The ruler of ruins

Bam! James was jolted awake. Opening his eyes he saw: nothing. Not even the tiniest speck of light. Just dankness. Not the soothing kind of darkness but the kind that makes one shiver because he does not know what may hide within it. The kind that makes one feel lost and caged at the same time, like one is in the smallest biggest room ever.

Stretching out his hands however revealed that the room he was in, was in fact alarmingly thight. Only half an arm's length from his head there was a wall, or rather a ceiling, made of solid stone.

Retreating his arms back to his side James's breathing began to speed up. Had there been an earthquake, an attack? Was He buried under rubble? He began pounding the stone that was above him with all his strength, and after some his a slim strip of dim light was revealed. However, from his perspective it seemed to be as bright as the sun, a Ray of hope in his prison, that was devought of any other light. With renewed vigor he continued shoving and pushing, what turned out to be a heavy stone slab until he had made a hole big enough for him to squeeze through and out of his small cell.

After he clumsily climbed through the opening however he discovered that the outside was only dimly lit. Where were the helpers and all the floodlights. Ah, of course! He was knocked out by a piece of flying debree but regained consciousness and freed himself before help arrived. That had to be it. He quickly turned to look back at the rubble he was caught under and stumbled back in shock. It wasn't rubble at all. Instead, what he could make out in the lowlight conditions was more akin to one of the sarcophages one might see on TV? What had happened? Insted of waking up we're he had gone to sleep, his bed in his apartment in Kairo, he woke up in an antique Egyptian coffin. Every cenario he had imagined before to somehow make sense of his situation was washed away by a torrent of confusion with little drops of excitement mixed in. His heart began thumping and his hands bekäme cold.

Relax, he told himself. There is no reason for me to stress myself over just waking up in a fucking grave.

Slowly ripping his eyes away from the stone casket endowed with beautiful symbols embedded with gold and artistically swung obsidian lines glistening in the dim light…wait a minute light? Searching the room for its source his eyes glossed over the fainting wall paintings depicting gloryous hunts and glamorous coronations finally resting on something that might have once been an archway. Now though it was blocked off by a huge stone slab that only let light in through a small slit at the top. Within this beam of light that shone straight onto the sarcophagus dust was dancing like little insects in a somewhat hypnotic manner. Without even noticing James's Feet had begun sumbeling towards what might as well be his only way out of this room.

Coming closer to the slab he noticed that it had some sort of strange texture, and finally he reached out his hands to touch it. The instant he came into contact with the seemingly solid wall of stone it began moving downwards, while the texture he saw earlyer began pulsing with a faint blue light. Mesmerizing lines lit up and the stone sank into the ground silently revealing a long, dimly lit, corridor. Looking back into the chamber he discovered that it was in fact richly decorated with carvings and decked out with all kinds of beautiful weapons and armor which the Egyptians believed would aid their king in the afterlife. In addition to that, beautiful paintings lined the walls and even the ceiling. All of that was kind of unsettling to James. As he was in fact an egyptologist he was surprised that he had never heard of the discovery of a grave in such good condition. What was even more confusing though was the position he awakened in. With a little bit of mental gymnastics he could imagine himself discovering this undocumented grave, entering it, being hit by some piece of rubble and losing his memories. But no matter how hard he tried he could not explain how he would have gotten into that coffin and closed the lid all by himself, and where the priceless mummy that was originally inside of it had gone. All of this only left one possibility: he was put in there by another person with malicious intent. But who would do something like that, and why didnt that person just take everything within the grave and escape? Who or what would go through the trouble of imprisoning a researcher within a sarcophagus for no reason at all? Relegating these tumultuous thoughts to the back of his mind James turned back towards the corridor that would hopefully lead him to the exit of this strange place.