Long, dark and dusty corridors shaped into a trapezium awaited me every corner I took. It was a maze. Unlike the pyramids I had ventured into…my legs trembled where they’d stood, my mind pondered on the place where I’d entered in hope of climbing back out, however, all my eyes could see was what I had described at the beginning.
This was no ordinary pyramid as the structure was built upside-down. A pyramid that pointed down into the earth. My team and I did not know whether it was built into the ground or stood high supported by other structures and simply buried over time.
Why? We do not know either, of what or whom it entombed. But I’ve looked for a very long time by going on vague rumours, old documents, tales known only by a few and lastly; faded dreams. The information gathered pointed us to the black desert of Egypt (where else would a black pyramid be?). Those who had the dreams spoke of two statues on each side of the pyramid, one statue took the form of a crocodile whereas the other was a… snake. Both statues represent one being, one that I had not expected to be adorned with such luxury. A deity not praised; but despised.
In time the GPRs (Ground-Penetrating Radar) found relatable structures to our collection of accords. I immediately prioritised its excavation. The statues were unearthed first and when my eyes laid upon them, I froze, affixed with a gaze I could not sever. They were exactly the same statues described in those dreams. Dark, just as the pyramid and shaped by the same unknown stone.
A stone that appeared untouched by time yet older than Egypt itself according to my carbon dating analysis. It all seemed out of place.
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Disturbed, my eyes opened to darkness, it was night, and so I felt for the lantern and discovered it was just me in the tent.
‘Where did Thomas go?’, I asked myself.
I searched the area and found that my team were gone, their beds empty. The pyramid was the place that my mind dwelt on.
Again, equipped with nothing but a lamp, I treaded through these dark, trapezium-shaped corridors and in some, despite the power of this lamp; it could not penetrate the ever-present darkness. And the further I descended into this splinter in the Earth, I felt that I’d gone deep, beyond the limitations of this pyramid. Surely, I would have been at the bottom by now?
My foot landed on a loose tile and a sudden gush of smoke violated my nostrils, throat and eyes. I veered away. But whatever was in that smoke (most likely a blue lotus flower, a plant used for medicinal purposes but can also act as a hallucinogen). My vision, hearing and overall senses began to warp, in certainty, something had invaded my bodily system.
Then came a crack and my footing, perturbed. I fell, and it wasn’t a sudden hit to the ground, no, I fell for a… long time. Eons could have passed. Out of nowhere I then smacked the hard, cold ground. Whether I did fall or made my way there by sheer delirium, I cannot say.
Though it appeared I made a form of progress, unless it was my altered state that gave me false hope? Anyhow, the environment I found myself in was a lighter black, yet narrower and embellished with hieroglyphs. The handlamp I possessed was no more as my palm glided across its broken frame. Fortunately, I could still make out the differentiation of colour, regardless of my current predicament.
From what I could make out of these hieroglyphs, was Eater of Souls, a being of immense power that had fought the Sun-God Ra every passing day. A deity of chaos that took form of a crocodile rarely but known mostly as a giant serpent, and its name was Apep (Apothis was another name for the beast).
Names of unfamiliar deities were listed above Apep, again, whether this was the side effect of my hallucination or not, that was what I saw. Other gods and goddesses, presumably older than Apep.
A faint whisper caught my ear, I stared ahead and saw nothing, I glanced back and saw nothing. As I turned the corner my chest seized and my eyes glared, I wanted to jerk away yet its mangled, dried hand had already clasped around my wrist. Most of its body was shrouded in ancient linen cloth, except for its face; there I saw its swaying jaw and eyeless sockets that stared into mine. Its fingers, however, were not that strong as I easily broke free and ran with renewed haste.
These legs of mine ran on forever, down and down, till they gave out in a large chamber. A place of respite. Sadly, it wasn’t for long as the mummy stumbled through the archway I had passed under. Except it came with others.
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There were no more ways to descend from what I could tell, as this must have been the bottom of the pyramid, or in this case, the tip. The slanted walls indicated this to me other than no more ways to go. Also, at the chamber’s centre shone a lonely lantern, enough for the sarcophagus to be visible, its lid ajar. With discarded hesitation I sprinted for the lantern, looked into the sarcophagus and saw no body. My feet swung over the side of the stone box, and I laid, wrestled with the lid till it shut me in, and hoped those things had the lack of strength needed to move this slab. Tension gripped my body as I heard their bony fingers scratch along the stone. After some time, they stopped, and all I could hear was my shallow breathing, then, then silence…
Glimpses of Egypt’s past flashed before me; I saw its people, its cities of sandstone, the greatest of pyramids, the ever-flowing Nile and even the Field of Reeds- the realm of Egyptian paradise.
Though it did not last long, as a dark serpent swathed through them all till its venomous eyes gazed down upon me. Bared its pearl white fangs and ate me whole. I fell in darkness, in silence, and my mouth was agape with fear, yet no scream came from it.
Then there was nothing…nothing.
__
As a snake sheds its skin so a new one can replace it, I had shed mine, to squeeze into this infuriating small carcass of a mortal man. Such frailty, yet my powers soon came through. I forced the lid of the sarcophagus aside and greeted the men, with a bedazzlement to their faces. One of them drew close and spoke this man’s name, said he was not himself and looked at them in fear for his life. They tried to get him out of the sarcophagus, used all their might to no avail, and so it was for nought.
Each of them awaited a response until the one closest to me asked this man’s name again. I said;
‘I am Apep, Lord of Chaos! Harbinger of destruction and I will bring Egypt to its knees so that my forefathers before me, can descend upon this…world‘
One appeared amused, another laughed, and the closest to me was unsettled and seen the invader through this man’s eyes. I waved a hand and henceforth, the blackness of these chamber’s surroundings oozed, melted away and coagulated into swarms of black snakes. The humans attempted to flee but failed as my children were numerous and their way of escape lied too far away.
As I left the monument that I had seeded into the Earth long ago, a poison that no God or Goddess, not even the mighty Ra himself could drain. They buried it, along with the worshippers that once worshipped me, in hope that no mortal could find it. The sands near me encircled my feet and the sands overhead I parted with my hands; I willed an eclipse to spread shadow across the land.
My path was clear.
Back to the Nav-System