Chapter 1

Slipping out of the darkness, I suddenly awoke to the sound of car horns blaring outside my apartment window. The city was no place for those who enjoyed long naps or relaxing in peace, as the loud noises of the bustling streets harbored anything but the desired tranquillity that only the countryside accommodated.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I slowly stretched my tired arms above my head whilst letting out a large yawn. Sluggishly, I reached over to my bedside table and grabbed my iPhone from its hard varnished surface, and brought it up to my face. my eyes squinting from the bright light it emitted as I tried to decipher the time shown in small white letters.

6:27AM

Groaning, I dropped my phone onto the wide open space next to me on the bed. I had another two hours before I needed to get ready to go to university, and I was no longer feeling tired like I was mere moments before.

The darkness of my bedroom was ominous, giving me a slight feeling of weariness, although I had no idea why. The dream I had was supposedly the cause of it, no doubt, as I always felt strange after I dreamt it. It was one of those peculiar dreams that you would sometimes have on more than one occasion, maybe two or three times. However, I've had this dream since I was six years old. The day I was found washed up beneath the cliffs of Cornwall, the salty, putrid taste of the ocean still lingered on my tongue. Local fishermen in the area found me lying against a small rock formation in the sand, immediately thinking the worst. That day I was brought to the local hospital and kept under a watchful eye by both the doctors and nurses. Once I had awoken from what felt to be an eternity of sleeping, I was interrogated by a nurse who had just happened to be passing by. The repeated questions of 'how are you feeling?' and 'do you remember anything?', were by far the most irritating questions I has received that day, mostly due to the agonising pain in my head. I distinctively remember informing them that the only thing I remembered was my first name, Gwenevieve, and that I was six years old, everything else was a blank, like a gigantic wall of darkness enveloping the memories in my mind. Well, that is, if I even want to remember my memories. The condition I was found in implied that I had a hard time coping where ever I was, prior to me washing up on the rock infested beaches of the cold Cornish coast. This lead me to believe that perhaps I had escaped an impending doom that was to be inflicted upon me if I had stayed. So, in a way, I considered finding myself in the care of doctors and nurses reassuring, as it meant I had escaped whatever it was I sought to flee. All this happened 12 years ago. I had eventually learned not to dwell on my past and moved on. Now beginning a brand new chapter of my life.

Deciding it was time to finally get up, I unceremoniously threw the covers of my duvet off of my warm body and proceeded to crawl over to the edge of my bed. As I stepped onto my soft, plush grey speckled carpet, the cold air hit me like a tidal wave of freezing cold water over my 5"5 frame. Taking a moment I gazed around my medium sized bedroom, which was encased in a cocoon of blackness. Blindly maneuvering myself through my darkened room I reached my hand out to grasp where my light switch was located on my crème coloured walls. Feeling the switch I pressed down on the protruding part, causing my bedroom to suddenly light up. The crystals hanging from around the lightbulb on the ceiling casted opaque shadows across the walls, that glimmered slightly from the small breeze flooding In through the small air vent above my window, causing the crystals to dance slightly round the light in the centre of my room.

Breathing in deeply, I walked over to my small chest of drawers in the far corner of my room where I kept my small essentials such as make-up, perfume, hair accessories and a small light up mirror. picking up a hair band and hair brush I proceeded to walk over to my built in closet, situated next to my bedroom door. The closet wasn't very big, but it didn't really bother me, as I didn't have many clothes to begin with. Growing up at boarding school and acquiring the odd part time job to earn some money didn't really leave me anytime to splurge on shopping sprees, as I never really needed much anyway. It wasn't that I didn't like nice clothes or accessories, it was just that I was always on a short budget, so shopping for little things never was in my interest, especially as I wanted to go to university and study archaeology.

