Part 2

Chapter Four: Free Days And Holidays

Sitting at home Joyce felt more than a little foolish, Claudia would be rushed off her feet, and taking the brunt of the crews reaction to suddenly finding that they only digging they would do this week was in their own gardens. All because of what! She couldn't really think about it logically, because of a passing infatuation with Claudia's nether regions! It was laughable they had shared tents over the years on various digs, showered together in the jungle, with never a second glance, but today. Shaking her head she tried to forget the incident, once again a chill ran down her spine.

"Perhaps I'm coming down with something" she thought, but now she was home she felt fine; just the odd shiver.

She walked to the cabinet in the bathroom and pulled the customary poses, checking eyes, tongue, throat and glands in front of its tiny mirror. Just to be on the safe side Joyce popped the silver glinting thermometer under her tongue and waited thirty seconds, 98.4F no problem. Shutting the door she wondered about the menopause, could you get cold flushes as well as hot? Then she laughed at her own pessimistic thinking; either was hopefully a bit unlikely at 27.

Still musing she left the bathroom and brushed against her coat, something heavy in the pocket banged her arm. She was confused, as her normal pocket contents only ran to tissues and the odd bag of candies, Joyce slipped in her searching hand. To her utter amazement it emerged clutching the artifact she had recovered that day! To hell with the menopause this was looking more like Alzheimer's by the minute. First she had bought an auction lot she had no interest in and now the most valuable relic from the dig was in her pocket like a discarded candy wrapper.

Joyce turned and instead of heading back to the lounge as originally intended she walked to her study and logged on to her PC. After half an hours surfing she felt much more reassured on the dementia score, it was pretty unlikely at her age. She had booked her self into this week's well-woman clinic on Thursday; a check up seemed a reasonable plan. Tomorrow the plumbing would be fixed; well it would if cyber-plumbers were any more reliable than their real cousins.

She then turned her attention to the handful of mirror sitting by her mouse pad. After scouring several sites she was no real closer to its origins, but there was a surprise - the markings were not on the mirror to ward off evil, they were intended to attract it! Now the bug truly bit, why would a mirror designed to act as a conduit for evil be found close to a churches nave?

She had to retrieve the rest of the mirror, it may tell the full story and in any case it looked to be an increasingly important find. Joyce rang Claudia's mobile, after the predictable

"Hi, Claudie?"

She asked her colleague to join her for a coffee and meal at Luigi's.

"About six, great! No much better now, bye"

Joyce went to the bedroom and dressed warmly before slinging some old tools into the back of her '78 T-Bird. At a half past five she left for the short drive and in no time was pulling into the lot behind Luigi's. Claudia was chatty at dinner and had clearly risen to the new responsibility well, as one long bout of laughter faded; Joyce looked more serious.

"I have something well, unorthodox to ask of you?"

"Sounds serious, fire away" Claudia replied lightly.

"It could be serious, career-wise if we're caught" Joyce indicated.

"Caught, doing what?" asked a confused Claudie.

"Getting the rest of the mirror," Her voice lowered to a whisper "that's what!"

Claudie looked even more confused.

"But the digs closed, how are you going..."

Realization hit the girls face, the clothes weren't just an odd grunge phase of eveningwear, and Joyce meant to dig tonight!

"I really don't know why I let you talk me into this" Claudie said with the slightest of slurs.

"I didn't, you know I think it was the forth bottle of Chianti"

Two figures stood just outside the site entrance Joyce slipped her soon to be redundant security pass out, and they were heading for the far side of the site in seconds.

"Jesus, I'm cold, I wished you'd given me some idea about this before I dressed for dinner" chattered Claudia.

"If I had, would you have come?"

Claudie shrugged off the question.

"O.K. keep the flashlight there, no a little higher, and left - perfect!" Joyce uttered from the slight pit.

For twenty minutes nothing, then in frustration she had switched her attention to the other edge of the pit, and bingo! Three more pieces laid in the sacking on the floor of the trench

"Look Claudie you can collect these first thing Wednesday, for now lets split".

As Joyce drove away from the site she felt exhilarated, maybe it was the booze, maybe not. Claudia crouched forward to get what benefit she could from the cars ancient heater. As she dropped Claudie by the Metro she pecked her on the cheek, there were no buzzers and bells, great things were back to normal!

"Look I owe you one for tonight Claudie, there's a lot of people wouldn't have risked that" Joyce said entirely accurately.

"Well at least we got something out of the months, what are you going to use it for?" asked the girl.

