Chapter 6
Tempus Palatium
Jacob || Under The Haven History Museum
“What is this place doing under the museum?” Holly asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine. My question is, what does this place have to do with Trevor and his weird eye things. The fact this was under that weird mural seems to connect it to them.” I replied. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and pulled the backpack off my back, grabbing one of the torches. As I activated the light, it shone on text on the archway of the corridor in front of us.
“Huh. More Latin.” Holly remarked. I looked at her.
“Wait really? What does it say?” I asked.
“Uh… let’s see “Tempus Palatium,” I believe, that translate to something like Time Palace…”
“Time Palace? Well that’s close enough to Chrono Palace I guess.” I handed Holly a torch and we began to search the halls of this ancient building.
“These walls have got to be tens of thousands of years old. This must’ve been built back before the common era. I don’t understand how it’s still standing though, considering it’s been buried down here.” Holly explained. The corridors began to blend together into a maze of rubble and debris. It soon felt like we were going in circles.
“I have the slightest feeling that we might be lost.” I told Holly. “Is there anything that can show us to where the main chamber is? If this truly is a palace, there’s gotta be some sort of like chamber or throne room right?”
“I would assume so. Let me see.” Holly looked around for a bit, scanning the walls for any more text. “Ah hah! Got some more text here. “Qui cubiculum atrium audere volunt, labyrinthum primum navigant.” This one is a bit more complicated but from what I can make out, “Those who venture to the Courtroom must first navigate the labyrinth.””
“Courtroom? I’m assuming that’s the main chamber of this place but to get there we have to go through a maze. Gosh, I hate mazes.” I grabbed my backpack again and began to search for something.
“What are you looking for?”
“Well, as much as I hate mazes, I do know how to navigate them, and something we need to do that is a way to mark the paths we’ve been. That way if we get turned around we know which way to go to get back.” Eventually I found a roll of masking tape. “Huh, I thought I took this out a few months back but that should do.” As we began to make our way through the maze of tunnels and corridors, the tape came in handy to mark our way. Eventually we were starting to make progress. “Hey, by the way, how do you know so much Latin?” I asked Holly, curious of her fluency in the language.
“Ah, I don’t know much. But I mean when you’re working in a museum and dealing with ancient artefacts, you pick up a thing or two. That and I was kind of a history buff in school. Loved learning about ancient civilisations and stuff.”
“Do you like working here?” I asked.
“It’s alright, most of this town’s history is quite boring honestly. The Vil family, the mayor’s ancestors practically built it from the ground up and have been running it for generations.”
“Huh, ok. What about Bentley State? Do you know much about that?”
“Hmm, well the land was bought from a farmer a while back named Isaac Bentley. He was actually the one who got to name the school, hence Bentley State. Originally it was supposed to be Bentley Estate High School but they ended up changing the name a few weeks before opening.” Holly explained.
“Huh, come to think of it, I’m pretty sure there was a spot where an E should’ve gone on the sign if memory serves.”
“Yeah, you probably would’ve seen it.”
“Is there anything about old tunnels or something underneath?”
“Mmm, not that I know of. That land was mainly used for farming before it became the school so I don’t think underground tunnels would’ve helped with that. Why’s that?” Holly asked.
“It’s nothing. Was just curious. So what are your thoughts on this place?”
It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen. The fact this might’ve been under the town all this time is absolutely mind-boggling. Although it’s curious that nothing like this was ever discovered, we might be onto something massive here!” Holly replied.
“Yeah, get our names in national geographic or whatever they do for people who find buried historical sites.” We both laughed.
“Yeah, the thing is though. This place doesn’t seem man made. The materials used aren’t recorded as being used when this place was theoretically made. See it’s mostly made of stronger stone and concrete, they didn’t start using it widely till about 600 BC.”
“Well could it be possible that someone else made it and used these materials to build this place?”
“I mean sure it’s possible, the first reported evidence of a concrete like structure was around 6500 BC but what this structure is made of is something similar to our pavements and stuff. Which still confuses me because the weathering and erosion evident on these walls seem archaic.”
