Bad Omens

The nightmares were constant and almost always the same. They were just like my visions but I was the woman this time. I felt her happiness, passion, anger, and anguish. But I knew which emotion drove my counterpart, anger. She reveled in it, it made her powerful. I was stuck running through her motions, seeing the world through her eyes as she walked naked down a hallway, in what looked to be a preparation room. There were birds tied up by their feet, motionless. Bodies on stone slabs wrapped in cloth, as if they were offerings.

She knelt upon pillows and unfurled a scroll. I recognized Set's jackal head immediately, the god had always stood out to me. I abruptly remembered the book I had been drawn to when Evy toppled the bookcases in the museum, Set Volume 1. I was pulled back into the dream when I felt pain in my hand and wrist. The woman cut her hand the blade tracing up to her wrist the pain evident on her face, but she was determined that this would set her free. Her blood dropped into a bowl filled with a liquid I could not identify. She spoke an incantation lighting a fire with the satisfying click of two stones being swiped together. The kindling easily caught at the first spark and lit the twigs beneath it, smoke emanating from the fire in the bowl. She looked around the room, waiting with fear in her eyes.

Suddenly, a light breeze came through the room, and the birds that were hanging motionless came to life, squawking and flapping around trying to get free of their bonds. I heard a guttural growl coming from behind me but whenever I looked to see what it was it was just a cloud of black. I watched as the girl was presented with the dagger by the shadow. When she reached out to grab it, I felt the pain all over again through my arms, back, and face. The same markings appeared on her skin. Her eyes were the most hauntingly gorgeous thing I'd seen, golden doubled irises replaced her previously brown eyes. This experience changed her, for the worse, however, I knew that this was not her opinion. She was the most powerful she would ever be and she knew that feeling would benefit her in her plans. In one look her entire personality changed, and I could feel it... I could feel it within myself too. This was where the dream normally ended. Everything stopped the birds, the breeze, the noise. Her head snapped towards me, our eyes meeting. Cloth tendrils reappeared on her body, from the vision I had of her outside of London. I was outside of her now, standing in front of her. She stood up from her kneeling position, looming over me her pointer finger grazed underneath my chin before she gripped it tightly and examined me, turning my head sharply from left to right. She smiled close-lipped at me,

"Beautiful, you will do nicely, I knew you would the second I saw you, I needed you to be fully prepared for me." She told me her eyes tracking me as she dropped her hand from my chin and moved effortlessly around the room, nimble and spry.

"So you're my reflection?" I asked her stunned. She nodded in response smiling at her accomplishment to keep that a secret. This resonated with me as I thought about all the times that I had seen my reflection not mimicking me. My jaw dropped in disbelief.

"What exactly do you need me for?" I asked her apprehensively knowing that she most likely wouldn't even answer my question.

"You will find out soon enough, your skills will come in handy, and with my powers," she stopped her thought prematurely, a chuckle replacing the words she was speaking.

"Who are you? Why do I have your tattoos?" I asked her more questions, feeling angry it felt as if I was losing control of myself, I watched her face to see how she reacted to my emotion. Her face contorted into a look of sadness as if she was being rejected by a lover. The sadness changed swiftly and grew to one of anger.

"Were you not watching?!" She yelled at me, composing herself quickly after her outburst.

"My name is Ahmanet, I made a deal with Death. My father promised me the throne, but that all changed when my stepmother had a child, a son. He took away my destiny, what I had been training for my entire life." She told me, her eyes snapping to my own, walking up to me at an unnatural speed. She grabbed me by the neck lifting me slightly above the ground.

"You are destined to be mine. If you refuse, the consequences will be dire. Give into me." She told me, her voice intertwined with desperation at the end. My hands went to her wrist trying to pry her off me. It was no use and I was losing oxygen, I strived to hold on but I was losing consciousness. My eyesight was in tunnel vision and I knew I wouldn't have much longer, she would kill me in her attempts if she didn't get what she wanted... Me.

"Say it." She urged me, her grip tightening on my throat.

"Yes." I whimpered and she smiled a chaotic smile. She set me back on my feet and everything went black.

"What are these symbols on her Evy?" I heard Rick utter barely audible. I could tell he was to my left, his head close to mine as he lifted my arm and put it across my stomach, I assume so Evy could take a look at what marked my raised skin.

