chapter 1 - rumors

© 2021 SLDB

Josh had learned in his five years of dating Naomi that she wasn’t the type to suffer quietly. Standing at only 5’1”, the short Asian girl had blown him away with her natural beauty when they first met so many years ago in one of their college courses. Josh had been in aww of the collegiate athlete’s slim and toned 110 pound physique, which only complimented her gorgeous silky black hair and cute brown eyes. His friends warned that she could be a little high maintenance but he didn’t care. Such a price was nothing to pay for such a beauty, or at least that’s what he had thought.

For years Josh had bent over backwards to keep Naomi happy. He worked hard to make a generous income for her expensive spending habits. He turned away from his friends so he could dedicate all of his spare time to his wife’s needs. Despite growing somewhat used to her regular tantrums, the young financier had held out hope that his woman’s attitude would improve after their marriage, yet it had been two years since their wedding day and her bouts of anger had only grown more numerous. Nothing ever seemed to be enough to satiate Naomi’s demands, and Josh could sense that cracks were beginning to form in his relatively young marriage. In a desperate bid to change the course of their relationship, the young husband took a chance on a rumor he had come across on the internet, and took his struggling marriage to a remote tropical island.

“Ugh! Why did I let you drag me out to this god-forsaken pile of rubble? I thought you signed us up for two weeks at a resort, not some hiking expedition in the middle of the jungle!”

Turning to face his pint-sized wife, Josh found the feisty 27-year-old stumbling over a pile of rocks, nearly falling face-first into the dilapidated ruins.

“Tell me why you brought me here or I’m going back to the Jeep and driving myself to the resort without you!”

Sighing to himself, Josh helped Naomi over the rubble before pulling out a peculiar book he had recently purchased online.

“I told you. There’s a local fable I read about online. These ruins were apparently a sacred place to an ancient civilization, and some people say it contains magical powers.”

Josh pulled open the document, turning the pages until the two were staring at what appeared to be a top-down map of the area.

“The entrance should be just around the corner. Once we check it out, we can go back and you’ll have two weeks of nothing but relaxation, ok babe?”

Huffing loudly, the disgruntled woman pulled at her sweat-coated white tank top in an effort to relieve her c-cup breasts from the unbearable heat. “Well fucking find it already. We’ve been out here for almost an hour and I’ve almost broken four different nails.”

With a quiet grown, Josh lead the couple onward, following the map closely as they passed through a series of long-forgotten columns, a surge of relief washing through him as he stumbled along a large wall with stone-etched carvings.

“This is it! This is what we came here for Naomi!”

Josh nearly ran to the wall while Naomi merely rolled her eyes, slowly following behind as Josh pulled out the book. Walking to his side, Naomi huffed once again, relieved that their time at this useless pile of rubble was nearing its end.

“So what does any of this mean? What could this abandoned rock possible say that brought us all the way out here?”

Flipping the page, Josh handed over the book to his confused wife, nudging her in the back as she stumbled towards the ancient wall.

“You tell me. There’s a translation guide in the book. Why don’t you try reading it?”

Naomi’s face flared with anger towards her husband. “Why can’t you fucking read it? You’re the one that dragged us here!”

Josh walked up from behind, rubbing her thin shoulders as he tried his best to soothe his wife’s temper. “Do this favor for me and we can leave right away, never to return. You can spend the next two weeks lounging around, and I’ll do whatever you want. How does that sound?”

Groaning, Naomi pulled the book closer to her face, glancing back and fourth as she identified the words carved into the wall.

“It says… behold all you lovers, such young souls in need… bring us your troubles, we know just the deed. When two loving companions move so far apart… a transformation brings union, and it starts with the heart.”

Naomi pulled her face from the book and gave her husband an angry glare. She wanted to laugh at how silly she found this entire experience to be, yet something was calling her eyes back to the wall, and only a few seconds later she was once again reading from the carvings.

“In a flicker of time, a new course is set… a life changing journey, until both souls have met. Growing and changing, their fates will draw near… with each passing moon, a new destiny made clear.”

The thin Asian girl felt herself quickly falling into a trance as all traces of her snarky attitude vanished from her tone. Continuing to read from the wall, the words were now rolling off the girl’s tongue as if from memory. Dropping the book to the floor, Naomi continued to read from the carvings without a tool to translate, her voice growing weak as she felt her strength draining from her body.

“Our bounty is generous, the whole world will see… such ample proportions will set spirits free. Lost in such joy, two lost souls will meld… awash in abundance, true happiness is held.”

As the last words echoed throughout the room, Naomi’s vision turned black, and her small body collapsed to the dirt floor.

Staring in near disbelief, Josh glanced back and forth between his wife and the stone wall.

“Wow, I can’t believe it actually worked!”