**Ch 4: Ghostly figure

Suddenly heads turned my way, sitting at the center of the table. Straight across from Tom at the wall.

"Yes, I know how to use my tools properly," I confirmed, feeling slightly out of place.

"Good, Ms. Perkins, before we leave today, I would like to have a word with you," Tom told me with a scolding eye. But I nod and choose to look past it "Anyways, you will each be given assigned working partners. Unfortunately, Ms. Perkins is a trainee over the rest of us with more field experience. One group will have an odd number of three." Tom stink-eyed me, glaring. "As for you, Ms. Perkins, you'll be working with me, where I can keep a watchful eye on you."

"In that case, please, call me Victoria," I implied politely with a slight hint of attitude to my tone.

Tom snickered at me strangely. I can tell working with him is going to be a thrill ride.

"On a last note, just because you are assigned to specific areas doesn't mean you can't investigate other areas, especially if it's a site that is cycled on the maps, that Mr. Collin had copied for us. Just be safe, and remember our goal." Everyone nods to understand, including me.

"Good. Everyone, except for Victoria, is dismissed. Gather your gear and whatever supplies you'll need. Then meet me in the lobby. From there, we will get into two vans that will take us to the excavation site." Tom concluded, and everyone, except for me, started to leave.

Unfortunately, now it was him and I here. "Uhm," he cleared his throat and then started. "Victoria, I want you to be aware that I have full control over whether or not you get this degree. With that being said, unlike everyone else, I will be watching you closely on whatever it is that you do." Tom lectured with this absurd warning.

"Understood, I won't disappoint you," I replied strongly.

~~~

For today's first three hours of excavating this one perfectly dug-out square-cut trench. We have been trying to find artifacts that might give us clues as to where this Pharaoh's tomb would be located.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like this area Tom placed me in had anything of importance here. The more I kept gently scraping the hard dirt and sand mixture, I could tell it hadn't been disturbed. This section of the city may have been a travel way. Not an area where we'd find anything useful.

"Victoria." Suddenly, I heard a whisper coming from behind me.

My eyes peered everywhere, seeing everyone working and chit-chatting over plans and whatnot. Nobody important was calling me. Therefore, I ignored the eerie female calling my name. Her voice haunted me. It was a reminder of the old life I had left behind.

"Victoria..." her ghostly voice trailed off again. "Victoria, look..." I bit my tongue and stood up, turning around.

I held my eyes from gaping to see this ghostly apparition of a female dressed in a long gown floating here behind me. Her eyes were hollow and eerie. You could see right through her ghostly white glowing body.

Now, I understood that my old past was creeping its way back into my life. I never would've thought this excavation would awaken this part of me. So, I already knew I was the only one who could see this ghostly figure floating six inches above the sandy dirt.

"Are you alright," Donny from our team asked me when he stepped into the area we were digging. Little did he realize this ghostly apparition was next to his right shoulder.

Seeing he had a cold drink in his hand, I answered with the perfect excuse. "I was just stretching my legs, and I thought that a drink sounds rather satisfying."

Donny, being 35 years old, chuckled, "I'd say you should get one. You don't want to end up dehydrated out here. It might land you in the hospital for a few days."

I faked giggling and headed straight on through that ghostly woman. As I did, a cold chill ran up my spine while her body broke up into this illusional puff of smoke as she vanished.

"I must agree with you on that," I told him while putting the brush and chiseling tool on my belt. "Let Tom know I am getting something cold to drink."

"Likewise," Donny replied.

Then, I wandered through multiple digging sites and many structures of pillars, Anubis statues, other Egyptian gods, columns, walls with Egyptian writing on them, and other ancient city buildings. Most of the structures were in ruins or half-standing, with debris around it.

People were everywhere digging. Some were reading the ancient scripts. Others are mining through sand and dirt, to find the tiniest fragments of old pottery or even statues.

Everyone was working as a Team in their groups. Tom, however, seemed to be showing little teamwork effort with me. He left me to dig in one section, and disappeared. And here he said we had to stay in our groups. Since he wasn't around and I couldn't find a signal to text him on my phone. I figure I'll grab something cold to drink.

Soon, I made it to the long tent, holding many beverages, snacks, first aid kits, and whatever else somebody might need out here in the hot sun. Luckily, it was evening, so the rays were going down. So it wasn't too bad right now, I felt.

Once I got a chilled water bottle from the cooler. I started sipping it down for a few minutes.

When I walked forward to head back, suddenly, "Victoria," my name was whispered, and then out of thin air that ghostly nightmare reappeared in front of me.

I was startled and stumbled back to get away from her. Until her finger pointed to her left, which was my right.

"Look," she directed, pointing towards these old building structures.

Some of them were still in the middle of being analyzed as to what they were once. A few theories suggested that they could have been old housing where people lived during that dynasty.

Before I could step in that direction. The ghostly woman floated eerily in that direction. I knew she wanted me to follow her, so I did. Surprisingly, she took me past the roofless structures and led me to this wall covered in hieroglyphs. Still, nobody has yet to fully excavate this area since there was so much to dig within this city. I mean it's a whole large city. Things like this take time to thoroughly excavate.

I looked at the wall, seeing a tall Osiris. The ancient Egyptian god of the underworld and resurrection. The ghostly woman points at the ancient scripts written vertically down his body.

"Only my mate can resurrect me from my eternal sleep." That is what the ancient script said. As if the description wasn't odd enough, I also noticed his scepter was pointing toward his feet.

I was a bit perplexed until I saw my ghostly friend here pointed at the ground underneath Osiris's feet. I got down on my knees, and started to dig with my tools. To avoid losing them, my tools are always belted around my waist.

As, I was carefully brushing and scooping away the sand, I lightly scraped something solid. So I slowed down and started to scrape back the hardened sand more carefully. That was when I uncovered a stone tablet written in Egyptian.

"Victoria!" from behind me, I heard Tom's voice clamor, "What do you think you are doing?"

I turned around and saw him scolding his eyes at me in anger. "I was getting a drink and found this structure here."

"I didn't station you here in this section!" he gritted his teeth, retorting.

I stood up, unfazed by him, and reminded him, "One of the rules to this excavation isn't to ignore anything you might find interesting. Our goal is to find the Pharaoh, is it not?"

"I-I..." he seemed stumped for a second. "Well, the other rule was to stay with your team member!"

"You are my team member, but you left me to go elsewhere, did you not?" I give it right back to him. Oh, I saw steam flying out of his ears to what I said.

"Whatever you found better be worth the time," Tom rudely retorted while he kneeled as I did the same. Seeing what I had discovered, his eyes gaped happily, "Well, done, Victoria!"

Surprisingly, he praised me, and we both finally worked as a team together. Once we successfully dug it out we looked at it. Tom was beaming, which made me feel good to see I impressed the pompous jerk. We brushed it lightly and saw it said something, but we couldn't read it. While Tom was trying to figure out what it said. I found another description underneath Osiris's feet.

"The Nile will reveal its secrets," I read while thinking about what it means.

Since Osiris symbolized the Nile flood; as in the cycle of life. Spotting my water bottle to the side, it dawned on me like another puzzle piece.

"Let me pour my water on it," I told Tom, but he looked at me like I was crazy. Until I pointed at Osiris's feet, and then he read it, and understood. So, I carefully poured the water, and like a magic trick, the hidden message revealed itself.