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shining-red-diamond · 3 years

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Ch. 24: Hieroglyphs

Cast of Characters//Ch. 1//Ch. 2//Ch. 3//Ch. 4//Ch. 5//Ch. 6//Ch. 7//Ch. 8//Ch. 9//Ch. 10//Ch. 11//Ch. 12//Ch. 13//Ch. 14//Ch. 15//Ch. 16//Ch. 17//Ch. 18//Ch. 19//Ch. 20//Ch. 21//Ch. 22//Ch. 23//Ch. 24//Ch. 25//Ch. 26//Ch. 27//Ch. 28 (coming soon)

Words: 1.6k

Genre: Fluff, some angst

Pairing: ATEEZ OT8 x OCs

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: mentions of illness, scarab beetle attack, mentions of fear

“Easy, San,” Seonghwa instructed as his crewmate carefully hopped down into the carved hole in the Sphinx’s foot.

The crew followed the map to where the Great Sphinx was located, and they found two large stones that covered an entryway to a hidden cavern. Jongho and Yunho removed the fases yellow stones and set them to the side, and Seonghwa was the first one to hop into the hole with a torch in hand as the flashlights had run out of batteries in India. One by one, the crew joined him in the dusty space, Mingi being the last one to join them.

“Okay,” Seonghwa said, “the maps tell us we don’t have far to walk this time, but like the last two there are still death traps. Be cautious.”

“Here,” Jongho piped up as he pulled out his lighter, “these torches will last about an hour, so we’ll have to go quickly if we want enough light to get us through.”

The tiny flame touched each torch, fire blooming and providing an orange glow in the pitch darkness. Seonghwa, Yunho, Jongho, and San all held a torch and positioned themselves to illuminate the front back and sides of the group. The walls themselves were much wider than the catacombs in Rome, allowing the crew much more room to journey through; ancient hieroglyphs decorated the walls as they depicted the most powerful pharaohs and told stories of the gods of Egypt. Dirt covered the path they walked on, but it wasn’t as rough as Italy’s.

“We need to look for the wall with the inscription on it,” Dahae piped up as they began their walk beneath the Sphinx. “The diamond is in a room with treasure hidden away by the great pharaohs.”

“What’s written in the inscription?” Seonghwa asked as they turned a corner.

“It’s all in hieroglyphs, but Celestia translated it.”

San couldn’t help but smile. Even when she couldn’t do much, she was still helping with the journey in her own way.

Dahae cleared her throat and read, “‘The treasure of Nephertiti. May the Eye of Horus watch over it. Thieves be warned as punishment will be upon you if you choose that path.”

“That last part makes absolutely no sense,” Dinah shook her head.

“I mean, Celestia did write ‘Weird, but okay’ at the bottom,” Dahae laughed.

The rest of the crew chuckled at Celestia’s humor, but Seonghwa composed himself as to continue with their quest. It wasn’t long before they reached a blank wall guarded by jackal headed statues made of gold. Putting his flaming torch to use, the first mate leaned it towards a sort of indention on the wall. He brushed the dirt away and discovered the warning that was translated on the map.

“Are we supposed to look for a switch or something?” Grace-Anne broke the silence as she tried to look around.

Seonghwa took note of a small vertical crack in the wall. It was so microscopic one would need to scan the wall a few times to see it. He followed it with his eye and found that it was a door that had been sealed.

“Yunho, Jongho, help me push this,” he commanded the two strongest members. The three of them handed their torches over to the women before placing their hands on the wall.

On the count of three, the men used their combined strengths to get the passageway open. It took a few grunts and strained muscles, but the door finally moved with Jongho falling forward a little. Inside of the cavern was dark with the exception of the torches illuminating the area. However, some sunlight was peaking through, but it provided enough light to display the treasure that was spread out in piles.

“Look,” Mingi pointed to something on the ceiling. The Eye of Horus was painted just above a large bust of what Seonghwa guessed was Nephertiti. More hieroglyphs decorated the surrounding walls, and four stone pillars held gold statues of Egyptian gods. Gold coins, jewels, and other precious treasures littered the floor, tempting to the soul who happened to stumble upon it.

“According to the map,” Dahae said as she checked around, “the diamond piece should be somewhere...San you’re standing on it.”

The navigator glanced down at his boot and saw something twinkling in the minimal sunlight. “Hey, you’re right,” he smiled.

Just before he could reach for it, Taeran stopped him.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she shook her head and released him after a pause.

With his gloved index finger and thumb, San carefully picked up the piece and placed it into a small pouch for Grace-Anne to examine later.

Suddenly the ground shook violently, causing the crew to tumble to the ground. Thankfully, the quake only lasted a few seconds, and some of the crew were dusting off the dirt and coins that fell on them.

