I Scare Easily by Paty Jager

The blog mavens have asked us to talk about scariest scene we've written. I am a person who scares easily. My boys would stand in a doorway of the hall and step out as I went by with an armload of folded clothes and scare me so bad, I'd throw the clothing and clutch my chest. They thought it was great fun. Me not so much. I told them it wouldn't be fun when they had to resuscitate me because my heart stopped! 

As a child, the Abominable Snowman on Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer scared me. 

I spent many days and nights alone with our small children early in our marriage because my husband was a truck driver. I read mystery books and loved Ruth Rendell until in one book she went so deep into the killer's point of view it scared me so bad I couldn't sleep for two days. And I didn't finish the book. Nor did I read any more of her books. 

I know this and have told friends and writer friends this about me when they suggest a show, movie or book that I know I won't be able to read or watch. I close my eyes during commercials for scary movies. Yes, I'm that bad. 

Then.. I wrote the first book in my Isabella Mumphrey Action Adventure/ Romantic Suspense trilogy.  At the end, during the "black moment/climax/when all seems lost" scene, my oldest daughter (who scares easily too) said, "How could you write that? That scene is so scary."  And I had other authors, who had heard me say I don't like scary, say the same thing.

While I was writing the scene I was engrossed in implementing the research I'd come across on a Mayan Ritual that I didn't view it as scary but rather enlightening the reader and enhancing the story and bringing my heroine to a realization the hero had been telling her all along. 

 The scene from Secrets of a Mayan Moon- Isabella Mumphrey Adventure Book 1

Tino peered through the small hole by the hidden door. It had taken all his control to remain in the tunnel and watch the two men drag Isabella into the chamber. If her eyes hadn’t blinked, he would have sworn she was dead. Her limp body worried him, but he’d glimpsed the light of intelligence in her eyes. They may have made her unable to move, but her mind still fired. He wished he knew the sequence of the ceremony. Moving the rock would alert the men to his approach and with Isabella incapacitated barging in now could put her in danger. He would have to wait for a moment when the two men were at a disadvantage.

The men were crazy, and he didn’t want this to be a suicide mission with he and Isabella the bodies that were found. Miguel didn’t bother him. He was a rich man paying for this new experience. He’d be easy to subdue. Martin did bother him. The doctor’s zeal and calmness reflected what he had witnessed and studied about killers. Martin had reverently kissed Isabella’s head and told her sacrificing her was worth everything.

Words of a madman.

Martin returned dressed in a colorful robe and wearing a headdress similar to Miguel’s. The two men spoke quietly on the far side of the altar near Isabella’s head. He wished he could hear the conversation.

They parted and Miguel stepped up onto a raised rock beside the altar. He lifted his loincloth. Tino watched in disbelief as Martin chanted and handed Miguel a bowl of white papers. Miguel placed the bowl on another raised stone between his legs. Martin continued chanting as he held up, and then offered, a stingray spine to Miguel.

Miguel took the object, pinched the skin on his miembro, and pushed the object through his foreskin. The man’s member surged a moment before he pulled out the stingray spine and inserted a small rope through the holes. Blood saturated the rope and dripped into the bowl, staining the white paper red.

Miguel swayed, his eyes glazing over.

Martin placed a hand on Miguel’s shoulder. Miguel pulled the rope out of his miembro and dropped it into the bowl. Martin picked up the bowl of bloody paper and distributed small pieces among the bowls placed around Isabella on the altar.

The paper was lit and Martin placed a crown of flowers on Isabella’s head. The beautiful flowers and Isabella’s serene repose were a stark contrast to the obscene actions of the men.

Tino’s temples throbbed. When should he make a move? He didn’t like the unattached way Martin treated her. His adrenaline surged and his heart raced.

Do something Isabella.

Stop him.

Miguel swayed on his pedestal. Martin steadied him and held a black shiny blade to the ceiling and chanted. He placed the knife in Miguel’s hands and waved his arms over Isabella. He opened her dress exposing her chest and stepped back.

Rage and fear catapulted Tino. He grabbed the wooden handle on the boulder and shoved with all his strength. He had to save Isabella.

The sight of don Miguel’s trance and the shiny obsidian blade in his hands surged adrenaline through Isabella. She tried to sit up, knocking the burning offerings to the floor. Her body still didn’t respond completely.

“No Virgil—not work.” Frustration at her unintelligible words also hampered her movement. She swallowed and tried to work her tongue. The sound of rock scraping rock registered. Help had arrived.

Virgil clutched her wrists and held her to the table. “Now!” he shouted.

