He embraced her, "Even if we were facing death itself I will never leave you sweet heart. I promise you Love. We have one more thing to worry about. This place is locked. The entrance is strongly secured and some key opens it. The only way we came in is totally inaccessible to us. This will give us extra load. Once we locate the Holy Cross we will have to find an alternative way out."
Angle suddenly exclaimed, "I still have it.!!!"
"Have what dear."
"The key from the room. Maybe it works."
Both approached the entrance. Angel took it out of her pocket and tried it. She pushed it inside, The T side first but it was too small for the lock.
She said disappointed, "Tough luck!"
"Do you know something? Let's organize our priorities. Let's first of all search for the secret chambers that contains the Cross. Angel search the walls. I think we should be looking for secret entrances, hidden levers; they might be camouflaged or hidden to be unobvious. Look for high shaft like openings or trap doors. Once the Cross is found, we will worry about getting out. Even if we have to improvise something we will work things out." Angel stood silently watching with no answer as Nigel looked around them and went on, "We have to be smart and strong."
Angel kept her silence until Nigel noticed, "What is it darling?"
She finally replied, "I don't think we will be looking for a way out for too long. I'm sure there is a way out."
Nigel asked curiously, "Thanks for the boost in spirit but how on earth are you so sure when we still haven't began yet…"
Angel replied pointing to her left, "The same way he came in from."
"Who? We haven't got time…"
"It’s a disgusting scene, but look at him resting silently against the wall."
"MARY MOTHER GOD!!! Stay where you are."
Nigel clutched his shot gun hard and walked slowly towards it. The macabre scene forced him eventually to stop and study it a short distance away. It was in outdated French military uniform probably from the Napoleonic era. A horrified look was screaming from its face. It was stabbed with a long spear in the stomach and nailed to the wall, its feet one foot high above the grounds. Its intestines were spilled out by the fatal stab and a big pool of blood rested underneath it. A musket rested across the pool of blood on the ground. The strange thing about it was that there was no mal odor coming from it. It wasn't decayed or even decaying. It seemed to Nigel that it was stabbed only moments ago. A soft shuffling caused him to turn around, "Angel don't come near this. It's totally disgusting." He pushed her a little backwards but she stopped him. As she studied the soldier and his poor fate her face shifted to disgust and her stomach turned at his open guts. "What went on here?"
Nigel spoke with uneasiness, "Obviously he angered something that we still haven't come across."
"Nigel, I can guess from his costume that he's been here for ages…"
"And not decaying Angel. It seems time has no authority here. How long has it since we've had our first meal? We haven't gone hungry; again one more game point for the old man with the camels." Nigel moved close to the poor chap and reached out for the musket. He shook it a little bit from the blood and spoke aloud his thoughts, "A flintlock circa, widely used in Europe during the Napoleonic Era…and…Oh my God. Do you know this thing is loaded for use? It's ready to fire. Probably he didn't have time to engage in combat."
Angel suddenly uttered out in a panicky voice, "How did he get lost here?! Oh my God Nigel if this is going to be our fate here." She burst into tears, "Nigel are we going to die like him?" Nigel embraced her comforting, "Don't be afraid darling. I won't allow this to happen. Calm down sweet heart. Let's leave this man in peace. Let's just walk away."
In an unexpected quick turn of attitude reflecting her distressed self Angel took in a deep breath and stated attempting to regain control of herself, "It's OK Nigel. It's OK. I'm fine. It's just we are going through a lot here. Maybe we ought to just think calmly here for our own safety. I’m fine." Nigel released her from his embrace and studied her. "Are you sure darling?"
"Yes. Let's ask ourselves a question. How would a person like him have wandered here?"
"Good Question. Don't forget that it was the French that found the Rosetta Stone and the ever infamous French Champollion whom also deciphered it."
"What if he stumbled on something similar to our discovery, and what about the deceased lady whom we found in the room…"
"You mean the soldier or Champollion?"
"The soldier of course."
Nigel thought for a couple of seconds and then commented, "Well the lady could be connected to him. Let's search him and see if we can find something out. I'm curious to know his story."
"How can you have the tolerance to touch him?"
