Circle of Stones

By Dallas Releford

During the time of the Aztecs, a meteor-like object crashes into the jungle of early Mexico. The alien and his family survive and learn to influence the natives to their advantage. He loses a part of his ship he needs desperately.
Elizabeth Keene, eleven years old finds the medallion while on a “dig” with her archeologist father in the deep jungles of Brazil. After she is grown, she becomes an archeologist and lives in Waterbury, Connecticut. A creature looking like the grim reaper haunts her dreams.
A creature begins to terrify her and she knows the danger is real. Her life becomes a living nightmare as she attempts to find out what he wants and survive his relentless attacks on her and her friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dallas Releford
• Release date: Apr 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458100122

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Northern Mexico, 850 years ago …

In the predawn hours, a meteor-like object blazed across a dark night sky. As it neared the surface of the earth, it touch-ed treetops, lit up an ancient forest with the force of millions of lightning bolts and changed direction several times before reaching its destination. Finally, its long journey ended when it fell violently to the ground, creating a huge crater that scarred the Earth with its fury.

Small, strange creatures that had survived the intrusion of the deadly visitor scampered quickly away from the fiery monster that had invaded their treacherous and deadly world. The object had interrupted the hunt for food of many of the creatures, while sparing others from the deadly claws, sharp teeth and massive jaws of their natural enemies and from a fearful death. After managing to avoid dangerous and deadly hunters of the night one more time, they faced a new threat and many of them lost.

As a cool breeze blew across the landscape, birds disturbed by the intrusion flew from their perches and escaped into the dark night seeking shelter elsewhere. Bats disturbed by electronic waves flew haphazardly across the sky unaware of the cause of their confusion. On a nearby hill, a solitary human, an old man who had witnessed the falling god who had plunged from the sky, stood captured by awe as the smoke in the distance erupted from the crater.

Maybe he would go down into the valley and welcome the god that rode in the breath of fire and lightning, he thought. Surely such a powerful god would welcome his help and reward him with a better life. As a member of the Tenocha tribe, he would surely have honors bestowed upon him for bringing them such good fortune. Their enemies were many, their friends few and a god from the stars would be most welcome. Although he felt humbled to be granted such an honor, maybe even somewhat blessed, he wrapped his blanket around his old shoulders and started down the hill. Wolves howled in the distance. He feared not for he knew he had a god with tremendous powers to protect him. Forcing a smile as his stomach grumbled from hunger, he wondered if the new god would feed him. Hopeful, he hastened his pace and moved as fast as aged legs would carry him.

A few hundred yards to the south, another creature, this one not of this Earth, calculated the heat inside its spacecraft. The interior heat could cause additional, extensive damage to the equipment and was uncomfortable for the inhabitants. Using mind control, it sent a silent signal to an unknown apparatus and almost immediately a white foamy material radiated from jets on the outside of the ship and covered the craft, instantly dropping the temperature inside the spaceship to a cooling sixty degrees Fahrenheit. They were safe now, at least as far as the heat threat was concerned. However, there were other worries. The alien had to figure out why the craft had gone out of control before finally slamming into the atmosphere of the third planet of the star known only by a scientific name that it couldn’t recall. It was a bad stroke of luck. Nonetheless, the alien hoped to repair the equipment that had caused the accident and continue on his way.

As the alien probed the complex computer equipment with its mind, it wished that it had physical form like the creatures it observed when it crashed on the planet. His race was an old one, many hundreds of years older than most civilizations he had encountered on his long journey to this miserable place. With a feeling of despair, he set about attempting to find the reason the problem had occurred. He was a scientist, an entity of knowledge, a seeker of truth, and even on his world of invisible shadow people, he was a rogue, a being with ideas so advanced that his fellow creatures loathed him.

As he worked fervently, he thought about his mate. She was sick, but it wasn’t something that wasn’t curable. A few hours in the transition chamber and she would be good as new. It was his invention as was most of the other equipment on the ship. He experienced an emotion of near human laughter as he thought about how others of his race despised him, how they had avoided him and how they had stolen many of his secrets to use as their own. His final disgrace came when he proposed that his race assume a solid form simply by using his transition machine, an untested theory with no proven results. And, it wasn’t as though he was unwilling to do it himself, except he had wanted to try it on some of the smaller creatures on his world first. He didn’t know what would actually happen during the transition process. He was sure that the result would be temporary until he could devise a way to stabilize the process.