Seonghwa stood back to his feet and helped Grace-Anne to her feet. “Whoever took some treasure,” he warned, “put it back. We’re not thieves.”

“No one took anything except the diamond,” Dinah defended. “Something else must have triggered the shaking.”

“Was it a curse?” Mingi whimpered in fright.

“I doubt it. Besides, the riddle didn’t say anything about a curse, but they did talk about some sort of punishment ‘for thieves.’ WOOYOUNG, STEP AWAY FROM THAT STONE!!!”

The crew turned their heads to where the young man was kneeled tying the laces on his boots. His head popped up in surprise at his girlfriend’s voice screaming at him. When he saw what his foot was on, his face turned a ghostly white in horror. At jack rabbit speed he jumped to his feet, and back as far away from the stone as possible.

The dark, yellow stone was sunken in between two brown ones and engraved with a large beetle on top of it, and Dahae knew it was another trap.

Crackling and chirping noises sounded from the walls and underneath them. It started soft but quickly grew louder and louder with each second.

“What’s that?” Dinah panicked as she pointed out something metallic blue that was oozing out from the cracks between the ceiling and the walls. It wasn’t oozing, but rather...crawling?

Dahae let out a horrified gasp as she pulled Wooyoung from the statue. “Scarabs!” she squealed. “Run!”

The crew made a dash for the door, however, the beatles were multiplying in numbers and charging towards them at lightning speed.

“Keep waving your torches at them,” Dahae instructed. “They won’t touch us if there’s light.”

Those who didn’t have a torch huddled together as the four men surrounded them. The group scuttled back towards the entrance, one beetle nearing Taeran’s foot and Mingi being quick to kick it away.

“Don’t stop running until we get to the entrance!” Seonghwa ordered.

“Byeol,” Celestia’s voice called. “Come here, kitty!”

Hongjoong’s eyes slowly opened. He wasn’t sure what was going on or who Byeol was, but it sounded as if the Choi’s somehow got a pet. A cat, as Celestia mentioned. He heard his bedchamber door creak open, but nobody came in. That was until a sopping wet Siamese cat jumped up on the bed and began to dry itself on the duvet. The captain jumped as he wasn’t expecting an animal to pay a visit.

“Hey! Get out of here!” Hongjoong shouted weakly.

Phoebe and Celestia dashed in and scooped the cat up off of the bed.

“Sorry, captain,” apologized Phoebe. “We were just about to dry her off, but she got away from us.”

Hongjoong sighed. “It’s fine. I just want to know when the cat became a new member of the ship.”

“Well, she snuck on here when we were in India,” Celestia explained. “I found her snuggling San, and she quite likes the company.”

Hongjoong couldn’t ever get mad around Celestia. Really, no one could. She was just that type of person that no one could ever hate or be angry with. She was such an angelic soul and did her best to be kind. Her pregnancy hormones did attempt to hinder that at times when she had her mood swings, but it was understandable as she was growing another human.

“We need to teach you how to knock, silly,” she cooed at the cat.

Phoebe wrapped Byeol in the towel and carried her out to go finish drying her off.

“Would you like for me to take the duvet to the laundry room?” Celestia offered.

Hongjoong shook his head. “Dahae will take care of it,” he mumbled. “You take care of the cat.”

“Alright.”

Not even two minutes after she left, Hongjoong heard what he guessed was a stampede of horses on the ship. He opened his eyes to see what was wrong, but his fiancée burst into the room, dirty and out of breath. The illness seemed to disappear from the captain upon seeing the love of his life in such a state. He jumped out of bed and was by Dahae’s said in a matter of milliseconds.

“What happened?” he asked her. “Is everyone okay?”

She nodded, and the center of gravity shifted. The ship was taking off.

“We got the diamond,” she whimpered through a forced smile.

Hongjoong believed her, but he didn’t believe the smile she was trying to give him. He could tell that the tears forming around her red eyes weren’t of loss, but rather of fear.

“Did a mummy scare you?” he teased a little in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Dahae shook her head. She didn’t say anything else at all, but rather just embrace Hongjoong as she couldn’t hold back her sobs anymore.

“It’s okay, my love,” he shushed as he stroked her hair. “I’ll run a bath, and we’ll talk about it.”

Tags: @treasure-hwa @ateezlovenet (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed)

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letsplayscrabble-blog · 7 years

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feels like the first time. [ch. 3]

author's note: hi all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support of this writing. now that introductions are out of the way we can start in on the story a bit and though i have ideas up my sleeve i'd love to hear what you guys want to see! as always, leave me a review and let me know what you think. enjoy (: [@halsteadpd]

"Just a beer whenever you get a second," she heard the blue-eyed man remark before the door of the kitchen had swung closed behind her and she assumed the kind-hearted old man was back out and bullshitting with the lot of them while the burgers were grilling up, finding much more enjoyment in the company the soldiers brought along with them than her grunts and occasional nod of the head whenever he would attempt to strike up a conversation with her bedraggled self. Truth be told, she couldn't really blame him. The only human interaction she was accustomed to anymore were the drunk screeches of her mother if she ever wandered home or the foul groans of a man she'd just sold and offered her body up to.