"That is why I'm the man around here." He gave her a wink and continued, "Perhaps we can find something to be of use to us."
Nigel held in his breath and searched his jacket, then his shirt cautiously. When nothing was found he removed his hands but only to find something falling from within the jacket on the pool of blood underneath with a splash leaving his denims tarnished. Angel jumped back before the spills of blood touched her. It was a scroll tied with a string.
Angel giggled and said with a sense of humor, "Hear Ye, Hear Ye. A royal decree!"
Nigel laughed and thought secretly within himself, "What a tough women indeed," as he eyed her trying to tame her fears. He asked, "Do you know how to read French?
"No."
"Although it is probably in French, let us open it and double check." Nigel took the scroll and wiped it from the blood. He opened it exclaimed, "Amazing! It's in English!"
"Then Read it, what does it say?"
"Dearest Charles, as an assurance to my deepest respects for our colleagueship I'm writing to you in English your native tongue. Don't ever think that our rivaling countries will affect our professional colleagueship, for our business acquaintance proved over the years to be a strong one; more or less like wine, the older the sweeter. We have one target as scholars, studying this miraculous Egyptian civilization that once ruled the entire known world, that is to discover and increase our knowledge. Concerning the hieroglyphic on the papyrus you sent me, the papyrus is ancient and the text is alarming. Champollion's disposition overflowed with excitement as he deciphered the contents. They are an excerpt of the Scriptures of the Priests of Thebes." Nigel shot a glance at Angel whom also had a surprised look on her face.
"So it's not a myth after all."
"But how can this be? Those scriptures were believed to have lived for a millennium and a half, ever since Thutmose III till the end of Egypt and its downfall by the Romans during Cleopatra VII Philopator's rule. They were alleged by many scholars to have been destroyed by the wars when Cleopatra lost her military battle with Marcus Antonius against Octavian."
He read on, "Those scriptures seem to contain all the magical and secret incantations that the priests study and believe in before they are ordained priests. The excerpts directly relate to incantations, if said would lead you to the charmed treasures of the ancients; treasures that seem to be never found in the wake of the treasure hunters and plunderers but only to the priests of Thebes and only the privileged by them. I have sent back only the first page with its translation as Champollion will finish the rest within the upcoming month; as a matter of fact he promised me to work on it even during his much anticipated trip to Egypt in the upcoming near future. Don't worry, as soon as its contents are translated completely we will give you a copy of the translations along with the original text and will keep a copy of our own. My deepest regards to you and your family, and perhaps when travel is possible, I will come and visit you in London. Jean-Pierre Roseau."
Angel scratched her head and commented, "Let's say that our friend got a little nosy and read some of the incantations; probably ignoring the warnings."
"And when he arrived to his destination, the unpleasant waited for him."
"But we have been waiting for an hour here. Nothing harmed us."
"I don't know honey. Although I searched him thoroughly we only found this scroll. What happened with the papyrus that Jean-Pierre said he sent back to Charles?" He gulped hard as he stared at the corpse.
Angel replied with a jittery tone of voice, "I think something searched him before us. Well I think I have had enough of researching the history of our John Doe. I'm just about ready to finish our job here and find a way out. Let's begin working Nigel."
The waters resurfaced to their awareness again. "Angel I want you to go to the area around the statue while I will go and check out the waterfalls."
Angel departed to her requested destination while Nigel headed towards the water falls. "A thin beam of light within extreme darkness sometimes makes the difference," he thought. However he soon found out that the expected waterfall was not more than a canal that was seven feet wide and two feet deep, running exactly in the area behind the statue. It started from the corner of the wall in front of him and ended at the bulky base of the lion god statue, at a total length of about eighty feet. The source near the corner was blocked by a big rounded boulder around seventy cubic feet in volume stopping the water from running. He heard water rush briefly on the other side of the boulder giving him the impression of a more intricate water system that sounded all the way to the inside of the temple, deceiving them into thinking there was a small waterfall close by. No wonder the sounds were reverberating. However an instant detail made his mind shoot with wonder. The grounds of the canal were wet. Water must have flown here recently. His eyes shot back to the soldier. If he thought about moving the boulder the soldier messenger could have thought about the same thing. Could it be that he met his fatality then. His mind ravaged with anticipation and fear but it was their only way out. What if there was a room on the other side?