While his society cursed him for his unauthorized experiments on helpless animals, feared him for his knowledge, he secretly built a transition chamber in a mountain near where he lived. In the darkness of the night, when others were taking recovery time, he captured unwary travelers and imprisoned them in his secret cavern. When the time was appropriate, he conducted experiments on them. The results of his failures were locked away in cages. Becoming more determined, he soon accumulated several hundred of the faulty creatures he had created. His experiments were far from successful and one day, several of them escaped. Some could still communicate. Some went to the authorities, the council which was known for its lack of tolerance for those who did not obey the law.

The leaders were angered by his unauthorized experiments that had produced monsters that now roamed the land frightening citizens and doing all kinds of horrible things. In the interim, the council banned him from their society, stating it was either banishment, or a very long, painful death. Without any choice, he had taken his mate and fled his world to find one where the beings would understand and appreciate him. Others on his world worried about one thing specifically. Gaining solid form on their world would mean they would be almost mortal. As he watched their solar system with two suns and seven inhabited planets vanish behind them, he thought that he might understand why they were so fearful. In their shadowy state, they received their energy from two red suns. When the darkness came, they had to hibernate living on stored energy until the next day when their bodies would become fully recharged again.

If they had only given him time to fully explain the intricacies of his invention, everything might have ended differently, but no, they perceived him as evil, an outcast from their society that only had his interests in mind and was insensitive to the brutality his discoveries inflicted on others. He didn’t agree with their charges that he was the most evil being on their worlds. He was simply the most qualified citizen for bringing about change. He was a revolutionary in the field of experimental science.

Alone in the spacecraft, they had traveled for centuries from one solar system to another without finding one that was suitable for them. Finally, they arrived in this system where nine planets circled a single star. Only one of the worlds was inhabited, the third one from the sun. Strange physical creatures that were in their rudimentary stages of development populated this world.

As his mate bickered at him, he feverishly played the tunes on the machine, making sounds that only his kind could hear. The sounds weren’t meant for him. It was a way to analyze the computer circuits and find out what caused the problem. He was aware that the sounds annoyed his mate, except they were necessary. She would have to live with it.

His logic finally told him they were in trouble. The guidance system had finally burned out. He needed a rare mineral that seemed non-existent on this world. He had scanned the immediate area without much success. But still, it was possible that the mineral existed in abundance elsewhere and finding it would take some time. He calculated the possibility of its presence and ended up with a forty percent factor that indeed it was buried on this planet somewhere and finding it would prove tricky. His emotions were disturbing. They were stranded on a hostile world where the smartest creature was little more intelligent than some of the plants back on his world. His mate sensed his concern. He didn’t have time to listen to her squabbles. He had important things to consider. An entire world was his, inhabited by creatures that would do his bidding, supply him with endless energy generated from fear, and he would be their master. He was more demanding, more cunning and more evil than they ever were. No, his mate did not need to know everything. Not that she would interfere, however he just didn’t feel like explaining everything to her.

His feet touched the surface of the Earth for the first time. Marveling at the ingenious construction of his ship, he studied the large shiny, round disk that had seven smaller disks attached to its outer surface. It was similar to a star surrounded by seven planets. Designing a spaceship to look like a solar system had not been his intention. It had merely turned out that way. The purpose of the seven smaller disks was to collect the elusive energy necessary to propel the ship through space.

Crawling out of the crevice where his ship was trapped, he walked to the top of a low hill that was surrounded by a wide, endless valley just as dark clouds moved away from a full bright moon revealing a strange figure standing in front of him. Could this creature see him? Apparently not, he surmised realizing that he was invisible to everyone on this planet except creatures of his own kind. The only other beings like him were his wife and baby girl. They were shadow people like him—solid—without form.

Natas Diabolus knew that his shadowy figure could be seen on his own world when he had absorbed enough energy from the two suns, except on this world with only one sun, he didn’t know if others might see him or not. The thought of only one sun terrified him and he wondered if he might just disappear or cease to exist. And then he remembered the solar recharge machine in the spaceship that allowed them to travel in space without ill effects. They could use that if need be. The next problem was to get the ship out of the hole and to a safe place.

