I am often asked about the Seven Kleon Brothers in the story. The men of the cave are based off a Catholic/ Muslim legend. You can actually go visit the tomb cave of the Seven Sleepers in Turkey. I stayed relatively close to the events of the legend, but made modifications to fit the parameters of my story.

In the real parable, the men were older, not related, and married with kids. The Emperor Decius persecuted them for believing in Christ. They were all merchants who gave their worldly possessions to the poor before hiding out in the cave. The Seven Sleepers went into the cave hoping that with enough time perhaps the Emperor would forget about them.

When the Emperor returned, he heard that the Men were in the cave and had the mouth sealed shut, so they would die. There are various versions that state different amounts of time they slept. The majority claim that it was between 100-300 years. Therefore, roughly 200 years later when the man who owned the land wished to use the cave he had the mouth opened back up. As soon as he did, the seven men woke up as if no time had passed at all. They were summoned before the new Christian Emperor Theodosius II. After an investigation, the Emperor ruled their story as a true miracle account.

In the Muslim version, the seven men go into the cave with a dog. In Catholicism, they have a feast day for the Seven Sleepers but they are not actually canonized as saints. After their awakening, the men lived their lives as Christians in the city and died in Ephesus. The city buried them together in a cave and that is the tombstone that people today are able to go visit in Turkey.

For the purpose of my story, I made the men, young, brothers, and saints. They still entered the cave because of what they believed in, but I changed what happened after they awoke. In my tale when the Men of the Cave wake up from their slumber, they are immortals with special gifts/superpowers. The mystery surrounding their immortality is something the boys have always wanted solved. In the second book, Jar of Pandora, they receive the answers to all their questions.

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Raised by unorthodox parents, Kasey Reese has always struggled to be invisible, to not be noticed, to avoid conflict. Running from a broken relationship, Kasey flees to Spain on a scholarship, to restore the comfort she finds in anonymity. Destiny, however, has other plans for her – a life threatening, life-altering journey into the supernatural when she meets the men of the cave.

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