Angel looked inquisitively at the glyphs at the side of the base of the statue. She was looking for any hints on ways out of this temple and this truly meant eyeing every fine detail of the temple. She eyed carefully the symbols and read, "Our god subdues his enemies and drinks from their flesh their blood. Only the blood of a sacrifice shall run in these canals to feed the hunger of our mighty lion god. Our god is…" The picture of a human man with his arms spread out immediately came after the glyphs followed by the rest of the inscriptions, "bodies strong." Angel's heart skipped a beat. It was common for the Egyptians to give sacrifice to their gods. The Nile river god was given a female sacrifice at intervals so he wouldn't overflow the Nile and harm the peasants' crops and the Kingdom's harvest. Human sacrifices are present in some pagan beliefs, and the Ancient Egyptians are not alone with their practices. "But this blood thirst was strong," She thought.
"Nigel, can you come here!" but her voice was lost instantly within a strong clattering. She peeked and saw Nigel with his mighty grip battle with the boulder to move it out of its place. A storm of fear swept all over her as the meaning of the glyphs, the dead slaughtered body and the stone face of the mighty blood thirsty lion came into her mind. She ran like a child screaming out, "NIGEL PLEASE DON'T!!!" but was too late. As soon as she crossed the eighty feet between them the red solutions gushed out of the newly opened source and flowed towards the statue. Nigel stood in his place awe struck at the sticky rivers that were flowing around the boulder and his legs. He looked with fear at Angel and asked, "What have I done?"
Angel's legs turned into petrified wood as she watched the sickening river flow. She looked back at Nigel and commented, "I just read the details of how they offered Amenram his sacrifices."
Nigel gulped and asked, "And how may I ask?"
She frantically explained, "They butchered the sacrifice on the other end of this wall and allowed the blood to flow to the canal. The blood of one million sacrifices has flowed through here in the past. The glyphs said the god is one million bodies strong."
Both shot glances towards the statue anticipating the worst but the statue didn't move. Instead two big square shutters on the grounds in front of the statue opened. Suddenly the grounds underneath their feet rocked with thunderous thuds, sounds resembling colossal beings climbing up steps. They shot through the grounds with powerful speeds and stood hurling menacing faces and deafening beastly howls at them.
Angel dropped to her knees with shock as she screamed out, "What are these ugly beasts Nigel!!!"
"Ammits! Demons of the underworld!"
Nigel pumped his shot gun as their keepers surfaced soon. "Just what we need, Mummified guards with spears and swords too." The keepers yelled out "Attack" to their ghoulish pets in their native language. The chilling howls echoed through the premises as they dashed towards them. "NIGEL DO SOMETHING!!!" Angel hollered out from the depths of her terrorized soul, her screams diminishing by the colossal thuds and sounds of their beastly assailants. Nigel took a couple of daring steps towards them, aimed and fired at one of the Ammits. It released a pained cry as the round tore off one of its limbs and hurled back a distance. Blue blood flowed from its wound as it lied in its place helplessly bleeding. The other Ammit unexpectedly climbed up to the side of one of the columns and jumped up in the air at Nigel. Nigel aimed and fired directly at its face. The rounds blew up its snout and its blood splashed on him and the grounds underneath. It fell down to the floor squealing then ceased movement. Nigel gave the other Ammit another round blowing up its head completely. The guards frustrated by Nigel's resistance aimed both their spears at the same time and hurled them with vigor. Nigel horrified grabbed Angel and pressed her down with him on the grounds. The spears rocketed over their bodies and released a huge clatter as they pounded into the wall behind them, crumbling chips of rock and hurling them distances away. Nigel stood up and pumped his shot gun releasing a series of rounds at the mummies. They danced around as the fiery bullets smashed into their heads and arms severing them to pieces. Angel stood in the corner shaking with horror as she eyed them place back their heads and limbs, "Nothing is working Nigel!!!" She screamed.
One of them remained without his left arm as the rounds tore it up completely. Nigel ordered while reloading his shot gun, "I think you're wrong! Angel keep them busy while I reload. It's our only hope that the rounds will tear them up enough at some point."
