The Petrified Mountain - Second degree zone

*Warning gruesome topics ahead which not all readers might be able to handle*

[Alex's POV]

As long as the path was clear, the hike was easy, but every time a tree branch hung low or the path was covered by long wild grass, things got difficult.

They had to make sure not to cut themselves on the razor-sharp petrified leaves or stab their feet on the long petrified grass stems.

Alex had learned the hard way that the petrified grass didn't break easily. He'd accidentally kicked against a stem and the blade had made a gap straight through the sole of his shoe.

Alex and Yahya were already terribly tired when they reached the second degree disaster zone.

Here, all the statues were pitch black. As if they'd spontaneously combusted into flames, on top of having the live stolen from their bodies and turned to stone. Charred black as coal.

"Can we take a break?" Yahya asked in a sulky way. "My feet are killing me."

"Oh, sure," Alex said sarcastically. "Why don't we borrow a charred teapot from one of the petrified trees and have some tea? And we could lie down on the petrified grass. Soak in the sun."

"Well, you can stand there and be sarcastic all you want, but I'm going to sit here on this boulder and check the underside of my shoes to see if there are any shards of petrified grass stuck in them."

Alex and Yahya glared at each other for a full three seconds, before Yahya decided he'd had enough and actually started checking the sole of his shoes.

"Alright! Alright! Five minutes, no longer!" Alex yelled angrily as he chose his own boulder to sink down on and rubbed his upper arms. "This place is giving me the creeps. The sooner we can get out of here, the better."

"Finally, we agree on something," Yahya said as he looked away from his shoes long enough to roll his eyes at Alex.

Alex glared angrily at him. He was pretty sure his expression looked exactly the same as his dad's, Mar, every time he himself did something rude. Only now did he realise, he hadn't been infuriating enough to pass as an annoying teen.

"Aren't you supposed to be 4000 years old?" Alex snarled, only barely managing to suppress a wave of anger.

"I am," Yahya said as he glared right back. "What are you implying?"

"I'm implying that you act pretty bratty for your age," Alex practically growled. "Looks like I've failed to teach you manners in my past life."

"You didn't teach me anything," Yahya growled right back. "YOU were NEVER there! I don't owe you ANYTHING! And yet, here I am, helping you. When you raced to the afterlife like a madman in chase of your dearly beloved wife. I chose to follow you, to watch over you. Not a word of thanks, no. You freaking left me trapped here! All you know is how to boss people around and complain."

Alex blinked in surprise. That was a pretty level headed retort. Nothing like the hormone infused rage he'd been expecting.

He tried to think of something to say. Should he deny it? Or maybe it would be better to apologise?

From what Alex could make out of Amon's memories, he had indeed pushed the kid away as much as he could. Why, you ask? Because he shouldn't have been born in the first place.

Amon remembered going to Ma'at, shouting at her that Neferet's death was her fault. That he could have prevented it if only he'd known, and that she should have told him. What reason could she possibly have had to hide something with such a devastating outcome?

That's when Ma'at had looked up at him, the pain he felt reflected in her eyes, and confessed that she hadn't known. Neferet getting pregnant hadn't been an option. And yet, Yahya had been born.

It might surprise you to know, but Amon had named the boy "Yahya" himself. It means "Given by God" and it was the only name that seemed to fit the boy, because he was the last gift Neferet had given him before she'd died.

The only problem was, that the boy looked a little too much like his dearly departed wife. Amon knew that he'd never be able to look at the boy without feeling the pain of losing her.

So instead of raising him himself, he'd asked Merenre to do so for him. There, he would have at least been surrounded by a loving family and have a stable father figure to look up to.

"You're right," Alex finally said, biting back tears and gritting his teeth against the overwhelming feelings the memories brought with them. "I promise that when all of this is over, I shall try my best to free you from this prison. I owe you that much. But know that the world of the living isn't anything like the world you used to live in anymore."

Yahya looked at him flabbergasted, but Alex didn't meet his eyes. He felt like a lier and a cheat. Making such an impossible promise, even though he knew that he couldn't do anything about it. Not without his powers.

He looked at the top of the mountain instead, at the path that lay before them and realised just how crazy the thing was that he felt that he needed to do.

"Maybe it's better if you go back," Alex sighed.

"You're pushing me away again," Yahya remarked, tears in his eyes. Alex stared at him with a flat look for an instant.

"All I'm saying is that none of this would have happened if I hadn't dragged you along on this fools errand to begin with," he said. "Shit, I even jeopardised the future of Egypt by allowing Intef to come. Ma'at must have been SO furious with me! All her hard work and plans made years beforehand, blown to the wind."

