Dare to enter the chilling world of Glenn Riley's "Creepy Crawlies", a spine-tingling collection where the smallest creatures cast the longest shadows. In this gripping anthology, Riley masterfully weaves tales of horror that skitter and scuttle fro...
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The blistering Syrian sun beat down on the back ofDr. Anna Torres' neck as she peered into the freshly-dug opening beneath the ruins of the ancient temple. Wiping sweat from her brow, she pulled her wide-brimmed hat lower over her eyes to give them relief from the merciless light.
"This is incredible," she murmured. "I've never seen masonry like this before. The angles almost don't seem...natural."
Her grad assistant, Tyrell, paused in brushing sand away from a column that disappeared down into the darkness below them. "Not natural? What do you mean, Dr. Torres?"
"I mean the geometry is all wrong. It's non-Euclidean. The proportions are maddening, almost incomprehensible." She traced her fingers over swirling patterns carved into the stone.
Tyrell studied where the column met the ceiling. The lines did seem to bend in ways that unsettled the senses when one stared too long. "Perhaps it is simply an archaic style lost to the ages. This site does predate any known human civilization, after all."
Dr. Torres frowned. "Perhaps. But those carvings..." Her eyes followed the profusion of bizarre shapes that covered every inch of the stone surfaces. There was something that almost reminded her of insects in the otherworldly etchings. A chill ran through her despite the heat.
Just then, another member of their research team, Dr. Rodriguez, stepped gingerly into the room through the opening they had excavated in the buried temple's stone roof. "It's incredible what has been hidden under the sands all this time," he marveled as he joined Anna and Tyrell in gazing around. "To think this temple could be older than humanity itself..."
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Their moment of reflective awe was shattered by a distant boom that seemed to make the ground shudder ever so slightly. The archeologists looked at each other with worry clouding their faces.
"The Syrian army is getting closer," Tyrell said quietly. "We should pack up while we still have time to get out of the country safely."
Dr. Torres turned back to examining the bizarre inscription-covered columns with intense curiosity still lighting her eyes.
