David and the Screaming Urn

The Screaming

I own everything.

The screaming had been going on for days now.

David glared at the artifact that he was sure was the reason behind it all. Ever since he had gone to that damned auction house and bought that urn that was supposedly from Ancient Egypt for over 300 dollars and placed it in his office, the thing screamed. David couldn't get any work done even when away from it. He was quite sure that it was cursed and wished that he had never bought it, much less opened it.

Why he opened the thing he had no clue. David had just gotten home and was gently carrying the box it was in to his office. He had carefully opened it with the knife Stella had sent him for his birthday. It was supposed to be for show, but David kept it sharpened and besides, it worked quite well. The urn looked just as beautiful as it had looked on the stage. David had wondered if they had cleaned out the inside of the urn (he didn't want bugs in it) and decided to open it. Dust had come out of it, which was strange, because when David looked in it, it was clean. Not even a speck of dust was in there. David had shrugged it off, and was about to close it when the screaming happened.

David hadn't slept since then (two days now), and was getting very tired, but the screamed refused to even quiet down. He considered calling Summer's mother, who was an Archeologist, but they had gotten into an argument recently and it was unlikely that she would help David. He sighed and opened his laptop, deciding to try and find out how to break Egyptian curses with only the help of the internet.

After almost an hour of searching, David decided to give up. There was a lot on curses, but nothing about what was happening to him. He thought about calling Akari again, but decided not to. Summer didn't care for what her mother did (Summer lived in Italy nowadays, and had gotten into baking instead of archaeology), and David knew no one else who was interested in history, other than Stella, and she only did European history. Besides, Stella kind of creeped him out.

David sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. There had to be some way to break the curse. There had to be.

But maybe it wasn't a curse at all.

Maybe...

Maybe it was all in his head.

Maybe he was going insane.

"No," David whispered, "I-I can't be. I'm not insane!" He shouted the last part, standing and pacing around the room.

He was not going insane. He couldn't be. He passed by the Egyptian Urn, the thing that had started it all. David paused, looking at the urn.

He grabbed a chair, stalking towards the urn, lifting the chair over his head. The chair came down, smashing the urn, and the screaming stopped. David dropped the chair, reveling in the blessed silence.

But not for long.

"You shouldn't have done that," A voice said, low and warm. Dust, no, sand rose from the urn, swirling around to form a human-like figure. It solidified, and David saw the outline of a man. He was still made of sand, but there were indentions where eyes would normally go, and a gap for the mouth, nose, and ears. David backed up until his back hit the wall, eyes wide.

The thing walked forward, slowly, making David's stomach twist in unease. He tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn't work. All he could do was shut his eyes and hope that nothing would happen to him. Fingers pressed against his forehead, and David remembered no more.