The Truth Berries

XIX

       Helen bid him goodbye after all of that. On her way out, she met a man in a white lab coat entering the gate. He was carrying a brown leather doctor’s bag and his stethoscope was hanging around his collar. But she never knew they made doctors as stiff and as muscular as that, though he may have been grinding at the gym in his free time. Although she was not the kind to hastily judge somebody by his or her appearance, she could not help wondering. After all the things she just heard from Dr. Curtis, she figured nothing else seemed impossible now. Still, she ignored the man when he passed by her as she continued her way out to the streets. What she did not see was the man stopped and turned to face her back as she ignored him. The man watched her as if he was studying every feature of her, committing it to memory. Then he took out his phone and talked to somebody for two minutes before he nodded and went straight to Dr. Curtis’ house.

       Helen felt so drained so she laid down at the backseat of the taxi. She was on her way back now to her apartment where she would take a shower and have a change of clothes for she still had a date with Dr. Winson later that night. She was wondering if the meeting with Dr. Winson was still necessary for Dr. Curtis’ stories may have answered all her questions already. Still, the study of ancient artifacts was not Dr. Curtis’ field of expertise. His was the study of plants and all that revolves around it while Dr. Winson’s expertise was the study of ancient artifacts and the history behind every one of them. Yes, she decided, the date was still necessary for he might discover something that Dr. Curtis may not know. She was lost in her thoughts when she felt herself lunging forward. Instincts told her to grab onto something so she did. Apparently, the taxi driver stepped on the brakes to do a sudden full stop. She opened her eyes to an angry taxi driver, with his body twisted halfway to face her.

       “Hey! No sleeping inside the taxi. I don’t want to wake nobody when we reach your destination. No delay, lady!”, the taxi driver said annoyingly.

       “Okay, okay! No more sleeping in the cab, Touchy.”

        She straightened up and rubbed her eyes as the car sped away. The sight of the petulant taxi driver stressed her more so she looked out of the window. The view from the taxi’s window was scenic though she never noticed it before when she was just going to meet Dr. Curtis. She looked up into the sky through the closed windows and saw that the afternoon skies promised an evening without rain. The branches of the towering trees alongside the road stood motionless, suggesting that it might perhaps be a warm night for everyone.

       “Perfect for my dream date”, the thought made her laugh.

       The driver asked her what the matter was and who was she laughing at when he saw her mischievous smile. Helen dismissed him with a wave of her hand and told him to mind his own freaking business. The driver, feeling insulted by his Asian passenger, gunned the accelerator down but Helen was not even scared a bit. Twenty minutes later, she was dropped in front of her rented flat. She paid the rude taxi driver (no tip whatsoever) and wished him a good day before she slammed the door closed. She did not wait for him to leave, she just turned her back and started walking towards her flat. Helen felt exhausted down to the last inch of her body and the bottom of her feet felt burning hot inside her shoes but she tried her best to drag herself inside. When she has locked her door, she tossed her keys to the wooden bowl on the table and dropped herself onto the old sofa. The soft cushion seemed to release the pressure on her shoulder blades and lower back and she could feel all her problems melting away.

       What a day, she told herself. She woke up that morning only wishing to find out the truth about her friend’s belonging- a favor she accepted just because she was curious about it and she just wanted to help. Well, a little incentive would not be too bad if the thing turned out to be as valuable as it looked. She could use the money to start her own business back in the Philippines where she could still pursue her passion for such things but still be much closer to her own home. She wouldn’t have to find her own success in the foreign lands, no more stupid homesickness to worry for and no more steep monthly rents to bother with. But the thing turned out to be more than a hefty amount of prize to be claimed and it proved to be bigger than her dreams of starting a private business back home. The chest, along with the seed, was a business of the gods, and she did know what to think anymore. She slowly massaged her own temples, a vain effort to clear her mind, and then she opened her eyes to look at the peeling paint of the ceiling. What a day and it’s not even done yet!

      Without her knowing it, she fell into a deep sleep. In her dream, she found herself walking back to Dr. Curtis’ house but the woman who claimed she was his wife was nowhere to be seen. She looked for her and waited for what seemed to be more than an hour, and then she figured she was not coming any sooner so she made her way to Dr. Curtis’ house. As she was halfway to the house, she noticed that it was suddenly shifting into an unfamiliar form, something that reeked of malevolence. She was already scared and in her head was a voice that tells her to stop but she could not understand why she couldn’t control herself. She just kept on walking towards the terrifying house, with its two windows that looked like a wild beast’s menacing eyes.

