Chapter 4: Man Below
Casandra’s heart stopped and her hand froze in the middle of the air. Who on earth was that? She could only assume it was someone who wanted to harm her. Why else would they be down here stalking her. She began to get a cold sweat all over her body, and her mouth got very dry making it impossible to talk.
“Hey,” the voice came again, and this time moving beside her on the left, “trust me you don’t want to touch that mural.”
He reached out to touch her arm to pull her hand away from the wall, when she reflexively slapped him across the cheek. He yelped and looked angrily at her, grabbing his cheek. She gulped, surprised she had done that, but trying not to look guilty because she still had no idea what this guy wanted. She was now facing him. He had curly blonde hair, was maybe two inches taller than her, had a slightly olive complexion, and dark blue eyes.
They both stared at each other for a long moment, and he slowly released her wrist and diverted his eyes away. She looked down at his clothes, which sort of resembled a tunic like thing. She wasn’t sure what to make of that. Maybe he was some kind of religious sect or something. She realized they were both sort of eyeing each other, and she stopped abruptly when she noticed he saw that she was looking at him. She did notice, however, that he was staring at her head. He was probably wondering why she had such an ugly headdress on. Then again, he was wearing some kind of mini-skirt tunic, so he obviously did not care much about fashion.
“Who…. who are you?” she asked, still not looking him in the eye.
“Lakis,” he answered. “What are you doing down here?”
“I fell down here,” she responded, looking him in the eye now. “I was lost and did not see where I was going and fell down this hole that dropped me here. What is this?” She gestured to the surrounding area.
Lakis looked around and seemed to not completely understand, but slowly started, “ell, this is a mural of the mighty goddess Isis and her sister Nephthys. These are the columns holding up the mausoleums of the dead.”
She felt a little shocked and stepped back. “This is a cemetery?” she asked, feeling a little yucky and squeamish.
He looked at her confused and said, “It's a place where we bury the dead.”
She nodded. So, this was the Necropolis. The City of the Dead. She gulped. This guy must be one of the men working on the excavation with her father. She looked at him again, feeling this overwhelming urge to leave this place, and said, “Okay please get me out of here.”
He seemed startled and asked, “Why do you want to get out of here?”
“Uhhh, cuz I am surrounded by a bunch of dead people!” she exclaimed, surprised he did not understand.
He laughed, “Well, I guess you aren’t dead.”
“Excuse me?!” she shouted back. “What kind of dumb question is that?! Of course I am not dead!”
He laughed and laughed and laughed, and she began to wonder if he was broken or something, like a skipping record. Finally he stopped and just stared at her for a minute.
“Okay,” he started to move. “I’ll show you the way out.”
‘What a total weirdo’, Cassandra thought. She followed him as they moved through the caverns, which were extremely dark, but she was able to see a little of it. She saw some white marble caskets in chambers on the wall. They were surrounded by images of various beings. Some were humans dressed weirdly like the lady she saw before, while others were hybrids with animals. Some had wings like the other lady she saw, and some had the heads of animals. It was very exotic looking, and was unlike anything she’d seen before. She couldn’t help but feel a little curious about what they were.
“Do you know what these carvings mean?” she asked as they walked and she noticed rows and rows of little pictures, which looked like some kind of writing.
“They’re spells,” he answered simply, without looking back at her.
“Spells?” she declared. “You mean like, magic spells?”
He stopped, turned around and looked at her for a long moment in disbelief. “Yeah,” he said slowly and paused before continuing, “of course they’re magic. What other kind of spell do you know of?” he was smiling now, as if amused.
She could not help but laugh, “Well, yeah I guess that’s true. So, these people believed in magic apparently.”
“Oh yes,” he answered as they continued their walk. “They believed the magic preserved their souls in the afterlife. It protected them from the demons that haunt the shadows and the monsters that hide in the waters. They believed that life continued as it is here in the Sea of Reeds where Osiris reigns.”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She couldn’t understand that people actually thought this was interesting. So what? A bunch of dead people thought that they would live forever one day? Okay, so they were kind of stupid and naive, but why would people spend so much time studying and reading about it? She felt cold and clammy. This all just made her uncomfortable. People all dead and rotted around her. But, she knew her dad found this interesting, but it made her feel so strange that people would dig this stuff up.
She was so lost in thought that she collided right into Lakis’ back as they came into the sunlight once again.
“Oh, excuse me,” she said. He turned and looked at her surprised.
“Did you just….run into me?” he said, disbelief crossed his face.
“Well, yes,” she answered, “but it was an accident. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No, no,” he said slowly, still a little shocked. “I was just surprised you were….you were able to.”
Okay, she told herself, this guy was officially the weirdest she ever met. And, that was saying something. She’s known some weird guys. She just chose to ignore that and looked around to realize she was in the market not far from her apartment.
“Well,” she said, turning to him to thank him, but he was gone!
She looked around, and saw all that was left was the gaping hole going down to the tombs. She shivered. She must’ve missed him leaving, so she shrugged and walked home. What a weird day, she thought.