Opening my closet doors I grabbed a pair of dark blue, high-waisted skinny jean and white, ruched, milkmaid tank-top. I then turned back to the chest of drawers and grabbed a matching pair of white lace undergarments, and then paced out of my room down the short hallway leading to my living room/ kitchen. my bare feet padded softly against the dark oak floor boards as I walked in the direction of the bathroom. the sun still hadn't rose yet so my apartment was still left in a eerie darkness, not a sound could be heard but my occasional footsteps echoing in the small, yet empty, space.

As I entered the bathroom I grabbed hold of the dangling light switch next to the door and tugged it downwards, receiving a soft 'click' in response, as well as the naked light bulb flickering to life emanating an obnoxious 'humming' to start reverberating around the enclosed area. There were no windows inside my bathroom, only a small ventilation box in the top right corner of the room, which came on whenever I turned on the light. Even though no windows meant that no insects could crawl in, It also meant that the longer I stayed in the shower, the more misted the room would get, as well as an increase in temperature, resulting in me feeling light headed and dizzy.

Knowing I didn't want any of those things to happen to me, I decided that I should only have a quick shower to prevent any unwanted fainting to happen, and also to save me some money.

Placing all of my clothes onto the tiny bathroom cabinet next to the sink, I began to undress. I then threw all my discarded clothes into a small pile in front of the door, taking note to put them in the laundry basket once I finished in the shower. Picking up my hair brush I nonchalantly brushed it through to remove reminants of a restlessness night, before slavering on my luxurious rose scented shampoo, inhaling the heavenly scent.

Once I was done brushing my wild untameable hair, I stepped into the shower, closing the glass doors behind me. the cold tiles beneath my feet caused shivers to run up my spine, like someone ran their cold fingers along its length.

The warm water beated down on my body, a waterfall of euphoria welling up inside me from the relaxing sensation of the water tapping against my smooth ivory skin. Getting lost in the moment, I was brought back to the present by the thought of the time. Re-focusing on the task at hand I quickly finished up in the shower, before stepping out into the cold, now foggy, atmosphere.

Grabbing a soft red towel and wrapping it around my chilled frame, I lead my way over to the sink, picking up a large hair grip that I had left on top of the cabinet the night before, and twisting my hair up into a low ponytail whilst lifting it up and clipping it onto my head, keeping my hair from getting in the way. I then seized my tooth brush between my nimble fingers and turned on the tap, rinsing my tooth brush under ice cold water before squeezing a pea sized amount onto the tip.

After sorting out my dental hygiene I decided to blow-dry my hair, rather than letting it dry naturally, as it was now late September and the air was growing colder. As I finished drying my hair and throwing on my clothes, I left the stuffy bathroom, stepping out into my now not-so-dark hallway leading to my bedroom and living room.

Heading into my bedroom, I swiftly walked over to my dresser covered in my makeup, choosing to experiment and do a smokey eye with hints of gold enlaced into it. I was never a huge makeup person, and only really put the cosmetics on my eyes and lips, not liking the sensation of foundation clogging up my pores. So once I gathered all of my materials needed to create my desired look, I bean to artistically brush the eye shadow across my eye lids, enjoying the light sensation of the soft brush slip over my skin.

Pleased with my look, I stumbled out of my bedroom and into the kitchen, my mind solely on the thought of brewing a large cup of coffee and making myself jam toast before I headed out into the already seemingly crowded streets. Turning on the kettle and popping two slices of granary bread into the toaster, before making my way into the living room, which was across the counter in the kitchen.

strolling over to the living room window, I grasped the smoke coloured curtains and pulled them back to reveal the streets of London. I could see groups of people walking in different directions across the car covered road. Car horns rang through the distance, and the sound of motor bike engines filled my ears. The low growling of the vehicles remined me of beasts, prowling around looking for their morning meals. The streets outside were chaotic. I mean, its London. One of the most popular tourist cities in the world. Where there never seemed to be a dull moment, as there was always something happening around every street corner. Ranging from dog walkers trying to restrain their overly excited canines, to business men always scurrying around in a hurry, always in some heated discussion with some unknown figure at the other end of the line. This was one of the reasons I came to London. I wanted to be a part of all the action. To always know what was going on. I had always believed that new possibilities awaited me here, as London is full of all different kinds of people and new opportunities.

