You can’t help it. Despite the warning in Walter’s voice and his touch, you can’t help but follow through with your instinct to question this man who’s so much younger than you. He’s closer to a teenager, after all.

“How can you be a spirit guardian?” you ask, ignoring the fact you don’t even know exactly what that’s supposed to be. “You’re still just a kid!”

“I’m much older than I look,” Anubis replies.

You snort at that. “Right now, you don’t look like anything more than a kid. We don’t have any reason to believe or trust what you say. We….”

Walter grips your arm tighter and speaks in a low, warning tone. “Ray….”

You don’t shrug your husband’s grasp off, but you can’t stop the next words that spill out. “Maybe you should run home and leave the adults to deal with the problem.” Yeah, it’s disrespectful and rude. But you’ve just come from the precinct, where at least one of your friends and work colleagues has been hurt. And you don’t have time to play games.

The older man steps up to Anubis’ side and clears his throat. “I’m Doctor Dorian Hook and I can vouch for what he says. I work at Kingdom Hospital, where Anubis has been the guardian for a lot longer than I’ve been alive for.”

You open your mouth, but before you can voice a retort, Walter uses his grip on you to turn you to the side. His hand collides with your backside a total of six times, the smacks echoing loudly in the area. You yelp and you throw your hands back to rub your stinging bottom. You lower your head, unable to make eye contact with any of them after they’ve just seen your husband smack you like you were a naughty child.

Grant sidles a bit nearer, his arms wrapped around his stomach like he’s trying to self-soothe. “I believe him,” he says quietly. “I wish I didn’t, because…if he’s lying, that means Paul and Martin won’t be lost to me forever. But if we break the curse, everyone who died will stay dead. And I’ll lose both of them,” he whispers.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Walter says soberly. “But we can’t measure the lives of two people against those who have already been hurt and will be hurt by this curse.”

Grant opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, the ground begins shaking beneath you. You wobble, but manage to keep your balance by clinging to Walter.

Once the quaking stops, you risk a glance back over your shoulder, your eyes widening as you spot one major difference than before.

Two caves have erupted from the ground behind the car. They look identical, but some strange magnetic pull attracts you to the cave on the left and you take a shaky step towards it before you quash the instinct down.

Anubis speaks up behind you, in a voice that seems to come from very far away. “You’ll feel drawn to one of the caves in particular. Go inside and bring me out the item you’ll find there.”

You glance at Walter, but there really isn’t any other choice. Even if you find it hard to believe that someone who looks like Anubis could be a spirit guardian, it’s true that he’s the only one who seems to have an idea of what to do.

Your husband nods to you and cocks his gun. “Let’s go.”

Your bottom isn’t stinging anymore, but the memory of being swatted in front of everyone else is enough to make your face grow hot. You don’t say anything and don’t sulk, though. As much as you didn’t like it, Walter was right to respond to your behaviour. Cocking your own gun, you step into the mouth of the cave, close enough to your husband that your hips brush against each other every time you move forward.

It's quiet in the cave. The only sound that reaches your ears is breathing; your own and Walter’s. The air is damp and there’s a musty scent to it. When you stretch your hand out to the other side, you can feel the wall against your fingertips; close enough that you could press your palm against it without shifting away from Walter. Something soft and wet clings to your fingers as you pull your hand away and you wipe it on your pants, not wanting to think about what you’ve just touched.

You lose track of how long you’ve walked for before a light starts forming ahead of you. Both of you continue walking and it doesn’t take long before you set foot into a large cavern. Stalactites hang from the top and water drips down the back of your neck, making you shiver.

The two of you aren’t alone in the cavern.

She’s still wearing the same tattered clothes she was outside the precinct, pacing back and forth. Dark hair obscures her face from view and she clutches the knife in her hand, the blade still stained with blood. On a raised rock behind her is a closed box, made out of dark oak wood.

She doesn’t seem to be aware of you and Walter. Maybe you can sneak round her and get to the box that way? Or would it be better to approach her head-on and take her by surprise?