[CookingwiththeCobra]

| Henry Cruz Junior |
| Indiana Cruz |

Henry stepped out of his car and leaned back in to grab his coat that he had laid down in the passenger seat. Locking the car he shut the door and slipped his coat on. He turned looking around trying to spot the place that he had come to see. Across the street was an old small grocery store. He made off at a brisk pace wanting to quickly get out of the cold. He was a college professor of rare antiquities down in a warmer region so his body was not used to the cold up where he was. Henry had traveled quite a ways to get here, he had heard about what was happening up in the Tuun Mountains and his curiosity had gotten the best of him, so there he was making his way through the cold trying figure out the strange thing that was happening. Once he made it inside he rubbed his hands together regaining some heat in them. Henry quickly spotted what he was looking for and made his way over to a man sweeping around the cash registers, “hello, my name is Henry and I’m here about one of your employees?”

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“Are you talking about Scarlett because I don’t know what she does on her free time, she just works for me,” the man leaned the broom against the counter causally as if this was a common occurrence.

“Uh, no that’s not who I am talking about, an older man that used to work here. He passed away recently due to unknown causes.”

Realization flashed in the man eyes, “oh uh… yes, yes what do you want to know about him?”

“I’m curious as too if he had been acting strangely the week before he had passed away or if he had been a little different?”

“Reggie was co-owner here. He always showed up early and worked until closing, he was a good man but the week before he… passed away he was behaving a little off. In the beginning I had just assumed he had a cold.”

Henry nodded along taking in the information, “can you tell me why you thought he was sick?”

The man looked at him confused, “why are you asking these questions?”

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“Because some other people nearby have died in a similar ways as your friend and I wanted to make sure we have the same thing here. Us knowing his story could help find a cure,” Henry fibbed. It wasn’t all a lie but he was letting on that he was with some place that was working on a cure when at the moment there was no such thing however he was trying to figure out what exactly was happening because it wasn’t normal.

“Other people had the same thing as Reggie?”

“Yes, so could you please explain to me why you thought he had a cold?” he continued on patently.

“Well he would always be sniveling and he was extremely pale almost had a green tinge to him, he walked… actually sort of moped about and grunted a lot. I thought he had become depressed and his eyes were blood shot by the end of the week, for a second I assumed he had went back to drinking but before I could process it he had passed on that night,” Henry could tell it was becoming difficult for the man to speak about it so he bid his farewell leaving behind his number just in case the man thought of anything else and exited back into the cold.

[CookingwiththeCobra]

Slouching back in his car he turned his heater on and sat a bit thinking. Whatever it was, it was turning people into sort of a zombie like state except instead of them becoming the undead they just ended up dead. He rubbed his temple trying to think, “hmm I wonder…” he reached into the back seat and pulled out an old book. He flipped through the worn pages until he came to the section about cursed relics.

He sat for a while and read the pages until he came across what he was looking for, the cursed blade of sickness.

There was once a man who sought fortune and fame, he was known for his ruthlessness and his swordsman ship. People either looked upon in awe or fear. He was a strong built man that spent his days killing large beasts for game. One day he heard of a god who sat on one of the highest mountains, it was said that this god’s bones were stronger than any metal. The man quickly jumped at the idea that he would go and find this god, he would slay it like all the other beasts he had killed. Then he would make a blade out of his bones.

So the man made his journey up the tallest mountain and met many challenges that the god put in his way but the man always pulled through until he reached the top. At the top sat a monster of a man, pale almost green, blood shot eyes, and a deep raspy voice, here sat the god of disease. The god warned the greed filled man of the consequences but that didn’t stop him. An epic battle ensued and the man was the one to exit the fight alive. With his bare hands he ripped a large rib out of the god’s side and with the gods dying breath he cursed the bone to bring sickness slowly to the man and to whoever touched it next.

After the man returned he turned the bone into a beautiful sword, he went out and slayed giants, monsters, and anything that crossed his path with the sword. Nothing could stand in the way of him after he obtained the sword. He was undefeated and anyone who tried to step up to him, he would battle and win. Except slowly the man started to die having the symptoms similar to that of the diseased god. His sickness was something he could not battle and he could not win, on his death bed he learned that even he was not invincible. Over the years the blade was at the scene of many deaths but suddenly like the god it disappeared and is only heard of in legends and bedtime stories.

