A Glimmering Dark

The city itself was stunning. Some might believe that it was dusty and decrepit, but this was history. It impressed me, with the sheer volume of all the architecture that surrounded us, built by hand. Rick and the others set up camp while I walked around acquainting myself with my surroundings. My hand traced the symbols that had been carved into the many pillars that were around us. I traced the deeply chiseled markings in the stone. They were so distinct that the years of sandstorms had no effect on them.

My neck was hot from the sun beating down from the sky, I rubbed it trying to cool myself down and remove some of the sweat that had accumulated. I wanted a cold canteen of water right about now. I snapped myself out of my inner thoughts,

"Here" I heard a voice whisper into my ear. I looked to my left, and down in the sand I noticed something glimmering, I stooped towards the ground brushing the glimmering item with my hand making sure not to burn myself on the grit. What I uncovered was interesting. A singular raw-cut garnet stone, I picked it up and as I held it, the stone turned black. I knew this item was special, but before I could think about it I stowed the jewel away.

There were so many different passageways, entries, and exits to be discovered. After Rick finished setting up camp, he moved on to making entry into the city with Evy directing his movements. As Hamunaptra was an underground city there was much work that needed to be done to get to where we needed to be. The Americans and our group had split off to different sides of the city so we wouldn't run into each other. Something told me that somehow we would see them soon anyway. Evy had a mirror about half her size that she was attempting to push into the ground. I started to make my way back to the group as the hieroglyphics were only yielding stories of how and why the city was built. Evy had already filled us in on that part when she was showing the curator the map. Jonathan came waltzing up to me before I could start to head back down the hill that divided us from the others. He waved me over to him,

"Does it say anything about the wealth of Egypt?" Jonathan asked me gesturing to the pillars and arches quoting his sister.

"No, Jon it's mostly about how it was built, however, it does say something about raising evil from the dead. You know, the normal warnings to keep tourists from disturbing the resting places of kings and queens of Egypt." I told him. He hung his head like a hurt puppy. But quickly that dissipated from his face and what replaced it made me want to walk away immediately. I spun on my heel attempting to get away before the conversation took off.

"So you and Henderson? Seems like you two were getting cozy when we were playing poker?" He said getting straight to the gossip like he always wanted, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"No, no, no..." I laughed off the awkwardness that wanted to flood my body.

"Why not?? He seems like a decent guy, a bit aloof but decent." He prodded more. I hated when he did this. It wasn't often that he did, but it tended to happen on occasion.

"Jonathan he was flirting with me because I'm one of two females that are on this excursion... He doesn't really believe there's anything special about me." I told him.

"Well, I could say differently from the way he was staring at you during the poker game, he was hanging onto your every word," Jon argued with me looking at me with suggestive eyes.

"It doesn't matter Jon, I manipulated him into doing it. It's a helpful distraction, especially when playing poker." I told him, utterly annoyed now. I knew he was not going to let this go. I started to walk away. Suddenly, Evy's voice cut through Jon's voice, blocking him out.

"That's the statue of Anubis, its legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge Scholars that's where we'll find the secret compartment containing the golden book of Amun Ra." She looked around finding Jonathan walking towards the other mirror to the right of her. She started to direct him as I moved towards where Rick had tied off a rope to jump down into the city. He had left swiftly to talk to Evy. I tried not to eavesdrop on the conversation that they were having but it was hilarious to see my brother embarrassed and very hard to ignore.

"My chosen." I heard the disembodied voice as clear as day. It flew through the air like the wind that rustled my hair, but, as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared. If I hadn't been paying attention I would have fallen into the hole that was beneath me. I quickly grabbed the rope and slid down into the dark crypt below, Rick hot on my heels.

"Eris!! Are you all right?" He asked me, letting go of the rope and placing a hand on my shoulder. My body shuddered as a reaction to the cool crisp air from the darkness.

"I will be," I told him as I removed his hand. He gave me a look that made me aware he was getting more worried about me. Evy plopped down beside him, Jon following her, and the warden right after.

"We're standing in a room no one has entered in over 3,000 years," Evy said, happily almost skipping through the sand deeper into the tomb, towards the mirrors that were laid out in rows. She brushed off the cobwebs tenderly, making sure not to disrupt the artifact too much. She stood to the side of the mirror and flipped it so that the light from the outside caught the mirror.

