Location: Temple Ruins, Oaxaca, Mexico
Final Thoughts on the Oaxaca Affair
There are moments in a journalist’s life when the story becomes something else—something bigger than a headline, more terrifying than ink on a page. I’ve chased plenty of shadows, but tonight, we stood in the heart of something ancient, something monstrous.
And we barely made it out.
The Rings & The Past
Eliza, brilliant as ever, decided to test the rings. Five of them. Slid them all on at once. Bad idea.
The temple reacted. The ground shook. And Eliza—she wasn’t with us anymore. Her eyes went distant, like she was seeing beyond the present. When she spoke again, her voice was unsteady. Blood. Priests. Sacrifices. The sealing of the worm.
The rings weren’t just trinkets. They were the key to whatever had been keeping the nightmare in the pit below.
Eliza slipped one off. The tremors stopped. The message was clear.
The Corpse That Shouldn’t Have Moved
Terri patched me up—professional, quick. I wasn’t in top shape, but I was moving. We set the She Who Watches statue on the plinth, and the moment held a weight to it. Like something was shifting beneath us.
Then, the smell. Rot. Deep, sickening decay from the pit. Tryon, ever the brave idiot, took a look. Lantern down.
Movement.
A body—the guard Terri had thrown in earlier—climbing back out. Twisted limbs. Dead white eyes. And in its grasp, a severed head with open, staring eyes.
Not just any head.
Dennis Van Dyne’s father.
I took the shot. Missed. The creature kept coming. Eliza moved in with a torch. I moved to cover her, but then it locked eyes with me—and suddenly, everything was wrong. The angles in the room twisted, my balance was off.
Terri was chanting. The book she carried flared with unnatural light.
The room shook again.
Dennis Comes Back
Dennis had been dead. We saw him fall. We saw him die.
And then he gasped back to life.
Tryon and Eliza managed to sever the head from the reanimated corpse. I barely had time to process before Dennis whispered to the damn thing. Whispered to his father’s severed head.
Then, he threw it at me.
Tryon knocked it off course, but Dennis grabbed something off the floor—something Julia had dropped before she disappeared through the shimmering wall.
Eliza reacted first, pulling on the object with telekinesis. Dennis resisted, fighting back against the invisible force. Meanwhile, Tryon—thinking fast—hurled the head into the pit.
The thing down there ate it.
Dennis faltered. Just long enough for me to do what needed to be done.
I fired. Hit him square.
He staggered. His grip on the statue faltered. And Eliza, ever the opportunist, pulled it toward her. She ran for the plinth. Tryon, covering her, set the reanimated corpse ablaze.
The temple exploded with energy.
Navarro’s Last Play
Navarro appeared, bloodied but standing. He knew what had to be done. He Who Sleeps had to be restored.
He went to the plinth, opened the tome, and told us what we already knew: this would take a sacrifice.
I put my hand on the plinth first. Navarro nodded, but it wasn’t enough.
Tryon stepped in. Still not enough.
Eliza, ever the scientist, had a solution: the rings. One for me, one for Tryon, two for herself.
Power surged through us. Still not enough.
Then, of all people—William Stone—stepped forward.
“Give me a ring,” he said.
I didn’t question it. He took it. Joined in.
Everything went white. Power surged through us, overwhelming, searing.
Then—silence. Navarro and his men were gone. The statue was whole again.
Loose Ends & Unanswered Questions
- Navarro is gone. The rings vanished with him. Coincidence? Unlikely.
- The pit is empty. Whatever was inside? No trace.
- The film crew saw too much. That will need handling.
- Dennis’ soldiers were captured. The locals handled them.
- Navarro’s apprentice is out there. And he knows more than he’s letting on.
- Terri and Julia are recovering. Julia lost her memory of what happened. Terri was in a coma for weeks.
- Nora Van Dyne is missing. Checked out before we got back. We haven’t seen the last of her.
- William Stone paid for our trip. A man changed, perhaps?
- Eliza is working on some new technology. Something about a bag with infinite capacity. Probably not safe.
- Tryon went out in Mexico City, came back with money and a ‘trinket.’ No questions asked.
Final Thought
The temple is sealed. The rings are gone. The White Worm, if it still exists, is buried beneath layers of stone.
But this doesn’t feel like victory.
It feels like an intermission.
I need to write this up. But there’s another story here. I can feel it.
And I’m not done chasing it yet.