The Awakening

by Tony Mazzarella

  She nodded affirmatively as she looked up at him. She grabbed the ball cap sitting next to her and placed it on her head, pulling her long black hair secured into a ponytail, through the opening in the back.

  “It’s not just that,” she said, as she nervously stroked the pony tail over her right shoulder and recalled the horrific images of the creature that had invaded her sleep over the past few weeks. She drifted into thought and felt a cold chill as the creature appeared before her. The flames silhouetted his form as they always did but she could make out his bulging muscular form, red skin and horned forehead that made him look like the devil himself. This is how it began, night after night, and in the beginning she’d awaken before the dreams went any further. As the weeks passed, the dreams would go on longer, before she was jarred awake into a terrified and confused cold sweat. Gradually, the creature would summon her to him and in her mind, he became less a monster and more a mysterious entity that ignited her passions and exploited her loneliness. She felt his touch and it was somehow comforting as time went on. On some level, this entity was lonely too and not what he appeared to be.

  She felt the same shame she always did afterwards as she refocused on the present and Drew’s concerned expression.

  “Look, Cait, the pictures on the walls of these catacombs would freak anyone out. You can’t let it get to you like this. They’re just dreams, nothing more,” said Drew, as if reading her mind. She always appreciated his ability to tell what she was thinking, but his dismissive tone irritated her. There was more to this than just some pictures on a wall and she knew it. She was somehow in communication with something that she couldn’t explain, especially to Drew.

  “Don’t worry about me,” she said, struggling for composure. “I’ll be okay. Besides, we have work to do, and we can’t afford to stop every time I have a nightmare.”

  “Well, maybe you need a few days off,” said Drew. “You’ve been going nonstop for weeks. It wouldn’t kill you to go to Rome for a few days and relax.”

  “I said I’m okay!” barked Cait. She knew Drew meant well, but she didn’t want him to think it was affecting her work. They’d worked together for many years on other projects for the institute, and had become good friends. Although she hadn’t told him everything about the dreams, she felt ashamed each time the topic came up. Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard excited shouting from inside the newest unearthed chamber.

  “Dr. Kirby, come quick. Come and see!” shouted Antonio Maretti. Antonio was in charge of the local crew that had been hired by the institute as diggers. He’d worked for Cait before and had come to respect her greatly. Drew helped her up, and they both ran quickly into the inner chamber.

  “What is it?” asked Cait.

  “We found more hieroglyphs, Dr. Kirby. Many more hieroglyphs!”

  As they approached the diggers, Cait noticed a partially uncovered wall with more images carved and painted into it.

  Antonio continued shouting to the diggers in Italian as they pried a large slab of rock from the wall. It smashed to the ground, shattering loudly into hundreds of pieces. Cait became disoriented, as she felt as if she was once again in a dream. He was there, summoning her through the mist that clouded her mind. She tried to stop herself, but couldn’t resist his power.

  “What is it?” asked Drew in a soft voice. Her eyes continued staring at the images on the newly discovered cavern wall. “Cait!” he shouted, much louder this time.

  “I—ah—what happened?” asked Cait as she stumbled forward, bracing herself against the stone wall.

  “I don’t know. You looked like you were in some kind of trance,” said Drew as he and Antonio helped her to a large boulder to sit down.

  “Are you okay, Miss Cait?” asked Antonio.

  “I must not be feeling well. Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll be fine.”

  “No, you won’t be,” countered Drew. “That’s it; I insist you take some time off.”

  Cait was immediately taken aback by his tone. She wasn’t about to be ordered around. “Drew, really. You can’t force me to…”

  “Oh, I’m not forcing you. You’re volunteering,” he said adamantly.

  “Don’t be absurd. I’m not going anywhere!” snapped Cait.

  Drew pulled out his cell phone and began dialing with an intense look on his face.

  “Who are you calling?” she demanded.

  “Hello, Dr. Kirby. Drew Cross here.”

  “You wouldn’t!” shouted Cait, angered by the fact that he would dare call her father. Franklin Kirby was a well-respected author specializing in archaeological language translation. He had learned much of his craft working in the field when Cait was younger and was proud she’d followed in his footsteps. Her desire to make her father proud drove her to succeed, and she didn’t want him to know she’d been feeling off as of late.

  “Yes, sir. Cait is just fine,” he said, looking at her and shaking his head negatively. “She wanted me to call and let you know she’ll be taking some time off over the next few days and is looking forward to seeing you in Rome.”

  Cait stared angrily at Drew, knowing he had her right where he wanted. Antonio watched as she tried to signal him to hang up the phone and then actively tried to grab it from his hands as he held it high and out of her five foot six reach.

  “Well, sir, she’s working on a new chamber as we speak and couldn’t make the call. She promised to call you later tonight and make plans to meet you in the city. Yes, sir. I will, sir. Okay. Take care.” Drew hung up the phone with a smug smirk.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” barked Cait, slamming down her backpack.

  “I’m allowing you to take a vacation and spend some time with your dad. You can either do it voluntarily, or I’ll tell him exactly what’s been going on with you lately. I’m sure either way, you’d be taking time off. This way, you can do it on your terms.”

