My Pharaoh, My Queen

Chapter 9

"Wait, Meketre!" Sage gasped. Meketre approached her with this aura. It was suffocating, It made Sage's heart plunge into terror.

"Why do you reject me, my love?" Meketre whispered. "(I had sacrificed many things just to spend another minute with you. I promised my soul to the King of the Dead just for you. Why must you reject me like this?)"

"(I-I'm not,)" Sage said. Her eyes were wide with panic. Her heart was pounding. "(I'm not rejecting you. I just want-)" 

"(What do you want?)" Meketre asked, eyeing her suspiciously. 

"(My team to come with me.)" She said shakily. "(I want them safe. I couldn't bear to leave them here, in this heat. They'll die.)" 

"(And what of it? They are the help. There are many more to take their place.)" Meketre scoffed. 

Sage shook her head and frowned. "(They are more than that. They are my family!)" 

Meketre took hold of her arms and squeezed her tightly. "(I AM THE ONLY FAMILY YOU NEED!)" Meketre shouted. 

Sage flinched. "(Meketre . . . you are hurting me . . .)" 

Meketre's eyes widened and saw the look at the one he loved. Her face was contorted in fear and pain. "I-I am sorry." He said in english. He held her cheek at the palm of his hand, caressing it with his thumb. "I never meant to cause you any harm. I love you too much to do such a thing. But to refer the help as your family while I stand right here . . . forgive me for being . . . what is the word?" 

"Jealous?" Sage suggested. 

"Yes. Jealous." Meketre looked down in shame. He finally had the chance to see and rekindle his love for Aneski and he has scared her, hurt her, how shameful are his acts towards the one he says he loves. 

Sage's heart clenched at the sight. "Meketre. It's okay. I'm fine." She doesn't know why. But she felt like consoling he undead Egyptian king. "I'll come with you-" Meketre raised his head and looked at her in shock. "-if you let my team come with me." Meketre's shoulders sagged a bit at the thought of the help following their every step. 

"I can permit that. But they are the help. They are meant to serve us." Meketre said while resting a hand on Sage's shoulders. "Aneski, you are too kind to the help. Why must you worry for them so?" 

"Because they took care of me. It's only fair if I can do the same in return." 

"I see." Meketre smiled. His queen, beautiful and kind, centuries didn't change her one bit. "(Guards. Let them pass. Watch over them as well. I do not want to have to deal with a small uprising in the eve of my resurrection.)" 

"(Thank you Meketre.)" Sage said as she bowed her head in respect. 

Meketre chuckled as he used his finger to bring Sage to look at him. "(You are the queen, my love. You do not have to bow down to me. Though it pleases me to see you do this.)" Sage blushed at the comment. "(Let us go to my resting chambers. I must explain to you what must be done.)" 

Sage smiled and nodded, following the Pharaoh back to his sarcophagus.  

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"Take the help to the grand gallery and wait for my arrival. I must change out of these-" Meketre motioned this bandages. "-wrappings." Sage began to follow the guards until Meketre took hold of her. "Aneski, my love, you are coming with me." 

Sage flushed. "I-I-I don't think . . . Yo-You'll be . . . exposed!" She stammered. 

Meketre only chuckled as he grabbed Sage's hand and guided her to his resting chambers. "Do not tell me you have forgotten how I have looked after all these centuries." His smile grew wider as Sage covered her face, blushing a bright red. He stripped himself of his bandages and approached Sage. He slowly peeled Sage's hands from her eyes and grinned. "Hello." 

"H-Hey," Sage stuttered. Meketre pulled her hands to touch his chest, making Sage squeak even more. 

"May I remind you?" 

Sage's eyes widened at the sentence. She couldn't help but feel the Pharaoh's pull on her, how weirdly good it felt to hold him like this. This man, if you can call him that, has murdered two people right in front of Sage, yet somehow, it keeps slipping her mind. Whatever was happening in Sage's mind, it was nothing less of a battle. Two minds fighting for control, the only question is: who is the other mind? 

Sage quickly snatched her hands away from Meketre, trying to fight the other conscience. She held her head in her hands and groaned in pain. Her head felt like it was splitting. 

"N-No, this is wrong. I-I don- I don't want-know . . . what's going on . . ." Sage mumbled incoherent words as Meketre frowned at the sight. 

His queen was in there, he felt the pull of her soul. It was calling out to him, so loud it would burst your eardrums. But yet, it was being quieted by something, Sage is what the help had called her. He had forgotten that this century is very different from the century he was born into. The queen's soul was in there, but also the soul of the person called Sage. 

"This must be very confusing for you, is it not?" Meketre whispered. He lightly touched her abdomen, feeling a light electric hum through Sage's body. When Sage didn't reply, he continued on. "This will all makes sense, in all due time, my lo-" He stopped for a moment and looked Sage in her eyes. They tell of fear and shame, such an unsightly thing to see for someone as beautiful as she. "-Sage." 

Sage almost crumpled at the gaze of the Pharaoh, but she put all her strength to stay upright. It wasn't like her, to fall so soon to a man she's rarely heard of. She hated the feeling, but it was like it was burning all across her body. 

"I'm not Aneski." Sage whispered, muttering curses under her breathe for a particular hard throb in her head. 

Meketre shook his head and turned from Sage to grab his clothes from the chest. As he fitted on his clothes, he threw a small smile towards Sage, making Sage's heart beat a million times faster. "You are Aneski, yet you are not. As I said before, this will all make sense in due time." He patted away the dust from his headdress and finally placed it on his head. He looked at another box and broke it. He reached in the broken box to hold a necklace of a golden scarab. Meketre puts in on his neck and cradles it tightly. "But we must wake the rest of my guards. Then we resurrect our kingdom. Then we will go farther, and farther, we shall rule all of Egypt as we once did millenniums ago." 

Sage was about to protest but was interrupted by Meketre's chanting. As he chanted, he touched certain parts of the walls. Sage knitted her eyebrows in confusion, trying to listen to the chant itself but couldn't make it out. 

Suddenly, the walls began to crack and crumble. One after the other, the wall fell and revealed yet another mummy, Each of them stick their hand out, then their heads. Soon they broke through the walls and stood tall for the Pharaoh. They kneeled accordingly. 

"(Rise my most loyal subjects. I greet you well.)" Meketre said in his ancient tongue. The only answer Meketre got back was a bunch of moans and growls, but that didn't matter to Meketre. "My lo- . . . Sage." Meketre said, breaking Sage's thoughts. "Please, follow me." He extended his hand to Sage, trying not to frighten the girl. Sage took it shakily. 

Meketre walked to the grand gallery with Sage and the guards following him. When the finally reached the gallery, he stopped in front of everyone. He whispered something to one of the mummified guards, the guard nodded once and stood close to Sage. "Meketre, what's going on?" 

The Egyptian King said nothing. All she saw was him opening his mouth as wide as he did before . . . "NO!" Sage screeched. She knew what was going on. He was going to take away their youth. "NO! NO! MEKETRE STOP! YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T GOING TO HURT THEM! YOU PROMISED!" The guards gripped her arms, making sure she wasn't going to do anything.   

He finished sucking the life out of her team. Sage collapsed and her body raked out broken sobs. 

"Sage, my love, it is alright. They are still alive." Meketre brought Sage back to her feet. "See for yourself." 

Sage looked at her crew and took a gasp. "M-My God. What did you do to them?"