As Above, So Below

I looked around concerned, I didn't recognize my surroundings. It was a place I had never been before but it did remind me of the catacombs of Hamunaptra. I looked around and to my right a torch lit, almost as if on cue, immediately pulling my attention toward it. I watched as the light bounced off the limestone walls illuminating the ornate artwork. I stood from my position on the ground hoping to find some answers from the paintings on the wall. When I walked through the room to the North wall I felt eyes on me, something was here with me in the room and I knew I needed to get out as soon as I felt the presence. The hair on my neck stood as I worked quickly to find the answers that I wanted. 

As above, so below. That which has been, will return again. As heaven, so on earth. 

I read from the wall, sighing as I knew it was just a riddle that the Egyptians loved to place in these underground areas. I looked elsewhere to see if I could find another passage to help me figure out where I was. Just as I was about to back away from the North wall and turn to the others, the uncomfortable feeling came back tenfold, and I quickly abandoned my plan to read more. I walked toward the wall again, reaching out to press on it to see if something would give way to get me out of the room. Shadows started bouncing around the room from quick-moving figures that no doubt wanted me out of the room as well. As I was starting to give up and face my fear, the wall opened sideways and torches lit one by one down a long hallway revealing a way out. Before I set my sights on running down it I decided to close the wall pushing it with all my might to keep the shadows away from where I had just escaped. Before it was completely closed I felt a sting run through my arm. Once it was closed I put my back toward the door and slid down to the ground into a sitting position. I sighed looking at my arm seeing a thin razor-like scratch running from my mid forearm to my wrist, the tattoos that had previously graced my body now gone. I watched as the blood beaded off and fell into the sand.

I knew I didn't have much time before something started to come after me in this area of the underground labyrinth. I stood tearing off a piece of cloth from my shirt and wrapping up the wound to staunch the blood flow. I pushed forward, slowly, through the well-lit corridor as it dead-ended, except for the small hole in the wall, I took a deep breath knowing there was no other way around it but I needed to continue or face an unknown death. I looked down the passageway and saw a creature curled up in the back, it resembled a very skeletal cat. I watched as it licked itself cleaning the thin leathery skin that covered its body. It noticed me, its eyes glowing yellow, hissing, it launched itself down the passageway at me. I quickly searched my person for a weapon and found a knife that was attached to my waistband. As the cat attached to my body, I thrust the knife into its body feeling it go limp the moment it touched me.

Cats are the guardians of the underworld. 

I heard Dr. Bey's voice flow through my head reminding me of the reason that cats were significant in Egyptian culture. I looked at the cat that was now at my feet curled up in an awkward position, I bet he'd never foreseen these demonic skeletal cats as protectors. I put the knife away as I started to ready myself to crawl through the very passageway that the cat had just attacked me from. I pondered the quote on the door that had led me here as I crawled through, distracting myself from the intense feeling of claustrophobia that erupted in my chest. As above, so below. I recalled a passage I had read in a book, the phrase was meant to be the key to all magic. It meant that what is within me is also outside of me. As I believe the world to be so it is. As I reached the end of the passage where the cat had been I noticed it started to go vertical, perpendicular to my current positioning. I propped myself into a squatting position as I attempted to shimmy up the passage feeling as if I was continuing to go downward instead of up as my internal compass was starting to diminish. I finally broke through into another room leaving the small hole as I pushed myself over the ledge. I heard scratching coming from behind me, I looked down to see a horde of cats running around below me trying to make their way to me from the vertical climb. It was too steep for them to climb, thank god. I looked around the room finding a wooden board to put over the hole in the floor. Right after it was covered I heard growling fill the corridor. But it wasn't emanating from a cat, rather it sounded like a giant dog. I shivered not wanting to hear what I knew was going to happen next. The tearing of flesh and monstrous hisses from the cats. I willed my emotions to remain clear as I eyed a bookshelf that could keep whatever had killed the cats from getting up here.

I stood on the wooden panel as I tried to topple the bookshelf onto the hole in the floor. When it finally fell a storm of sand and dust clouded my vision. I could feel the pounding on the board as the large dog creature tried to jump up. I felt for the wall feeling my way towards another open area. I leaned up against a column that held the ceiling up, overlooking a pit. I grimaced as I noticed the spikes that filled it just waiting for someone to fall into it. I looked around finding a rope that was tied off to the column that I was leaning on, it seemed someone else had been there before me. I pulled on the rope testing its limits, it didn't fray or break, and I felt confident enough that it would hold my weight for me to get down into the pit.