  “It’s not fair, you know,” she said with a hint of resignation. “You know how he is. If I don’t call him tonight, he’ll be worried sick and will probably catch the first train out.”

  Cait loved her father dearly but found his overprotective nature a bit smothering at times.

  “Precisely why you aren’t going to forget to call him back, are you?” asked Drew with another smirk.

  Cait looked around for a second, trying to find something to throw. Having nothing at hand, she grabbed her pack and stomped away up the path, exiting the catacombs in a huff.

  Drew looked at Antonio with a broad smile.

  “Mr. Cross,” said Antonio. “She is not happy with you.”

  “Don’t worry. As soon as she talks to her father, she’ll feel much better. Besides, it’ll be a pleasant surprise for him as well when he finds out she’s going to take some time off.”

  “I do not understand, Mr. Cross. Did you not just tell Dr. Kirby his daughter would be taking vacation?”

  Drew reached into his pocket and activated the main screen on his smartphone. He held it up to Antonio’s face as he read the words ‘No Signal.’ “We’re hundreds of feet below the ground, Antonio. No cell phone towers, unfortunately.”

  Antonio shook his head and smiled. “I see, sir. When she finds out, I suspect you will be even more out of favor with Miss Caitlin.”

  “That I will,” said Drew, pondering the irony of his true feelings for Cait and the tradeoff of trying to keep her safe. He knew that stunts like this wouldn’t get him any closer, but he also knew that it was for her own good. If there was to be something between them, however, he probably needed to stop pissing her off on a regular basis.

  “Hold down the fort, Antonio. I need to keep an eye on her. You know how to get ahold of me should you need to.”

  “Yes, Mr. Cross. I do indeed.”

  Drew walked briskly out of the tunnel and up the narrow path that led up to the s
urface. He practically had to sprint to catch Cait, as she’d had a few minutes head start. As he exited through the narrow passageway, he could see her standing by her truck. She drove an old Ford pickup that looked like it had been buried for a thousand years. As he approached, she pulled off the gray jumpsuit she’d been wearing and tossed it in the back of her truck, along with her gloves and the pack that held her gear. She pulled out the small band that held her long black hair in a ponytail, and it fell loosely around her back.

  “Cait! Wait up,” shouted Drew as he continued toward her. She didn’t look up while opening the door to her truck and climbing in. He knew she was intentionally ignoring him. That much was certain. As the door to the truck slammed loudly, Drew saw that the window was open.

  “Cait!” he called again, even louder than before.

  She looked up, an angry scowl still on her face. “Look, I just want to be alone.”

  “I know you aren’t happy that I called your father, but you and I both know you need to talk to someone about what you’ve been going through lately.”

  “And what the hell makes you think I want to talk to anyone about it?” snapped Cait. “Especially my father! I’ll get over it soon enough, and I don’t need you interfering. You just made things more complicated for me.”

  “I care about you,” he blurted out, suddenly worried he’d shown too much of his true feelings. Luckily for him, she was so angry, she didn’t pick up on the true meaning of his words.

  “Next time, just stay out of my business. If I wanted someone to treat me like a child, I would have continued working with Kirby.”

  The tires on the old truck spun as she sped away, leaving a cloud of dust in the air. As she slammed the palm of her hand on the steering wheel, she looked in her rearview mirror at Drew, who was still looking in her direction. She’d always admired his tenacity, but couldn’t see through her anger to accept that this was for her own good. The dreams were becoming more and more regular, and a dark part of her was beginning to look forward to the excitement that she didn’t have in her waking life. She both dreaded and longed for the passion of the beast that took her in her dreams.

  ***

  Several hours had passed since Cait had left the excavation site and arrived at her small apartment on the outskirts of Livorno. She grudgingly threw her overnight case in the larger bag she’d packed, which contained her clothes. As she glanced at the clock, she realized there were still two hours until she had to catch the train to Rome, which left her just enough time to take a shower and drive to the station. As she turned on the shower and felt the hot water run through her fingers, her anger once again came to the surface. She didn’t have three hours to waste on a train ride to Rome, let alone spend days appeasing Drew and her father’s concerns about her state of mind. This project and the new excavation were too important, and she began to resent Drew’s interference even more. A part of her questioned whether he was just doing this to get her out of the picture and take credit for the find himself. She quickly collected her paranoia as the hot, penetrating steam from the shower soothed her skin and began to tame her thoughts. Drew was many things, but a greedy opportunist he was not. She knew deep in her soul that he was a good man, and although she wasn’t happy about the current circumstances, she knew he had only done what he thought was in her best interest.

  She removed the small white robe and exposed her tan, slender body to the mirror’s gaze. As she stepped into the shower’s warm mist, her cares began to evaporate as the water flowed over her breasts and down her firm stomach. As she watched her reflection, she was amazed at how she’d stayed in such great shape and had rarely taken the time to notice. Years of hard work on excavation sites had not exactly been recreation, but they had served to keep her extremely fit. The hot water caressed her skin and continued to pull her further away from her anger at Drew as she soon began to lose herself in suppressed feelings from the past.

