They immediately took the women into surgery. At least three doctors assisted by nurses, and an anesthesiologist operated on her for over four hours. The team managed to keep every muscle in her face intact despite the broken jaw and cheekbone.
Tony Barrette shook hands with the team of doctors and nurses on a satisfactory job. He went back to his office to prepare reports and notes of the morning incidents. Tony was soon ending his night shift of twelve hours.
Whenever he had any free time during work hours, he would spend it near the operating theater. It would not be the first time he watched family members crying for their lost loved ones that had just passed on. Tony could feel the presence of their spirits as they left their body in search of a passage into the afterlife. The energy that left the corpse caused Tony’s body to tingle with life. He believes death is just a departure for the spirit world. All human beings have eternal life. Our souls are eternal. True death does not occur when the physical body stops functioning. The moment of true death is when the silver cord connecting a physical body and soul is severed. It usually takes place about one day after physical death and is also closely related to how quickly a person is able to accept death.
During his childhood, Tony had on many occasions heard souls reaching out to him. It would happen when passing by a house where a family member had recently died. He would hear the spirits cry for help. He could not understand why he had the ability to hear and see these spirits.
As he grew older, he began to understand things much better after researching the paranormal. He found that during the first seven days or so, the soul of the deceased person usually remains close to the place they lived and tries to follow the lifestyle they were used to. These souls may become earth-bound spirits (ghosts) if they strongly denied life after death, or were attached to something in this world and cannot let go. Spirits like these usually have a spirit guide, which comes to help them to realize that they are already dead. The spirit guide could be a parent or sibling, or a close friend. The spirit guide will help them pass over to the spirit world. A Medium is the best way to help these lost souls. Tony became fixated with the paranormal. He believed he was brought into this world not only to help these spirits, but also to extend his life by slowing down the body’s internal clock that causes us to age. Tony is able to achieve this by absorbing the energy left behind from these lost spirits once they pass over.
His shift was finally over, and as he drove home in his black BMW. He thought of Helen, who was on her last day of deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs. He thought of that night at the beach and what he had discovered. Tony wanted it all; he had to know the meaning of the ancient text.
As he pulled up to his house, he stopped to take a quick look making sure all was alright before entering. Tony lived alone in the large house, which he inherited from his parents after they passed away eight years ago. The place was built by his great-grandfather and passed on generation after generation. Tony never married and was never interested in long-term relationships. His only interest was of the paranormal and spent many hours in the basement, which he refurbished into his place of spiritual meditation. Nobody but he has ever entered this sacred area, as he believes the soul must be clean or otherwise bad spirits could interrupt his meditation.
As he enters the house, he calls out to Carlos.
“Down here Mr. Tony,” replied the big Mexican from the basement.
He walks calmly down the basement stairs and into the room where he finds Helen filing the final translations of the Mayan tablet.
“Well, have you managed to finish it in time my dear?” he asked as he walked around the table towards Helen.
He held out his hand for her to pass the file over to him. Helen gives it to him, too weary to argue after having spent the last three days locked in this confined room. The only time she was alone was when she retired to her room after twelve hours working on the decoding. Helen was worn out, and the effects were now showing on her. The only thing that kept her going was the thought of her young niece and the fact that she was deciphering a text that hasn’t been seen for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. The text contained hidden secrets of the early Mayans, and Helen felt proud she had managed to accomplish the feat in such a short time. The only thing that bothered her was she might have handed it to the wrong person. If the facts were true about what was in the text, it could be very dangerous to anyone not knowing what they were doing. On the other hand it could all be just an old text and meant absolutely nothing. It is clearly written that only the sacred high priests had the power to summon the gods. The real question was, did Tony possess this power or not?
Helen sat down.
She said, “you have to let me go now! I did what you asked from me and in return I would be set free.”
Tony looked at Carlos, who understood what he meant. He went over to Helen and stood her up.
“Lock her in her room until we are ready,” said Tony, as he read through the script.
Helen tried to break free from Carlos, but his grip around her was too strong.
“You son of a bitch! You agreed I would be let free! Keep your end of the deal you bastard!”
Tony paid no attention to her words. His mind was elsewhere. He was ready to try again, and needed to make new plans for another ritual.
Carlos dragged Helen to her room, locking the door from the outside. She was angry with herself for believing she would be let free. She climbed onto the bed crying, not understanding how she got into this mess. How she wished the Mayan tombs remained undiscovered. Tired and exhausted, she cried herself to sleep.
In his meditation room, Tony was going over the text, carefully absorbing information from the Mayans. He understood they discovered the ability to summon not only spirits, but also gods. These underworld gods gave them what they wanted, but the price was high and dangerous. Backing out from the understanding could be devastating. Tony knew what he wanted; he wanted to enter the underworld realm at any cost.
Helen had fallen into a deep sleep. Translating the ancient text had exhausted her tremendously. It also affected her mind somehow. She began to dream of things she never knew before. She saw strange statues of demons and evil gods with skull-like heads, their body’s covered in beads of gold.
She saw herself back in the underworld cavern. It was dark with just a small fire blazing in the center. Someone is laying on the sacrificial stone table. She then saw dark shadows appearing out of thin air. They hovered over to the person on the stone table, when slowly the dark spirits began to raise the woman with their long dark fingers grasping her body, lifting it higher and higher. The woman began to move; she was still alive. She appeared to be screaming, but no sound is heard. Suddenly the woman turned her face towards Helen, sensing somebody was watching the ghostly event. The next instant Helen woke up screaming with sweat running down her body. She recognized the women in the dream. Helen realized she was watching her own death.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It was about 6:30 in the morning when someone pounding on the door awoke Sally and Jackie.
“Time to wake up. Breakfast ready in the next hour.”
Sally was the first to get out of bed.
Jackie moaned, “are they serious? It’s too early for me.”
Over from the bathroom Sally shouted out, “you’re going to miss breakfast! I heard they serve the most delicious pancakes.”