Henry closed the book, he wondered if this was what he was dealing with. It was true that some of the mountains nearby were the tallest in the world but the blade had disappeared for what seemed around thousands of years.

[CookingwiththeCobra]

He jumped out of his thoughts when he heard his phone ring, he picked it up and answered it, “hello?”

“Hey man, where are you at? I stopped by your place to see if you wanted to go down town and have a few drinks with me but weren’t there,” the man on the telephone sounded concerned.

“No Rhys I’m out of town right now,” Henry balanced his phone between his ear and shoulder as he turned sideways and put the book back behind him.

“What?! You’re actually on vacation for once, and you didn’t plan on telling me?” Henry could practically feel the shock from his friend though the phone.

He dead panned, “no I’m here for work.”

“Work, I thought your job consisted of sticking your nose in dusty old books for a good portion of the day?”

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He rolled his eyes, “No Rhys not all the time, my job does occasionally take me other places because right now I’m in the Tuun Mountains,” he looked out his window and frowned at all the snow that was packed into the ground.

“Oh wow, I hope you fixed the pressure in your two back tires. Last time I checked they were pretty bad. You never took your car into the shop though so I am guessing not, you better watch yourself one of them might blow out.”

Henry thumped himself on the head, “no I completely forgot, Rhys why didn’t you remind me now I am not going to want to drive home when this is all over.”

“Alright since it’s the weekend and I’m off work, I’ll take one of the trucks up to you and fix it,” Rhys offered.

“You’re going to drive all the way up here just to fix my tires?” he asked a little suspicious.

“What are friends for eh?...” Henry didn’t respond, “okay you got me I enjoy the snow and want to come up plus I’m a little curious as to why your job would lead you all the way up into the mountains… also I know you won’t know how to fix your own tires.”

[CookingwiththeCobra]

Balancing his phone again he started to shrug off his jacket, “wow you have so much faith in me and I promise you my job here is just as boring as it is back home.”

“Hmm how do I know you aren’t lying to me, you could be up there visiting some lady. As your only friend I think it’s my job to come up and find out for myself. What if this lady is using you, you know have gullible you can be?” his friend questioned mockingly.

He stopped with still one arm in the sleeve, “firstly there is no woman, I don’t know where you got that from and secondly I am not gullible, you’re just a sly bastard”

“Ouch you really put a dent in my heart this time and as much as I would love to carry this conversation on, if I want to get up there before four I gotta leave now so see you later Henry,” before he could say goodbye the line ended.

[CookingwiththeCobra]

Looking out the window Henry saw little flecks of snow start to fall and he dreaded having to go back out in the weather so he leaned his seat back and decided to take a nap before Rhys got there to fix his tires, maybe he would also bring chains so he could drive better on the snow and ice. A yawn escaped him as he turned off the car so he wouldn’t waste gas and then he drifted off to sleep.

He wouldn’t wake until he heard tapping on his window, he blinked a few time and realized that it was extremely cold in his car due to it being off. With shaking fingers he turned his key in the ignition having the car come back to life. Another tap drew his attention to outside, it was snow heavily, he wished he could see how bad the road was but a figure stood in way. Looking he saw it was Rhys.

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Henry unlocked the doors and Rhys came around and sat in the passenger seat, “what the hell were you thinking? Trying to give yourself hypothermia were ya?”

“What are you doing here so early? I thought you couldn’t get up here until four?” he asked as he rubbed his hands in front of the heater.

“Henry what are you talking about? It’s almost five, you weren’t answering your phone so I had to drive all around town looking for you,” sure enough his phone was blinking due to missed calls.

“Had I really fallen asleep that hard, I hadn’t meant to sleep for so long, I planned on talking with someone else before you showed up,” he wished that he hadn’t taken off his coat earlier, as he was now putting it back on.

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Rhys quirked an eyebrow, “a woman perhaps?”