The bookshelf started shaking, propelling me to move forward quickly. I slid down the rope and into the pit where another hole in the wall opened revealing more cats. I ran towards the opposite wall where there was a door for a human to get through. I quickly moved, noticing that the cats were not after me this time, instead they were heading toward where the bookshelf was. I didn't stay too long to ponder what that was about, I was just happy that they weren't after me. I slammed the door shut behind me looking at a new chiseled limestone door. I quickly dropped to my knees trying to find a clue as I heard the cats getting louder and louder out in the pit. 

Words spoken by He who is in the Embalming Chamber: Pay attention to the decision of the truthfulness and the plummet of the balance according to its stance. For death is the doorway to new life. We live today. We shall live again. In many forms shall we return. 

I shivered as I read it but sweat dripped off my forehead. Was this it? The end of the nightmare that plagued me for so long? I watched as the door unhinged itself, debris once again moving through the area. It was dark as I stared into the room, I could barely see a foot in front of me and I knew something was in there with me before I stepped foot into the room. For an odd reason, I felt a wave of relaxation come over me, safety and ease immediately rolled over my body. I let out a sigh unsure what this feeling was and became mindfully weary of my surroundings. I walked forward into the middle, where I saw a board placed in a vertical position with straps that could hold someone in. I noticed a limp body with its head hanging down still strapped in. The man's heart was missing, more like ripped from his chest, dried blood still on his shirt. To the left of that, there was a scale next to the board. I knew exactly what this was, I was about to have my heart weighed on a scale to decide my sins of this previous world. As above, so below.

I watched horror-stricken as a jackal standing on two legs approached me from the shadows. Its skin much like the cat's, leathery and falling slowly off its skeletal form, this was Anubis. At that moment I realized what this was, this entire labyrinth was built to keep Anubis down here weighing the hearts of those who perished against Maat, the goddess of truth's feather. The muscles beneath his skin were red and decaying, it was an atrocious sight. I shrunk backward trying to fade away as the torches lit the room. Anubis roared, shaking the entire room as he stalked toward me. Before it could reach out to grab me another jackal came out from behind me. This one was not decaying or rotting instead he looked as if he had come from another world. I watched as they stalked each other roaming in a circle before lunging at each other. I stayed frozen where I stood as the two jackals fought teeth clamping on each other's necks. It lasted a while and I couldn't discern the two after so much damage had been done, they both looked the same. Eventually, there was a winner with a roar he threw the other jackal to the corridor I had come from knocking over the scales that lay in the room. Watching me curiously, his ears flicking towards me listening to my breathing. I knew immediately that this was the one who had come from behind me to protect me, at least I hoped. It slowly approached me, making sure not to scare me but because he towered over me I could immediately feel my heartbeat pick up. I was positive it could hear the beating inside my chest as it looked down at me and it lowered itself onto four legs instead of two. It came up to me and nuzzled its snout on my cheek. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, relief washing over me. It backed away from me looking me in the eye.

"I assume you are why I felt safe coming in here?" I asked it, noticing its heterochromia, one eye brown and the other green. My brain was reeling from the fight and I didn't know what to say. 

"Set?" I asked the jackal, his ears flickered as it nodded. I felt the tattoo on my wrist burn as Set's claw touched it. The eyes of the jackal on my wrist now colored the same as the one in front of me. I gasped unsure of what to make of this moment, I knew his history and it scared me. But I knew that the only thing on my mind was getting out of this tomb and being back in my mind and body. He must have sensed my will to leave this place where his prized child Ahmanet had stuck me. He reached his paw out opening it like a chair for me to sit in. I took the opportunity as his claws wrapped around me like a toy doll. And he quickly scaled the vertical chamber out of the pyramid and set me down on the sand. In the daylight, I could fully see the size of the jackal. He was massive, about two times the statue we had seen in Hamunaptra. 

"Thank you," I told him unsure of what else to say in this unreal situation. He showed me his teeth almost as if trying to smile. I nodded and ran out of the cave and into the sunlight which quickly warmed my skin. I realized almost immediately that I was having an out-of-body experience as I watched myself being controlled by Ahmanet who was standing with pride next to Imhotep as he was tossing a plane about in the sky. Evy looked helplessly between me and Imhotep debating her next move. I wasn't sure what to do so I ran with full force toward myself.