"I do have an idea of where these symbols come from but they're Sumerian, not Egyptian. Which honestly is surprising, this almost looks as if, no it can't be..." Evy's voice whispered.

"What??" Rick asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I won't know for sure until I do a bit more research," Evy explained as she covered me back up with the blanket. I let out a groan to let them know I was now awake.

"Morning Queen of Creepy." I heard Rick, I opened my eyes looking at the two of them trying not to hover over me. I rolled my eyes at his comment knowing a conversation was coming.

"What's with the two of you?" I asked them.

"We were worried about you, you were talking in your sleep, you've never done that plus..." Rick trailed off me gesturing at my arms, as I sat up interested.

"You know, I always expected you to get more tattoos but not necessarily all at once or in that fashion." He said to me. I smiled softly.

"What was I saying?" I asked him. He pointed to Evy.

"She was the only one who could understand you." My eyes glanced to Evy.

"You were speaking ancient Egyptian. It sounded like gibberish but I was able to pick out a few words you were using. You mentioned Set quite a few times and another name... Ahmanet. In all my research I've never seen or heard this name before you mentioned it, do you have any idea who that is?" She asked me. My blood ran cold at the mention of her name, but I shook off the discomfort not wanting to alarm them. That was news to me, I had mastered understanding the language, but I was definitely not fluent in speaking it.

"All I know is that she was born to take the throne, but her stepmother had a son who would replace her as the heir. She made a deal with Set, I'm not entirely sure what it gave her. But afterward, she murdered her entire family. Does that ring a bell from your research?" I asked her. Rick and Evy shared a glance with each other, it held concern and fear.

"It's reminiscent of King Menehptre, he was the fourth Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. But I've never heard of his daughter, I didn't even know he had a daughter. The entire family was assassinated and supposedly buried in the Valley of the Kings." She said watching my reaction.

"He's a mummy we have on display," I breathed out. I walked past the corpse every day during the tours. This just got more convoluted by the minute, I rubbed my face pushing my fingers into my temples trying to settle the headache I felt coming on.

"All right, all right, let's take a break from the creepy, we have a new mummy under our feet, let's find out who he is... We'll talk more about this later Eris." Rick said to both of us as he started folding the blanket on top of me up and setting it to the side. I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, the new information was something that I needed to ponder, not just brush past.

I stood cleaning off my dress and helping Evy to her feet. She smiled at me but I could tell she was hiding her real emotions behind a thin veil. She walked over to her brother's sleeping form and shook his shoulder to get him up. Jon awoke with a start, sitting up and almost smacking Evy with his head. I chuckled, understanding his reaction as we had quite an evening last night. After a few minutes of figuring out food for everyone, which mostly consisted of a little fruit from the Americans and bacon, we sat in silence with just the sound of chewing filling the atmosphere. Once we were full and ready to start the day we made our way down to the chamber which contained our sarcophagus. When we got there, I stood off to the side not entirely wanting to be a part of the action since I had so much going on and the last time I was in here with it, I passed out.

"Oh, I've dreamt about this day since I was a little girl!!" Evy exclaimed smiling broadly. I let out a weak laugh as I knew this information was likely true.

"You dream about dead guys?" Rick asked her seriously as he and Jon got the coffin into a sitting position so it was upright for viewing. His expression carried worry.

"Oh look his sacred spell has been chiseled off, this man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the next." She continued as she examined the sarcophagus and Jon brought the key out to unlock it. That was relatively significant, spells on sarcophagi were meant to help those who died on their journey to the afterlife. If it was not present it was meant to damn the mummy who was laid to rest inside, to a terrible doom.

"Tough break," Rick said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I'm all tears. Now let's see who's inside, shall we?" Jon said as he twisted the key inside the lock when he was finished both Jon and Rick tugged on the lid. The mummy inside popped out almost as if the muscle was still attached and it was trying to jump out. Evy let out a scream,

"God, I hate it when these things do that," Evy said with disdain and discomfort in her voice.

"Is he supposed to look like that?" Rick asked her confusion in his voice evident. I pushed myself off the wall I was leaning on and got a closer look.

"No, I've never seen a mummy look like this before he's still... Still..." Evy struggled to find the word she was looking for.

"Juicy" Rick and Jon chorused each other, sounding disgusted.

