Sam’s team had been digging for days. The heat had been unbearable, the sun relentless in its crusade against them. Sweat dripped from every pore stinging their eyes repeatedly. It hadn’t mattered, Sam’s craving to know what was inside had overruled it all. And now it was time, the boulder was now ready to move. He nodded at the men gathered around the stone and they each got into position. He nodded again and they all began to push. At first, there was no movement. He urged the men to push harder and little by little grit began to rain down from the wedged stone. With one final heave, it began to roll away.
A cloud of dust escaped from the chamber and landed on the men, obscuring visibility of what was inside. As the dust settled they could make out a hallway between the stones. The men turned to Sam awaiting instructions for who was to go inside but he held up his hand and made his way into the chamber, once inside his men followed.
As he walked Sam’s steps became robotic, an automated movement, his men behind him looked at each other confused, something wasn’t right. As they walked each of Sam’s men began to cough and splutter, finally dropping to their knees and crawling from the chamber. Eventually, only one man remained, he glanced towards Sam’s disappearing shape and back at the direction of the men who had all left him. His throat began to itch. With one last glance at Sam, the man turned and ran from inside the chamber.
Sam completely unaware was now alone in the chamber, yet he continued to walk on and on… Exactly as the ancestor’s voices told him too.
Resisted the temptation to call this story “The Chamber of Secrets” – I’m sure that title has been used someplace else – haha! Originally written in response to Sue Vincents #Writephoto challenge. Use the image to create a post on your own blog… poetry, prose, humour… by noon (GMT) Wednesday 10th August and link back to Sue’s post with a pingback. KL ❤
New2Writing 