       Out of a sudden, its door opened and she heard a man’s voice beckoning her. With no sense of control, she walked straight through the open door and unconsciously, she searched for the stairs which she climbed just an hour ago. But those stairs were unlike any stair that she had ever climbed for whenever she set foot on a step, a new one appeared above it, making the climb endless and impossible. Then she looked for the framed plant fossils but she was filled with horror when she saw no fossils. Instead, mutilated human parts were in their places, with fresh blood still dripping. In her mind, she was already screaming her lungs out, but her entire body inexplicably remained calm. Seconds after seeing the bloody frames, three mysterious figures appeared at the top of the staircase. A woman was standing on the left while a tall, muscular man was on the right. They were both holding a seemingly lifeless figure between them. She recognized the woman as the alleged Mrs. Curtis while the tall figure looked to be the doctor, except that his lab coat was now smeared with blood everywhere. She blinked her eyes several times to see clearer for she was having some trouble recognizing the figure in the middle. And then she saw its gruesome condition. It was a man though she couldn’t be completely sure for his face was all bloodied. The man’s eyes were missing, so were his hands and his teeth. They also took out his heart but they did not cut it off so that it was still beating as it hung before him. She was already crying and warm tears started running down her pale cheeks, but she still could not make any sound. When the man spoke, she thought she was going to pass out

       “Choose the persons you would share that secret with. They hear and see everything. They know everything. They are everywhere. From now on, you should be more careful, Miss Sandoval.”

       That was when it hit her. The poor man in the middle was no other than Dr. Curtis himself and all those mutilated parts were all his. Before she could turn around and run away, the old woman and the tall man hurled the limp body of Dr. Curtis down to her. The picture of his bloody, eyeless face crashing down to her was the last thing she saw before she woke up screaming. She was covered with sweat and she was still shaking from her nightmare. True, that nightmare was really frightening but it was Dr. Curtis’ words that sent the chills down her spine for it was exactly the same words he had said to her before she stepped out of his room earlier before. Helen couldn’t help but wonder. What did he mean by those?

       She was still troubled but she set them all aside. It was starting to get dark outside and she still had one more thing to do. But before she started preparing for her date, she got her laptop and e-mailed her friend Nadia. She started typing, telling her that her research was almost done, but she could tell her now, with all confidence, that her chest was more valuable than they ever thought. She started to tell her the whole story of the gods and how the chest came to be. She also told her the names of the men who helped her with it and she prepared their resume just to show her how credible her research was. She was just about to send everything to Nadia when she heard the voice of Dr. Curtis at the back of her head. He was telling her those words all over again, warning her to be more cautious now. She could not understand but the paranoia was starting to settle in, so she deleted every word in her e-mail and composed a new yet vaguer one.

        I may already have the answers to all of your questions about the thing. But I will have to say it to you personally. Wait for next e-mail. Love, H.

      She read her new message twice and she decided it was perfect. Whoever they were, whether they were watching her or tracking every conversation she was having or not, she was sure her new message would not make much sense than the ones they were expecting. Helen checked her message for the last time before she sent it. She shut her computer down before peeling her clothes off and heading to the bathroom. The slight sting of the warm water from the shower was more than welcome for her. It helped her rearrange her thoughts and for some reason, it felt like it’s washing away all the bad things that happened to her that morning. Fifteen minutes after, Helen walked out of the bathroom feeling replenished. She was ready for Dr. Winson. She picked her best dress, the red one because it would make the woman out of her shine, then she put on her four-inch maroon heels. She applied a minimal amount of baby powder on her face and that’s it. No other make-up for she despised those women who relied their confidence on them. Before she got out of her apartment, she made sure to spray on some of the perfume that Dr. Winson supposedly loved.

       At 6:45 that night, Helen was already sitting at one of the tables in a cheap restaurant located just a few hundred meters from the university. Dr. Winson suggested a different place, some expensive one that served one of the best steaks in the state. It would be perfect, he promised, and she instantly knew why. It was just across the five-star hotel where she guessed they would ‘sincerely talk’ about the matter. Helen did not bite his proposition. She said the best way to hide something was hiding it in plain sight, and what better place could that be than that place she picked, where scores of students and faculty members of the university met each other every weekend to talk about all sorts of things.

       She did not wait long before Dr. Winson arrived, but he was not his usual self. His dress was soiled, his face was looking haggard, and he was still wearing the same red jacket he wore that morning. She saw him opened the door and he stood there for a while, desperately looking for her.

        “Dr. Winson! Over here!”

        He saw Helen and he warily approached her.

