The Forgotten Queen

And So It Begins

I gave him my key and he opened the door, he led me too the couch and set me down, I lay down and he draped my jacket over me like a blanket. “Is it okay if I stay here till you get better? I want to make sure you’re okay.” He asked, I simply nodded and my eyelids felt heavy, 178960 find the way….find the code….

“Ughhhhh, my head,” I groaned. Sitting up, I held my head and looked around the room, I saw Mark sitting on a chair asleep, I looked under the blanket and found myself in a long white shirt, something I only wear to sleep I look on the table and see my shorts and top folded on the table, wait….for me too be wearing this and not that….”Ahhhhhh!!!” I screamed in shock, mark almost fell out of the chair at my out burst, “ What! What happened! Are you okay?!?” he asked panicked etched in his words.
“You undressed me! To dress me!!?!” I asked
“I know, I am sorry, I swear I didn’t do anything. But don’t freak out. When you passed out weird numbers began to etch itself on your neck and leg.” He explained.
“wha-what are you talking about? That’s impossible you perv!”
“Calm down Claire, here take a look,” he said opening his phone and showing me the camera. I held onto his phone and looked at my neck, the numbers,178960 were etched on my neck, they were small and written vertically on my neck in a blood black. “O my God.” I started to shake and become uneasy, Mark placed a hand on my shoulder. I took a breathe and decided to tell him what happened. “So wait, before I even told you anything, you’re telling me a voice told you these numbers and to find a code?!? To find the way?!?” he explained, 
“Yes, listen I know this sounds weird but I think this is a clue to finding the queen,”
“ Yeah, well you wouldn’t be wrong, what I was going to tell you at the café was, the number 178960 is a number that was used at the time of the Everlast, it was a code, I’m not sure for what. But it’s a code, my theories lead to it being the door of the palace.”
“Which is where excatly?”
“I am not sure, that’s kinda why I needed a partner in solving this, that’s why I decided to be a tour guide in the museum I needed a partner,”
“But why’d you pick me?” I started, “there are many other journalist out there who have the same task at hand. You made a poor choice, I’m no where near close to figuring this out.”
“You may think so, but i see differently,” he said ending the conversation by standing up and walking out of the living room and grabbing his jacket by the door. “Its late, my number is on the table, we will talk again tomorrow at the museum, I’m not working then so I’ll talk to you then, have a good night,” he walked out and closed the door. Feeling small and, confused I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped myself in the cover. ‘Claire, just get some rest, don’t think on it so much, maybe you and Mark will get through tomorrow, you got this, look good, feel good, be good,' I reminded myself. Grabbing the blanket, I started upstairs and made my way to the bedroom.
Another day, another torturous hour, I thought opening the door. Ever since yesterday, Mark has me questioning my ability as a journalist but I guess he’s still up for the challenge. I got a text from him earlier this morning reminding me to meet him at the museum. As much as I dreaded the thought of seeing Mark again I decided to do it, just for his sake. My thoughts were flooded on my way to the museum, ‘are you really worth him wasting his time? ‘you're not worth his time, if anything you’re slowing him down.’ These thoughts picked at the corner of my mind,  but I couldn’t give in to them, not again, I couldn’t. I pushed open the glass doors of the museum and I was amazed that absolutely no one was there, after all it was a Sunday, no one was going to be at a museum on a Sunday. Looking into the museum I found Mark sitting  on a white bench, slouched over on his phone. “Where is everyone?” At the sound of my voice he spun around and flashed me his famous grin almost knocking me over with his pearly whites. ‘Goddamn it Mark, stop being so gorgeous' I thought,  ‘You’re staring Claire…’ At the thought, I realized I was,  and Mark waved a hand in front my face to knock me out of my ‘trance’. “You still have the ‘tattoos',” he asked,  it took me awhile to remember what he was saying, but soon remembered the tattoos were being covered by my turtleneck sweater and long black tights. I swallowed and peered the neck of the sweater down a bit so he could see it. I didn’t pay much attention to it, after all its just a tattoo. I hope…
“Does it hurt?” he asked
“No, not at all, in fact, I don’t really pay attention to it,”
“That's good, I guess,”
“Why'd you call me here Mark?”