“Wow, you got all that from just looking at the walls? That’s amazing!” I complimented.
“As I said, history buff.” Holly tapped her head with her finger. Eventually, the narrow halls began to widen out and before we knew it, we were out of the labyrinth. We came to what once must have been a grand entrance that now laid in ruins. A rotted wooden door fallen off its rusty hinges with a massive stone arch where said door once rested. “Wow, this is amazing! I need to get some photos.” I had to agree with Holly. As strange as it was, it was definitely something grand to see. And to think this was buried under this small town, the maze must have stretched on for miles underneath. It was a wonder it hadn’t been discovered yet. As Holly was taking photos, she discovered a bit more writing on one of the walls. “Jacob! Come take a look at this!”
“Is it more Latin?” I asked.
“No, this… this is something completely different. I don’t believe this is even a human language. This could be the first documented instance of an alien language. Let’s see if I can read it…” Holly shone her flashlight on the wall to illuminate it as she begun to read the words on the wall. ““Sarath thaliri zynara selara varyn.” Nope, can’t make heads or tails of it. I don’t think these creatures, whoever wrote this, speak with normal sentences like we do. Hold on I need to document this!” Holly began to take more photos.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Notice how these words are quite complex? No smaller words that could be substituted with ‘and’, ‘but’ or ‘the’? I believe these aliens speak with sentences comprised of descriptive words. Similar to the people of Myanmar, who have names with a similar concept.”
“Huh, interesting theory.” I began to look around the room some more. In front of us seemed to be three seats carved from stone. The one in the middle had a picture of the moon on it, the other two that were sat either side of the middle one, had a sun and a blackhole respectively. They were the same symbols from up in the museum. As I looked around the room for any more signs of similar writing, I saw a massive stone carving above us. “Wow! Holly, look up!” We both pointed our light to the roof where a massive stone carving of a tree sat. Although it wasn’t a regular tree, it seemed to be a family tree. Three independent figures stood at the top and twelve others branches from them. Due to the decay and moss, the figures were obscured but something next to it, caught my eye. Something all too familiar. A giant monster with a giant red pupil staring down at us.
“That- That’s the thing from my dreams!” I got up on the tips of my toes to see if I could get a better look.
“Wait hold on a minute, you’ve seen THAT thing in your dreams!? That’s the creepiest thing I’ve seen in my life.” The monster looked like a massive eye, ever staring. Its bulbous red pupil still vibrant amongst the decayed walls. Underneath was a cloud of some sort that seemed to have a hole in the middle. Finally from that cloud came 4 massive tentacles with depictions of eyes at the end of each of them coalescing into a watchful nightmare that seemed as though it could stare through your very soul.
“If that’s the thing I’ve been seeing in my dreams, something has to be going on here. This place is no doubt connected to everything; Trevor, Bentley State, my school cohort getting taken, even the others dying in that damned tunnel! I have to do whatever it takes to put a stop to all this before whatever this thing is, isn’t just in my dreams.”
Suddenly, a flash of bright purple light lit the dark room up.
“Jacob stop!” A voice cried out. The voice sounded familiar. I turned around and saw the Zoe imposter as well as seven others wearing familiar faces. They were all wearing the glass eyes that Trevor and his crew had been wearing.
“You’ve got some real nerve don’t you? Even after that day you tried to trick me at Cane’s, you still refuse to back down. Seems you’re just as determined as me.” I said to them.
“Jacob, you need to trust us. Just let us take you back to Bentley State and we can explain everything there.” The thing that looked like Reece said.
"I knew it! You're working for Trevor. Why else would you want me to go back to that cursed place! I told you to stay away and you didn't listen! What happens next is completely justified in my eyes.”
“Jacob wait, please! We’re not here to hurt you.” The person using Nikki’s likeness said. In all there were eight of them which perfectly matched the number of Trevor and his crew. Except now, they were wearing the faces of Tommy, Reece, Nikki, Delilah, Rachel, Edith, Cane and Zoe.
