"It... it isn't as ominous as it sounds," Lanie stammered, in a vain attempt at reassurance.
Becca still seemed genuinely concerned by this new information, but anxiously continued the line of inquiry. "Look, whatever... so, how do we even know this city has anything to do with this Kukulkan? How do we know it even exists at all?"
Lanie's expression changed to one of quiet defensiveness. "Well, my father's been researching this since... since as long as I can remember. I... I have faith in him, and that he knows what he's talking about, and..."
"And so should you," the reprimanding voice of James came stumbling up from the path behind them, as even out here, they couldn't seem to escape his snark, "I mean, otherwise, what are any of us even doing out here?"
"Oh come off it, you little kiss ass! You don't know that any of this is for real!" Becca spun around at the far end of the path. Sweaty, tired, and irritable, she was clearly in no mood to be sparring with James at this moment, "you know, the man can make a bloody mistake, ya?" She turned, apologetically to Lanie for a moment, and gave a meek, "sorry, Lanie," before returning her aggravation in James's direction. "But what... we're just supposed to blindly follow, like good little unpaid grad students, and hope that a thirty-meter tall step pyramid just happens to fall out of his pompous arse?!" Becca took another step back, her arms gesticulating exaggeratedly, "Or maybe the grounds just going to open up for us and..." But as she took one more step backward, that is exactly what happened. And in an instant, Becca screamed out, and startlingly disappeared from view.
Chapter 11
Darkest Place
The other three students stood there for a moment, in a state of silent shock at what had just happened. After a long while, in which none of them dared to move, it was Layla that finally ran forward to find out what happened. She quickly found herself coming up on a rather precarious ledge, part of a large hole in the jungle floor. Massive, nearly ten meters across, and completely obstructed from view, unless you were right on top of it. Layla quickly scrambled to the loose bit of rocks and gravel where erosion must have caused the ledge to give way beneath Becca's feet, sending her plummeting without warning.
"Oh, God, Becca!! Can you hear me?!!" Layla called down into the pit, not daring to go too near herself, but desperately straining for any sign of a response, "Are you alright?!!"
There was nothing but a long silence, as Layla held her breath, and gazed into the darkness. But nothing could be heard emanating from the pit, not as sound, until, finally...
"Cough cough... I'm okay!" The echoing, jovial voice of Becca could be heard, far off, but once again rising up to meet Layla's anxious ears, "Woo! Remind me not to do that again!"
Layla finally allowed herself to breathe freely. "But you're okay?! I mean, you're alright?!"
"I'm brilliant! But Jesus Christ, this water is cold as balls down here!"
Carefully, and surefootedly, the three students, still very much rattled, slowly made their way to the edge of the pit. Layla found a vine hanging off of a nearby tree, whose roots stuck out over the edge. She double looped it around one arm, so she could swing out and look down, without risking losing her balance and falling in herself. Peering down into the darkness, she could see Becca, safe and waving from about four or five stories down. She appeared to be floating in a large pool of water, a lake, deep, dark, and nearly the entire diameter of the pit itself.
"It's... it's a cenote!" Lanie marveled.
"A what?" James asked, in a rare moment of not pretending to have the answer for everything.
"A cenote," Lanie elaborated, "it's like a sinkhole where the ground gives way and opens up, usually into an underground pool of freshwater, or an existing cave system. They're somewhat common around this part of the Yucatan Peninsula, and were usually sacred places to the Maya, who..."
"Okay, thanks. I get it. Give it a rest, Wikipedia" James rudely cut her off, backing away from the ledge stiffly, "can we... can we just get out of here already?"
"James, come on. We can't just leave her down there," Layla chided, as she began looking for a vine that might be both long and sturdy enough to support Becca's weight, "just come back over here already... give me a hand with this."
"No!" James shouted, curtly, his face blanching, "it's just... I don't do heights, okay!"
"What's that?! Is that James I hear up there being too much of a little bitch for a rescue mission?!"
"Shut the hell up, Becca!"
"Look, James, it's fine," Layla was doing her best to talk James down, who she could tell was already starting to hyperventilate, "you don't have to go anywhere near the hole. Lanie and I'll figure out something, won't we, Lanie?" But Lanie wasn't paying attention to their conversation. Instead, she was kneeling down at the edge of the cenote, tying back her wavy black hair and looking as if she were trying to intently figure something out. "Lanie?"
Lanie looked up at Layla, and smiled, before saying, "see you at the bottom!" And with little more than a few feet of runoff, she leaped feet first into the pit, leaving Layla and James to look on, mouths agape, until they finally heard the splash a good couple seconds later, and Layla ran over to the edge to look down.
Becca was actually the first to break the silence. "Bloody hell, Lanie! Check out the stones on you!"
Lanie clearly flushed behind her water coated glasses, before cupping her