As he watched the creature with the wrinkled face, skinny arms and legs, weathered complexion and worried expression, he wondered if he could help him. Maybe he knew others who might know where the precious metal he needed might be. Steeling himself, almost breathless, he approached the old man. Instantly, his mind locked onto the thoughts of the other. The old man knew very little except he was hopeful that the creature in the ball of fire might provide him with food and shelter from the elements.

A beggar, he thought and yet, a useful beggar. Probing the old mans mind, he discovered that he was part of a small tribe called the Toltecs. They would be useful in helping him procure food and other things they would need. Even though the sun provided them with energy, they had learned long ago to acquire sustenance from plants, and animals. Blood tasted good on any world, he said out loud startling the old man at the sound of his voice.

A list of priorities popped into his mind like lightning streaking across the sky. Get the ship repaired enough so he could at least travel on this world. The damaged key would not allow him to travel outside this planet’s atmosphere however. Without a guidance, navigational and command control processor, he was doomed to stay here until the unit was repaired. Wondering if he could actually do it, he probed the old man’s mind inquiring about the precious metal that emitted dangerous radiation. The metal was lethal, even to him if he got too close to it.

Knowing that the old man had seen him and heard him when he dropped to his knees and began begging him for mercy, he knew he was going to like this world. He could feel, taste and smell fear as the man prayed to him for pity. Were they all that fearful, that horrified? If so, he would become the master of this world as soon as he found the metal and repaired the ship. He would kill all the inhabitants and keep his wife busy producing new members of his race. Yes, blood tasted good, fear was his desert and hate would sustain him for a very long, long time.

End of Prologue

* * * * *

Chapter 1

Waterbury, Connecticut: Present Time

The young woman lay in her bed. Around her, the darkness was as much a friend as the daylight was an enemy of any night creature, except that even the darkness could not hide her from what dwelled in the deepest shadows. Alone in her Waterbury apartment, determined she would not sleep, she thought of all the ways she could stay awake knowing that sooner or later, sleep would come. She dared not sleep because she knew the nightmare would come again as it frequently did. The creature would come as it had since the day she’d been with her father in Brazil when they’d discovered the strange artifacts the professor called the Circle of Stones. She was only eleven when she went on that dig with her father and about thirty other people who were mostly students from various universities. She had only been afraid of the dark back then. Now she was terrified of it. Faint moonbeams invaded her room through the blinds casting ominous shadows on the walls. The wind howled outside sending a cold, tingling sensation down her back. Pulling a woolen blanket around her, she pushed herself up on her pillow and tried to stay awake despite the fact the green digits on the clock radio warned her it was after four in the morning.

She couldn’t go to sleep. He would come when she was asleep and when she was defenseless. The routine seemed to always be the same. Fighting sleep, dreading the drowsiness, the fatigue and finally succumbing to it, she would suddenly be in a dark forest walking along a dirt road with grass and weeds in the middle of it. The old wagon road was nothing more than two ruts with weeds growing in the middle of it. Sometimes, it would be weeks or months before she experienced one of the disturbing, terrifying nightmares. When she least expected it, when she thought she might never have one again, it always happened. She was always in a forest with a full, blue moon hanging high overhead.

The eerie light of the pale moon cast dancing shadows of leaves and branches upon the ground around her. As she cautiously made her way down a long road, she could sense that she wasn’t alone, that she wasn’t dreaming and that she was in danger. The nightmare was so real and the whispers coming from the forest around her terrified her. Elizabeth Keene felt as if the forest was alive and it would reach out and gobble her up at any moment. The whispers were always there, voices in the night that seemed to be trying to tell her something she couldn’t understand. Were the moaning, groaning sounds really voices or some animal that was in pain, or maybe limbs rubbing against each other? She could never concentrate on the sounds long enough to find out because she was always watching for him to appear. It was him, the specter, the ripper who terrified her the most.

As she walked on—although it felt as if she was really floating above the fog-covered road—with an alertness she’d never experienced in real life, she noticed, as she always did, the trees on both sides closing in on her until only the road remained in front of her. Elizabeth felt as if she were in a dark well that was slowly collapsing on her. Gazing through the mist, she could see the black door in the distance. The trees had closed in on it until the door was the only way out of the forest without turning around and going back to where she had come from. Where had she come from? She didn’t know and wasn’t compelled in the least to turn around and find out. The door was her only objective and she never questioned why she was so determined to open the door. Was the door an escape route into her bedroom where she could sleep undisturbed, or was it a pathway into something more horrible than the dream? Were the answers to her perplexing questions beyond that door or was something more hideous than she could ever imagine waiting for her.

