Sekhmet's Curse (Pearl Vampire Chronicles) (23 page)

I locked my eyes with his, smiled and nodded, then leaned in to kiss him.  I forced myself to pull away much sooner than I wanted too, lifted Carlos’ chin, kissed him, then pulled away.  I clasped both of their hands tightly in mine and we stood up and slowly made our way to the car.

Chapter Eleven

The plane touched down after what felt like the shortest flight to Egypt ever.  It wasn’t, of course.  But it sure felt that way.  None of us had slept.  We really hadn’t even spoken.  We just spent the time clinging tightly to each other, while Jonas kept up a barrage of encouraging words in my head: ‘
You’ll
be fine, Sarah.  You’re going to do great.  We’ll figure this out together.  We’ll beat this crazy bitch once and for all,’
he kept saying over and over in my head.   By the time we landed
,
he almost had me convinced, almost.  We all climbed into the waiting car and stared out the window as we made our way through the str
eets to the alley by her tomb.  As the driver pulled to a stop, he looked around, “Are you sure this is where you want me to stop, sir?  There isn’t a hotel around here.”

Matt pressed a hundred dollar bill into his hand and said, “We won’t
be needing
a hotel for a few days.  But thanks for you
r
concern.”

We all climbed out, a strange sight with two seven foot tall people with large black capes draped around
them to hide their faces and wings. 
Bahiti led the way to the end of the alley, pressed the correct bricks, and we all headed down the stairs.
As we reached the outer room, instead of feeling nervous and scared, I began to feel stronger.  I felt my chest puff out, I felt my resolve grow.
For the first time in a long time, I felt completely confident.  I felt fearless. 
I was ready.   I made it through what I thought would be the hardest thing in my life, my goodbyes, without shedding a single tear.
  I don’t know how I did it, but I did. 
We said our goodbyes then Jason and I entered the room.  I grimaced slightly as I heard the door seal shut behind me. 
I squeezed Jason’s hand tight as we looked at each other.  Then I
flinched slightly
when Sekhmet’s
statue
head began to slowly move toward us, making a grating sound as it did.  She
stared at us for a few moments before she finally spoke, “Find the tile of which I speak, break it and find the next clue that you seek
.  But break the wrong tile and death will be fast, you must do this right for your time to last
:  I can be quick and then I’m deadly, I am a rock, shell and bone medley.  If I was made into a man, I’d make people dream, I
gather in my millions by
ocean ,sea
and stream.”

Her stone head creaked and groaned as it moved back into place.  I closed my eyes and repeated the limerick in my head.  “What the hell did that just mean, Sarah?” Jason said.  I put my finger to my lips, “Shhhh.  I’m thinking.  I can be quick and then I’m deadly
.  I am a rock, shell and bone medley.  If I was made into a man, I’d make people dream, I gather in my millions by ocean, SAND!  The answer is sand. 
Quicksand, the Sandman.
  Look around.  We have to find the symbol for sand.”

‘
Good job, Sarah.  You got that one faster than I did,’
Jonas said in my head.  My body immediately relaxed, ‘
You’re here, Jonas.  You made it in here with me.’
I thought.

‘
Of course I did.  I told you I’d be here.  Now look around.  Let’s find this next clue quickly.’

We began scouring the room.  There were hundreds, no, thousands of symbols in here.
 
Lining the walls, the ceiling and
the floor.
  “Look, let’s break this into sections.  Do you know what you’re looking for Jason?”  He nodded.  “Okay, you take the north and west walls.  I’ll take east and south.  If we haven’t
found it there, the
n
you take the ceiling and I’ll take the floor.  Okay?”

An hour later, and about halfway through the south wall, I found it.  “I’ve got it
,
o
ver here.  Jason, bring me that rock to break it, please?”   He handed me the rock and I broke the tile.  I cleared away the debris, reached inside and pulled out the scroll with our next clue. 

What king can you make if you take
the head of a lamb
the middle of a pig
the hind of a buffalo
and the tail of a dragon?

I stared at the paper for a few minutes.  “How can you mix together all of these animals to make some sort of a king?” I mumbled. 
‘
Wait, Sarah!  Not the animals. 
The letters of the words.
  The head of a lamb would be the letter L.  The middle of the pig is
an I
.  The hind of the buffalo is the O and the tail of the dragon is an N.  That’s LION, the king of the jungle.’

“Jason, look for a lion, quick.”

“A lion?
 
How do you get a lion out of that?”
“
No time to explain.  Just look for it.”

Two hours la
ter
and Jason finally spotted it in the ceiling.  “Got it!” he cried as he swooped down to grab the rock from me.  He gently landed by my side a minute later.  He unrolled the scroll and we read it together.

My story whispers ancient lore
;
The force at times my rings will hide.
I've sixty minions, maybe more
:
Those unseen, these by my side.
Wand
e
ring far from glowing light
,
Shape-shifting puzzles curious eyes;
Oft my glorious rings shine bright,
While men debate my family's size.
My aspect seems to wax and wane
,
As the force dictates the deed;
My namesake ruled vast fields of grain,
But, legends tell, devoured his seed.
What am I?