'POP'

The sudden sound of the toaster popping drew me out of my thoughts, as a trudged back into the kitchen, grabbing a plate and a few other things from the fridge as I went.

Finishing off the last drop of coffee, I gathered up my dirty dishes and plopped them gently into the sink, choosing to save time and do them when I get home later. Remembering my phone, I swiftly jogged back into my room and picked it up from where I left it on the bed. The time showed that I had 35 minutes to get to University, so I slipped on a pair of black ankle socks and an elegant pair of leather, 2 inched, ankle boots with a gorgeous lace up front. Many girls my age would wear trainers, but they were never really my style. Lucky enough for me though, I find it quite easy to maneuver around in heals, as I always wear them.

Lastly, I tugged on my waist length leather jacket and grabbed my school bad containing all the noted and books I had packed before I went to sleep, as well as a couple of my own novels which I enjoy reading.

Sliding my phone into my pocket and picking up my front door keys, I began to make my way towards my front door, turning off the lights as I went. Before I made my way to the front door I took one last look in the mirror in the hallway near the front door. Looking at my reflection, the cold metal of the necklace around my neck caught my attention. Hanging on the end of the long golden chain was an immaculate gold ring encrusted with small diamonds around the band and a large oval moonstone in the centre, also surrounded by tiny diamonds. I don't remember where I got it from, but I thought it must be too important to get rid of, so I kept it. Keeping it on the golden chain where it was originally. I never take it of, except, of course, when I shower or enter large bodies of water, to prevent the expensive looking jewellery from getting wrecked.

With one last glance at my reflection I turned and opened my front door, slipping the key into the key hole of my door and turning it until I heard the very subtle 'clicking' sound of the locks sliding into place. Then I with drew the key and placed it inside the front compartment of my bag, and set off on my journey to University.

University was relatively uneventful, but I still managed to keep up with everything in the lectures. I knew coming to university wasn't going to be easy, but I built up my courage and decided to enrol anyway, knowing that in order to fulfil my desire to become an archaeologist I would have to take whatever the university threw at me.

Absent-mindedly, I strolled up the many concreate steps leading up to the museum. The time was now 4 O'clock in the afternoon, ten minutes before my shift at the museum started. So, knowing that I had no reason to rush, I walked at a slow pace breathing in the cold, late September air. The dark grey clouds above my signified me that rain was on its way, as not a patch of blue was visible between the blanket of smoke-like clouds.

Children's squeals and laughter could be heard from near the museums entrance, as families exited the building with their kids running around waving styrofoam swords and stuffed animals around in the air, presumable taken from the gift shop near the front doors.

All the people flooding out of the enormous pillared building instantly notified me of the fact that it was now closing time for all the visitors.

Heaving a sigh, I jogged up the rest of the steps and entered through the wooden doors, dodging numerous people as I went.

As I entered the museum I was once again taken aback by the beauty of the buildings architecture. The interior of the place was stunning as the elegant archways and giant pillars decorating the walls towered from above. The skylight's large panels allowed a decent amount of light into the gothic-esque building. A silver glow coated the surroundings from the grey clouds visible through the windows.

Making my way into the main foyer, I noticed very few people were left, making my footseps sound even louder in the colossal atrium. My feet lead me into one of the main offices where most museum workers spent their time after hours. Entering the not-so-big working space, I came face to face with Mrs. Fletcher, the woman in-charge of sorting and documenting all of the artifacts in the museum when they are brought in from new excavations. She was a frail old woman in her early sixties, short white hair cropped her head, curling slightly at the ends. Her  gentle hazel eyes held traces of knowlege and expirience. Her whole counternance was that of a grandmother, which always put me at ease whenever I was in her company.

Surprised by my sudden appearance, she greeted me tiredly whilst flashing me a warm smile. Returning the gesture I replied back with a simple 'hello' and shy smile of my own.