       “Are you alright?”, she asked him, but he just stared at him.

       Helen offered him the seat across her and he took it, but he never let his gaze off of her. He sat silently for a while before he turned his head sideways, trying to recognize every person present inside the place. Helen wanted to call the waitress to order their food but Dr. Winson said to her that they were not going to stay for long. Satisfied there was no one looking suspicious, he resumed his gaze on her. Then he leaned forward and talk to her in a whisper.

       “Have you talked to anyone since our meeting this morning? About the chest, I mean?”

       “No”, she lied and then she asked him why.

       “Right after our meeting, I came home to do what you asked. But it didn’t take long before two armed men in black suits came knocking on my door and asked me if I knew you. My mind went “oh s**t” in an instant. I told them I never heard about you before. But then they showed me a photo of us talking in the park. You, me and our meeting!”

       “What?! They’re  stalking us? How?”

       “Exactly! Wait, you know them? Who are they?”

       “I don’t. I just had a strange feeling that someone was following me since this morning. I get the feeling that there’s always a pair of eyes looking at me. Then what happened after that?”

       “I couldn’t deny it anymore so I admitted I knew you, but the meeting was just a professor-student matter only, something about school. Naturally, they didn’t believe me after the initial denial so they forced their way into my house and they started searching for something. By then, I knew they were searching for the flashdrive. Your flashdrive, to be precise.”

       “Did they get it?”

       “When they didn’t see any sign of it, they dragged me and laid me down with my head resting on my big study table and with one of them stepping his heavy boot on my neck. The other guy pulled his gun and pressed it hard against the back of my head and he asked me where the f**k the flashdrive was. Now you ask me if they got it? What do you think?”

       Helen was ready to hear his answer. In fact, she didn’t need it at all.

       “Of course they didn’t! I told them it was in my back pocket so they took it before leaving me with my house turned upside-down. They didn’t know it was my own flashdrive that they took.”

       He gave her the flashdrive and he saw the sense of relief on her face.

       “I guess they will be spending the entire night trying my new history refresher course”, he managed a faint smile.

       “Thank God and thank you Dr. Winson. By the way, did you find out anything about this?”

       He checked his surrounding again. A soft jazz has started to play on the speakers and most of the people inside were starting to sway along with it. Still, he found nothing out of ordinary. He faced Helen again.

       “That is power, Helen.”

       “What do you mean?”

       “Obviously, that chest contained something that is of godly proportion. But whatever it is, I do not wish to know. According to my research, that chest dates back way before The Crusades of the Roman Empire. No one knew the exact timeline, but what I’m sure of is it’s Egyptian. The papyrus is some kind of instruction on how to grow the chest’s content. The writings on the chest itself tell a story of how a god loved the people of the world so much that he wanted to make a gift for them. Some ancient legend also says that the highest god of them all forbade him from giving that thing to Man so he banished that into the center of the Earth. Since then, no one ever saw it again. However, I saw a week-old article about a massacred excavation team somewhere near the River Nile with all of its member dead and their treasure missing. So after several thousand years, I guess man has found it anyways. Is that thing with you right now?”

       Dr. Winson has been most helpful but he was still a Nobody, so she lied again.

      “No. A friend just sent those pictures for analysis.”

       “Your friend? Where is she now?”

       Something told her he was getting too nosy so she answered him with her own question.

       “What about those men? Who do you think they are?”

       Dr. Winson leaned back and stretched his arms.

       “That’s the interesting part. I was just finishing my research about that when a random website popped a story about an ancient brotherhood that is bound by an oath to find something that is called ‘The Book of Thoth’. Their members are sworn in complete secrecy and loyalty was their middle name. Their mission is to find the ‘book’ no matter how long it should take them, no matter what it should cost them. But modernization has forced them to operate underground. I believed those men who attacked me are members of The Brotherhood of Truth. They are simply known as The Seekers.”

       “The Seekers?”

       He nodded.

       “So, what now? What do we do?”

       “Now, I suggest you turn your back on that at this very moment because that is putting your life in grave danger. You’re from the Philippines, right? I recommend you go home for a while, wait for this thing to settle down and disappear before going back to finish your study. Or you could stay there while you finish your Master’s Degree. I can recommend you as one of our online students. Sure, it would take a lot of convincing but I’m sure I can do it.”

        “Thanks, Herb, really. I appreciate all of these.”

       “You should, ‘coz it all comes from the heart.”

       They both stood up and went out of the restaurant.

       “Just remember; always watch your six, if you know what I mean. As I always say; it might be boring, but studying History is way better than becoming history yourself.”