have provided a peaceful trip that would allow them to be directed to their death without objection, but what if the person was unwilling? The understanding that I had about LSD is that it simply heightened and added to thoughts and feelings that were already in the person’s mind; therefore, an unwilling person on an acid trip would simply become several dozen times more intense in their objections and be extremely difficult to handle. So there had to be a way to calm that person down. How would they do that? I wasn’t sure, but I felt like Andres had already begun part of the process when he was talking to her before. I tried to recall his words and heard them quite clearly in my mind.

  Your final moments will be moments of extreme splendor. I’m willing to bet that in the history of Mayan civilization, there has never been one as perfectly suited for the great god than you. Embrace that. Embrace the heritage that comes from a small corner of your own Mayan heart… I think that there is a very good chance that you might actually return with the great Kukulkan at his side and rule the Mayan people for all eternity. You’ll be a queen, powerful and immortal. Over this, there is no reason to shed tears.

  Suddenly, I realized that it wasn’t the words that he was speaking, but the tone and the actions that were taking place. He had been using a soothing and relaxing voice and had begun to make suggestions of getting in touch with her heritage. No doubt, once they were separated, he would begin working on her mind even more. There wasn’t enough time to brainwash her, but someone very skilled would likely be able to relax her enough to accept her fate. He might even lie to her and agree to set me free. And then suddenly I had an answer: hypnosis. Under hypnosis, he could connect her with something in her heritage and bring her to a willingness to help save her people. After that, the narcotic would have the desired effect.

  I was convinced that I had discovered how she would be put into a trance and easily led to the sacrifice; however, there was still nothing that I could do to stop it. I would need to keep in mind that were I able to get free and break her free, I might have to deal with her while her mind was in an altered state. That might multiply my problems when it came to attempting to escape. I don’t need my problems multiplied. Escaping on my own or escaping and taking her with me is going to be difficult enough.

  There was a distinct possibility that there would be a packed house for the sacrifice of the spring equinox, especially since it was the coming out party, so to speak, for a new priest. That could mean dozens or hundreds to dodge while trying to lead an intoxicated Eva through them or even trying to carry her through them. The conclusion at which I had arrived had the effect of dampening my hopes once more. Regardless of how well I understood what was going on, I was still helpless to stop it from taking place.

  With the return of despair overcoming my best efforts to come up with a solution that would set Eva and I free, I lowered my head into my arms and placed them on my bent knees as I sank to the floor and gave in to hopelessness. Eva and I were doomed to die and there was nothing that I could do about it.

  In the predicament that I was in, the last thing that I wanted to do was sleep; however, due to the fact that I had been through a very large number of very short nights in the past three days, not to mention several surges of adrenaline, I eventually dozed off with my head resting on my knees.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had no clue how long I had slept, only that I had dozed off. It could have been minutes or it might have been hours. I wasn’t pleased with the fact that I was too weak to stay awake when I ought to be planning, hoping, even praying. Our lives hung in the balance and it was no time to be sleeping.

  I recalled words from a Sunday School class some time in my youth. Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. “God, please help me stay awake. Please provide a way out of this,” I whispered aloud.

  I had no sooner finished my simple prayer when I saw the curtain stir slightly and I focused my eyes on it. Were they coming for me? Had time passed by that quickly? Was it already time? It hadn’t seemed like enough time had passed, though I hadn’t been sure about any sort of timing from the moment Eva and I had tumbled into the snake pit. As apprehension and fear became more rampant in my mind, I heard a familiar voice whispering softly.

  “Adam. Don’t shout or raise your voice. It’s Enrique. I’m coming in to talk to you, but you must remain quiet. Do you understand? I’m going to help you, but you can’t give us away.”

  “I have nothing to discuss with you,” I replied. “You’re a traitor and a coward.”

  No sooner had I finished speaking, Enrique pulled back the curtain and stepped into the small space with me. Had I been able to break free from the chains, I would have wrapped my hands around his throat and squeezed the life out of him.

  “I understand how you feel, just hear me out, okay? I have a plan to get you and Eva out of here.”

  “Why should I trust you?” I glared at him, though there was a great deal of the effect lost in the very dim light.

  “I don’t suppose you should, but will you at least listen to me? Right now, I’m your only hope.”

  What he said made sense, though I was struggling with his earlier betrayal. Had I not seen his downturned eyes and sensed his shame before, I wouldn’t have bothered to even attempt to listen to him, but the memory of his inability to look me in the eyes allowed a dim hope to begin to rise inside of me. ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth’ worked in that situation too. “What do you want?” My tone communicated the f
act that I was still extremely wary of anything he said or did, though I was at a point where I had nothing left to lose.

  “Let me explain something first and then I’ll tell you my plan.”

  The fact that he had a plan opened the door to hope a little bit more, but I was still skeptical. “I’m listening.”

  “This human sacrifice thing has been a part of my heritage for thousands of years and the rites of priesthood that have been passed down through my family have been continued for those same thousand years. I’m sure you understand that the pressure to continue carrying out this tradition is enormous, but the problem is, I don’t think I can carry it out. No, I know I can’t. I have stood by my father’s side as an apprentice for several years.”

  Enrique swallowed a lump in his throat and then continued. “I have seen the sacrifices being carried out. I have assisted in them and I have disposed of the bodies afterward. I tried to convince myself over and over that I would be able to carry on with this part of my heritage, even up to the point of putting snakes into the pit when you and Eva had fallen in. They were non-venomous, by the way, just so you’ll know that I have been faltering all of the way through. They are typically venomous and the hope is that the potential victim will be bitten and in their state of delirium more easily succumb to the sacrifice.

  “As you know, both you and Eva were still mentally sound when you arrived. She will be placed into a state of hypnosis not long before she is to be led to the temple. Once she is hypnotized, she is to be given a heavy narcotic that will cause her to hallucinate. My father will carry out the hypnosis, but as the priest, I am to give her the drink with the powerful narcotic. I will substitute it with something that looks and smells like the drink, but is not.