“New faces, old tricks huh Trevor? What, didn’t feel like tormenting me with the face of my daughter?” I said to the Delilah look alike.
“What are you talking about? I’m not Trevor! It’s me Delilah, come on dude!”
“Shut up! I’m not in the mood for your tricks! The fact that you’re here as well means that this place is a part of your plan and I’m going to do everything in my power to stop you!”
“Jacob, which of these guys killed Will?” Holly, who had been stood behind me, whispered in my ear.
“Holly!? What are you doing? Why are you here too?” Zoe’s lookalike asked.
“Trying to find answers on who killed my husband to be! But it seems they’ve been hidden in plain sight!”
“It’s the person with that pink hair tie, her!” I pointed to the person who looked like Rachel. We both got ready to fight the group of power wielding aliens. As Holly took a running start at Rachel’s lookalike, I swung the backpack off my back and opened it, pulling out the gun I had managed to wrestle from the officer the day I had escaped Bentley State. My vision focused on the alien who looked like my wife.
“It’s just you and me now! I told you I wouldn’t miss this time.” I raised the weapon and fired but the bullet made no contact, it just stood still in place in front of the person. It was suddenly redirected to the left putting a hole into one of the archaic walls. My eyes filled with anger as I took a running start at the alien. Zoe’s face seemed to contort in surprise. They jumped out of the way. As I went to try and strike again, I heard a voice in my head.
“Jacob! Stop this!” It sounded like Delilah at first but as she spoke, it began to slowly change to the voice of Trevor Manning.
“Jacob. You can’t stop this. You’re going to end up all alone again. I’m going to prevail again. You will never see your families faces… again.” Trevor’s voice sounded, dripping with malice. His words began to fill my head. Suddenly, I couldn’t think clearly. I rushed forward and landed a clean punch on one of the aliens. I couldn’t tell which one was which anymore. All I could see was Trevor and his crew. Two others ran over towards me but I managed to catch them in my peripheral vision and trip one up while side stepping the other. I turned around and saw Trevor standing nearby.
“You!” I shouted. I took a running start and tackled him to the ground.
“Get off me, you weakling!” Trevor yelled.
“You made me feel helpless!” I slammed my fist down into his face. “You caused me so much pain!” I slammed it down again. “I watched my friends die by your hand!” I slammed it into his chest. “And watched my world burn while you laughed it up!” I got up and kicked him in his side. “You’re a monster, Trevor Manning or whatever your name is!” I could hear Holly faintly telling me to stop but it didn’t help, I could hear Trevor’s laugh invading my mind, his smile haunting me. It all got to be too much,
“Come on Jacob! Finish the job already! Prove to your home world that you have what it takes to protect them!”
“Shut up!” I began to pummel the man’s face. The others began to come at me as well but I managed to fend them off. “You’ve caused me worlds of hurt and pain and now, I’m going to make you feel the pain that I’ve felt…” I pointed the gun at the man. Suddenly, someone jumped onto my back. As I fell back, the charade I had been seeing faded revealing the person looking like Tommy. He was bleeding from the nose and mouth and was clutching his chest. But it wasn’t the same as the viscose purple liquid that I associated with the alien invaders, it was red. “Wh- what!?” Before I could get another word out, the person who had jumped on my back grabbed my head and suddenly, I was no longer in the halls of the strange ruins we had been in. Instead I found myself in the middle of my old house. I got up and looked around for anyone in the giant household.
“Hello?” I called out. There came no response. I looked through the house but no one was around. Not in the kitchen, not in the bathroom, not in Makayla’s room, not even… the door to mine and Zoe’s room was gone. It was just plain wall. “Hello? Hello?! Somebody? Anybody?” I began to run around the house aimlessly. Trying to find anyone, anything! As I ran around, more and more of my surroundings began to disappear until I found myself in an endless void with only one door in front of me. As I walked through it, I saw the one person I had longed to see.
“Jacob?” She asked as our eyes met for the first time in weeks.
“Z… Zoe?” She smiled warmly. “Is that really you? Is this another dream?”