"Hey, that is a neat trick," Rick said, watching the light bounce off the reflective surfaces.

"Oh, my God. This is sah-netjer." Evy said happily, glee filling her face as she caught up to where Rick, Jon, and I were walking.

"What?" Rick asked confused.

"A preparation room," Evy said as if everyone should know what that is.

"Preparation for what?" Rick asked now seemingly even more confused.

"For entering the afterlife," Evy announced in a goofy dialect trying to sound scary. I looked around at the stone slabs that looked like modern-day tombstones confused at how this could be a preparation room. Although I had seen the artwork in the many books I had scoured looking for answers to my tattoo. Rick retrieved his revolver out of his holster, it seemed as if he was being overly cautious. I watched his face looking to see if there was a seriousness to his demeanor. There was, but somehow the action looked like it was too deliberate, that he was trying to be funny in some way.

"Mummies my good son, this is where they made the mummies," Jon said to Rick explaining what his sister did not. Rick nodded, to tell Jonathan he understood. My brother was tough but was offput by the mummification process. I always thought this to be odd considering he had seen way worse on the battlefield. It seriously freaked him out, I used to tease him about it when we were kids. As we walked further, I became more aware of the tattoo on my wrist, I could feel my pulse through my skin prominently. It was almost painful, how intense it was becoming. I distracted myself by pushing my nails into the skin that surrounded that area. The pain made the awful feeling subside for a minute. When it dulled and the pulsing came back I choose another spot to sink my nails into. Rick stopped for a second looking around the walls, when he found what he was looking for he walked over toward it. He grabbed two torches off the wall. The warden followed Rick's thought grabbing his own. I grabbed my lighter out of my pack and lit it for him, once it was lit I closed the lid and threw it back inside my pack. He nodded at me thankfully and handed the torch to Jonathan so he could light his and the wardens. After this was done, we pushed forwards into a small cobwebbed tunnel.

"What the– What was that??!" The warden practically jumped out of his skin spinning around looking for the source.

"Sounds like... bugs." Rick mused.

"What do you mean bugs!! I hate bugs." The warden voiced his thoughts.

"Will you please, SHUT IT!" I yelled at him. He looked at me taken aback, not used to women being this outspoken. He gulped and turned his eyes back towards where he was traveling.

"Eris, Goddess of discord and strife" The voice was back. With the amount of conversation, I could identify the voice. It was a soft feminine voice, almost melodic, like a siren. I slowly looked around at my surroundings as I let the others walk forwards away from me.

"Your name itself breeds trouble and mystery, reminds me of Apep." This voice, it was trying to lead me. It sounded like it was coming from around corners and down passageways. As I looked around, I started to wrack my brain, Apep otherwise known as Apopis was a well-known Egyptian demon. He was Ra's enemy. There is a central belief that Set and Apep go together, but in fact they do not. He was different than Set, there was almost nothing good about him. He wanted to kill everyone and let chaos rule, while it seems that Set had morals and knew right from wrong. Set even killed Apep a few times. It was an interesting jab at me that she had made.

"I'm not entirely sure if that was supposed to wound me. But it didn't." I breathed out acknowledging for the first time that the voice was there. She snickered, happy with that response. I walked forwards, toward the end of the corridor where everyone had exited just five minutes prior. I heard voices that almost sounded like chanting. I saw Rick, Evy, Jon, and the warden huddled against the statue of Anubis. I crept up to them along the wall, Jon was watching me with wide eyes continually putting his finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet. I pushed my torch into the warden's hands as I moved up next to my brother, pushing Evy down closer to her brother. Rick looked towards me, nodding. I grabbed my pistol out of my pack and whipped around the corner of the statue with Rick at my side. What met my eyes surprised me, the Americans were standing eye to eye with us. Actually, more like gun to gun.

"You scared the bejesus out of us O'Connell." Henderson commented to us. Everyone stood by with their guns dropping them from the position we had them in.

"Likewise." Rick piped up from my side, but Henderson wasn't looking at him anymore, he was looking at me.

"Hey that's my toolkit!" Daniels said eying Evy's recent present.

