Tombquest: Book of the Dead

Taken

When Alex went to bed that night, his mother wasn't home.

When he got up for a glass of water two hours later, she still hadn't returned.

He checked the living room table for a note. No note, but he found a gold-paint pen and a few scraps of what looked like old cloth. As he bundled up the scraps to toss out, he saw the faded cover of a book underneath, Legend of the Death Walkers.

He wasn't that tired — he'd hardly been tired at all since he'd returned from the hospital — and he was determined to wait up for his mom. He flipped open the book. He was expecting a novel and was surprised to discover that it was a very old history book. He flipped to chapter one: "Who Were the Death Walkers?"

According to legend, the Death Walkers were a group of evil men with strong spirits. They knew they would fail the weighing of the heart, so after death, they used their powerful wills to cling to the edge of the afterlife. There they remain, the tales say, struggling to hang on and desperately waiting for an opportunity to escape.

Evil men with powerful wills ... it reminded Alex of something, and he flipped to the table of contents. And there it was, chapter four: "The Stung Man."

Cool, he thought, and settled down on the couch to read as he waited for his mom.

~~

He woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door: DONK! DONK! DONK!

Alex looked around the apartment in the dim morning light.

"Mom," he called. "Door!"

No response. He looked around again. Nothing had been moved. The keys weren't on the peg by the door.

DONK! DONK! DONK!

"Anyone home?" a man called from the other side. The sound mixed with the neighbor's corgi barking its head off.

Alex stumbled toward the door.

"Uh, who is it?" he shouted.

"Police!" came the voice.

Police? he thought. What's going on?

Half asleep still, he wasn't afraid, only confused.

"Alex looked through the peephole and saw another eye looking in. The eye pulled back and a man's head came into view. He had Middle Eastern features that Alex thought might be Egyptian. He wasn't wearing a uniform, but then he flashed a badge in front of the peephole.

"MOM!" Alex called again.

No answer.

The confusion was turning to fear.

No, Alex thought. Oh please no.

"Open the door, please," called the man. He sounded either tired or annoyed, possibly both.

Alex undid the first lock: click! "Do you know where my mom is?"

"That's what we need to talk about."

~~

His name was Detective Hussein, and as soon as he told Alex he regretted to inform him that his mother had disappeared from the museum, the investigation began. As he did a thorough sweep of the small apartment, he peppered Alex with questions.

"So she just got up and left for work, and that was the last you saw of her?" the detective asked.

"Yeah," said Alex. "Pretty much."

"And you're sure she didn't call? Email? Text? Anything?"

Alex shook his head. But just to be sure he checked his email. And his phone. And his voicemail. And his email again.