"Yes, he must be more than 3000 years old and it looks as if he's still decomposing," Evy said looking at me to check to see how I was doing. I gave her a thumbs-up and went back to leaning on the wall.

"Hey, look at that, what do you make of this?" Rick asked Evy as he pointed toward the lid of the coffin. It looked like scratch marks. The mummy looked as if he had been screaming, his jaw was strangely offset and it looked as if he had broken it in his attempt to get out of the coffin.

"My god, these marks were made with fingernails." She said as she traced over the markings.

All at once, the lights in the room went out and the smoke of the torches being blown out was the last thing I saw. I tried to move but quickly realized I was wrapped in gauze almost as if I was the one about to be mummified. I wiggled around as the men who were above me put a lid over me, trapping me inside. I screamed trying to get someone's attention but it was no use, I knew my struggle was for nothing.

"They were buried alive!!!" I yelled out, the room I had left for an instant coming back into view. Rick, Evy, and Jon turned to me as I pushed myself off the wall walking two feet to meet them at the sarcophagus lid. They looked at me shocked and confused as to how I knew this new bit of information.

"I just relived her last moments," I explained softly to them.

"Who's?" Jon asked looking at me as if I was crazy.

"Ahmanet, Menehptre's daughter, she made a pact with Set and they stowed her away before she could do anything else." Jon gave me a lost look, I didn't feel like explaining anything more.

"Anything else?" Jon questioned looking to Evy as he saw the expression on my face.

"Death is only the beginning." She said morbidly, reading the inscription that our friend had left on the lid. She was right, there was way more to Ahmanet than met the eye, she was clearly dead, but somehow she was able to bridge a gap between her and I. It was like we were bonded to each other in some unusual way.

"Well, I think that's enough exploration down here for one day," Jon said grabbing my arm and Rick the other, dragging me up out of the chamber with them. Evy stayed a bit longer, saying she wanted to continue investigating the dead guy. I barely caught it as they got me out of there so fast.

"Scared?" I asked them both, raising my eyebrow in question.

"Yes. Plus you have some explaining to do." Rick told me as they both dropped my arms out of their grip, once we were back outside.

"In the orphanage, you kept talking to the shadows at night. I assumed it was nothing until you were around 14 or 15. That's when I actually witnessed something for myself. Now I never told you this, but I think now's the time to share, just in case it means something. One time when you were talking to the shadow, I saw something, something I'll never forget in this lifetime, golden eyes. I always just assumed it was my imagination, but now I'm thinking it's something more than that. The thing you see in the mirror, the only thing I have ever seen was a darker image of you... It's like a darker shadow, but it's always been attached to you, following you." Rick blurted out, speaking as fast as he could to get the words out. Jon's mouth dropped at the story and my heart stopped.

"Golden eyes," I whispered out, an involuntary dismal chuckle radiating from my body. Rick looked at me as if to say 'It's no laughing matter Eris'. I was tempted to tell him about my dream but when I tried nothing came out of my mouth.

"She has gold eyes," I told them, they both sucked in a bit of air not knowing what else to say. Both men escorted me back to the campsite where we continued our conversation.

"So, you've continually seen and heard this bitch since the last time we spoke about your alter ego?" Rick asked as he plopped me down in my spot. Jon sat on the other side of me, listening intently.

"Yes, it's mostly in dreams and visions, but the first time we went underground was the most significant when she talked to me, it's like this voice in my head telling me where to go and what to look for, that's how I knew the warden would die," I told him.

"Is that where-- Wait, wait go back... You knew the warden was going to die?" He asked trying to take in all the information I was giving him.

"Yes, actually when we first started the journey back in that town after the barge lit on fire." Jon let out a huge sigh and grabbed the bottle of Glenlivet from last night. I didn't blame him he was learning all this information for the first time and it was difficult.

"Okay, so my sister's a psychic too? Where're my powers, Eris!? And the dagger, where did that come from?" He joked and then asked me trying to wrap his brain around the whole concept. I knew that first question was sarcasm but if he truly wanted my opinion I was going to give it to him.

"I guess she was a sorceress in her day, she was the princess of Egypt she was required to know different sets of knowledge and if that's not where she learned it, I suppose she had a hobby," I told him.

"Fun hobby" I heard Jon say to my right sarcasm in his voice thick as the whiskey he was drinking.

