Janina brushed a strand of her dark hair away from her eyes, wiping the sweat away from her forehead as she did so and sighed. Ignoring the exasperated sigh of the other person in the room with her, she tore a piece of paper out of her notebook, folded it, and began fanning herself with it.
"For real, love?" came a British accent from the other side of the small room.
"I can't help it, Megan, I'm dying here!"
The brunette Brit rolled her eyes and smiled, putting down her book and cleaning off her glasses.
"Shouldn't you be used to this weather? Being Indian and all?" Megan asked, leaning back and stretching, causing her top to pull tight against her heavy bust.
"Yeah, but I was born in Toronto, not exactly used to sand storms or 105 degree heat," Janina responded, fanning herself. Megan looked at her blankly.
"Sorry, 40 degrees," she finished lamely. Megan nodded in understanding. The two were temporary roommates, one from Canada, one from England, away for the semester studying abroad in Egypt. They had gotten along swimmingly right from the get go, along with a third student from America.
The two changed the subject to an equation Megan was working on and sat and talked or a few more minutes before their door burst open and in ran a tall young man with dark hair and a short beard. He was panting and covered in sweat and carrying a small bag with him.
"Just finished getting told off by another local lady, huh?" Megan said with a smirk.
"No... no, just... just doing some shopping," he said in a wholly unconvincing tone.
"Christ, Anthony, tell me you didn't just steal something from some poor shopkeeper!" Janina said, raising her voice.
"No way! And I know what you're thinking, and that was one time and a language barrier caused the incident," he said, still catching his breath.
"Then what's the bloody rush?" Megan asked, eyeing the bag in his hands. Anthony sat down next to her at the small table and emptied the contents out. Janina came over to join them and found a ring, a necklace, and an old chisel and small hammer.
"Ok, so get this; I'm trying to come back from the dig site and i accidentally passed down an alley I've never seen before, and it's lined with shops so i check out a few of them. I get to this one at the end of the way, and i spy these things here," He says pointing to the contents on the table. Anthony always had an eye for trinkets.
"I pick the stuff up and go to pay, but then i realize i left my wallet in my room. So I'm standing there holding these things and I'm trying to convince the guy who works there to hold it for a few minutes and i could be right back with the money. At first he's giving me grief, then all of a sudden he starts getting quiet and he looks real tired and just starts agreeing to whatever I'm saying. So as a joke I said, "Well might as well make it free!" and then he repeats it back to me and hands me a bag to put it in!" Anthony finished.
"So what did you do?" Megan asks.
"I ran like hell!" Anthony says, laughing nervously.
"Anthony, you're an idiot," Megan says, shaking her head.
"Did he shout after you or anything?" Janina asked.
"No, he didn't say a word. I went around a corner and waited for a minute or two, then i took a peak and the guy was just back to work like nothing happened... but by then it was getting dark and I was so weirded out I ran back anyway to tell you guys... what the fuck?" Anthony finished with a deep sigh.
"Anthony, you're an idiot," Megan repeated, her face in her hands.
"You already said that," Anthony responds.
"Seems to have bared repeating!"
"Why the hell would he just give those things up to you... the chisel and hammer don't seem worth anything, but even if they're fake the necklace and ring at least look pretty enough to pull one over on tourists," Janina said, ignoring the bickering and inspecting the items. The ring had a very pretty green stone in it, the necklace a blue crystal at the end of a slim, silver chain. After a moment of looking at them she hands Megan the ring.
"True enough, this ring is lovely, it's got some kind of shape on the front of it, I hope it's not damaged," Megan says, trying to rub the gem, "I can't feel a crack, perhaps that's an actual design in the ring."
"Yeah, it looked like that when I go it, I checked it out at the booth, it kind of looks like a little spiral pattern to me," Antonio responds, taking the ring back from her.
"Really? I couldn't make it out," Megan says, pursing her lips together and frowning, "show me."
"Here," he says, raising it up to her eye level, "I was holding it right about at this angle when we were talking too. All of a sudden he started slowing down while talking and then he just went kind of blank."
Megan nodded, staring at the ring and feeling her own thoughts slow down a little.
"Yeah, kind of... blank."
"Yeah, just like that! After that he just stopped talking and stared at it like he was dazed, he looked really tired and out of it, I thought he was gonna pass out and fall asleep on his feet," said Anthony.
"Uhh yeah, dazed and ti-ti-tired," Megan said, yawning.
At that moment the ring felt warm to his touch and he jerked his hand a little, confused. Janina put down the necklace and looked at him concerned.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, it's just weird, it felt kind of warm for a second, and a little heavy..."
"Warm... heavy..." Megan sighed, still looking at the ring.
"Umm, Megan, are you ok?" Janina asked, concerned the heat finally got to her.
"This is exactly how the guy at the shop was acting!" shouted Anthony. He leaned over a little, but held the ring in place.
"Megan, how do you feel?"
"Mmm warm, sleepy, my head feels fuzzy..." she mumbled softly.
