Prologue
The hot midday sun shined down on the Pharaoh’s palace. In his throne room, he sat being presided over where he was attended to by his group of loyal servants bringing him food and wine. From down below on the dusty gravel roads of the ancient city, a chariot raced through, passing all the villagers who quickly got out of its path.
The Pharaoh’s face became startled hearing a loud boom coming from the throne room doors that creaked up slowly. Sethe walked in, followed by his group of followers, all in a trance.
“What is the meaning of this?” the Pharaoh asked.
“My uprising,” he grinned, “You are old and weak, Your Highness. It’s time to bring forth a new era where I take your place as Pharaoh.”
“Guards! Seize him!”
The guards rushed forward and with a wave of Sethe’s hand, he flew them all backward hitting the wall and landing in a slump. He climbed the stairs pulling out a dagger ready to plunge into the Pharaoh as a brilliant flash of light made him cower and cover his eyes. He looked up to see standing in front of the Pharaoh was Achmed, an Egyptian sorcerer and official grand advisor to the king.
“You will not win this day,” he said.
Sethe motioned to the back of the room where the crowd all stood and watched silently.
“I have my followers who will go with me willingly even to their deaths if need be.”
“Your greed and ambition have blinded you. You have perverted everything that I have taught you.”
“With my unlimited power you dare try to stop me?” he asked arrogantly.
“Your arrogance will be your downfall. I will stop you.”
“Try so if you can.”
From either side of the opulent throne room with the Pharaoh and the hypnotized citizens looking on, Achmed and Sethe picked either side. Sethe threw fireball after fireball from his hands which Achmed quickly froze on the spot.
Then from the palms of his hands, Sethe created a ball of lightning growing in size and threw it directly at Achmed which he deflected to the roof hitting it and leaving pieces of rock crumbling to the floor.
Achmed threw a lightning ball back that hit Sethe making him fall backward as he pulled out a golden ankh and held it up in front of him starting to chant in Egyptian.
“Nooooo!”
Ball after ball of lightning Sethe threw but bounced off the ankh giving off a bright illumination. The followers blinked their eyes and shook their heads feeling dazed and confused having woken up from Sethe’s hypnotic trance. In front of everyone’s eyes, Sethe became old aging rapidly until he looked like nothing more than a rotting corpse.
“His powers have been contained,” Achmed said, “His soul will be forever trapped.”
Across the desert, he was transported away from the great pyramids of Giza where the servants finished wrapping him and Achmed placed the golden ankh on his chest before the lid was closed tightly shut.
When Achmed left the tomb the doors closed behind him and he approached the Pharaoh with his always vigilant guards nearby.
“He is safe inside the tomb and safe from the world,” he reassured, “I will pray that he stays that way for the rest of eternity.”
Present Day
Standing on the sandy expansive Giza Plateau Matthew Carson stood looking down at the dark hole where a dozen workmen laboriously excavated the rocks and sand. He removed his Chicago Cubs cap running his hand through his dark brown hair that was filled with sweat from the hot sun overhead. Suddenly, a workman spoke loudly breaking the pace and a commotion of voices that made Matthew take notice immediately.
“Did you find something?”
“I think you better get Dr. Ford,” Benji the translator said.
Matthew turned and ran towards the expedition tent lifting the flap and seeing Samantha sitting at a folded table studying a papyrus. She lifted her head when she heard him come in and looked at him questionably.
“We found something,” he panted.
“Is it?” she said as her eyes widened.
“It’s very possible,” he replied nodding.
“Let’s go have a look.”
They stepped down the ladder into the hole finding a tall sealed door with ancient hieroglyphics written on it.
“This is it,” she said reading it.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. This is definitely indigenous of the First Kingdom.”
“I feel as if your father should have been here.”
“I know. My Dad spent for what it seems like half his life looking. Studying all the ancient writings. Years of research.”
“And now…..?”
“Now it’s kind of anti-climactic,” Samantha answered thoughtfully staring in wonder, “I’m not sure.”
“Well like father like daughter,” Matthew said smiling.
“You got that right,” she said smiling back.
She turned her head and called to Benji who came forward.
“Please have everyone clear around the door. They should be able to use some tools to carefully pry it open.”
“Understood,” he said quickly nodding.
Benji motioned to all of the workmen for help in clearing the door cleaning away any excess debris and sand and together pried the door open from the right side.
Inside Samantha, Matthew, Benji, and one of the workmen walked down a dark corridor with flashlights in their hands entering a wide chamber. On the left and right walls, they could see a row of torches.
“Give me a lighter.”
Mathew lifted off his backpack and reached inside giving her a lighter used for lighting candles.
“Thanks,” she said taking it.
She walked to the left wall lighting one of the torches lifting it out of its sleeve and went along lighting all of the other torches in the chamber. She put the torch back hearing Matthew whistle in amazement.
“To think for centuries for untouched and preserved.”
From all along the walls painted hieroglyphics depicted Egyptian people in different pictographs; however, Samantha walked forward examining the wall in front of them on the other side.
“Well according to what I know there should be some type of release that raises a section here.”
“Which has the actual tomb inside?”
“Supposedly,” she said scanning the wall.
Samantha stepped in front of a cartouche that had always represented the name of the person buried.
“I think this is it.”
She reached her hand up to the cartouche pushing it where a big section of the wall slowly slid into the ceiling.
“Voila!”
“I’ll be damned.”
They looked upon a bright colorful sarcophagus resting on a stone platform with funeral urns in the room's corners.
“The museum is going to be pleased,” Mathew said.
“And he didn’t even want me to go on this trip.”
“Your Dad?”
“Yeah. He said he had an uneasy feeling. Don’t know why.”
She turned to Benji and the workmen motioning her hands.
“Can you help us lift off the lid?”
Benji motioned the workman where they both took a side and Samantha and Mathew held onto either end all together slowly lifting the lid and setting it gently on the ground. Samantha looked upon a mummy all wrapped up with its arms folded across his chest.
“Completely intact.”
As the workman looked on seeing the ankh resting on top of him his eyes grew wide as he started to talk in gibberish.
“What’s wrong?” Samantha said looking at him concerned.
The workman talked slower as Benji began to listen.
“He says this mummy is cursed,” he said translating, “He says the ankh is a seal to guard against evil on to anyone whomever disturbs the tomb. Nothing but death and destruction can come from here.”
“I remember Dad telling me it,” Samantha replied turning to Matthew, “People who claimed the mummy’s spirit still haunts the pyramids. A definite story to scare away any grave robbers.”
“You think any of it is true?”
“Mr. Rabeem assured me any superstitions are unwarranted now. And with the cooperation of the Department of Antiquities, we can finally bring the tomb to light.”
Inside the casket, the ankh’s diamond center glowed and shimmered brightly.
