The House of Life

Chapter 11

*WARNING* This chapter contains gruesome acts of violence that may be too much for readers.

Since I was a little girl, the concept of "God" was never mentioned in our household. I mean, how could it, my father never prayed and he never took me to church. My mother's passing probably didn't help the situation. In a sense I understood why my father would never pray to his God, not after his God took away the one person who he loved the most. But after being in the medical field, you get to see why so many people choose to pray and go to church. It's because they fear of death, or rather they fear of what comes after death. Maybe that's why we pray and seek forgiveness by our God, because in the end we are all afraid to die.

The white noise of the storm just beyond our shelter grew ever strong, making my anxiety worse as time went by. Reloading my gun and sharpening my dagger, I anticipated for another attack by the desert people, all while Ardeth and Qasim were resting. As I looked over towards Ardeth's crippling body, a shiver ran down my spine as I analyzed my stitch work on his shoulder. Blood, so much blood was spilt here and the screaming. My thoughts were scattered everywhere, unable to keep a clear mind I kept myself awake, in hopes that the storm would stop. Minutes turned into hours and no sign of the storm letting up, I started to whisper to myself. 

"Everything will be fine. Once the storm settles, we'll gather our supplies and try to find the House of Life. Once we get there, we'll get what we need and head back home. Just stick to the plan Anna, and we'll get out of this." I took a deep breath and I closed my eyes for a second, only to hear an unfamiliar voice in my head, calling to me.

'Anna'

The voice startled me, my heart beating fast in my chest. I looked around to see where that voice came from, but no one other than me was awake. I closed my eyes again, trying to forget what I had just heard, when that voice called out to me again, this time more aggressive and more threatening.

'ANNA!'

I panicked. Crawling closer to Ardeth, accidently waking him up. "Anna, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Sh sh sh" I whispered, trying to hear that voice again. Ardeth sat up and looked around the room. Ardeth stood up and drew his sword as he whispered, "Are they back?"

I looked around the room once more, only to confirm that we were alone. I replied in a low hum "I don't know."

Grabbing Qasim to wake him up, Ardeth was packing our supplies preparing to leave our shelter. When I noticed the constant humming of the storm, was no longer there. I stopped and looked up towards the door, unaware of how long did the storm stop before I noticed. I placed my hand over Ardeth's shoulder to grab his attention. I placed my right index finger over my lips to tell him to keep quiet, then I pointed towards my ear to have him listen. As he paused to listen, his eyes widened as he too realized the storm stopped. I walked carefully towards the door, not knowing what lies beyond it. I cracked the door open just enough for me to see what was out there. Looking through I saw the sand from the storm was now floating in mid air. I opened the door more and stepped outside to see that the once vigorous storm was now calm. I've never seen anything like this before. As I reached out to touch a grain of sand, and when I did the grain moved ever so slowly by the touch of my finger. Ardeth and Qasim followed right behind me as they were in awe in what they are seeing as well. 

I spoke softly and asked, "Have you seen anything like this before?" 

To which Ardeth touched the grain of sand as well and rubbed it in between his fingers, "At this point, I would believe anything" he replied.

I walked around the back of the shelter, to see if there was any visible landmarks. I could see a dark figure in the distance, but I couldn't make it out. I knew that this might be our only chance in finding the House of Life. I walked towards the dark figure, only for Ardeth whispering for me to stop. When I got closer to the figure, I recognized it as a statue of the god Thoth. I realized that the pillar I saw earlier was probably the entrance to the city of Hermopolis. We were just on the outskirts of it. Ardeth came closer and said, "Anna, you can't wander off like."