“Right, turns out my theories are correct,” he started, leading me to a bookcase, that was filled with huge books, I wasn’t sure what they were on until Mark pulled out on from the very bottom,  it wasn’t big like the others, in fact it looked like an old dirty journal. He walked up to a desk and slammed the book on the table, dust flying everywhere. ‘How long has that thing been there!?’ I questioned myself. “Come here, see this?” He pointed at a faded marking, I squinted my eyes and tried to focus on what he was pointing out, it was a number, no, numbers.
178960
Beneath it was a description of where the number came from, it read:
My name is Will Croft, 17th of January, 2005. I am so close to solving this mystery of the Queen, but I fear if I do, I may put her in harms way. But I have to find her, I need to prove to myself that there are other things out there, that we don’t know about. The number 178960 is the the code to the doors of the palace, but there are traps, set by the queen's army. These traps are highly dangerous and have out of this world technology. This will not stop me. I’m nearing the end, and if I have to ill die trying.
“Wow, this helps us, a little bit I guess,”
“it actually helps us out a lot,” he started,  “My dad used to work with Will, before he….” He trailed off and coughed.
“Im so sor-“ he cut me off
“It’s fine, I found his journals and a ‘lair’ where he has a whole bunch of research on this, that’s why I took it up, I’m so close Claire, please,”
“Alright, let’s see what we can do,”
We spent hours and hours looking for what we could find, anything, any little bit of information was relevant, and I looked into more as to what happened to me yesterday. We found ourselves in the library. It was now night and it was only us in the library, the only light source we had was a bright green lamp, that sat on a wooden table that mark and I had covered in books. “Hey Claire, check this out,” forgetting my book I looked at Mark's he had found something on the voice that I heard in my head. I was realived but also, terrified and confused as to why it only happened to me. If it was only me, I guess I might be going mad.
If you are one of the people who are on the quest to find the Forgotten Queen, only the people that she wants will be able to get to her, sadly they will have to encounter some torturous experiences here are the following:
Headaches, Nauseous, Frequent Nosebleeds, Tremendous stomach cramps
Before you would feel the headache, its more like a migraine. You would feel nauseous and in some cases cough up blood.
The reason being the Queens power is so strong it will be overbearing for the average human. In order to end this you have to find the Queen.
Something wasn’t right here, for the author of this book to write something so detailed, it had to be that he went through it himself or knew something that we didn’t, this whole thing seems off,  “Wait a second Mark, the guy who wrote this,” I looked at the cover of the book, “Jason MacFarlane, how does he know this”
“Good question, let’s do some research on Mr. MacFarlane,”
“Something else is wrong Mark,”
“What is it?”
“If the Queen doesn’t want to be found… why would she choose people to come find her?” something wasn’t adding up but I’m not sure what. I looked at the books in front of me and checked my watch, ‘11:05, damn its really late, surprisingly, I’m not tired, I wonder if Mark's tired?’ looking over at the computer desk, Mark had fallen asleep, silent snores escaped his mouth and I stifled a laugh. Carefully walking up to him, I lightly placed a hand on his shoulder and he jumped under my palm, “Hey let’s head home, ill call you tomorrow and see what we could do from there,” my voice seemed dry and raspy. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, “Good idea.” Grabbing our things and placing the books back in there places, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. Walking into the shower, I let the hot streams of water try to wash away all my worries and terrors I am facing or about to face. I looked at my arms and felt a burden of anxiety and depression, the scars had faded but still a little visible, ‘No, not again Claire, you’re better than this,’ I had to stop, if I started again I don’t think I would stop. I shooed the scarring thoughts and stepped out of the shower. I got dressed and lay in bed, trying to get some sleep. ‘1:03am, I need to get some rest for tomorrow,’ the ceiling suddenly became interesting and I found myself lost in thought. ‘Is the Queen's enemy still out there, could they be in the disguise as the average human?’ All these questions gnawed at the sides of my brain. Finally, fatigue took over and darkness filled my vision.