“There has to be a handle or something around here,” Stephanie said, pulling a flashlight out of her pocket and shining it on the floor. “There must be a trap door; look for a way to open it.”
They’d been searching for a few minutes when the gleam of something metal caught his eye in the corner of the room. “Bring that light over here,” he said, pointing to the corner. “I think there’s a button down there.”
A second later, Stephanie tapped her foot on the floor in the corner of the room, and a section of the floor popped open, revealing a set of stone steps. “What do you think is down there?” she asked, grinning at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “We really should go get a camera and document this properly.”
“Let’s just go take a peek first, then we can do all the right stuff,” he said, taking the flashlight. “There might not be anything down there, it might just be an empty space like the rest of this place.”
Stephanie hesitated. “Just as long as we don’t touch anything, it has to stay exactly the same until we’ve documented the find,” she said, her face filling with excitement. “I just know there’s something down there, something that’s finally going to explain all this. We’ll finally solve the mystery and then I can stay, I can keep working here for a while, we can…”
Her words trailed off as her cheeks turned pink again. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. “It’s okay, don’t be embarrassed, I feel the same way,” he said. “And it was the first thing I thought, too.”
Stephanie smiled at him. “Okay, let’s go down and see what’s there,” she said. “You lead the way; I’ll be right behind you.”
Cooper kept the light shining on the uneven stone steps as they climbed down into the darkness, then paused at the bottom to make sure she was safe. “Ready?” he asked, a grin on his face. “There could be skeletons or bodies down here.”
“I’ve probably seen more skeletons than you have, mister,” she said, then stuck her tongue out at him. “Come on, I want to see where we are.”
He finally swept the flashlight around, then did it a second time, “Wow, just wow,” he said, slowly spinning in a circle. “Are those what I think they are?”
Stephanie took a step toward one of the cloth lumps lying in a recess carved in the wall, “I think so,” she said. “I think this is a crypt, Cooper.”
He looked around, then shivered, couldn’t help himself. “I guess they needed some place to bury their dead,” he said. “I can’t decide if this is creepy or not. I don’t usually do things like this.”
“They’re just skeletons by now, they’re not going to come alive like in a horror movie,” she said. “We treat them with respect because they were alive and people just like us once, but they can’t hurt you.”
“You’re so nonchalant about all this,” he said shining the light around the crypt again. “I can’t help but feel like we’re someplace we shouldn’t be.”
“That’s good, it shows that you have respect for this place and the people who built it,” she said, patting him on the arm. “It’s okay, Cooper, what you’re feeling is normal. I felt it the first few times I went into a tomb with a mummy inside, but I like to think these people would like us to tell their story; it makes me feel better.”
He looked around at the wrapped bundles again, still uncomfortable, but willing to look at it from Stephanie’s angle. “I guess that’s some comfort,” he said. “I just don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.”
“We really should get more light and a camera before we explore anymore,” Stephanie said, her voice full of excitement. “We could be ruining artifacts with every step we take. I’m going to run back to base and grab a few things. You stay here and…”
“Stephanie, it’s late, and we’ve been working all day. I know that you’re excited to get started, but don’t you think we should wait for the morning when we’re fresh?” he said, the painting on the wall catching his eye as he shined the flashlight around the room. “We could damage something or worse, as tired as we are.”
Her face filled with disappointment. “I guess you’re right, but I bet I don’t sleep at all tonight. I can’t wait to tell the team about what we’ve found,” she said, then looked around. “Let’s investigate just a little bit before we leave, maybe that will help.”
***Stephanie***
Stephanie knew that she was being reckless but she didn’t care, she’d found something amazing and she couldn’t just walk away without seeing all of it. Grabbing the flashlight from Cooper, she shined it at her feet, then walked forward until she was standing in front of the huge mural that took up an entire wall. She knew before even taking her first look that the still colorful painting would tell them everything they wanted to know about the people buried in the crypt.
Almost unable to control her excitement, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them again and began to carefully study the painting, taking each scene one at a time, then doubling back again. It took that second time around for her brain to make sense of what she was seeing, and a third before she turned around to look at Cooper, who had a strange look on his face.
She turned back to the mural. “They’re shifters, that’s what all this means,” she whispered, sweeping her arm through the air. “Look, there are wolves and bears, there are even dragons. I didn’t think the stories could be true, but the proof is right here.”
“Stephanie, hold on, don’t get carried away,” Cooper said, walking carefully over to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. “We don’t know for sure that’s what this painting means; it could mean something else; they could have been depicting the animals for a completely different reason.”
“You’re right, I was getting carried away,” she said, letting out a long sigh. “Maybe it is too late to be doing this, my mind took me on a weird tangent for a second. The animals probably represent spirit guides or something, that was a huge part of the Native American religion. I guess I let Julien and his crazy theory get to me more than I thought I did.”
“We’ll both go home and get some sleep, then I’ll meet you here early tomorrow morning,” he said, guiding her back towardthe steps. “We’ll come prepared too, lots of lights and cameras. This is an amazing find, Stephanie, you should be proud.”
“I didn’t really do anything but drop my pencil,” she said, climbing the stairs. “I was starting to think this find was going to be a bust, but we’ve got at least twelve burials down there, that beautiful mural, and who knows what else…”
“Okay, calm down,” Cooper said, laughing. “You’d think that you just won the lottery.”
“I feel like I did,” she said, stopping at the top of the steps. “If you hadn’t… kissed me, we never would have found it.”
“Oh, so now it’s a good idea if I kiss you?” he asked. “I just want to make sure I know the rules.”
