_________________________________________________________________

“I find myself standing in a battlefield, the air thick with the acrid scent of smoke and the metallic taste of blood. 

Swords slashing. Screams resonating through my being.

I can feel my heart rate rising, my lungs suffocating as hopelessness clouds my vision.

Then, In the middle of all the chaos, I see a tiny light far away, like a sign of hope. I feel like I have to reach it, so I start walking, my feet sinking into the ground stained with blood. Suddenly a figure tainted with black emerges from the horizon, scattering the light. Darkness reigns in the atmosphere. And then … I wake up..”

“And this dream of yours happens every night?” 

“Every goddamn night for the past week”

“You gotta take it easy with the drinking, Noah. It’s starting to really affect you. Are you sure you can still work? “ 

I could swear that I heard him giggle. This bastard is making fun of me after begging me to open up to him.

“If your goal was to joke around, let me break it to you. You're wasting your time.. Now just pass me that shovel, would ya?”  I said with pursed lips.

“Woah you got angry from that?” Exclaimed Chris as he handed it to me.

I reached out to grab it from him, but he tightened his grip so that I couldn’t take it.

“Leave it! we don’t have all day” 

Chris replied, his mouth downturned, “Always getting worked up over small jokes. No wonder nobody wants to work with you.” He then returned to his task, muttering, “What a letdown for such a talented explorer”

I couldn’t help but scoff inwardly.  And what if nobody wants to be with me? Thirty-five years of solitude. Who needs companionship anyway? The only thing I care about is my work. 

That’s how it has always been, and that’s how it’s always going to be.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been obsessed with the history of the world. How it all fits together, like pieces of a puzzle. But there's always been this nagging feeling, like there's a missing piece, something that ties it all together, something we're not seeing.

And if someone doesn’t want to share my passion, well, to hell with them.

Anyways… that's pretty much what led me to where I am now, down in the depths of this ancient “ziggurat” scraping dirt off walls that haven't seen sunlight in who knows how long.

It was dark down here, like really dark. The only light we got was from these tiny cracks in the walls, and let me tell you, it wasn’t much. And yeah, the thought that this whole place could collapse on us any second? Terrifying, but also kinda thrilling, you know?

Suddenly, my headlamp began to flicker. I reached out to my backpack to pull out the batteries before it turned off. I rummaged through the outer compartment, moving my hand left and right, but I couldn't find any battery-shaped items. I guess I must’ve run out.

How could an archaeologist and explorer with fifteen years of experience make such a rookie mistake, you ask?

Beats me!

I turned to Chris, his face illuminated by a faint light. 

“Could you pass me some batteries?”

“Ugh..” he exhaled as he handed me two battery pills.

DID HE JUST SIGH AT ME?

I quickly snatched the pills off his hands and inserted them into my headlamp. As I did, Chris waved his hands as if he had been injured by my swift action. Despite his dramatics, he fixed me with a questioning gaze. “Mind if I ask you something?”

“Why the sudden politeness?” 

“Sigh…About what you said in the latest archaeology seminar, something about the power of writing history lies in the hands of those in power. Aren’t you afraid of the backlash of such a bold statement?”

"What’s wrong with telling the truth?”

I gave my headlamp a few whacks until it finally lit up. Dealing with old gear feels like wrestling with relics sometimes!

I turned to Chris as I leaned down to check a hole in the wall that let out a chilling breeze of wind.

“Think about Machu Picchu, man. History paints it as this amazing place built by the Incas, but we often forget the hardship the builders went through. Their stories get lost, you know?”

“That's terrible. I had no idea”

Of course, he didn’t.

“And the Egyptian pyramids? We used to think slaves built them, but turns out it was skilled workers who were respected for their craft. The truth's been hidden under layers of myths.”

“So, what can we do about it?”

I faced the wall and peered through the hole. The wind was giving me a hard time, but my curiosity triumphed.

“Nothing! We can’t do anything.”

Certainly we could. We have to question the norms, and by digging into the contradictions, we can uncover the hidden tales of the past. But, why bother explaining it to him?

*Flick*

“Ah, what the..!”

A speck of dirt went in my eye, but what was that shape that I saw through the hole? It didn't resemble the usual cave wall pictographs; it seemed unique, perhaps even significant. Though I couldn't make out anything from it, a sense of importance lingered around it. I could smell the scent of a groundbreaking discovery!

Every part of me tingled with excitement, urging me to explore further.

“I’m going to check something out, you stay here and keep clearing the dirt, Chris”

“Shall I tag along? It might be risky alone” 

“I’ll call for you if I find anything.”

Squeezing through the tunnel, I rushed to the room with the symbol, my curiosity reaching new heights.

As I entered the chamber, my eyes scanned the surroundings. It was like any other room, except for the symbol; a circle intersecting three smaller circles. It reminded me of those Venn diagrams from school, a subject I loved.

Each space held a different symbol, but it was the Ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life, inside the central intersection that caught my eye. Without thinking, I reached out and touched it.

*Crack* *Rumbling*

“What the fuck?”

The walls crumbled, sending debris flying. Suddenly, the ground split open, and I fell into the darkness below…

Am I really falling to my death right now?