She wasn’t dreaming. What she was experiencing was real. The trees were real and so was everything else. She kept telling herself to keep walking, to reach the door, to walk through it until she was safe on the other side. She’d be safe on the other side where HE couldn’t follow her. Was he waiting for her beyond the door? She didn’t know because she’d never opened the door.

Alone in a ghostly fog that clung to the ground like snow on a cold winter day, she grimaced, licked her mouth hoping to feel something to indicate she wasn’t dreaming, but feeling her moist tongue on her soft, cold lips only served to enhance her suspicion that everything was real. Elizabeth knew she had rarely felt anything in her dreams when she touched something like a tree, now she’d felt her tongue touch her lips and knew she was experiencing reality. At least, she thought it was real. Moving along as cold, stiff hands reached out for her from the trees, long bony fingers tugged at her clothes and two pulsating, red eyes stared at her from the bushes, Elizabeth knew she was going to reach the door and find out what was behind it before she went insane. Bathed in the milky glow of the full moon, she hurried along as best as she could attempting to ignore the hands, skeletal faces, creepy fingers and the red eyes because she knew they weren’t what she had to worry about. Someone else presented more danger to her than a few lurkers in the bushes.

She was closer to the door now.

Fifteen feet.

The lurkers were screaming at her. She supposed they didn’t want her to open the door. She had to.

Ten feet.

The lurkers were yelling for her to stop. She ignored them.

Five feet.

The lurkers grew silent and the voices in the shadows subsided. They’d given up on her.

She had to know, except she already knew how it would end.

Turning the knob, she pushed the door open and stepped across the threshold. Beyond the door was absolute darkness and the creature she’d seen so many times before. Halting, she stood studying the creature as she had many other times trying to figure out who he was, what he wanted and how she could get rid of him. Tall, with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, dark clothing, and a long butcher knife in his hand, she thought he resembled Jack the Ripper, or at least her perception of what he might really look like. Above his long nose, she could see two fiery red eyes blazing like two pieces of burning cinders. As he walked toward her enshrouded in a blue light, she stepped back and attempted to close the door. She couldn’t close the door and she couldn’t retreat. It seemed obvious to her now that she could only go forward. She could never go back. She had to face her adversary.

What do you want? Elizabeth yelled and felt a scream building up inside her.

Only what you have that belongs to me, he replied. I want it back. Raising the knife, he walked toward her.

Elizabeth felt a great urgency to run, however, she knew that was impossible. She could only go forward and he was blocking her way. Rules seemed to exist in this dream, she thought as a horrendous scream burst from her throat. Rules must be followed, just as in any game. As he raised the knife, grabbed her arm and was about to slash her, she awakened.

Her blanket was wrapped around her body. Her hands were lost in the blanket due to the fact she had imprisoned herself in it. Remaining on the floor for a long time, she sat attempting to reason things out, wondering what it all meant and if anything had really happened at all. Untangling herself from the blanket, she went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face and looking in the mirror, she told herself that it was just another bad dream. Walking back to her bed, she assured herself she’d be able to sleep now, except that it was almost time to get out of bed and get ready for another day. Dropping her exhausted, tormented body onto the bed, she was asleep almost before she closed her eyes.

***

The seven o’clock alarm went off quite unexpectedly. Elizabeth Keene was looking forward to this day because it was the beginning of a new experience for her. She kicked the cover off the bed as always and slid onto the carpet like a snake slithering over a warm stone in the hot desert. It was her routine for getting out of bed, and she’d found it quite effective over the many years she’d been practicing it. The nightmare she’d had previously had almost disappeared from her memory as they always did. Looking forward to something new, a chance to revive her otherwise drab life, she focused on what she had to do.