Angel tried to pick up her revolver but it shook violently within her feeble hands. Nigel seeing her jitters panicked with the bullets, feeding them as fast as he could into his weapon. Their enemies in full military discipline took firm simultaneous steps towards them, their warrior costumes flowing around their bodies, their swords carefully in strike positions within their grasp. As they raised their swords to attack Nigel finished reloading and closed his shotgun. He aimed at one of them and fired causing a hole within his chest. The mummy danced around crazily before he dropped lifeless to the floor. The other one unhappy with the fate of his friend grabbed a torch and burned some of the linen wrappings of his friend's body. He collected small bits of the cremated material and blew them in the air while calling out in his native language, "Rise my brethren, keepers of the temple of Amenram, collect your fighting spirits once again." A powerful Déjà vu feeling bolted through Angel at the Ancient Egyptian words. The memories of the funeral in her dream began flashing like a slide show in her mind. She began breathing very heavily and sweating as a strong current instantly took the ashes down through the shutters. "She rose and took a couple of steps towards the mummy saying in Egyptian, "Stop what your doing. Your queen orders you!"
Suddenly foot steps rocked the premises as two more mummies surfaced form the shutters.
The Mummy screamed back in a beastly voice, "I don't know you! Who are you to order me!"
Nigel perplexed at what was going on exclaimed, "I don't see you wearing a crown! These guys won't listen to anybody!" Nigel fired at the mummy whom stated the incantations and blew his head to shreds. He ran up to the heavy stone and moved it a little bit then pulled Angel through its entrance. They dashed into an empty room that wasn’t more than twenty by twenty feet. Both halted their dash for a second's time and screamed with alarm at the abomination that they found lying on a four legged table. Its face that was staring up towards the ceiling was still screaming with the woes of agony, its body that had the remnants of what seemed to them as soldiers' clothes chewed to shreds. Deep carvings resembling drainage canals were apparent underneath it. The wide blood canal that was blocked by the huge boulder ran up to the table and met with it at a tilted end. Another board was raised a distance up over and had sharp wooden teeth on its inside. It filled with blood and pieces of human flesh; a truly merciless blood reaper. The room was filled with paintings of prisoners being pressed between the two pieces of the devastating mechanism while the Egyptian guards surrounded them eyeing their tortures. Angel and Nigel continued their dash towards a far corner disgusted by the tormented body. They watched the entrance in anticipation of the armed mummies. Suddenly powerful muscular arms from a painted soldier tore out from the walls, hurling rock debris around and pushed Nigel towards the mechanism. Nigel helplessly hurled towards the table and slammed on to the bloody corpse. Angel yelled with fear as she eyed the soldier tear himself out of the wall with ease and withdraw his sword from his side, his powerful muscles flexing with his movements. She attempted to stop him but he picked her up and threw her away towards a wall. She crashed with a big thud and fell yelling from pain. Nigel attempted to jump from his place but the mummy that followed him from the temple pressed him against the table rendering him unable to move. The soldier threw his sword up and cut the rope that held the lethal board that hung from the ceiling. Nigel grabbed the mummy's neck and pulled him on the table with him. Losing the grip of the Mummy he rolled away from it and watched with awe as the sharp teeth tore up the bandaged body to shreds. The soldier's lifeless face looked towards the door as two more armed mummies came to the entrance. Nigel aimed the shotgun and was about to fire but the soldier took a mad dash at him before he could pull the trigger and grappled with him. He attempted to hurl Nigel towards the wall but Nigel firmed his feet in return and hurled him instead a distance backwards. He crashed on to the wall he tore himself from and blended back into his place. Angel watched astounded as the rock debris incredibly flew from all over the floor and plastered back in its place bringing the paintings to its original status. Nigel began firing at the mummies causing them to retreat back into the temple.
He suddenly with a quick maneuver pulled the rock inside closing the room and inciting a dense darkness. He called out to Angel, "Where are you sweetie." She moved close to him and hugged him warmly. They both sank to the floor soaked with their sweats of panic and breathing heavily.
Nigel hugged trembling Angel with his left arm and asked with a worn out voice form his struggles, "Am I fulfilling my promise to you."