Fear sliced through her as don Miguel raised the knife above her body. Warm flickering light from the oil pots glistened on the shiny black blade clutched in his hands. She willed her arms to work to wrench free of Virgil’s grip.

A blur hit don Miguel and he disappeared from her sight.

Cursing and flesh hitting flesh resonated from the floor.

Virgil’s eyes peered into hers. Now her vision cleared as she stared into the eyes of evil. The evil she’d caught only glimpses of since arriving at the dig shone like a beacon. He dove to the ground.

She had to help Tino. But her body was only slowly responding. She managed to wrap her fingers around the small oil pot by her hip.

Virgil appeared before her, the obsidian knife clutched in his hands.

“I’m not a virgin!” The garbled words only intensified her anger. She flung the hot oil into Virgil’s face.

“Aahhhh!” He stumbled backward.

She swung her legs over the altar and spotted don Miguel and Tino struggling near the doorway. Grasping another pot of hot oil, she forced her legs to move in a stiff zombie fashion. She had to help Tino. He was the only person in her life to truly care about her and her career. Her heart squeezed with fear as don Miguel slammed a fist into Tino’s side. The two danced a clumsy dance, don Miguel trying to get away and Tino hanging on, inflicting punches and jabs to the man’s body and face.

Isabella tossed the hot oil on don Miguel’s back. He roared with pain and fell to the ground wiggling like a salted snail.

“Ezzabella!”

Tino’s warning came too late.

She felt hot breath and an arm band around her from behind. She shouldn’t have underestimated Virgil’s zealousness.

“She has to die.” The loud roaring voice in her ear made her cringe.

“You haven’t committed murder yet, Martin. Let her go, and you won’t die.” Tino stared straight at her and Virgil, but Isabella’s eyes were on Tino’s gun laying on the floor an arm’s reach from her feet.

How could Tino stop Virgil? His arm was wrapped around her middle tight; to try and slump down wouldn’t help. And even if she did, what could Tino do?

The obsidian knife wasn’t as sharp as a present day metal blade. She’d take the chance of a scrape or two. She mouthed, “Keep him talking”, to Tino and slowly relaxed, flexing each muscle to see what coordination she’d have.

“Why are you doing this? Surely, you could write a world renowned paper on the ceremony and retain your status and perhaps more funding.” Tino took a step forward.

“Stay back!” Virgil moved back a step, putting them farther from the weapon.

“Don’t move”, she mouthed to Tino and flashed her gaze to the gun and back to him.

“Okay, I’ll stay back, but you have to let her go. You have done nothing wrong so far.” Tino planted his feet firmly in place. He didn’t know what Isabella had planned but he would follow her lead even though he wasn’t happy having Miguel at his back and Virgil holding a black knife on Isabella.

“I’ll kill you, too, if you interfere.” Virgil’s voice held such conviction goose bumps rose on Tino’s arms.

“You cannot continue with the ceremony, it will accomplish nothing.” Tino started to move his foot forward out of instinct, but the widening of Isabella’s eyes stalled the movement.

“I can gain all the things I haven’t been able to attain. Prosperity, the funding and accolades I’ve only acquired by using others. And immortality. I’ll go down in the books as the first and only archeologist to discover and carry out one of the most controversial sacrifices.”

“It was controversial because it went wrong.”

Martin’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know it went wrong?”

“Ezzabella told me. The virgin they sacrificed wasn’t a virgin and it caused the beginning of the downfall of the Mayas.”

Stumbling and cursing behind him caught his attention. Tino spun around to catch the backside of Miguel hurrying out of the dig.

Grunts, a growl, and scrambling spun him back around. Isabella sat on the floor his gun in her hands. Martin shook his head and raised the knife charging at her.

Tino’s chest constricted as he shouted, “No!” and his ears rang from the explosion of his gun.

Virgil fell across Isabella.

Tino lunged for the two, pulling the doctor off Isabella, flinging him to the side and gently prying the gun from her hands.

“I had to…”

“Shhh, do not look. You are safe. I have you.” Tino held her tight. If he’d lost her, he would never have been able to shake the pain or the curse of losing those he loved.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon

Book one of the Isabella Mumphrey Adventure series

Move over Indiana Jones and MacGyver- Isabella Mumphrey has arrived!

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala at the request of her mentor, but drug trafficking bad guys and artifact thieves wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

Upon seeing Dr. Mumphrey has never been in a jungle or out of the states, undercover DEA agent, Tino Kosta, gets tangled up in helping her discover the truth.

Which could make them casualties of the jungle. 

All vendors buy link: https://www.books2read.com/u/bzQEE4

I'll be having a new cover reveal party for this series next month, so stay tuned to participate in all the fun and see the new covers! 

About Paty:

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 47 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.