Profane Infamy

I awoke to the smell of smoke, my eyes fluttered open to reveal a campfire that everyone had gathered around. I felt hot, too hot. My eyes wandered down to the blanket that covered my body, groaning I shifted my weight up to lift myself into a sitting position. My head throbbed from the movement, groaning I moved slower to ease the pain I was feeling.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, be careful Eris. You passed out when we were down in the chamber." Jon commented watching me carefully as I finally got into the position I wanted. My vision was a little blurry, I blinked a couple of times to try to get it to clear. I pushed the blanket covering me down and watched the flames as they flickered high into the air. Suddenly, I remembered what happened down in the chamber and went to reach for my backpack. It was within arm's reach near Jon's foot. I grabbed it and held it for a second closing my eyes, thankful that I still had the contents within.

"Are you feeling all right?" Evy asked, her shawl wrapped around her tightly as she shivered from the cool desert air. She watched me intently, my thoughts were running in circles whether I should let them see what I had found. When I needed the voice to help me make this decision, of course, she lie dormant.

"Yes... Yes, I suppose I wasn't hydrating enough." I told her, distracted. She nodded in response, I knew she did not believe me. She stared into my soul as if searching for my true answer. When she finally did break her gaze with me, she reached over to her right to grab me a canteen filled with some water. I smiled at her as I took the tin from her hand, thanking her silently taking a swig of water. Almost as an impulse, I reached into my backpack, my hand wrapping around the dagger. Just as I was about to pull it out to show Evy and Jon, Rick was sauntering up to where we were seated.

"Seems like our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today," Rick said as he approached the campsite, setting his rifle down on the blankets laid across the sand. He nodded to me as if to greet me from my slumber. I dropped my hold on the knife and removed my hand from the bag. I didn't know why I was wary of my brother knowing this information, but something told me that I needed to keep this secret for myself, for now. I had never been apprehensive of him knowing the darker aspects of my life, but now that he'd found someone else to take care of and put his love into I knew that my problems should come later.

"A few of their diggers were... Melted." He finished his thought, I knew this conversation was going to last, it captivated everyone's attention more than this dagger would. I hugged my pack to my chest feeling as if I needed to protect the object inside.

"What?" Evy asked in disbelief with Jon chorusing her with his question "How?" I feigned surprise as it seemed relatively likely. A lot of Egyptian burial grounds were set with traps to keep tomb robbers away. But melting did seem a bit off base for the rudimentary methods I'd read about.

"Salt acid, pressurized salt acid, some kind of ancient booby trap," Rick explained. Everyone breathed out at the same time in understanding.

"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jon snarked out as he poked the fire. An unexpected whoosh of wind breezed by threatening to put the fire out. Both Jon and Rick shared a glance at one another. I smirked knowing they were about to get on Evy's nerves.

"Oh for goodness sake you two," Evy exclaimed, unhappy with their antics.

"Don't believe in curses, huh?" Rick asked her his voice carried a pretentious flair, I couldn't say he was wrong in this instance, especially because of my circumstances when I was a child and even now.

"No, I don't. I believe if I can see it and I can touch it then it's real that's what I believe." Evy said her own opinions showing them brightly for him to see. I could tell she was happy with her choice. But she shouldn't be.

It's easier for people to deny what they are constantly seeing and experiencing. It certainly would have helped the younger version of myself, but I was a curious child. Those fast-passing shadows that we think we see while lying in bed at night, jumping from the wall to the ceiling, then to the foot of the bed. The muffled voices when it's completely silent, or thumping noises while in the shower, yet you're the only one home. The faces we see staring back at us in the mirror, that cannot possibly be ours. The things that go bump in the night.... Once it is known that there is something there in the deepest darkest shadows of the world, looking out at us, waiting for us to give it recognition, life is scarier, yes. However, in my experience it makes the world feel so much more alive.

"I believe in being prepared." Rick continued as he picked up his shotgun from the blankets and aggressively wracked it as if getting ready for a supernatural battle. Evy flinched at his overt display of masculinity. I smirked, she was not used to being around weapons.

"There's something out there, not everything is a coincidence." I breathed out, Evy turned to me surprise on her face at the words that fell from my mouth. Jon cleared his throat attempting to break the silence that overtook the campsite.

"Let's see what our friend the warden believed in." He announced, successfully changing the subject. Grabbing the warden's bag and reaching his hand inside, he let out a scream.

"Oh, my god. What is it?" Evy asked him yelping.

"Broken bottle. Glenlivet, 12 years old. Well, he may have been a stinky fellow but he had good taste." Jon said happily, taking the bottle out of the bag uncorking it, and giving it a whiff. There was a sudden change in the wind and Rick looked around, then back to me. His eyes told me that he wanted me to come with him, I nodded standing up with my backpack.

"Take this, stay here," Rick said as he thrust the shotgun into Evy's hands and we both proceeded to leave the campsite and walk over to where the Americans had set up camp.

"No, wait wait. Wait for me, wait." I heard Evy's distant voice.

