The air was stale and dry. As I walked little eddies of dust sprang up around my feet like mini tornados. I had been in a place like this before with dad. A tomb somewhere in Egypt; one of the ones that had been cracked open after sitting quietly for millennia. Those were always so dark like the dead things they held. But this place had a steady, pale light from above that illuminated my path and kept me from feeling trapped.
I stopped and put my hand on a relief of a winged dragon above the doorway where I stood, then passed over the threshold and made my way down an inclined path until the space became so tight and the ceiling so low, I had to crawl. A sense of dread invaded my body like reaching fingers and my heart beat faster, but something pulled me forward and I couldn't stop.
The darkness ahead grew brighter, so I willed myself forward stopping where the tunnel exited a wall into a finished room like nothing I'd seen in an Egyptian tomb. A grate lay on the floor where it had been cut from the wall.
Footfalls sounded ahead.
A man holding a blue knife ran toward a shimmering girl who hovered unmoving in the air, a circle of light above her head. I didn't know what I was seeing. The man leapt and energy blasted from the light, burning him to dust.
Adrenaline surged through my veins. I started to back out of the tunnel, but the light above the girl seemed to take on more form, and I stopped. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Just as suddenly, a throbbing hum filled the room and rock fell. I braced myself, wondering if my tunnel would collapse. A whoosh of air rushed over me, and I felt suction as the air moved over my body and up the incline I passed through. Dust filled the cavern. The lights dimmed, but my passageway held fast – though I wasn't sticking around to see how long it would hold. I dropped onto the ground and made my way toward the girl, hiding my approach with the metal boxes stacked across the room.
The sun-like thing turned her in a dizzying circle, but stopped in front of yet another person as I got closer. He quaked while the orb seemed to weigh his fate. Then a hand of light reached out from the glowing sphere and touched the girl's cheek, willing her to face the boy I spotted. A low thrum echoed and the unmoving girl abruptly reached for him.
Her voice trembled off the walls warning him of his fate. Then she became still; every muscle in her body cold again. The orb pulsed and I watched in horror as multi-colored liquid filled the space around her until it covered her head. The substance oozed, a mix of clear gel and bright reds and some other colors I didn't know.
The room shuddered, the vibration barely perceptible, and the boy tripped backwards in fear. His face reflected off the metal storage box to his right. Staring back from the surface, I saw my own fear-stricken eyes reflected on the metal. Then the room around me aged like it was on fast forward.
My twin stood there staring at the girl, but I ran for the hidden tunnel.
▪▪▪▪▪
"I have to stop dreaming about that girl!" I sat bolt upright on the couch at the Big House.
"What are you talking about?" came a groggy voice from Alexandra. She twisted from lying awkwardly on her leather armchair and stretched. Apparently, we had fallen asleep here earlier.
"What time is it?" I yawned.
"5:30. Sun's up."
Sure enough, light crept in the windows. She stretched and her slender back arched as her muscles unwound from their cramped sleep. "I don't think I can go back to sleep now, even if I wanted to." She held her head like she was nursing a headache.
YOU ARE READING
HalfWorlder #Wattys2017
Science Fiction(Highest rank #12 in sci-fi). When a dangerous ancient artifact hidden by the Egyptian gods activates after millennia, the long-dormant powers of a half-alien boy come alive just in time to save the Earth. But he never imagined winning over a girl w...
