King of the Sacred Sun

The gold disk glinted at the edge of my flashlight beam. I had been just about to stop going any further, but a strange feeling told me to move onward, just for a few more steps. My luck on this expedition was rather poor, so finding this artefact was a blessing. Or rather, as it would turn out, a curse.

I am an archaeologist, and I specialize in ancient Olmec and Mayan cultures. With the help of my team, I had found just two years earlier a new set of ruins, buried deep in the Amazon rainforest. We had excavated millions of dollars worth of artifacts, and unlocked the secrets of large parts of the Mayan culture. I had yet to strike the big find that would make me famous in the world of historians though. That is what I had hoped to achieve with this one last search in this ruin.

The disk was laying on a stone dias, behind a sacrificial bowl. I quickly crawled through the crubling hallway and grabbed it. The metal felt cold to the touch, and I felt some lines etched into it. Before I could take a better look at it, I felt the ground start to shake. I turned back around and crawled and ran as fast as I could. Statues and stone blocks falling around me. I caught the edge of a particularly sharp stone, and cut a deep gash in my right arm. I ran up into the forest, just as I felt the ground make a final shake, and turned to see the entrence to the ruin collapse in on itself. As I stood there, a bit of my blood dripped onto the disk. The wind gusted by, warm and moist, like a breath. It seemed the forest was sighing in relief.

I glanced toward the tents we used as a base camp, and started to walk towards them. I stepped inside the main tent, just in time to see my best friend John die in front of me. He had also been in the ruin when it started to collapse, but he was less fortunate than I was. A large piece of crumbled massonry had hit his head, just above the temple. He made it back to the base, and the final member of our team, Mikayla, had done what she could to try and save him, but in the end it was too little too late.

I crumpled to the ground, crying, and placed John's head in my lap. As I did so, I noticed a small white light leave John's finger tipps, and head towards the disk. In my grief stricken state, I thought I was just seeing a trick of the light. I had known John for 25 years. Since Highschool, John, Mikayla, and I were insepparable. He had been the best man at my wedding, and he had been planning on asking Mikayla to marry him when we returned home. All of that was taken away in a moment. I got up, and tried to help Mikayla, bu she was too far into her own mind for me to be able to wake her from her stuppor.

I left her there, as I started to pack away the rest of the tents and the other equipment. There was no question about whether we were going to stay any longer or not, as we needed to return John's body to his parents for a proper burial. I got everything packed into the jeep, and picked up Mikayla and set her in the passenger seat. She was still crying unceasingly, but no sound was coming out anymore, just tears. I wrapped up John's body int the tent, and layed it down in the bed of the jeep. As I climbed in to the drivers seat, I noticed Mikayla holding the disk, and rubbing the front of it as one would a pet. I saw a momentary glint of red in her eyes,  and I snatched the disk away. She didn't make a protest, so I put it away and started the 10 hour drive to the nearest city with an airport so we could return home.

After John's funeral, I went to see if Mikayla was alright, as I hadn't seen her since we returned from Brazil. I went to her house, but she didn't answer the door or her phone. I figured she wanted some time to adjust to life without John. I had lost my best friend, but she had lost something more. I couldn't imagine loosing my wife or my three year old daughter, let alone in such a tragic way.

Later that night, I found the disk in one of my bags. It was about a foot in diameter, and about 1/2 an inch thick. It was made from solid gold as well, judging by the weight. In the front, there was a carving of an ancient ritual. Two men were kneeling on the ground, holding what looked like eggs in their outstretched hands. They offered the eggs to a man sitting on a throne underneath a large sun. I found the disk quite unnerving, especially because it seemed to be giving off a faint glow. I brushed this off a something impossible, and sat down to read the paper before I went to bed. The front page article was about a murder that had taken place a week before. A highschool senior, the star quarterback, had been stabbed. The police found it odd, as the heart had been but out, and there were chips of obsidian in the wounds. I found it odd to say the least, but I was to tired to see any significance, and I went to bed.