Moving over to the tables in the center of the room, I removed my bag from my now aching back and planted it on the table with a 'thud'. Mrs. Fletcher then spoke up from behind me, causing me to turn around to face her.

"Ashley's gone home already, dear. She told me to let you know." Said Mrs.Fletcher, cleaning up a small pile of books from their spot on the filing cabinet in the corner of the room next to the door.

"Already? I thought she also had tonights shift? But she was supposed to help me sort through all the new stuff brought in last night!"

Even though I should be angry with her for ditching me, I knew she would probably do it at some point. Where as I was always set on becoming an archeologist, she wasn't entirely sure on what she wanted to be, so right now she was currently experimenting on differnent types of jobs, starting with history.

"I know Gwen, but she told me that she had some things to do, you know how she is." Answered Mrs. Fletcher, as she slid the books into the bookshelf.

"Yeah, I know."

Taking a pen out of my pencil case and slinging my bag back onto my shoulders, I inserted the pen into the back pocket of my jeans and bid Mrs. Fletcher a farewell, leaving the office and heading down into the basement where all the new relics were stored. Shuffling down the now deserted museum corridors I started to wonder just what new remains the other archaeologists brought back.

The hallway leading into the basment workshop always made my hair at the back of my neck stand on end, the sort of thing that usually happens when someone is watching me. Since arriving here, I have been wondering if the building itself was haunted. I wouldn't put the idea behind me considering the entire building was filled with skelletons and fossils of those that once walked the earth centuries upon centuries ago. The thought of a museum haunted by the remains of those inhabiting the building seemed to make me feel a little bit excited, as I had always wanted to work in a place filled with not only history, but histories ghosts as well.

Shaking my head, I punched the security code into the small keypad next to the single grey iron door which lead into the workshop, still feeling a weird sensation course down my spine. With a faint beep, I pushed the door open with my shoulder and walked into the very spacious but pitch black room. The lights automatically sprang to life lighting up the abnormal exterior of the storage space. tall metal bookshelves stood in asymmetrical lines down the middle of the room, boxes of files and documents littered their surfaces. Charts and maps were scattered all over the walls at the back, holding different information about the fossils and relics up in display in the museum.

I came up to one of the long wooden tables in the back and stood infront of all the different boxes that were lined up, just waiting to be looked at. Enthusiastically, I grabbed the empty document that was place ontop of the new boxes and began to write the date and time in the margine, I then proceeded to jot down the location the antiquities were recovered from.

Stone Henge

Seeing the tag on one of the boxes read this, I was immediately reminded of a news report I heard a few days ago, which talked about some strange occurances happening around the ancient site. This caused me to become even more excstatic than I already was, knowing that I will see and touch something that had been away from civilisation for eras.

Setting down the file and my pen, I began to carefully un package the valuables, recording all the information written on the plastic coverings.

Half an hour later, I had managed to sort through over half of the delicate objects in the boxes covering the table, until a small triangular-prism-like object caught my eye. The pyramid-shaped antique was nesteled underneath a small pile of old newspapers and looked to be only the size of my hand. I reached down into the box, pushing away the black and white paper print out of the way, before I picked up the hand-sized hefty object.

Around the faces of the pyramid were strange engravings, that were completely un-decipherable, as they seemed to be written in an ancient dialect. The mysterious relic stood out quite considerably in comparison to all the other objects I had gone through. Where as all the others seemed to be made out of clay and stone, this felt like it was made from metal, as the surface of the article was shiny, smooth and awfully cold, unlike the other items which were texturised, crumbly and dull.

I stared at the enigmatic material in front of me for a couple moments more, wondering what to write in the file since this object wasn't encased in a plastic wallet and had no label. Deciding to leave it till last, I placed it down in-front of the boxes on the table and turned to sort out the rest of the relics.

"BOO!"

My heart immediately jumped into my throat from the sudden voice coming from behind me. Spinning around quickly, I met the eyes of the person who had supposedly left prior to my arrival. Ashley.