"No. No I don't think so." Rick argued, putting his pistol up at the man. Everyone else's movements followed; I trained my gun on Henderson. His eyes were confused as a flash of betrayal went across his face.

"Okay, perhaps I was mistaken." He gave up too easily.

"Well have a nice day gentleman. We have a lot of work to be getting along with." Evy said as she attempted to get us out of the situation. The clicking of metal filled the room as everyone relaxed again.

"Push off, this is our dig site!" The man in the fez yelled at her.

"We got here first." Evy sneered back to him. The metal again echoed through the small space.

"This here's our statue, friend."

"I don't see your name written on it, pal."

"Yes, well, there's only five of you and 15 of me. Your odds are not so great O'Connell." Beni said looking at Rick and I. I dropped my gun slipping it seamlessly into my waistband. I grabbed the cloth on Beni's arm twisting it slightly causing his wound to open back up and blood to start seeping through the bandage.

"We've had worse and I'm quite sure she will kill you if we don't do something fast." Rick said covering the surprise in his voice seamlessly.

"Yeah, me too." Jon piped up awkwardly from the background.

"Oh, look, for goodness' sake, let's be nice children. If we're going to play together, we must learn to share. There are other places to dig." Evy said in her motherly voice. I dropped Beni's arm but not before squeezing it first. He yelped a bit and shrugged off into a corner of the group. Evy started to lead our group away from the chaos that erupted. Henderson happily took my lingering to wrap his hand around my wrist to stop me from walking away.

"Hey love, want to meet up later?" He asked showing me his yellowing teeth.

"We don't have time for this... Get rid of him." I heard her voice again.

"I'll think about it." I told him ripping my arm from his grip jogging to catch up to my group. Evy did indeed know where we were going, she took us below the statue. She had the boys beneath it using pickaxes to break up the ceiling.

"According to these hieroglyphics, we're underneath the statue. We should come up right between his legs." Evy yelled over the clacking and dust that filled the air. I moved myself over to sit on the artifacts in the sand.

"When those damn Yanks go to sleep-no offense-" Jon said to us as he continued to break up the rocks that made up the ceiling.

"None taken." Rick said.

"We'll dig our way up and steal that book right out from under them." Jon continued his thought.

"Are you sure we can find this secret compartment thing?" Rick asked Evy covering his face with the blue scarf around his neck, shielding his nose and mouth from the dust.

"Oh yes, if those beastly Americans haven't beaten us to it. No offense." Evy said.

"And Beni!" My mouth moved before I even thought about it.

"Hey, where'd our smelly little friend get to?" Jon asked as he took a break from breaking the stone.

"I'm not sure, I'll poke around a bit and see if I can find him." I told them.

"Stay close." Rick told me not even glancing towards me, I stood up from where I was, not even gracing him with a response. I looked to my left and looked through the doorway, I wandered down the corridor letting my feet take me where they pleased. I took a left, into a dark dank hallway of sorts it looked like it hadn't been touched in quite some time. I was about to discover what was inside. I walked through the threshold feeling the sticky substance immediately knowing that the unseen spiderwebs had got to me. I twirled around trying to free myself of them and ended up falling on my ass. I sighed when I felt that I was free of the webs that surrounded me. I slowly stood back up, wishing I had my torch right about now.

"Breathe, you've never been scared before," I told myself to calm my heartbeat. I walked towards it, more spiderwebs covered the altar that was now in front of me. I brushed them away revealing what looked like a dagger. I smiled to myself unintentionally. The dagger was jagged and quite large for my hands. I looked at it closer, in the pommel it looked as if it was missing something. I went through my pack finding the garnet stone. I placed it near the pommel and as if it were magnetic it placed itself inside the hilt. I noticed that an engraving started to appear in glowing red. Before I could read it I heard a huge thud, I stashed it away in my backpack as I ran to find Evy, Rick, and Jon standing over a sarcophagus.

"He must have been someone of great importance... Or he did something very naughty," Evy said.

"Well, who was it?" Jon asked.

"He that shall not be named," Evy answered. There was suddenly an immense pounding in my head that started to overtake me. The pain was so much that I fell to my knees. The last thing I saw was Rick running up to me screaming my name.

"ERIS!" His voice echoed through my head as I succumbed to the darkness that was like a warm embrace to me.