Over the next two weeks, more killngs had occured. Each was the same as the first. A star athlete was the victim, the heart was removed, and obsidian pieces were found in the wounds. It was oddly warm for late October. The wind felt the same as that last  day in the Amazon. Like the breath of an animal, blowing down your neck. I was still trying to figure out the significance of the disk, but I was drawing a blank. I had cleaned my blood off of it, and the image seemed to have changed. The king on the throne now had a gruesome smile. The disk had been giving off a glow ever since my blood had spilled on it, but lately it had seemed to be glowing even brighter. Steady waves of heat seemed to be coming off of it as well.

Unnerved, I set down the disk and went online to see if I could find any information about it. I stumbled across an article about the Mayan dieties. It appears the king on the throne was an early depiction of the sun god Kinick Ahau. This would explain the carving, yet the heat and light coming off the disk was a different matter. Continuing my research, I found an obscure website which contained odd ideas. According to the website, all the pagan gods existed, but their power declined as they lost worshippers. They would weaken even more as there temples were destroyed. They never went away completely as long as they had at least one item of power still tying them to this realm. A simple sacrifice was all that had been needed to reawaken them.

I leaned back into my chair and I wiped the sweat off of my forehead. I had found the last relic of a forgotten sun god. I called Mikayla to tell her the significance of what I had just found, but she still didn't answer my calls. I got a bad feeling, so I decided to drive to her house and see her, even if I had to break in. I grabbed my keys, and told my wife and daughter to get into the car. As soon as I got outside, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy task. A large storm was coming in, and it seemed to be centered around Mikayla's house. I jumped in the car and started the drive. Something seemed determined to keep me away, because everywhere I turned, uprooted trees were blocking my path. I knew that driving was hopeless at this point, so I got out to walk. I had my wife and daughter saty in the car, and I fought the rain and the hail and the wind to get to her house. I tried to get in but the door was locked. I took a few steps back and took a running charge at the door. As soon as I broke through, I felt a something hit the back of my head and I was out cold.

When I came to I was taped to a chair. Mikayla was standing over me with a sacrificial obsidian knife. "Don't try to stop me James," she said. "Kinick Ahau spoke to me. He told me that your blood was what had started to revive him. He said that all I had to do was fully revive hime and he would bring back John. Think of it, You, John and I back together again just like old times." "You've lost you rmind, Mikayla" I told her. "Well, I want to be with John again, so I looked up the ritual of ressurection. You needed 10 hearts worthy of sacrifice. That is why I killed all the little stars in the town. Only those that have shown they are superior are worthy of being sacrifices. I have those, now all I have to do is sacrifice a mother and daughter and spill their blood on th e disk and Kinick Ahua will be awake and John will come with him. When you see me next, John will be with me."

She left, and I struggled against my bonds. Luckily, she had always been bad at tying knots. I broke the knots, and struggled to my feet. I had a feeling that I knew who she was going to sacrifice. I fought the storm on the way to my house. I came across the area where my car was parked, but it was no longer there. Everything that had been in the way between my car and home had been moved off the street. I ran the rest of the way home, and charged up my deck and into the house, Just in time to see Mikayla plunge the knife into my wife's throat. My daughter was already at her feet, her blood pooling onto the disk. I tackled Mikayla, but the damage was already done. As soon as my wife's blood touched the disk, it started to shake violently. I looked down at Mikayla and saw her knife sticking out of her own chest. After all she had done for him, this "god" had just let her die.

I knew I had to stop him somehow, so I thought back to what I had heard about haunted or possesed items. All you had to do to stop the was seal them in glass. I grabbed the disk and placed it in my fish tank. The disk stopped glowing, and stopped shaking. The temp quickly cooled down and the storm outside turn to a snowfall, like what it should have been, this late in November. I am writing this all down so you can know what life has been like for me for the past few weeks. Now, I am off to see my friends and family.

''The preeceding story was found on the computer of a Mr. James Evergreen, following a police investigation. Authorities believe that the death of John Rockefeller had destroyed the sanity of  Mr. Evergreen. This led to a gruesome ritualistic murder of several local teens, and ended with the murder of Mikayla Draconis, along with his wife and daughter. Mr. Evergreen had been found hanging from his ceiling fan, over the bodies of his last victims. No trace of the mysterious gold disk was ever found.''