“What the hell?  These are getting harder,” Jason groaned.  I paced the floor as I repeated the riddle over and over in my head. 
Jonas’ voice was an echo in my ear as he repeated it too.  Minutes quickly turned into hours
then hours turned into days.  I finally had to close my eyes for a bit at the end of the third day, I was exhausted, my brain was exhausted.
  But my eyes flew open after only a few hours of sleep when the answer popped into my head, “Saturn!” I yelled as I jumped up and immediately started searching the tiles.  Jason rubbed his sleepy eyes as he sat up, “What did you say, Sarah?”

“Saturn.  The answer is the planet Saturn.”

On and on we went.  Riddle after riddle. 
Clue after clue.
 
Day after day.
 
Rationing the blood in the cooler that I had brought in.
 
Splitting one bag per day as long as the dry ice lasted.
  Yes, I was forcing myself to stop after only half a bag.   It still hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt, and it left me incapacitated
for a few hours afterwards, but, for
Jason, it was definitely worth it. But when I reached into the cooler and pulled out the last bag, it finally dawned on me how long we had been in here already, and that things were going to get a lot tougher.

“What if it’s every one?” Jason said.

“Hmmm?”
I mumbled.  My eyes were
closed,
we were sitting against the wall while I recovered from stopping yet again.  I handed Jason the remaining blood. “Sarah, this is much more than half.  We’re supposed to be even, but every bag you hand me has more and more blood in it, which means you’re drinking less and less.”

I ignored his comment and repeated his question, “What do you mean, what if it’s every one?”

“What if we have to go through every tile?  What if there’s a clue behind every one?  We’ve already been here three and a half months and we’ve only gone through
, what, fifteen clues? It would take us years if it’s every one.  We don’t have years.  I’m already feeling much weaker.  It won’t be long before I can’t think rationally anymore.  When that happens, I’m going to shut myself down in the corner over there so that I hopefully don’t hurt you.  Then
you’ll be on your own until you can’t go on anymore.  But how many more clues are there going to be?”

I stared at him, trying to come up with an answer that would cheer him up, but, at the moment, I wasn’t having any luck……and out
side
the walls, there was a different struggle going on
….
:

Carols
jumped up, “I can’t just sit here, goddamn it!”

Matt’s head stayed on his knees, right where it was
as he said
, “You can and you will, Carlos.  You have to.”

“Why?  Why do I have to?”

Matt’s head came up and he looked at Carlos, “Because she needs you to.  She needs both of us to stay here.  There’s no way in, Carlos.  We both know that.  Hundreds have tried during these times; when their loved ones were locked inside.  All have failed.  She has to find her way out.  It’s the only way.  And she will do it, Carlos.  She will.  And she needs us to be waiting right here when she does.”
Matt whispered
.

“But isn’t it killing you to just sit here and do nothing?”
Carlos moaned.

“I’m not doing
nothing
,
I’m loving her.  And I’m
waiting for her.  That’s something.  That’s something very important.
That’s something that means everything.
”

“But this feels so fucking wrong.”

“Why? 
When that door opens and she walks out and the first thing she sees are our faces, how is that wrong?”

“But what if it doesn’t open, Matt?  At what point do we say ‘That’s it.  We’ve waited as long as we can.  She’s not coming out’? 

“That’s a decision you have to make yourself, Carlos.  For me, the answer is never.  You have to figure out what your answer is yourself.  This is your test as much as it is hers.  This is the time when you have to decide if you
’
re going to leave, like you always have in the past, or are you going to wait for her?  The Carlos I know would have left a long t
ime ago.  The Carlos I know can’
t stand sitting around and doing nothing, so he leaves and finds some
thing else to do.  But that isn’
t going to help this time, Carlos.  It isn’t going to help her.  Now, I could be selfish and just let you leave.  Then we she comes out and finds only me, she will be mi
ne, just mine, again.  But that’
s not
what she needs.  And what she needs is the most important thing in the world to me, Carlos.  And I hope it
’
s the most important thing to you.  So, what
’
s it going to be, Carlos?  Are you going to be that guy, Carlos?  The one who
’s
waiting for her when that door opens, and it will open,
either when she succeeds and walks out or when she fails and is gone.
So are you going to wait for her
or are you going to be the one who leaves? 
The one who breaks her heart when she walks out that door.
  That
’
s what you have to decide, Carlos.”

“But I’m not that guy, Matt.  I’ve never been that guy.
  You’re the one who’s always been that guy, but not me.
”

“Wrong, again.  You are that guy, Carlos.  You just didn’t know it until her.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes you are.  You are the guy who became her best friend.  You are the guy who protected her.  You are the guy who kept her safe.  You are the guy who fell in love with, but tried to stay away
from her
as long as he could because you knew it was right.  You are the guy who allows her to give me more because I need
more from her than you do.  And you are the guy who makes her complete.  You are that guy, Carlos.  That’s who you are.  You are that guy.”

“How do you do that, Matt?”

“Because it’s
Sarah
, Carlos
,
b
ecause I love her
,
b
ecause I’ll wait for her forever.  And, because that’s exactly what she would do for us if the roles were reversed right now.”

“I feel so fucking useless right now,” he groaned as he sank back down to the floor
to wait
, knowing that Matt was right.

Back inside the tomb,
I collapsed onto the floor and weakly unrolled the latest clue:

Always old, sometimes new.
Never sad, sometimes blue.
Never empty, sometimes full. Never pushing, always pulling. What am I?