"So what does this mean for us?" Rick asked more as a rhetorical question. Beni walked up joining our area sitting to the right of Rick not wanting to be next to me.

"Say O'Connell, what do you think these babies will catch back home?" Henderson asked my brother as he and his buddies sauntered up to our campsite holding canopic jars. I grimaced not wanting to know their fate. Henderson squished himself between Jon and I. Daniels and Burns sitting to the left of Jon.

"We heard you boys found yourself a nice gooey mummy. Congratulations, you know if you dry that fella out you might be able to sell him for firewood." Daniels spoke his thoughts a bit too much for my liking. Rick gave a fake laugh as the others joked about us.

"They'll be gone soon enough, he needs them for his regeneration" Ahmanet spoke.

"Look what I found!" Evy exclaimed as she walked up to our group holding what I could only assume to be something gross. Rick scooted over pushing Beni aside to give her some room to sit.

"Scarab skeletons, flesh eaters. I found them inside our friend's coffin they can stay alive for years feasting on the flesh of a corpse. Unfortunately for our friend, he was still alive when they started eating him." Henderson set his jar in front of him happily and leaned back on his hands one a bit too close to my buttocks for my liking. I pushed past the anger bubbling in my throat and let him believe what he wanted. I didn't want to make a scene.

"So somebody threw these in with our guy and they slowly ate him alive?" Rick asked her seriously questioning his choice to come out here again.

"Very slowly," Evy said explaining the process of where these bugs came into play.

"Better than just sand and blood eh Rick?" I asked him coming out of my shell a bit. He smiled at me.

"Well he certainly wasn't a popular fellow when they planted him was he?" Jon smirked.

"Probably got a little too frisky with the Pharaoh's daughter..." Rick joked, but in all seriousness, it could be true. I had a feeling this was something more sinister.

"Well according to my readings our friend suffered the Hom Dai, the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses, one reserved only for the most evil of blasphemers in all of my research I've never heard of it actually being performed," Evy said seriously, looking at all of us, she knew just as well as I did that there was more to this than met the eye.

"That bad huh?" Rick asked.

"Yes well, they never used it because they feared it so. It's written that if a victim of the Hom Dai should ever arise he would bring with him the 10 plagues of Egypt." She smiled through her words, she clearly didn't believe this to be true. It was interesting because all that's happened to me you'd think she'd start believing in these ghost stories that plagued the world. It was getting late and the Americans had wandered back to their tents along with Beni. Rick and I were up chatting with each other about the seriousness of the situations that were upon us. After a while, there was nothing else to talk about and I was happily resting looking through our supplies and provisions.

"That's called stealing you know?" Rick uttered. I was about to reply when I saw Evy walking over with a black book.

"Well according to you and my brother, it's called borrowing" She replied to him brushing off his hypocrisy.

"I thought the book of Amun Ra was made out of gold," Rick said as he crawled over to her near the dying fire.

"It is made out of gold, but this isn't the book of Amun Ra, this is something else. I think this may be the Book of the Dead." Evy said looking at me with curiosity.

"Eris let me see your arms," She said. I held them out for her as she grabbed the key out of Jon's pocket to unlock the book. Jon was sleeping pretty soundly from all the drinking he had been doing tonight. She clicked the key into position and went to unlock the book.

"The Book of the Dead? Are you sure you want to be playing around with this thing?" Rick asked her wondering what the plan was, unsure where this would get us.

"It's just a book, no harm ever came from reading a book." She said as she unlocked the book, the dial spun slowly and the latches undid its binding. She flipped the cover open to the first page. I could tell it was heavy, by the way she had to use two hands to flip it. As she did this, the fire rustled more.

"That happens a lot around here." Rick gave a solution to the turn of events.

"So what's it say?" He continued asking her the question. Evy started reading.

"Amun Ra, Amun Dei. It speaks of the night and of the day," Evy said as she read, cross-referencing with my arm, she continued speaking in ancient Egyptian.

"Eris, you're arm, it's exactly what I thought. It's scripture from the Book of the Dead but it's in Sumerian text." She explained more focused on the book than my arm. The surprise hit me, I was doubtful I would ever get a much-needed break after all this happened.

"NOO, you mustn't read from the book!!" Dr. Chamberlin yelled at us, waking Jon promptly from his sleep along with the Americans and Beni. The wind started to whip around us as we realized our mistake. Something was coming.