“No Jacob. This is real! I’m real!” Zoe grabbed my hand and put it on her face. Her skin felt warm and soft.
“Zoe!” I fell into her arms and began to weep.
“Shhh, it’s ok. It’s ok.” She comforted.
“No! No it’s not. I don’t know what’s real anymore. I saw you die… I saw you all die! How are you here? How am I here? How is this house here, I-“ Zoe interrupted me.
“Hey, hey hey hey hey, it’s alright. Just breathe. You’re safe now.”
“I don’t remember what safe feels like anymore. I can’t even remember what this is all for anymore. I’ve lied, stolen, killed, run… I’ve never stopped running. How could you ever still love me?” I knelt down and rested my head on Zoe’s stomach, still crying.
“Jacob, get up. Look at me.” I did what she said. Zoe’s eyes met mine and she didn’t break eye contact. “It doesn’t matter what you do, I will always love you! I need you to come back to me. I’m here Jacob. It’s over now.”
“I… I just hurt one of my best friends. I don’t know if I can do this, I don’t even know who I am. I look at the man staring back at me in the mirror and I don’t recognise him. His eyes are tired, his smile’s weary, he can’t even stand there and put on a brave face!” Zoe sighed for a second.
“Hey, do you remember the day you started at Bentley State?” Suddenly, something changed. Like a layer of cloud began to lift from my foggy head. “I actually tried calling you that day but I never got through to you. So I started leaving a voicemail to you. It was dumb and a little stupid so I ended up deleting it. But do you want to know what I said?”
“What did you say?”
“I told you that I was fine with you infiltrating Bentley State, but that at the end of the day, you had to come home! I don’t know what I’d do without you, Jacob.”
“But I’ve hurt almost every person I care about. I even shot a gun at you! There’s no way I can come back from that!”
“Yes there is! Everyone out there, trying to help you understand what you’re going through. Trevor got to your head, big deal! What matters now is how you’re going to fix it! You need to come back! Come back to us!” As Zoe finished her speech, her last words echoed in my mind.
“Come back to us.”
“Come back to us!”
“Come back to us…”
“Come ba-“
“Gaaah!” I screamed. I looked around and I was back in the decrepit ruins, surrounded by everyone.
“Jacob?” Zoe waved her hand in front of my face. She smiled as she saw the look of recognition in my eyes.
“Zoe!” I sprung up and hugged her, slightly scaring Tommy who was still bleeding a bit after I had hit him in my manic episode. We sat there embracing each other for what felt like years.
“Oh guys! I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to cause all this! And I’m especially sorry for all that Tommy. I- I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay! You should see the other guy.” Tommy joked. I laughed. I genuinely laughed! It had been months since I had last done that. I looked over at Holly who was in a friendly conversation with Rachel.
“Holly!” I called over to her. She came over and sat next to me. “So uh, it looks like I was wrong about a few things huh?” I said, with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah… but hey, at least we got it sorted in the end. That girl with the green eye necklace helped explain it. I tried getting you to stop but I don’t think you could hear me.”
“No, it was just anger, er more rage I suppose. I had tunnel vision. But thankfully Zoe brought me back.” I smiled at her which she returned.
“It was actually your friend with the necklace who tackled you to the ground to stop you shooting Tommy there.”
“Wait Delilah!? You did that? Wow, I totally underestimated you.” Delilah gave me a triumphant smile.
“Ok, so what do we do now?” Reece asked.
“We should probably head back and tell Martin that we stopped that disaster.” Zoe replied.
“Wait, sorry? Disaster? And who the hell is Martin?” I asked.
“Ah right! Yeah we’ll explain all that but uh, first, mind if we get out of this spooky dingy throne room?” Cane returned my question with his own.
“Uh, yeah sure. How do we get back?”
“Same way we got in!” Reece exclaimed. “Everyone grab on.” We all grabbed onto Reece and in a flash of purple light, we teleported out of The Chrono Palace.
“Uh, guys? Where’d you go?” Holly asked the empty room.