The next part of the routine was perhaps the hardest. She made it to the bathroom without crawling, but she stumbled and hit her big toe against the doorframe on the way in. Once inside, she cursed, gripped her toe, turned on the shower and tried not to be glum. As she adjusted the water to her satisfaction, she realized that her experience last night had left her drowsy. What saddened her was the knowledge this was the last time she would be practicing this particular routine in this particular house. In a few days, if everything went accordingly, she would be in a new home in the country and she’d have a new job. In a way, that sadness had an upbeat to it. Standing in front of the mirror staring at herself as she usually did each morning before tackling the world, she couldn’t believe that the young woman with dark hair, warm brown eyes and creamy white complexion was the same person that had made such a thrilling discovery many years ago. Her father, a world famous archeologist, had traveled to every corner of the earth seeking answers to perplexing mysteries. Now, she followed in his footsteps. Those thoughts of exploration in strange places, excursions into unknown territory with her father brought painful memories as well as happy ones and they soon faded as she thought about her future.

She had taught archaeology at a nearby university for over five years and she needed a change. Teaching the eager students was a challenge and she enjoyed it, however, she’d always yearned for a home in the country. Her sister, Jan, lived in Chicago. Her younger sister, Judy, lived in Tennessee, so moving to a location between them was only logical. And, merely weeks ago she’d been offered a job in Lexington, Kentucky, teaching at the university. What made the offer so attractive was the fact that her real estate agent, Mrs. Eunice Perkins, had found a nice home for Elizabeth on a small farm near Hustonville. It was within driving distance of her job and most important of all, it was affordable. Another attraction she found favorable was that the area was rich in ancient history. She could work as an archaeologist during summer vacations and teach the rest of the year. It was as if her dream had come true.

As she enjoyed the warm water in the shower, she almost forgot the time. Stepping quickly out and onto the cold tile of the bathroom floor, she dried her long, dark hair with a towel and then finished wiping the rest of her body dry before she realized that this was the beginning of a new adventure. Gazing at herself in the full-length mirror on the wall, she could hardly believe that she was already twenty-four years old. While applying body lotion to her soft, creamy white flesh, her mind raced back to that day in Brazil when she held the medallion in her hand. She had never felt such horrid, electrifying emotions since then and hoped she never would feel them again. Aware that her thoughts were of the distant past, she attempted to pull herself out of the deep chasm her mind had sucked her into and get on with her life. However, thoughts of her father, her mother and the circle of stones her father had discovered in Brazil on that faraway day mesmerized her as they always did. She had only been eleven, however, she could still remember the golden medallion her father found. That medallion was the same one she’d kept all these years locked safely away in her father’s trunk.

She’d made a promise to her father to search for answers and she had done just that. It was unfortunate those answers remained elusive. What was the mystery that surrounded the stones they found that day? Were they representative of something or an organization? What did the medallion mean? Why had she felt so badly while holding it that day in the jungle? These questions tormented her and she was determined to find the answers.

Elizabeth hadn’t missed an opportunity over the years to pursue her quest to discover the mystery of the medallion. After high school, she attended the University of Connecticut. With a degree in archaeology in hand, she imagined the world was hers, however, she soon learned that others had similar thoughts. The only experience she got was knocking on doors, filling out employment applications and sending out resumes. Luckily, she finally landed a teaching position at a local university. Happily, she moved back to Waterbury and rented an apartment just a few blocks from her parent’s house.

The joy of living close to her parents, being able to visit them when she wished, having someone to confide in and having someone who really loved her was short lived. And, her joy turned to a painful escalation of horror. In his later years, her father had experienced various stomach troubles that were treated by his doctors as ulcers. As his condition worsened, they conducted a MRI and a colonoscopy. Her father was diagnosed with a tumor in his lower intestine. They successfully removed the malignant tumor. Elizabeth counted the days and prayed as he slowly recovered. His traumatic escape from death almost traumatized her. It was only a sign of things to come.

Snapping to, her heart pounded as she quickly dressed knowing that she would have to arrive at the university by eight-thirty. When she started thinking about the horrible things that had happened to her, it was hard to evade the heartrending, poignant memories that accompanied each onslaught of her moody, temporary predicament. It was like a door opened in her mind allowing the memories to enter, to distress her, to stagnate her efforts to forget them and to propel her into a world she wanted to forget, but never could. She wanted to remember the good things—the pleasant things about her parents—only the enjoyable memories were always pushed aside by the obnoxious ones.