She replied sobbing, "You are doing a great job. I was dead scared for you. But I was no match for that brute that dashed out of the wall. It seemed that he was only flattened on the wall when he came to life with an awesome maneuver and broke free. I'm too afraid to shoot or move my limbs from what's going on. When ever I see those things move I freeze in my place."
"Leave the heavy duty to me sweetheart. That is what I'm here for. Just calm down right now." Nigel noticed that her body was extremely cold and shaking massively." He hugged her closely and said softly, "Please calm down. I'm with you till death do us apart sweetheart."
Angel cuddled in his embrace savoring the comfort and safety he offered her. "Till death do us apart Nigel." She thought. The beautiful way he thought about her. She answered softly, "Me too Nigel; till death do me apart from you."
"If only I remembered to take a torch with me. It's so dark."
Suddenly the soldiers' full armor came back to her memory and jolted her mind again with a powerful Déjà vu that sent the scenes flashing again uncontrollably in front of her eyes; the preparation room, the royal chambers, the mourning of her sister in law and maid. They were like seizures that captivated her within a powerful clasp. Wild shudders reverberated through her body again as the lamenting voices of Seti's burial ceremony shot through her. A huge sense of belonging began engulfing her. Suddenly the surroundings’ threats returning with their attempts to rattle the huge boulder from its place awakened her.
"No not again!!!" Nigel exclaimed.
Suddenly Angel commanded with a royal voice in ancient Egyptian, "Keep your peace."
Nigel involuntarily shot a glance at her despite the darkness and asked, "What?"
She suddenly stood up and marched away from him, "Angel stay close to me! You don't know what can come walking away from these walls again." He soon heard soft shuffling then her breathing close to him, "Give me your object that released fire."
He asked while handing it to her, "What? Do you mean the lighter? And what did you say to me earlier, why in Egyptian?!"
"Start its' fire."
Nigel turned on his lighter and Angel brought the torch close to it. The torch in her hand danced with a flame on its top lighting a good perimeter around them. Nigel's mouth dropped with surprise, "Very good eye for detail." Keeping her silence, she marched towards the blood reaper. Hesitating at first from the bloody material sandwiched within it, she finally managed and shifted the wooden table around itself. The wall that the soldier broke from circled around itself, "How on earth did you know that!"
"Follow me." She commanded.
As they hurried towards the entrance of the open wall Nigel kicked something on the floor. He stopped and picked it up. It was a small leather sack that seemed to contain a small object. "This must belong to the poor victim on the table!"
Angle hastened, "Nigel quickly, the boulder is moving from its place."
Both moved through the wall entrance quickly. Angel operated a lever that rose up from the grounds. The wall closed back. She slowly walked to the surrounding walls and lit six torches hung on the walls around them that illuminated the big hollow chambers they were in. The chamber was completely empty aside from a human size painting of a pharaoh and one of his wives seated, intimately chatting, with a table full of fruits between them. A small semi circular space lied in his chest implying that an object was missing. Nigel slowly approached the painting and studied the small hollowness in the Pharaoh's chest. He read the engraved cartouche besides him. "Undoubtedly it reads Seti I"
Angel walked up to the painting and touched it passionately. "Seti" she whispered warmly, and this is Isis his sister. Nigel asked, "What makes you so sure? And really Angel, what was the stunt you pulled out there with the mummies. I'm your queen? Angel I love you and will always love you no matter what the outcome of the situation is; but you had me freaking out for a while."
She looked at Nigel with royal commanding eyes that made him feel isolated from her for the first time. She explained maintaining a royal voice, "There is something I hid from you. Not because I didn't want to tell you, but because I never understood it when it was happening to me earlier back."
Nigel hastened, "Speak up and explain it to me."
