Chapter 1

“-am. Sam!”

Jostled awake by a gentle rubbing of my shoulder and a male voice that just slightly irked me for some reason I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes.

“What? Huh?” I stammered still getting the drowsiness out of my system.

“Common buddy, you slept the entire class! It was your favorite class too! How did you sleep through archeology man…”

I glanced at the location of the voice, it was Jack, my best friend. He is the same age as me, 21. Biggest difference between us was our hair to be honest. We even had the same eye color: blue. Even with the similarities he was somehow more popular with the girls. I’d bet it was on that one difference being hair color, blonde was eye-catching where my brown blended in with the crowd. Although he acted like a city play boy, he was from the country like me.

“I slept through archeology?” I sobered up quickly from that. I loved archeology; it was my favorite subject, and my major.

I started enjoying the subject from my mom who used to tell me stories of her dad who was a geologist, and how he traveled the world with an archeologist studying ruins and cave systems searching for treasures. Her stories branched out to treasure hunting and many stories of thought to be fake locations or treasures, like the city of gold or the holy grail. Follow that up to my other grandfather who took me hunting since I was thirteen, and now you have a recipe for a country boy who has the thirst for adventure. My father however, wanted me to become “learned” and take after my mom’s side and that’s how I ended up in college studying. That never stopped my end goal of exploring and finding lost things and treasures, and that’s why I picked archeology as my field of study. Plus, the subject was fascinating to me as it was.

“Man I can’t believe how drunk you were then, how does someone get hammered after only four?” Jack shook his head.

We both stepped out of the building toward the parking lot.

“I told you I was a lightweight. But noooo, someone as tall as you must be a heavy drinker.” I waved my hands for dramatic effect.

“But still your hangover was worse than mine, and you had half the drinks I did. Anyway, are you coming to the bar tonight?” He asked.

“I don’t know, I have to study for my research paper. Grabbing some books on it and doing the work at the library.”

“That’s a short drive to the bar, me and the guys are going to play some basketball at the court over there too.”

That was tempting. “If I can finish my work by then, but don't expect me to be around till after seven.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Ha ha! See you then!” He waved at me as he split off with me.

“Ugh, I’m going to regret going, I know it.” I rubbed my face as I walked to my car, 1939 Studebaker commander. It was my grandfather's car, the country man. I never knew how he managed to afford it, but when he gifted it to me after his death I swore to myself to keep it in pristine condition. A short drive later and I found myself at the library browsing books about some of my favorite archeologists like Arthur evans. Soon the sky tilted and the sun found its rest behind the hills, and I finally finished the paper I was writing. I checked the time, 7:59. It was later than I thought. Jack usually doesn’t go home till after ten, but most people stop playing basketball around nine, so I had to leave soon if I wanted to play. The drive was short, but it still gave me plenty of time to watch the moon in the sky when I stopped, full moon out tonight.

Walking into the bar, Stanley’s bar, I waved to the burly bar keep Stanley. “Thanks for building the court out back, we really appreciate it!”

“Hey if it keeps y'all coming. Been awhile since I last seen ya.” He shrugged

“Ugh, it's been awhile since my last hangover” I shuddered.

That brought uproarious laughter from the entire bar, not just Stanley. Swiftly after I saw a cute brunette waitress walking towards me.

“Hi daisy.” I said, a smile brewing on my face.

“Hey, I knew it was you. Not many people get the crowd to laugh like you. You really should come by more often.” She smiled.

If I wasn’t already smiling, I’m sure seeing hers would have put one on my face even if I wasn’t in a good mood.

“I probably would have come more if I didn’t have the research paper I was writing.” I’d probably come for her though, not for the drinks.

“That’s a shame. Hope you finish it soon!” She waved at me, before turning around to attend customers, before she could though I called out to her.

“Jack out back already?” I asked.

“Yep!” She called back.

That’s what I needed to hear. I walked out back locating Jack with a couple other guys from college playing, Jack was already sweating some and looked like he was pretty tired.

“Hey Jack!” I yelled at him.

There was a shot at the hoop then but the guy missed and the ball went out causing a sort of intermission.

“Sam! You came! I didn’t think you would once eight rolled around.” Wiping some sweat off his face he came over to me.

“You are just in time, I’m out of my drink and I need a small break from playing, you can take my position.”

“Alright sounds good to me, just make sure you play a couple rounds with me before you leave.”

I stepped onto the court, but Jack called out to me again.

“Oh hey Sam!”

“Yea?” I turned around and started to back peddle to his position.”

“What drink you want?”

“I want-“ before I could finish I couldn’t feel the ground underneath my foot and I started to fall, looking at jacks face I could tell something was wrong as he went from his usual lackadaisical look to one of pure horror, but before I could get my bearings and ask what was wrong, the world went black.