The House of Life

Chapter 6

A stack of books landed in front of my face as I was reading an excerpt about the history of Ancient Egypt. Evelyn, being the one responsible for my break in concentration, wiped her hands against her long beige skirt and continued, "These are all the books I could find that could possibly have information on this House of Life place you speak of." Looking at the small stack of books that Evelyn procured, it had diminished what little hope I had in finding this place. I sighed and rubbed my eyes as I commented, "Is this all that you could find? There has to be more than this." Evelyn put her hands up in the air as she continued, "I'm sorry Anna, but this was all I could find. Believe me, I have read every book in this library twice and this was all I could find." I groaned in disbelief, but what other options do I have? I grabbed the book sitting on top of that small pile and opened the index to continue my search. "Thanks Evie." Evelyn nodded and said, "If you need me, I'll be in the office." I looked over at Evelyn and said, "Okay, I'll find you if I need you."

Evelyn collected her belongings and headed towards the hallway to the office, leaving me alone with my pile of books. After Ardeth had mentioned this place that supposedly holds the knowledge of everything and everyone in human history, I made it my top priority to find this place. Even though this was a long shot, it would be better than trying public records and the police. In fear that Meela had an ear in every movement, every decision that I would make, I had to ensure that this endeavor of mine would be kept in hiding. I guess it pays off to have someone who knows this library like the back of her hand.  

Book after book, pages after pages, still no concrete answer. The more I read, the further I find myself in another dead end, and the further away I get from an answer, the more the name of that woman keeps repeating in my head, like a broken record. Masika Reeda. She definitely sparked an interest to Meela, I just wished I knew why. She must be of importance to Meela's agenda to where she's asking me to find her. The only thing that Ardeth found on Masika was that she belonged to one of the biggest tycoon families in all of Egypt. She was reported missing at the age of sixteen, shortly after her birthday. But she had no relations to anyone else outside the family, so there was no suspects. Another thing that sparked my interest in Masika was that she had no birth certificate, no public record of her existence before the police report. It sounds like her parents really wanted to keep her hidden from the rest of the world, but why. 

I pushed my chair back as I go to stretch my legs to walk around the library. I had to focus on finding the House of Life. Passing each section, reading the spines of the books, hoping I could find a ray of hope in one of these books. I decided to grab a few books off the shelf that pertain to Ancient Egypt. I brought the books back to my overcrowded table and continued my search. I opened a book to the index and found the chapter that's titled, Pharaohs and Gods. I opened that page and started reading the chapter. It spoke of the gods of ancient Egypt and how each god has a certain role. Much like in Hamunaptra, where statues of Anubis were affiliated the most because of the god's role in the afterlife.

Reading more about these gods made me question the House of Life. If Hamunaptra was represented by the god Anubis, then there must be a god affiliated with the House of Life. I set the book down and scoured the library on a book pertaining to Egyptian Gods. While looking for more books to bring back to my table, I came upon a rather large book that was titled, God's of Ancient Egypt. I grabbed the book from the shelf, but did not anticipate the weight of the book being heavy. My wrist that was previously fractured shot a short pain up my arm as it tried not to drop the heavy book. "Damn, this is heavy," I commented. I took hold of the book and made my way to my table. When I opened the book index, it showed an array of names, each being the name of a God. This made me realize, that I would have to read this entire book if I am to find one god in particular that can be affiliated with the House of Life. Luckily I would scratch off at least two names, Anubis and Horus, as they were affiliated with Hamunaptra. I started to read each chapter, each talking about different roles of gods and their relations with the pharaohs.