Yahya looked at him as if he saw him for the first time.

"What?!" he asked annoyed, but Yahya never got to answer as a soul splitting scream suddenly came from the top of the mountain.

They both reflexively covered their ears with their hands, but the horrible sound was the least of their worries.

A rush of bullet-like wind raced over towards them from the top of the mountain, destroying everything in its path. It stopped right in front of them, the wind so strong it nearly blew them away.

Alex averted his eyes to prevent all the whipped up sand and dust from blinding him. And when he looked back up, he saw Intef stand before them.

He looked more solid than before. Maybe it was because they were getting close to the center of the disaster zone?

"Brother?!" he heard Yahya gasp in amazement.

"You shouldn't have come!" the voice of the world seemed to yell at them and the appearance of the boy they both loved so very much started transforming in front of their very eyes.

He grew to a three meter tall giant, his body deformed to the point it didn't look human anymore.

His fingers had become long, with sharp talons, and before Yahya or Alex could recover from their surprise, Intef The Monster hunched over and grabbed them with its huge, taloned monster-hands.

Alex screamed out in pain as the monsters dug its talons deep into his flesh, causing warm blood to trickle down slowly.

He was about to beg Intef for mercy, since the monster was looking straight at him with those big, unseeing eyes, but then the monster tightened its grip and Alex couldn't breath anymore.

The newly applied pressure broke a few of his ribs with a sickening crack, which in turn caused one of his lungs to collapse, and yet the monster kept crushing him relentlessly.

If this had been earth, he probably would have been dead already and that would have been the end of it.

But they weren't on earth.

The three of them, Alex, Yahya and Intef, were alive creatures in the afterlife. If they died here, they were doomed to revert back into the moment right before they had died, just to die all over again.

Their own time standing still, trapped in their dying moment.

Alex and Yahya either had to wait until the monster got bored with them, or find a way to escape this vicious cycle.

The pain was maddening. Alex was already losing his connection to the world around him. He couldn't hear Yahya scream anymore and the world around him became one big blob.

All he could see were the big hollow eyes of the monster looking back at him. He wasn't even trying to breathe anymore at this point. What was the point of hurting yourself by trying to breath with a collapsed lung anyway?

That's when it all clicked into place. That's what had driven Intef into madness! He had been dying all alone on top of this mountain in this disaster zone for the past 4000 years. It was a miracle he'd remembered himself in the first place.

Alex blinked a tear away, feeling thoroughly regretful for leaving his son in a state like this. But when he opened his eyes again, he startled.

He was no longer inside of his body. He was watching the scene from above, floating in the air.

He could still feel the pain inflicted to his body, but it had dulled to a soft annoying buzzing in the back of his mind.

He was glad, though, that he could still feel it. He wasn't looking forward to having his soul severed permanently from his body.

The next thing he noticed was the monster in front of him. The monster itself didn't look any differently from when Alex had still been inside his body, but he could see an additional chain around its neck that he hadn't noticed before.

The chain was made out of thick, black shackles, and it seemed to chain the beast to the top of the mountain.

Or maybe it wasn't the top of the mountain itself. If Alex looked carefully, he saw something glistening near the top of the mountain.

He didn't get a chance to inspect it further though, because at that very moment, the monster looked straight at him. Not at his body, but to the place he was floating.

"You shouldn't have come!" the monster bellowed once more, dropped Alex his body and Yahya to the ground, and started swatting at where he floated.

The funny thing was, Alex could see the huge monster-hands come flying towards him as if they were moving in slow motion. All he had to do was float out of the way and they'd pass by him without causing harm.

The feeling of power washed over him and a mad laugh escaped him. But honestly, Alex didn't feel like laughing. Not at all. On the contrary, he felt like crying.

Down below him, he could see Yahya limp to safety. He was hugging his chest and blood was trickling from his wounds in a steady flow, but at the very least, he looked a lot better than his own mangled body which had fallen like a rag doll to the ground and was currently lying in a puddle of its own blood.

Another hand flew by, barely missing him this time and Alex realised he had to do something about this ghost.

What happened next could only be described as an instinct, because afterwards Alex wouldn't be able to explain you how he knew what to do.

He swooped down, evading the arms that were still trying to swat him out of the air, hovered in front of the monster's face, which caused it to momentarily look at him cross-eyed and placed a single index finger to the monster's forehead and said: "This madness has been going on for far too long."