"I hope that if I can get enough information on this quickly enough I maybe able to halt the work while we finish. This find could be that significant"

"Can you at least give me a week off," Claudia laughed, "I'd made plans to decorate the bathroom"

"See you Wednesday Claudie and thanks again, bye"

Chapter Five: On reflection

The newspaper spread on the table supported the four pieces of mirror as Joyce first cleaned and then started to re-assemble as much of the original frame as possible. After 2 hours of painstaking repositioning, and a little manual manipulation the frame, other than a three-inch gap, was back into what probably was fairly close to its original configuration. Joyce went to the kitchen to clean the mud from her hands. She glanced up at the clock ten past twelve, she wouldn't research any more this evening, just tidy up and call it a day.

As Joyce carefully washed her hands she noticed a faint red mark on her right palm. It stretched down from between her forefinger and thumb in a shallow slope towards her palms middle. It looked like mild cooking burn from touching an over hot utensil. As she dabbed her palms dry she pressed a little harder than usual to test the severity of the wound, no pain or unusual sensation. Just another of life's little mysterious events.

Slipping the oversize Simpson tee shirt over her head, Joyce remembered to set the alarm for the morning, and then realized there was no need. Nothing to wake for, it had been University when she had last been in this situation, nearly six years ago. Although she didn't really feel tired Joyce fell asleep very easily in to a deep dreamless slumber.

On the hall table the blade of opener wobbled lightly then a little more violently, just as if a heavy truck was passing. There was no truck, no traffic of any kind. Another wobble and very slowly the dark blade started to shine a dull red color. The color was mirrored in the living room as the first uncovered fragment took on an unearthly glow.

Back in the bedroom Joyce had begun to dream, and moved a little in her sleep. She had the feeling that someone was sitting on her chest, making hard for her to breathe. In her dream she opened her eyes, before her was the image of Claudia's crotch, just as she had seen it in the mirror. She saw some movement a pale object moved towards the top of the shorts waistband. It was a hand; on the little finger it wore a ring just like the one on Joyce's right hand, the hand that lay twitching on top of the thick comforter. The dream hand pushed itself confidently past the waistband and pushed the zip of the shorts up into a small undulating hump.

Joyce sighed, as the hand continued its downward journey, finally the fingertips wriggled down over the humped pubis and into the delta below. The small damp spot started to soak out further into the fabric. The now damp material clung to the moving fingers and the clearly defined folds of the underlying vulva. The pressure on Joyce's breasts increased as the excited ass started to move in time to the detached but loving hand. The weight eased and the image faded, to Joyce it now felt as if she could float once the pressure had alleviated, and her body sat slowly upright in bed.

Joyce stood for along time by the hall table gazing sightless at the opener, before her right hand grasped it firmly, her left hand to wrapped around the bottom of the handle. She raised it as if to plunge it into a sacrifice, and then stretched down. Carefully the knife lifted the hem of the "Lisa" tee shirt centrally between her legs. The fabric was pulled taught against the blade. In one continuous motion the blade was brought swiftly up slicing the fabric from the tattered hem through to the splitting neckline.

Joyce's condensing breath flowed over her skin and between the peaks of her breasts. As the mist reached her nipples they tightened forming hard peaks. The blade descended and flattened against the cushion of her abundant dark pubic hair. Slowly her hands swept from side to side, in a pendulum motion. A few detached hairs fell onto the bare wooden floor followed by the blade itself.

As images of Claudie swam through her dreams, Joyce's fingers explored the wetness of her own deep furrow. Her minds eye watched the skillful hand strip the saturated shorts from Claudie's lower body. Joyce's head lolled back onto its shoulders, her mouth hung fully open, as the uncovered gash of Claudie's sex bore down towards it. Standing in the deserted cold hall, Joyce's tongue extended into the damp air as it rolled against the imagined labia of her dream lover. The slightly crouched small figure started to buck against her fingers as sweet fluids bathed her thighs.

In the intense dream the same wetness flowed over her spasming tongue and slipped liberally down her throat and chin. Joyce's eyelids opened widely as fully awake and crouched in the darkened hall her pleasure hit her, her body steamed to an incredible orgasm. Her tongue lashed the air in perfect time to the frenzied pumping of her hips. Joyce straightened up and caught sight of her image in the hall mirror, it didn't startle her it amazed her; she looked wild even wanton in her desire. The image in the mirror shook its head in confusion, turned and walked away to the bedroom.