After her father came home from the hospital, he mentioned that the medallion was an important clue to the mystery that surrounded the stones. Professor Keene was convinced the medallion was part of something enormously larger, something intelligent and at the same time, evil. Mentioning that she should never let it out of her possession, he asked her to promise him she would read and study his journals and notes before continuing with her research. Elizabeth promised that she would. She had never read his personal papers. However, she knew he was close to something just before he got sick. What had he discovered that was so important? He’d never told her. Professor Keene had spent the last several years of his life studying the stones, the medallion, the bones and everything that was connected to the dig they had conducted in Brazil.

Elizabeth was elated and relieved because she had her father and her mother back again. Happily, she watched the sparkle in his eye as his health improved. By the end of the first week at home, he was writing in his journals again. During those days, a local newspaper reporter found out about the strange stones and convinced her father to permit him to write a story about what he had discovered. A full page was devoted to the story complete with color pictures of the stones and the medallion in the Sunday paper. Most people in the academic world knew about the discovery, or had heard about it. The newspaper story was the first time the general public was made aware of Professor Keene’s discovery.

She couldn’t decide which blouse to wear, the one with the small, baby pink flowers, the light red blouse, or the dark green one, her favorite. None of them went well with her navy blue suit. She decided to wear her white blouse and turned around to open the closet door. For a solitary moment, she felt as if something was in there. It wasn’t an uncommon feeling. She had been having it for years, every time she was close to the closet and had dismissed the sensation as being the product of an overactive imagination.

Remembering the feeling she’d had as a kid about the colossal, dark shadows under her bed and the invisible thing that was always just beyond the basement door waiting for her to descend the steps, she hesitated before reaching for the doorknob. Elizabeth had had those startling feelings ever since that day in Brazil when the hot sun shone down on her exposed shoulders, the humidity begged for her last breath and she stood mesmerized by the medallion. She was only a child then and understood that kids had their own set of fears that gradually dissipate, as they grow older, except her childhood fears had only grown along with her. Something had been watching her since she was a kid. She was sure of it because she never felt alone. Telling herself that her imagination was playing tricks on her, she managed to put the thoughts aside and forget about them, for a while, except she knew the feeling would always came back to haunt her.

Elizabeth took a couple of steps toward the closet. Recalling still another monster that had waited in her closet for her to go to sleep when she was only three or four years old, she stepped forward. There isn’t anything in there, she told herself. They never waited for me under the bed, in the closet or anywhere else because they never existed. It’s just my imagination. I need my blouse and if anything is in there, it can’t have it. Jerking the closet door open, expecting something to grab her and pull her into some other world where terrible things happened, she paused for a second and took a deep breath.

Trembling so much that her legs wobbled, she took another deep breath, swallowed hard, and proceeded to grab her blouse. Time was growing short and she didn’t have time to play games with her imagination. Pulling the hanger with the white blouse on it from the closet, she removed the blouse and returned the empty hanger to the steel rod with her other clothes. It was a big closet, big enough for someone to hide in, except she didn’t see anything, nothing but clothes, a couple of trunks that had belonged to her father and her other personal possessions.

As she walked away from the closet, her thoughts were again of her father and how she had felt when she’d thought she was going to lose him. Her feelings of insecurity, terror and that something wanted to grab her diminished as she hurriedly got ready to go to work.

Her father had died mysteriously. Saddened by the fact he had passed away after surviving a major cancer operation, she cried for days, mourned for months and finally succumbed to the terrible realization that he was gone. Her mother had found him in the garage. The doctor’s couldn’t explain why he died. They suspected that it was a brain hemorrhage or a massive stroke although the coroner couldn’t substantiate their claims.

Remembering the funeral was the most painful part. It was a Saturday morning. A light drizzle prevailed and ground fog cast a snow-like affect upon the landscape. Her father had been well loved. The area around the gravesite in the cemetery was crowded with relatives and friends. Elizabeth remembered that it was one of the few times in her life that she actually saw most of her family together at one time.

Elizabeth was almost crying by the time she dressed. She missed her father and she missed her mother. Her mother had survived for less than six months after her father passed away. Some claimed she died of a broken heart except the doctors had diagnosed the cause as diabetes. Her mother hadn’t even been aware of the illness. She hadn’t been one to complain, so her doctors had treated her for other things, mostly varicose veins, stomach disorders and irregular heartbeat.