  She’d spent most of her time alone since her fiancé, Thomas Radcliffe, had been killed three years before in an act of terrorism, and she hadn’t really opened herself back up to the idea of a relationship. They’d met when she was on assignment in London, and had quickly fallen in love. Thoughts filled her mind of their trips to Venice and Rome, and how she’d discovered the catacombs while she and Thomas were on a romantic getaway to the port city of Livorno. They both fell in love with its quiet beauty, and planned to live here after they were married. She thought it only fitting to see that he was buried in the place that he loved so much, and that they had shared together.

  It was always like this on the anniversary of his death, when her emotions would take her back to the pain of losing him. It was after the incident that her father had become so domineering in watching over her. He knew, as Drew did, that Cait had suppressed her feelings of pain and loss. She despised downtime that allowed her mind to wander into the depths of her past despair, which was why she was so furious at Drew for taking away her distraction. This new project took her mind away from anything relating to her lost love. She’d found many such projects in the past three years, and had never truly faced the pain she held locked inside.

  She thought back to the night of the incident, when she’d waited at the train station in London. It was a warm night, and the breeze blew softly across the platform at North Ealing Station, pushing the scent of the freshly planted flowers past her nose. The excitement of seeing Thomas after three long weeks rushed over her like a cold ocean wave. She was exhilarated and still nervous after all those months as she anticipated seeing her true love. As she looked at the arrival board, she saw the status of his train turn from on time to overdue. Instantly, her heart sank into despair. It wasn’t the despair of a love that would be denied for mere minutes. She knew at that moment that she’d lost him for all eternity. She never really questioned how she knew at that moment; she’d always assumed Thomas told her in his own way through his new spiritual understanding. All she remembered was the soft, tender whisper she heard in her soul that said—goodbye.

  It was hard to tell the difference between the shower’s mist on her face or the tears that flowed steadily down her cheeks. She turned off the water and pressed her fists against the shower wall, as if fighting to have the strength to get through the next few minutes. The sound of the phone snapped her back to the somber reality that was her life—hopelessly alone and without Thomas. She quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around her body. As she dried her hair with a second towel, she ran and picked up the ringing phone.

  “Hello,” said Cait, still feeling the emptiness she’d felt right after Tom’s death. Each time she remembered the events of that night, it took her days to recover emotionally.

  “Cait!” shouted Drew urgently. “Listen, you have to come back to the dig site!”

  “What’s this all about? I’d still be there if it weren’t for you interfering…”

  “I know you’re mad, but I can’t explain right now. Just get over here as soon as you can!” Drew insisted.

  “I can’t. I have to catch a train, and my father’s expecting me, thanks to you. He’ll be worried sick if I back out now. Just tell me what the hell is going on,” she demanded.

  “Your father is on his way here now. This is of importance to him as well. We called him as soon as we found it. Just get back here as soon as you can. I’ve got another call coming in, I’ve got to go.”

  “Drew! Just tell me what’s…” Before she could finish, the call cut off.

  This was the part of Drew that she admired—intense and bullheaded. If the circumstances were different, she’d be excited to see what he’d discovered, no questions asked. Under the circumstances, however, she was less than inclined to feel that excitement. But she knew she had no other choice than to return to the dig site as he’d requested.

  After twenty minutes of driving, Cait arrived at the dusty road that led to the site, where she c
ould see Drew anxiously pacing as he talked on his cell phone. She could tell from the animated nature of his conversation that he was worked up over something. She pulled up next to him and could see his face red with anger as he held the phone out from his mouth and shouted a few inaudible words. As she got out of the truck, he shouted something into the phone and angrily smashed his finger into the screen to end the call.

  “Thanks for getting here so quickly. We don’t have much time.”

  “What’s going on?” demanded Cait.

  “I have to show you. What we found before was just the beginning. This could be the biggest archaeological find ever made. You have to see it!”

  “What is it?” she asked again as he grabbed her wrist and led her down into the catacomb’s entrance.

  “Just come on. You’ll see in a few minutes.”

  “Why don’t we have much time, and why is my father coming here?”

  “Because I need him to verify what we found. He’s better at translation than either of us. If I’m right, then we’re looking at literally one of the biggest cover-ups in archaeological history. Maybe even in human history.”

  Chapter 2

  All the sorrow began to lift from Cait’s heart with this new mystery. She began to once again feel the adrenaline surge that had carried her through most of the past three years, and she quickened her pace behind Drew. She could see Antonio waiting at the entrance to what looked like a new opening in the catacomb wall.

  “Good to see you, Miss Cait.”

  “You too, Antonio. Maybe you’ll tell me what the hell is going on,” said Cait, shooting a pointed look at Drew.

  “I will leave that to him, Miss Cait,” responded Antonio, not wanting to get in the middle of the obvious tension between them.

  As they entered this new chamber, Drew shone his flashlight down the length of a wall that extended as far as the eye could see. As in the other rooms, images were carved and painted along the walls. In that moment, Cait saw why Drew was so excited.