Of all the things he had to find a book in these tattered ruins. He wished he hadn't taken up that book and should've tossed it away like the seniors had told him to do...
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"Tch— these fucking old geezers."
Roek muttered under his breath as he glanced at the group of seniors near the cave entrance. They stood together in a circle with papers in their hands, talking among themselves in low voices.
If one glanced at them they would've thought they were discussing something important.
But Roek knew what they were doing.
They were just dividing the findings and deciding whose name went on those papers.
Roek has been an intern archaeological research scholar for just over a year now. And since day one, the seniors had been dumping their work on the interns and slapping their own names on whatever the interns had found.
Every article. Every finding. Every discovery.
None of it belonged to the person who actually dug it up.
'Whatever.'
He looked back down at the book resting on his lap.
It lay wide open, its pages yellow and brittle like an old manual, thin cracks ran along the edges whenever he turned them.
He had found it in one of the outer tombs — there was nothing special about it at first glance. It had no gold inscriptions nor any grand symbols, just a plain old book.
There was just a skeleton lying flat on the ground with both hands crossed over its chest, and this book tucked between its fingers and its ribs.
Like it was trying to protect it.
The seniors had taken one look and moved on. It was of an unknown language and it was very difficult to decipher so they just abandoned it.
But Roek's curiosity won over.
It took him four days to decipher it. Four days of late nights and complete isolation.
Then on the fifth morning it finally cracked open.
Strangely — it was just a novel.
'Who in their right mind would keep a novel in their grave,' Roek thought.
It was a fantasy story about a boy named Azarax who defeated the demon entities and conquered the world. It was an overused trope.
But there was something addictive about it that kept pulling him back.
He had read it more times than he could count. He told himself it was for research purposes.
But it was never for that.
As he was about to close the book his thumb caught on something near the back. Two pages were stuck together.
He hadn't noticed it before — not once across all the times he had opened this book.
He separated them carefully, afraid of damaging whatever was written inside before he could read it.
The paper felt older than the rest. Heavier somehow.
Before he even began deciphering it he noticed the ink. Black — much darker than anything else in the book.
ᚨᛉᚨᚱᚨᛪ ᚲᛁᛚᛚᛖᛞ ᚦᚢᛖ ᛊᚺᚨᛞᛟᚹ ᚲᛁᚾᚷ᛫ ᛒᚢᛏ ᚺᛁᛊ ᚲᚢᚱᛊᛖ ᛊᛏᛁᛚᛚ ᚱᛖᛗᚨᛁᚾᛊ᛬ᛟᚺ ᛟᚢᛏᛚᚨᚾᛞᛖᚱ᛫ ᚠᚱᛟᛗ ᚨᚾᛟᚦᛖᚱ ᚱᛖᚨᛚᛗ᛫ ᚲᛚᚨᛁᛗ ᚺᛁᛊ ᚹᚱᛖᛏᚲᚺᛖᛚᛗ᛬ᛞᚨᚱᚲᚾᛖᛊᛊ ᛊᚺᚨᛚᛚ ᚹᚱᚨᛈ ᚦᛁᚾᛖ ᛊᛁᚷᚺᛏ᛬ ᛏᚨᛊᛏᛖ ᚨᚾᛞ ᛊᚲᛖᚾᛏ ᚦᚤ ᚠᚨᛞᛖ ᚨᚹᚨᚤ᛬ᚦᛟᚢ ᛊᚺᚨᛚᛚ ᛒᛖᚨᚱ ᛖᚾᛞᛚᛖᛊᛊ ᚨᚷᛟᚾᚤ᛬ ᚨᚾᛞ ᚦᛟᚢ ᛊᚺᚨᛚᛏ ᛞᛁᛖ ᚹᚺᛖᚾ
A few minutes later he finished deciphering it. He wrote the translation on a separate piece of paper from his pocket and read it out loud.
"Azarax killed the shadow king, but his curse still lingered…Oh outlander, from another realm, claim his wretched helm:
Darkness shall wrap your sight:
Taste and scent thy fade away:
You shall bear endless agony and die "
The remaining words were erased.
'What.'
Roek's face went pale.
He didn't want to believe it.
He wanted to think that it was just a part of the novel.
But the words from the page "Oh outlander from another realm" kept repeating in his mind.
It didn't read like fiction. It read like someone or something was speaking directly to him. Like whoever wrote this knew someone would eventually open that page.
He shut the book and let it rest on his lap. Then muttered quietly."I need to head back to the tent. I have so much work to do."
He lifted his gaze toward the seniors.
They were all staring above him with a shocked expression.
Then all at once they looked directly at Roek and started screaming.
"Get out of there!"
"Move away!"
"What?" Roek shouted back, he was very far away from them and couldn't quite hear them.
He looked up to see what they were screaming about.
But it was already too late.
'splurttttt'
pool of blood mixed with the dirt below.