It takes you only a handful of seconds to make your decision. You grab the door handle and pull it towards you, causing the door to swing open. At the same time, you undo your seatbelt and roll out of the car, onto the ground.

While the car wasn’t going too fast, you still hit hard enough to knock the wind out of you. Your hands had shot out automatically to catch your balance, so you didn’t hit your face, but your palms are scratched up and bruised.

The car screeches to a halt and you hear running footsteps. Dorian crouches down next to you, placing his hand on your shoulder. “Where are you hurt?” he demands.

Wincing, you roll over, blinking back frustrated tears as you stare up at the bright sky. “I won’t let them be taken from me.” You focus on Dorian and a pleading note creeps into your voice. “Don’t let him take them from me.”

Dorian glances back towards the car and then focuses on you, a slightly grim set to his mouth. “Is that why you forced the car door open? Because you’re trying to blackmail Anubis?”

“Not blackmail,” you mutter. “Bargaining.”

Dorian runs his hands over your body, putting light pressure on places like your stomach, chest, back and legs. “Does any of this hurt?”

“I just scraped my hands and skinned my knees,” you answer.

“Good.” Before you can react, Dorian rolls you over onto your stomach. He pushes you down and cracks his palm against your backside six times.

Each smack sounds like a pistol shot, but the mini-spanking is over quickly and Dorian moves his hand from your back and stands up.

You rub at your stinging bottom and then slowly push yourself up, wincing slightly as your palms throb. You glance down at them, but there doesn’t seem to be anything embedded in the skin; just some minor cuts and bruises. The same with your knees when you look down at them.

Dorian heads back to the car and you follow a little more slowly, not sure how you feel about someone other than Martin disciplining you. Choosing not to comment, though, you slide back into your seat, put your seatbelt on and close the door.

The rest of the drive is conducted in silence, apart from when you voice directions to the statue site. You stare out of the window, eyes damp. How can you go through with this, knowing that it will end with you losing the two men you love?

As Dorian parks at the site, you glance up, noticing that not only is Walter and Ray’s car parked at the site as well, but that the two men are stood at the back, watching your approach.

Remembering the stinging swats Dorian gave you, you wait until the car’s come to a complete stop before undoing your seatbelt and opening the car door. You get out and walk quickly over to the other two men. As soon as you’re close, your words start tumbling out over each other. “If the curse is broken, everyone who died and came back is going to stay dead. That includes Martin and Paul. I can’t lose them.”

“This can’t continue.” Walter’s voice is quiet. Sober. “At least one of our colleagues has been hurt by one of the dead. Maybe even killed.”

You dart a look at Ray, who only shakes his head and says, softly, “I’m sorry, Grant. If there’s a way to make sure they can stay, we’ll take it. But we can’t put their lives above the lives of everyone here on the reservation.”

Your shoulders slump and you slink backwards, glancing behind you as Anubis steps over. He holds his hand out, shaking first Walter’s and then Ray’s. “My name is Anubis.”

Ray lets out a quiet snort and shakes his head, muttering, “Anubis?”

Walter doesn’t say anything to him, just squeezes his arm, giving him a narrow-eyed glance in warning. He then turns fully to face Anubis. “You know what’s going on here?”

Anubis nods. “The guardian spirit here has been corrupted by the curse that was placed on the statue. I don’t know who was responsible for placing the curse in the first place. And at the moment, I don’t think it truly matters. But when the statue was destroyed, it released the curse into the whole land.”

“What can we do?” Walter asks.

Anubis opens his mouth, but before he can respond, there’s a loud shaking and rumbling. The ground trembles with enough force that it threatens to make you fall and you only just manage to keep your balance.

After the earth’s tremors die down, your eyes widen in shock as you see that two caves have raised up from under the ground. The mouth of each is too dark to see into, but you feel a strange, almost magnetic pull towards the cave on the right. You find yourself taking a step closer to it without conscious thought.

“What is this?” Walter speaks up, breaking the spell temporarily.

Anubis’ voice seems to come from very far away. “You’ll feel a pull towards one of the caves. Enter the one you feel drawn to and bring me back the object you find within.”

It’s hard to resist the pull of the cave. But how can you fulfil Anubis’ directions, knowing you’ll lose the men you love for good?