Chapter 1
Vin was an archeologist. She'd always loved digging, searching for remnants of the past, even if her parents told her off for digging holes in their backyard. Vin hadn't found anything anyways.
She had started three days ago, on a prompt from her parents, who wanted her to 'work'. Vin knew they just wanted her out of the house.
Vin was nineteen, a strange age. Not an adult, not a teen, but in-between, unclassified.
It was her first day on the field. They were searching on a lead, a vague hint of a past civilization. Vin didn't know where they were looking. None of them did. The boss said they were in Scotland, but this dry, mountainy desert couldn't possibly be Scotland.
She knelt on the parched ground, pulled out a peg, and began searching for hollow or softer ground to place it in. The peg was for the sonar equipment- a device only recently invented. It was her job to stick the peg somewhere where it could stay. This would current the sonar waves downwards, to search for the possible remains of an ancient city.
Vin found a spot, and drove the peg downwards into soil. It was surprisingly easy, way easier than she had expected, given the quality of the earth.
"Vin- Vin? Where did you go? Vin?"
She looked around, confused. Her partners and boss were scanning the bare expanse of land, looking for..her?
"Vin, this isn't funny. Come out! Vin!"
She stood up and tapped one of them on the shoulder. He turned, but stared straight through her. Vin waved her hand, but prompted no response from the archeologist. His eyes widened, and he began to tremble, looking at the ground behind her.
The man screamed, a piercing, terrible sound, one only a person who was terrified for their life could make. Vin whirled around, and saw something she wouldn't forget until the day she lived again.
Her body, her own body, sprawled on the ground. Pale white, shaking, her coworkers raced to the body of Vin. Vin looked on in horror, in confusion, as one of them checked her pulse, and shook her head in bewilderment. What was happening? Why was she standing, but also on the ground?
The archeologist who checked her pulse straightened. He was deathly white, almost....ghost-like.
"She's dead."
Vin gasped.
Her boss, Emanuel, sunk to the ground. The others didn't notice, exclaiming about bad sonar equipment, walking away from the body. Vin saw, however.
Vin saw him turn her over, Vin saw the massive, gaping hole in her chest. Vin saw all of her intestines spill onto the cracked earth. Vin saw Emanuel clutch his chest. Vin saw an identical hole appear in his heart.
Vin saw her boss collapse, his deceased body limp next to her own, fatal wounds mirrored on their chests.
The other archeologists spun, at Emanuel's choked gasp of pain. They saw the holes in their chests, saw the blood dripping, and ran. Ran, abandoning all the supplies, and ran for their lives. Vin raced after them, needing to get away from the stench of rust, the horrible sight of her own body.
One by one, the scientists, dropped, plucked seemingly at random, like dead flies. Holes appeared in their chests, their blood watering the ground.
A trail of bodies littered the desert, Vin's coworkers, her boss, and her.
It was impossible to comprehend. She glanced at her hands, trying to convince herself it was a dream. The sight of her hands didn't help her, however. Her hands were translucent, ghostly in the setting sun. And covered in bright red, splattered, unmistakable, blood.
One thing was for sure, as Vin's ghost stood in shock. This was certainly not Scotland.