Angel took in a deep breath. She explained with an honest expression and tone of voice, "I have a strong feeling I once lived and dwelt in these places." An astounded look shot from his weary eyes as she continued, "When I was unconscious I seemed to have had a dream. It wasn't of a pleasant nature at all. We were in a preparation room and Seti's body was resting only a few feet away. Suddenly six people came in with a golden sarcophagus and they placed him inside it in front of me. The happening greatly saddened my heart, especially when they took him away. I felt as if a piece of my heart got torn away with his funerary precession. When I decided to follow them I had lost them, but I walked through corridors that I suddenly came to know, paths that I had walked before but seemed to have forgotten until I was inside them again. I found my way to the royal chamber of Seti that contained his throne. The convoy had already placed the sarcophagus in the middle of the bright chambers when two women approached it. They were lamenting and crying his death. They just lit a tormenting blaze in my already weeping heart. I walked up close to them and tried talking to them but they didn't recognize me. Suddenly I found myself in royal Egyptian wear, a beautiful white robe and felt a crown on my head. I immediately fell apart and couldn't keep my sadness to myself. I totally broke down like a child. They finally recognized me and embraced me with utmost warmth and love. They called me "Sekhmet."
Nigel's face was glowing endlessly with surprise at her words. He felt her forehead, "You don't seem to have a fever darling."
Sekhmet retorted nervously, "Nigel I'm not joking! How do you think I found the torch in that room and the secret passage when I turned the mechanism?"
"Your are right Angel. You are perfectly right…but?"
"I just feel that with some more time I will be able to recognize every single chamber in these premises." Her eyes filled with passions of yearning as she continued, "Oh if I walk the streets again in Thebes and Memphis I will be able to remember every single path and walkway in those cities. I sometimes feel that if I touched the stone walls of the houses and temples I will know what they will feel like underneath my fingers."
Nigel kept his silence for a few moments unable to say a word to his love. "An ancient royal queen?" This is far deeper than any Déjà vu experience believed in the known world of psychology. This is purely parapsychology. He finally said as she glanced at him with anticipation, "Look Angel, I don't know what to think but this is all out of our control."
She silently took the sac they found besides the tormented corpse and opened it. She unearthed its content. It was a small red stone that sparkled like a precious ruby. Nigel gazed at it with appreciation. "This is worth a fortune. I wonder where the soldier got it from?"
She answered firmly, "Our ruins and cities were ravaged by many people through the course of time. The piece of our dead and their precious belongings inside their final resting places and divine temples were disturbed, robbed and plundered over and over again ever since our decline of power till the present days. And you ask me how a mere precious stone can wind up with a disgusting villain that wanted to rob what is not his?"
Nigel grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her yelling, "Enough of your schizophrenic behavior Angel!!! I'm about to go crazy!!! I feel I no longer know you!!!"
"NIGEL PLEASE YOUR HURTING ME. LET ME GO BEFORE THE SOLDIERS THINK YOU ARE HURTING ME!!!"
"WHAT SOLDIERS ANGEL!!! WAKE UP!!! YOU'RE NOT A QUEEN BUT AN ARCHEOLOGIST AND MY LOVER!!!"
She shook herself away from his grip and yelled out, "THEY SEE US NIGEL. IF THEY SEE ME ANNOYED ENOUGH THEY WILL ATTACK TO PROTECT ME. I'M NO LONGER UNDER THE RULE OF YOUR WORLD. I'M IN THE KINGDOM THAT I HAVE OWNED EVER SINCE ANTIQUITY."
Nigel yelled back ironically, "SO YOU'RE EITHER A REAWAKEN QUEEN OR AT LEAST THREE THOUSAND YEARS OLD…!"
Angel covered his mouth terrified and yelled back, "DON'T YOU DARE MOCK ME OR MY CIVILIZATION!!! WATCH YOUR TONGUE!!! WHAT I'M SURE OFF IS THAT MY AUTHORITY AROUND HERE IS RETURNING TO ME GRADUALLY. DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? JUST DON'T ATTACK ME AGAIN AND DON'T DISRESPECT ME!!!"
She placed the precious stone in Seti's heart as he knelt down on his knees and begged in tears, "Please come back to me. I'm dead scared for you. I only want you back sweet heart. Please come back. I am beginning to miss my Angel."
Suddenly the entire room shook wildly. They swayed in their places as the grounds and walls shuddered about them, a pure earthquake that would give an astounding reading on a Richter scale. Half a minute passed causing massive cracks on the grounds and walls around them before it gradually came to a complete stop. The walls crumbled down with a wide area of the grounds they stood on like sheer biscuits leaving them stepping on a mere ledge attached to the wall behind them.
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