Elizabeth had been given the house and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Her father deposited it in a trust fund for her. Jan and Judy, her other two sisters, shared what was left, a sizable fortune. Professor Keene had been one of the highest paid archaeologists in the world. He saved his money and provided for his family, even after death. Too many memories dwelled in that house and even though Elizabeth wanted to move back to the place where she was born, she decided to keep her apartment. Maybe she would sell the house someday when the hurt was gone, if it ever left her.

Trying to forget about the past for a little while, hoping to enjoy the day that lay ahead of her, she hurried out the front door, locked it behind her and then rushed down the steps toward the forest green Mustang parked in the apartment lot. The wind was brisk and cool for a day in late September. She thought over her plans. This was Wednesday, the last day she would be working at the university. Tomorrow, she would finish packing the last of her personal items and go out to her parent’s home. She still thought of it that way. It was their home as well as hers. And she had to see if she’d missed anything she needed. Friday would be the day she would head for Lexington, Kentucky and a new life.

She put the key in the ignition and the engine roared for a few seconds before finally settling down and sounding like a purring kitten. Elizabeth hardly noticed the multicolored, wet leaves on the grass, on the parking lot and on the sidewalk. It had been raining last night and a few small limbs were strewn on the sidewalk. Nonetheless, it appeared as though it might be a beautiful, early fall day. As she drove in the general direction of the university, her mind was still on the past and the stones. There was rarely a day that she didn’t think about them or her parents. Hardly a night passed that didn’t invite the grim specter to haunt her dreams.

1

* * * * *

Chapter 2

As she tackled heavy traffic on her way to the university, she thought about the stones wondering what she could do to solve the mystery that haunted her mind almost all the time. Working at the university teaching archaeology hadn’t been a bad thing. She had been invited on several digs over the years, many of them in foreign countries. Keeping an eager eye out for signs of the peculiar stones, she religiously searched each site without any success. She found nothing that resembled the medallion or the stones they had found in Brazil. Elizabeth knew that the ancient people usually built larger representations of what they had seen. The earth’s surface was virtually littered with stone circles. One of the most famous was Stonehenge in England. Were the stones she had in her possession at her father’s house relative to all the other stone circles in some way?

The stones she searched for were representative of something the ancients had seen and worshiped. Superstitious people usually feared and worshiped things they didn’t understand. The ancient people of Mexico and South America worshiped a sun god and even made figures and statutes that they thought looked like the god. What god had prompted ancient people in Brazil to form rough rock into perfect circles and place them in a specific form? They were small. The largest one that was located in the center of the circle was only sixteen inches in diameter. The other perfectly round stones, seven of them, were precisely eight inches as far as diameter went.

She still had the medallion stored safely in the closet in her bedroom, in her father’s trunk. Her dad retired several years before he passed away and gave her copies of the documentation he had written on the Brazilian site. She had a lot of information and she needed to find a connection between the stones and the medallion. The only connection she had found so far was the fact that the medallion resembled the circle of stones. Did some ruler or priest wear the medallion around their neck to please a god that only they knew? What exactly did the stones and the figures on the medallion represent? Why did she feel that evil was associated with them? Who was the creature that haunted her dreams and caused her such horrible nightmares? Was he real or someone she imagined?

These and many other questions occupied her mind as she arrived at her destination. She was a popular teacher on campus and numerous students noticed her as she parked the car in the lot next to the campus police station and walked up a long walkway to the office building.

Inside, she spoke to many students she recognized from either her present class, or from previous classes. Realizing how much she would miss the place, she decided to focus on every moment of her last day.

How does it feel to be working here for the last time? She turned to see Nathan Johnson walking up behind her. He was the one man on campus she’d hoped to avoid on her last day. Nathan had a crush on her and had spent most of the five years she had worked at the university paying her more attention than he had his history students. Elizabeth could barely tolerate him. She deplored his attitude, the way he talked, and his smile made her sick. He was always smiling and she had learned to be weary when someone seemed in a constant state of cheerfulness. His unkempt brown hair always looked as if he had been out in a thunderstorm and lightning had struck him. His deep gray eyes always looked like he hadn’t had enough sleep, or had been on a drunk for most of his life. She silently cursed her luck. He had been a pain for a long time, a nuisance that wouldn’t go away