Henry pinched the bridge of his nose with his cold fingers, “yes but in the way you are thinking.”

“Hmmhmm, okay…” Rhys replied sounding skeptical, “anyway so what has brought the book worm out of his hole if not for a woman?”

Reaching behind him, Henry pulled out the book from earlier and handed it to Rhys. He flipped to the right page and tapped it. He watched as Rhys eyes scanned the page before he looked up at him, “so what, this is just some folk lore, it’s not real. I thought you specialized in things like dinosaur bones and mummies?”

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“No, I’m an archeologist of rare antiquities not a paleontologist. I deal with rare artifacts that can sometimes be mummies but most of the time are just old trinkets that have been buried for thousands of years. Not dinosaurs. I study the artifacts to determine how ancient civilizations would live, how religion or hierarchy were determined. How their cultures were and the differences or similarities between now and then,” he wasn’t sure how many times he had to explain his job to his friend. He always remembered what Rhys did for a living, not like it was hard to remember though. Rhys owned his families mechanic shop, one of the best in their area. It always came in handy to know a good mechanic especially since Henry didn’t understand the functions of vehicles.

“So wait… you don’t discover dinosaurs then?” Rhys question only getting that out of everything his friend explained.

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Henry let out a sigh of frustration, “no I don’t sorry to disappoint. Can we get back to the subject at hand please?”

“Right, you chasing down so old folk lore,” Rhys spoke nonchalantly as he rummaged through the glove compartment.

“Yes well that is what I first thought too but I’m not to… sure anymore,” he took the book back and started to reread parts of it.

Rhys looked up from the registration papers for the car that he had found, “what do you mean?”

“Well there has been a few people from around the area that have died in the last few months due to the same unknown causes. For a week the people start off with what seems to be a common cold but by the end of the week they are dead. In some other books that I left back in my office talk about the victims before they pass on when the blade was around many years ago and a professor during that era who specialized in healing talked about these cases saying that if you watch carefully its starts very subtly and goes on for about a month but you don’t see any real definite signs until a week before. However by that time it’s too late to do anything…” he trailed off.

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“I’m not fully on board here with this yet but I’ll play along. How can you tell beforehand if the person is dying?” he asked as he changed the heat to the floor because it had started to warm up finally.

Henry shook his head, “it doesn’t say anywhere.”

Rhys sighed, “okay then how about this lady you said you wanted to speak with, what does she have to do with anything?”

“She was the wife to the last victim,” Henry answered as he shifted out of park mode and started to drive off down the street following the address of the shopkeeper’s house.

“So how do we know that these ‘victims’ even touched this so called cursed blade?” Rhys asked as he pulled on his seat belt.

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“That’s what I’m trying to find out, maybe the wife could give us a little more information than his co-worker could,” just as he finished talking he pulled down a road filled with dainty old houses. It wasn’t hard finding ones way around because the town was so little that the streets going north to south were numbered and the roads going west to east were letters of the alphabet. The older man and his wife had lived on 12th Street coming off of R Avenue in the white picket fence neighborhood.  

Henry stepped out of the car for the second time that day and pulled his hood over his protecting his ears from the cold flurries of snow that were being thrown about by the wind. He turned around once he got onto the sidewalk and watched Rhys get out of the car and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Hey Rhys do you have any spare chains in your truck?” he watched his friend look up from watching his step.

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“Uh, I can look why? Did you forget that too?” he didn’t need a reply to know the answer.

They made it to the door step and Henry knocked on the door, they heard someone stumbling around before the door was pulled open. “Hiya there, what can I do for you two?” an older women asked from inside her doorway. She hadn’t opened to door up fully but a loud yappy bark told them why, “Missy cut it out or I’m putting you upstairs in the bedroom.” When the barking didn’t subside the woman bent down and picked the small Yorkie up and smiled at them, “sorry about her she all bark but no bite.”

“Hi we are here to maybe ask a few questions about your husband?” her face fell. “If you don’t mind that is?” he added quickly.

“May I ask why? He didn’t go and get into any trouble before he… uh… left, did he?” she opened the door wider and beckoned them in and away from the cold.