Pressing my lips into a thin straight line, I furrowed my eye brows and hit her lightly on the shoulder.

"ASHLEY!? Oh my god, don't do that!!!" I cried, my thoughts wondering to what would have happened if I was still holding one of the artifacts. The thought of dropping one of them made my blood run cold, as I would surely get into trouble and jeopardise my job here.

Ashley bent over with her hands griping her thighs as she continued to laugh at my frightened reaction.

"Your...face...w-was the best face I've seen you make all week!!" She choked out between laughs, eyes welling up slightly with tears from laughing to much.

"You know, I really hate you sometimes Ash..."

"Nonsense, you adore me!" She replied, coming off of her laughing fit and wrapping her arms around my neck, giving me a friendly hug. Reluctantly, I hugged her back, still slightly annoyed by her silliness moments before.

"Are you nearly done? I'm starving, we should go to that new restaurant I was telling you about yesterday. I heard the food there is absolutely de-licious~"

"I would have finished ten minutes ago if you didn't bail on me, so no, I'm not done yet."

"Yeesh, calm down girl! You know how I feel about this part of the job, its so boring. All you do is open up boxes, read labels and write them down in a file, which is totally not my sort of thing."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Its not like you haven't told me ten times already. Hey, since you're here, mind lending me a hand with this stuff? We could leave quicker that way." I asked, turning back to the un-opened boxes and peeling back the Sellotape holding the two flaps at the top of the box together.

"Ugh.....Yeah...okay, fine."

I heard her groan behind me, as she shuffled over dubiously. Her short black hair was left down, falling just above her shoulders. Green eyes trained on the box we were standing before, waiting for me to expose the wonders inside.

Ashley was a few months older than I was, but we are both around the same age, me only just turned 19 and her being 19 for a few months. We had been friends ever since boarding school, as we both had no family or carers to look after us, leaving us with only each other. Because of that we became fast friends and have grew up with each other ever since. In a way, she's like a sister to me, as we always have each others backs and rely on each other for pretty much everything. The only reason I was able to get a job at the museum, was because she sent word to our boss about my love of history and anything archaeological, so for that I am forever thankful to her.

Writing down the last piece of information into the folder, I let out a sigh of relief. Now that we were done, I could look forward to eating some food and then heading back to my apartment where I could collapse down on my comfy queen-sized-bed and let Morpheus consume me. Placing the file into the filing cabinet, I heard Ashley let out a triumphed 'finally' and the sound of her black and white converses scuff on the hard concrete floor.

I walked over to my bag, which I had discarded upon entering the room, and slipped my pen uncaringly into the large compartment of the bag; quickly re-zipping it as I picked it up. I then turned around to face Ashley, wondering why she hadn't made a move to walk out the door already, only to find her holding the strange metal pyramid which I had forgotten I had put on the table.

"What is this?" She asked, tracing the engravings with her un-manicured fingers.

I looked at the object she was holding, uncertainty clouding my mind.

"I'm not too sure. I found it at the bottom of one of the boxes I was sorting through before you came in. It's rather strange though, it doesn't seem to resemble any of the other artifacts in the box. I'm wondering if there was some sort of mix-up with the packing."

"Maybe.....Do you know what these symbols are on the sides? Is it Latin or something?"

"No, I don't think so, they look more like weird hieroglyphs to me. Perhaps we should ask Mrs. Fletcher about it tomorrow?" I suggested leaning in closer to the object in her hand. For a split second I could have sworn that I saw a weird glowing light erupt from one of the symbols on the object, but soon brushed it off thinking it must just be the lighting. I placed my bag by my feet and outstretched my hand towards Ashley, waiting for her to hand the artifice over.

Agreeing with my proposition, Ashley turned and reached out her hand to give me the pyramid, but as she did we were suddenly encased in a sheet of blinding white light. I began to panic as the bright light around me began to darken and my conscience began to slowly slip away, causing me to feel as if I was falling from a tall place into a never-ending void of complete darkness.

'What was happening to me?'