Erin Lindsay was now left with a dilemma, however, as the soldiers were seated far too close to the old man for her liking and she silently cursed herself because she'd forgotten to ask where he kept the mop because he was getting old and forgetful and it varied from day to day but there wasn't a chance in hell she was about to let herself be seen by a single one of their prying eyes again. The one in front had caused her to lose her nerve for a fraction of a second, not liking the way his eyes found her face and her eyes and the puffiness and the bags because let's be honest she hadn't had more than a few hours of sleep a night for the past three years because the towels she snatched out of the laundromat from some nearly blind old lady one lazy afternoon didn't really serve as blankets in the winter and the bricks near the dumpster of a deep-dish style pizza joint didn't really serve well as a pillow.

She began to fidget with the string on her sleeve again, resisting the urge to yank on it and to maybe let out a harsh chuckle as it came further apart, a perfect metaphor for her life because it'd been three years out on the streets and all she'd done for herself was find a kind old geezer who probably wouldn't be around for much longer to give her a meal and sometimes she had a wad of cash big enough to buy a warm cup of coffee for a few mornings and if she was lucky a new pair of jeans from the Goodwill for approximately thirty-two cents but she was getting tired and fed up and more than once she'd thought about reaching out to Hank and taking her chances and maybe sending up a quick prayer because that damn prep school had taught her something at least, but she had a sinking and a sick feeling that her luck had run out with him and he could still bust her and put her into prison for years because she'd broken their deal but at this point maybe a cell and her own cot and the putrid smell of a toilet were all she was gonna get in this lifetime and maybe she had to learn to be okay with that.

"Oh, this isn't the bathroom?"

Erin whirled, her fiery hazel eyes landing on those damn beautiful blue ones belonging to the dimwit that had just sauntered in through the kitchen door, knowing without a doubt that this wasn't the bathroom because she was going to believe the best in him for a second and presume he could tell the difference between a stove and a shitter.

"I don't know why you sound so surprised," she shot back, the steadiness of her voice catching her off guard a bit because being alone in the room with a person of the opposite sex had never gone smoothly for her over the course of her twenty-one years of living and even though he didn't strike her as her typical cliental she had learned not to trust men a long time ago and this beautiful one wasn't going to change the sudden sinking of her stomach as he moved a step closer. Her eyes darted off to the right, trying to find even a fucking spatula to use as a weapon because she was well aware of the muscles more than likely rippling underneath that uniform of his but damn it she wasn't going to let him do what he wanted to her without a fight.

"I don't know why you look like you're about to piss yourself," he replied smoothly, holding up his hands to show her he had picked up on her body language and picked up on the fact that him moving closer to her wasn't going to do anything for either one of them. Expect maybe work in her favor because he was fairly certain he'd be walking away from the encounter with fingernail scratches all over his cheeks and probably down his arms if he made another single movement in her direction because she looked that ferocious and deadly and if it weren't for the darting of her eyes and the way she took one, tiny small step backwards with her left foot he wouldn't have even been able to tell that she was afraid in the first place.

"Fuck off," she growled, though she was thankful he'd stopped moving closer because she'd run out ideas and had landed on her best bet of screaming and biting and maybe thrashing until he let her go and she could get the hell out of dodge but he looked too strong and too built for that idea to get her very far so she'd also settled on the fact that she was going to have to let him do whatever it was he needed to do do her before splashing cold water all over herself from the sink to give her the false sense of being clean then slipping out the front door without finishing her french fries.

His perfect eyes widened then, maybe in offense, maybe in shock, but she had a feeling it was the latter. He probably had this idea stuck in his head from his suburban childhood and adolescence and his prim and proper mother that women needed to be gentle and soft and not rough around the edges and downright repugnant like she was. He probably had this idea that women weren't quite this ghastly and hideous and revolting but she wasn't going to apologize for shattering his fantasies because with eyes like that he could've landed about six women down the street at Molly's by now but here he was in the middle of an exchange with her.

She was worse than the villagers back in Afghanistan, he had decided while his eyes discreetly studied her as he could feel her doing the same. She was worse because she showed not an ounce of curiosity or trust or anything really towards another and at least they gave the soldiers a chance when they came around asking questions and at least they didn't look like they were about to pounce and recoil and then strike again and he was also sure she was worse because at least those people had each other to lean on and depend on and stand with when it all went to shit and this girl had absolutely no one except herself and he had a feeling it had been a long and dark path for her to end up at this point.

