Beneath the Shadows

It was starting to cloud up outside my office window and I started wondering if there would be rain in the area. I twirled my fingers mindlessly through my hair wondering what had happened to the last three years. They flew by without a warning, I still had no word from Rick and it worried me to my core. He had never been radio silent like this before. It was like he just disappeared from the Earth. In the time that he had been gone, I had almost mastered speaking ancient Egyptian and was able to understand it completely. The journey had been long but Evy really helped the process go smoothly. She had slowly turned into a motherly figure for me, comforted me when I was feeling deserted, and helped with rent when I couldn't come up with all the money. I had one more tour left for the day then I could go help her in the library. I dropped my head tired from the incessant lecturing I had given to the groups of people that floated through the museum. My eyes slid closed as I untangled the knot that had formed from my hair being half up today. I was exhausted, during the nights I traversed bars and other sleazy establishments looking for remnants or signs of my brother. So far I hadn't found anything that seemed promising. He was completely and utterly unreachable. I knew the only way he would be reached would be if he wanted to be found. Before I knew it tears pricked behind my eyes, I lifted my head and dabbed my eyes making sure the liner on my eyes did not run.

"Eris?" I heard the honey-like British accent come through the threshold to my office.

"Yes?" I asked her curious what she needed. I looked at her, glasses hanging from their chain around her neck, her hair haphazardly unraveling from its cage on top of her head. She stepped forwards into my office.

"Are you all right sweetie?" Evy asked her mothering quality coming in full force. I stood from my chair and I held up my hand to stop her from coming to hug me.

"I'll be all right Eves, please don't, if you hug me I don't know if I can stop the tears," I told her brushing off my skirt and sniffing to clear my nose. I forced a smile as she nodded in understanding. I looked over my shoulder to the window where the rain was starting to fall. The noise calmed me, I sighed taking my mind out of the current moment. I opened my eyes still happily staring outside the window. What I saw, didn't scare me but rather intrigued me. The outdoors was London although this looked futuristic, an Egyptian woman stood in the chaos of the storm, rain danced around her like a cyclone. Her body was covered in tattoos, I wasn't entirely sure of their origin or symbology. She had shoulder-length hair that was drenched from the rain her bangs getting in her eyes. Her eyes were not like any I'd seen, doubled yellow irises. She outstretched her cloth-wrapped arms and glass from the buildings exploded out around her. Behind her, I saw a large shadow reminiscent of a jackal. I felt frozen to where I stood. She looked at me and smiled chaotically. I blinked and she was gone, I shook my head, unsure of what just happened. I looked back around to find Evy watching me. The stare in her eyes made me wonder if she saw it too. But I knew better, that was the look of questioning. She knew something was wrong, but she knew better than to ask twice. I had that in common with my brother, stubbornness.

"Is the next group ready?" I asked her, assuming that's why she came to find me. Some of our museum visitors got confused at the entrance into the building, unaware that part of the space was a library.

"Yes." She mused sounding far off in her thoughts. I smiled, this was one of Evy's many silly traits. I walked past her at the doorway and headed to the library where the group was waiting to enter the museum.

"Hello everyone, my name is Eris O'Connell, I'll be your guide today. On behalf of the Museum of Antiquities, I'd like to welcome you all to Cairo, Egypt. As a reminder please do not touch anything, our artifacts are very old. Your fingers contain oils that can degrade the artifacts and inks. If you have any questions feel free to ask. We'll start on the first floor." I walked the group forwards and took a right turn, our first stop was the Middle Kingdom gallery. We left the sarcophagi open so the guests could see the wrappings and how well the bodies were preserved from the mummification process. I zoned out for the rest of the tour, going through the motions of my usual spiel that I gave to the foreigners who visited our little jewel of a museum. The tour concluded on the second floor. I smiled and waved them out the door near the stairs. I dropped my smile once they were all gone and closed the door. I was extremely done with niceties for the day. I heard a loud crash come from what I assumed was the library. I quickly threw the lock on the door and ran towards the library to see what happened. I walked in with the curator at my side.

"Look at this! Sons of the pharaohs, give me frogs, flies, locusts anything but YOU!" He yelled at Evy stepping on the books that had tumbled out from the library shelves. The shelves themselves were in a circular array all over the floor, toppled like dominos.

"Compared to you the other plagues were a joy." He shouted out exasperated. I stayed silent waiting where I had an escape if I got dragged into the mess.

"I am so very sorry, it was an accident," Evy muttered out unsure of what to say to the curator's wrath.

"My dear, when Ramesses destroyed Syria, that was an accident. You are a catastrophe! Why do I put up with you??" I saw the betrayal go through Evy's eyes. She quickly gathered her composure and started to give him reasons as to why she indeed deserved her job.

