There's A Fine Line Between Coincidence & Fate ✓

Chapter 44

I feel myself being lifted and carried as I teeter of the edge of the world of the living and the world of the dead. I hear Jack's voice in my head, but with the sound of rushing wind, I can't make any sense of what he is saying. I'm bathed in a warm white light and I finally think that this is it. But when I open my eyes, it's not the pearly gates, or the underworld, or anything else that I've come to expect with the afterlife.

"You really need to work on your whole will to live technique." I hear a voice say behind me. I'm once again in the presence of Sekhmet.

"And maybe, just maybe, the gods need to make their minds up about Imhotep. It's a shame the underworld keeps spitting out dead people." I reply with a roll of my eyes.

"You would do well to guard your words in the presence of a goddess." She hisses at me.

"And you would do well to remember that you came to me, you chose me. The gods are quick to remind us of our mortality, but you also are quick to use us when you need us. You tasked me with guarding the Medjai. I have done that, and more, in the years that have passed since our last meeting."

"I'm well aware of the sacrifices and struggles you have gone through for our cause."

"Am I finally allowed to rest now?"

She actually looks sad. "I'm afraid not, young one. The threat is still to come."

"He raises the army, doesn't he?"

She nods. "And your Medjai will need you more than ever."

"I've lost too much blood, there's no way I'll survive."

She moves to sit down by the window. "Allow me to tell you a story, in the brief time we have together. Eons ago, a goddess fell in love with a mortal man. The baby of that union was a demigod, prophesied to protect the world from whatever evils might befall it. Of course, the world at that time was very small, just Egypt was known to the Egyptians. But she, the child, was trained in the ways of combat and fulfilled each and every prophecy that was spoken of for her. And then, she disappeared, just when a great threat manifested in the Pharaoh's own palace. Desperate for protection, the Medjai prayed to the goddess that one day, should the threat ever rise again, that the daughter would be returned to the land of her father, and she would stop it, once and for all." She says, looking at me.

I laugh. "That's not possible. I'm not a demigod, I'm just... Margaret. I'm a wife, a mother, a warrior. I have a family, my parents who birthed me, back in America."

"When whispers of this ancient threat were on the rise, you were reborn... Just not by me, this time. But you are no less my child. You were created for this very purpose. And only you, can defeat it."

"And just how am I supposed to do that if I'm bleeding out from a wound in my abdomen?"

"Now that you know the truth, your powers have been restored to you." She explains and I begin to glow, brighter and brighter until I have to close my own eyes. When I open them again, Sekhmet is gone, and I'm laying flat on my back with Ardeth, Rick, Evy, Jonathan, and someone I've never met before standing over me.

"Can I have some space, or shall we all continue to breathe the same air?" I ask as I try to sit up.

"You were bleeding heavily, and now it's just... gone." Evy explains, checking over the ripped garment I was wearing, assessing the damage, although I know she would find none.

"Well, it seems that there's past lives for all of us."

"What do you mean, ya amar?"

"I'm... I'm not exactly sure how to explain this. I'm Sekhmet's daughter... but reborn from another..." I do my best to summarize the meeting that happened while I was passed out.

"I hate to interrupt this happy reunion, but we've got a problem." The man, whose name I now knew to be Izzy, said before pointing to something that was happening behind us. A giant wall of water was working its way through the canyon towards us. "We're in trouble!" he yells.

I watch in horror as a face appears through it, smiling mockingly at us. "Imhotep." I whisper in fear.

"Horus, fly!" Ardeth yells, releasing the falcon that he had been raising to fly to safety. Rick and I turn to watch Horus fly off, noticing a right turn up ahead.

"Izzy, come hard right! Starboard! Starboard!" Rick yells, motioning with his arms. The face in the wall opens its mouth and attempts to swallow us. Ardeth pulls me to him and I cling to his outer robe as the ship flies off into the next canyon way. The water wall continues to follow us and in an attempt to outrun it, Izzy pulls us up, as the water crashes down, soaking us.

"Was there a little something you forgot to mention?" Izzy asks as he pulls himself up off the floor.

"I'd prepare myself for worse than this, if I were you." I said cryptically as I took stock of everything around us.

"Uh... people?" Jonathan says from behind us. We all turn around and our eyes go wide at the scenery before us. The canyon gives way to a sprawling oasis, with lush greenery and waterfalls. And in the distance, a golden pyramid glistens and twinkles in the desert sun.

"Ahm Shere." Ardeth says, a look of both shock and disgust on his face.

"Glad to know all the legends are true." I whisper.

"Right." Rick says in agreement before a roaring from behind brings our focus back to the problem at hand. We watch as the water wall, and Imhotep's face, squeeze their way through the tight cliff face towards us.

"He's back!" Izzy yells. "Hang on!" he adds before engaging the gas and shooting us out of the canyon... That is until we came to a sputtering halt.

"You've gotta be shitting me." I say, rolling my eyes at our bad luck.

"Well, that's not good." Izzy comments before the water wall overtakes us and we fall from the sky, the only sound filling my ears is our screams.