"Did you need something?" He heard her counter, snapping out of his inappropriate thought process because who the hell really cared about this stranger of a woman he met in a bar back in his hometown who he was more than likely never going to see again. So what if her hazel eyes were the most exquisite he had ever seen? So what if he was desperately lonely and craving the affectionate touch of another and so what if he just wanted to reach out and graze the pad of his finger across her cheekbone just to see what she would do? Nine months of being in a dark hole of death and obscurity could really damage a person and Jay Halstead was certain he was certifiably insane but he wanted to keep talking to her and he was going to take a shot in the dark here and see if he could get her to stick around because he was pretty certain he knew what she did for a living.

"Yeah. Whatever it is you're selling," he shot back and he couldn't stop a corner of his mouth from turning up in a grin at the sight of her bewilderment because she wasn't able to get a handle on it quick enough.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Erin hissed, her eyes blazing in the soldier's direction because he had figured her out in a matter of a mere three minutes. Then again she wasn't going to give him that much credit because she still had her pride and in some other life where she was wearing pearls around her neck and swinging a Kate Spade purse on her wrist if she saw herself from the outside looking in at this very instant with her ripped up jeans and her sopping wet off brand fur boots and her bedraggled Cubs sweatshirt as a winter coat but most importantly the puffiness of her eyes and the sallow look of her cheeks she would've pegged herself as a dealer too. Or at the very least someone who had been using. She watched him raise an eyebrow and she found herself digging into her pocket because hell, she'd already made a decent sized wad today but what was one more customer and maybe she'd get that bottle of red wine after all. "One-fifty. For this baggie and for me giving up a half hour of my day to let you entertain yourself." She'd flipped a switch so she was the version of herself that she absolutely couldn't stomach in a matter of two seconds, the dirty girl who sold drugs on the street to get by and the one who sold her body for money because she may not trust men but they were all hungry for that feeling of power they only found when fucking a woman who didn't protest and who pretended to enjoy herself and she wasn't going to discriminate if this guy was willing to join them.

He watched her dangle the plastic between her thumb and her pointer finger of her right hand, all traces of decency he had found speckled in her hazel orbs as he had been staring at her disappearing because now she was doing what she did best and he hated how angry it made him feel that she had to do this to survive but normally he wouldn't have a problem with taking a woman up on her offer to sleep with him because all he really wanted to do was numb himself and alcohol and another body and a quick lay were the only way he really knew how to do it. But this instance, this tiny and fierce woman standing before him and offering herself up to him at a price pissed him off and he found the eruptive and uncontrollable anger his father had passed down to him rising in his throat and it was then he took a few long strides to cross the room and snatch it from her, silently agreeing to her proposition although he already had an idea formulating in his head and there wasn't a chance in hell she was going to find out about it before he got her exactly where he wanted her.

Her feet remained firmly planted in position as the soldier moved closer to her because she already felt disgusting enough and if he wanted to get the show on the road already she wasn't going to put up much of a fight because in these instances that was never a wise decision. But he simply took the bag of pills and pulled out his wallet from his back pocket, handing her the ridiculously overpriced total without so much as a second glance before extending his hand for her to shake.

"Jay Halstead."

She raised an eyebrow without really acknowledging his outstretched fingers before slipping past him towards the restaurant and past his friends who began to hoot and holler as he emerged from the kitchen behind her obviously well into their hard liquor for the night but could she really blame them because she'd never known war but it had to be pretty fucked up and terrifying and it made sense they'd want to forget about what they'd done and what they'd witnessed a lot like she wanted to forget about her sad excuse of a life and what she and Jay were on their way to do.

The cold air hit her harder than she liked and as he let the damn bell ding again and the door close behind him he also caught a glimpse of her shiver but he bit his tongue and kept his comment to himself because this girl was ferocious and he didn't want her bolting because when it came down to it she was probably the most genuine company he'd had in nearly a year and he'd only been speaking to her for six minutes. She cast a questioning glance over her shoulder at him then and he was struck once more at how breathtakingly beautiful she was under the smeared eyeliner and the grey tinge of her skin and he couldn't help but wonder why she kept doing this to herself because he obviously wasn't her first customer.

"Follow me," he commanded and she found herself trailing after Jay Halstead's footsteps in the snow and biting back a few tears because she was already dreading having to ruin the way she felt about his dazzling blue eyes and the slight hope she'd had that he was different from the rest.

#linstead #jay halstead #erin lindsay #chicago pd #cpd #cpd fanfiction #cpd fanfic #linstead fanfic #linstead fanfiction #chihards #one chicago #erin x jay #fanfiction

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