"Well, well, you put up with me because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic, and well I am the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalog this library. That's why!" She ended, I could tell she was trying to find more reasons but settled for what she had told him.

"I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons, that's why. Allah rest their souls. I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes, straighten up this missivah." He sternly ended his rant. Walking back towards me, glaring his way down the hallway to his office. I wasn't entirely sure if he really enjoyed this line of work. The former curator was caught selling the more lucrative mummies to the richer patrons of the museum, at least Dr. Bay was better than he was. I walked over the books on the floor to meet Evy. She put her hand on her forehead, upset with the messy library that she had just spent hours categorizing. I put my arms around her in a brief hug.

"I'll help you finish this," I told her holding her at arm's length. Letting go of her I bent over to pick up a book. Set volume 1 in my hands. The neat black cover with the gold printed words on the front felt familiar in my hands though I'd never read this one before. I was about to say something when I heard another bang.

"Hello?" Evy asked the air, glancing towards the west wing of the museum. I hadn't been in there in about an hour and I had made sure the tourists were out of the museum before I locked the doors. Curiosity compelled us toward the area. I walked towards where the noise emanated from. Now it sounded like someone shuffling across the floor.

"Abdul? Mohammed? Bob?" Evy's voice rang out amongst those in their sarcophagi.

"Oh come on Evy don't be silly. It's us and the dead." I whispered to her holding back a giggle. An inappropriate reaction, it was an O'Connell thing. She grabbed a torch near the entrance into the Middle Kingdom gallery where I start the tours. Then I heard it again, down near the end of the small room. We walked forwards arm in arm. Evy stopped briefly at the statue of Anubis and Horus. They stared down at us like they were holding the secrets to the universe and we were too simple-minded to understand. I felt Evy shudder next to me. I moved us forwards determined to find the source of the noise. I stopped just before the sarcophagus, this one's lid was open. The curator and I had come to an agreement, our system was when I gave the last tour of the day he would go through and start shutting down the galleries one by one. This included locking up, shutting the sarcophagi, and putting away the more precious items into a safe. I started getting lost in my thoughts as I heard a terrible screech and the mummy that had been lying in the sarcophagus for thousands of years sat up for the first time in millennia. Evy screamed and her grip tightened on my arm. The mummy's eye sockets were now empty and little strands of hair that were still attached to the skull stood out. Jonathan, Evy's brother, appeared behind the skeleton.

"Have you no respect for the dead?!" Evy sternly berated his actions. Letting go of my arm and setting the torch in a holder on the sarcophagus.

"Of course I do, but sometimes I'd rather like to join them." Jonathan smiled drunkenly putting the mummy's skeletal arm on the edge of the tomb.

"Well, I wish you would do it sooner rather than later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours, now get out!" She yelled at him smacking him in the process and urging him to get out of the tomb, which I'd told people not to touch just an hour prior.

"My dear, sweet baby sister, I'll have you know..." Jonathan started in on his bullshit, I knew what was coming, he 'found' something else to try to get her to sell to the curator. He paused as he straddled the edge of the crypt. Hurting what little balls he had left.

"At this precise moment, my career is on a high note." He finished his sentence, climbing completely out of the sarcophagus now.

"High note, HA! I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a bit of a mess in the library and the Bembridge scholars have rejected my application form again, they say I don't have enough experience in the field." She ranted to him, sitting down at the base of a statue. She and I would gossip about the Bembridge scholars to this day. There had been many rejections she had been facing because of this old man's club. It baffled me why she kept trying, I understood the sentiment from her parents but there had to be some way she could get field experience.

"You'll always have me old mum, besides I have just the thing to cheer you up." Jonathan touched his forehead with hers and picked her chin up with his pointer finger. He moved back towards the tomb, lifting the mummy's leg to figure out where he put this new piece of property he had acquired probably in a nefarious way.

"Oh no, Jonathan not another worthless trinket if I have to take another piece of worthless junk to the curator to try and sell for you..." Evy started on her own rant that she always gave him when he tried to give her something to be appraised. I knew the moment my eyes hit the puzzle box that this was something of truly great importance.

"Where did you get this?" She asked him, as I held my tongue in the corner.

"On a dig down in Thebes." He replied.

"Lie." I coughed, clearing my throat as I knew that he would get the idea. He looked over at me and rolled his eyes.

"My whole life I've never found anything, Evy, please tell me I've found something." He said looking back to his sister hopefully.

"Jonathan I think you've found something." She said as she spun it around and examined it, the trinket popped open and she pulled out a single piece of parchment that had been folded to fit inside the box.