Chapter 4

Engineer Salah did not know what was happening to him at night when he returned after a hard day's work and had his dinner with his family and then went to sleep at eight in the evening to get some rest before getting up in the morning to repeat the same day before. He had been afraid of his nightmares during these nights for about a week. While he was sleeping, someone was whispering near one of his ears with words that were incomprehensible to him. The whispering started lightly and then increased little by little until he heard it clearly. He woke up from his sleep terrified and looked around in fear. He found no one next to him but his wife who was still asleep and did not feel anything.

When he was reassured that there was no one there, he went back to sleep, but he noticed this shadow near the window curtains that were shaking slowly for no reason, he felt terrified again and got up from his bed, afraid and anticipating in panic and moved very slowly towards the curtains. He found them fixed and not moving as he imagined, and they did not contain anything strange inside them. He looked at the curtains and was reassured that things were fine. As soon as he felt that, he saw a frightening shadow again reflected on the curtains of something behind him, not for something, but for a human being, his panic increased and his heart tightened and he suddenly looked behind him with an involuntary movement and finds no one. A muffled scream came out of him that woke up his sleeping wife, who woke up in a panic from her sleep at the sound of his scream as he was feeling he was crazy with that thing playing with him, he felt that thing around him but couldn't see it or catch it. His wife rushed to him, wondering what was wrong and what brought him to the window. He told her that he was fine and that there was no need for her to be afraid. He just felt that there was a short ghost in his room, about 160 cm tall. His wife took him to the bed and brought him a cup of water to calm him down so that he might get back to sleep again. The same situation continued for ten nights during which Salah did not know the secret of what was happening to him every night in the same details until one of the workers came to him, his name was Shawqi. It seemed from his appearance to be a simple, poor man who worked as a guard on a farm that Salah owned in one of the villages near the city of Luxor. He looked tired, poor and... frightened. When Salah saw him, he quickly went to him and said angrily:

- What brought you here now? And why did you leave the farm alone?

- Don't worry, sir, my wife and children are there and never leave it.

- But you are the man who can act if something happens.

- I know, sir, but I am here because of that you are fearing.

Salah hesitated and his face features changed before he asked:

- What... What do you mean?

- I mean... that box inside the room that you locked by yourself and kept the key too.

Salah's face changed more and more as he felt a little worried about his precious treasure. Here, Shawqi added:

- Don't worry about that, sir, it is safe where it's, but.....

Salah felt more and more worried and shouted at his farm keeper:

- But what?

- That room where we kept the box is empty of everything except for this thing, Isn't it?!

- Yes... almost.

- Throughout the past nights, my family and I have been hearing loud sounds and screams from inside this room and we don't know what to do!!

Salah felt afraid but tried to hide it as much as he could while he said doubtfully:

- You... must be wrong; this box doesn't contain anything that can scream or speak, may be they are the sounds of some dogs or cats or may be wolves from around the farm.

- Believe me, sir, I have been guarding your farm for several years and nothing like this has happened before. These sounds are of a woman calling for help or calling for our help especially. I don't know exactly, but they are not animal sounds.

Salah was thinking deeply hearing the man complaining in fear about the room containing Salah's box then asked:

- How long have you been hearing these sounds?

- For about ten days.

- Okay, don't worry, go now and the owner of the box will come to take it within a week.

- A week?! That's a long time, sir.

- This is the first time I feel that you have become afraid of animal sounds.

- I'm telling you that it's not like that and I could have made sure myself of the source of the sound by opening that room but I was afraid that you would get angry if I broke the lock that closes it.

- No... don't do it Shawqi, this matter will end within this week, I promise.

- Okay, sir, I will go now.

As soon as Shawqi moved away from him, Salah began to think a lot about these sounds or cries for help coming from the coffin room and while he was thinking he realized what was happening to him every night during the same period that Shawqi had told him about. Everything must be related to this mysterious coffin that haunts his sleep and scares his guard and his family. What is happening then? Why does this princess scare them? Is it a curse? Is it just delusions? He didn't know exactly, but he realized that he had to get rid of this coffin as soon as possible. A few days ago, a friend of him told him that he would sell it to an English merchant who deals in all kinds of trade and buys everything and sells anything to earn and increase his profits and money, but he had been traveling for the past month, so he hoped that this merchant would return during these days to sell him the coffin with its mummy and get rid of this nightmare, making some money as well.

Salah knew that Shawqi would not open that room anyway, as he had the chivalry to prevent him from revealing a secret that he did not want him to know anything about, and he was with him while he was hiding the coffin on his farm and did not suspect anything about it, in addition to the money he gave him when he helped him get the coffin out of the car and put it in the room before locking it up. However, he knew how afraid and terrified he was because of these loud sounds and screams that he talked about, and this is what prompted him to talk to his friend immediately to find out if the English man who would buy his goods would return or when he would return.

Being a greedy man Salah wanted to sell his object at the highest price, and that was the main thing that helped him overcome his fears, nightmares and doubts towards that mummy screaming for ten days and still.