"Evy excuse me but didn't the man just say stay here? Evy!" Jon yelled after her but it was enough for me to catch. There were men on horses that were yelling what seemed to be a battle cry. At a second glance, these were the same men who were observing us from the peak. I watched as they jumped over the fallen pedestals of the city carrying torches ready to fight. They were tearing down the tents that the Americans had carefully set up and throwing their torches to burn them down. Although it was menacing it seemed that they didn't want to kill us. The Americans started the fight after some of their hired help had been killed, they shot as many as they possibly could, I retrieved my revolver from my pack and my new dagger hoping to help.

I followed my brother as he posted behind a pillar watching the chaos unfold, waiting for the opportune moment to intervene. He started shooting whatever was moving on the horses, I followed his actions and protected his back the best I could. Jon seemed to be doing all right for himself, however, he caught one of the masked figures' attention as he started to run away. The figure followed him on horseback, gaining on his heels. Rick found his moment and jumped from the ledge we were standing on to interrupt the man's pursuit of Jon. He knocked him off the horse and they fell into a tent.

I heard the familiar click of my gun and knew I was out of ammunition. I threw it inside my pack and jumped from the ledge to be at my brother's side. The man had a scimitar drawn, but Rick quickly shot it out of his hands. The man grabbed another from his robes, his back was turned as he noticed another figure on horseback trying to save his comrade. Rick shot him quickly and turned back to our threat. Just as his sword was back I took my opportunity to move to the man's back and press the dagger to his throat. I applied enough pressure to draw a bit of blood from him. Instantaneously, searing pain ripped through my body. I cried out in pain a guttural scream emitting from my throat. My arms and back were burning with a rage I did not know I had. I watched Rick as he lit some dynamite he had stowed away in his trousers. He looked at me as I released my hold on the man and fell to my knees still holding the dagger.

The mysterious man turned around and caught me before I hit the ground. He looked back at Rick and then back to me, holding me in his arms, cradling my head in his lap. They both looked at me with fear in their eyes. Then it all stopped the screaming, the carnage, the fighting, everything was silent. Rick pulled the wick out of the dynamite and threw it into the fire. The man's face covering had been removed and for the first time, I noticed the tattoos that adorned his face underneath his eyes. His eyes were pools of brown and I found myself in admiration of him, he looked lost in thought as I was. Then he looked at my arms, and lifted my wrist, studying the text that had appeared, his expression changed into one I could not fully recognize. But he knew something, something I didn't. My arms, once clean and unscathed were now covered in the same tattoos I had seen on the woman from my visions. But this, this looked more like I had been branded. I fought the shock that tried to overtake me as I gingerly brushed the markings with my fingers, they didn't hurt. It almost felt as if there were a bruise underneath where they had appeared. I already knew my back was decorated with the same symbology. It took a second for Rick to run to my side, he like everyone else was stunned by what had happened. He rushed over sliding on his leg to get to me faster, he knelt beside us trying to get the stranger to release me from his grip, holding his gun point blank at him. No one spoke. Rick's eyes fell immediately to my arms, his face showed immediate horror as to what was happening to me. The man shifted me over to Rick carefully so as not to hurt me.

"Do you think this has to do with the orphanage?" Rick asked concern lacing his voice. I nodded slowly looking at my wrist tattoo of the jackal. The man got up from his sitting position and whistled for his men to start moving.

"Enough we will shed no more blood. But you must leave, leave this place or die." The man I held hostage said studying me as I got up from the ground, Rick steadying me easily watching the man. He looked at me with such distress, the feeling I had for him was soon replaced with anger and curiosity. It was an anger that bubbled up just under the surface, I wasn't sure where it was coming from and curiosity because maybe he knew exactly what was happening to me.

"You have one day," he quickly mounted a horse that was provided to him by his clan and rode off back into the darkness. Jonathan moved over toward his sister, helping her up from where she'd fallen. Rick noticed this and went to replace Evy's brother. As Rick moved Henderson took the opening to move in next to me.

"I like your new ink, even if it is kinda creepy." He said, not hiding the fear that entered his voice. I smiled slowly at him, the first genuine smile that I'd ever given this man and probably the only one I would ever give him.

"See that proves it, old Seti's fortunes' gotta be under this sand." One of the Americans breathed out, not sure of what else to say.

"For them to protect it like this you just know there's treasure down there." Henderson continued his thought, moving his arms towards my elbow to catch me if I needed it.

"No these men are desert people, they value water, not gold," Rick told them, as he watched me from where he stood now holding Evy close to him as if she would turn to ash in a moment's time.

"You know, maybe just at night we could combine forces," Burns said as his face was half-covered with shaving cream. I chuckled a bit and started to walk back toward where we were sitting prior to the fight, the others following me. I knew they weren't entirely sure what to say to me and there was nothing that could be said to make the situation better. But maybe Evy could do some research to see if she could find information on my new branded symbols. I took my place back from where I had awoken, it was time to try and get some sleep before the sun started to rise and a new day began. I smiled as I listened to Rick and Evy make conversation. I drifted off to sleep fairly fast but not before I heard her voice again,

"My chosen," She said seductively into my ear.