Twisted Time Read online

Chapter 2

  I felt groggy, and I could barely see Zack a few feet away. I reached my hand down to help push myself up, and I felt hot sand. I looked up again to see Zack moving towards me, trudging through deeper sand. Where were we? And where was Peanut? Zack grabbed my arm for safety and we scanned the area.

  Very thin, dark skinned men were dressed in beige cloths that draped over their legs, but left their chests bare. Many were pulling large stones tied with thick ropes. Others shaped new rectangular stones with picks and chisels. Across the sand, we saw strange contraptions full of large levers that assisted men in moving many stones at a time. Other primitive machines were pushed up against piles of stone, and we saw men lifting stones onto the machines. The stones were being raised onto a pile in front of the machines and the pile began to look like a set of stairs.

  We stopped dead in our tracks, and took in the whole expanse, realizing we were looking at the Egyptian pyramids. We saw the pyramids of Giza just like the pictures in our textbooks. To the left, two completed pyramids towered high over the ground. The few people at the bases looked like ants in comparison. A few unfinished pyramids lay scattered over the sand. Nearer to us on the right was a small pyramid with what looked like an open door. Farther to the right was a long parade of people dressed in colorful jeweled fabrics. At the center of the long line of people, four muscular men carried a sarcophagus on a shiny gold platform. They walked rhythmically with the crowd toward the opening in the pyramid.

  We watched the funeral march as they neared the entryway to the pyramid. We were mesmerized by the gold headdresses of the priest leading the group, and the gold staffs that followers held high. We turned to look at the doorway of this eternal resting place for their king. A small child-like figure was slowly looking around then darted into the pyramid. It was Peanut!

  “ZACK!” I screamed. “It’s P. He’s gone in there!”

  Zack grabbed my hand and we raced to the doorway, darting around stones and tools on the sand. We made it to the door before the procession could see us and flew into the inner hallway.

  “P!” I yelled and added in my sternest big sister voice, “James where are you? Please come out. You’ll get stuck in here.”

  Zack and I travelled down a narrow corridor, just big enough for a sarcophagus and two men underneath it. The path became very dark as we crept further into the tomb, as the light from the doorway dimmed. At the point that we could barely see where we were going, and had to feel along the walls to guide us, light emerged form an area ahead. We continued and the pathway widened. Torches began to line the walls. A large shaft of light shot into the hallway, then, we turned a sharp corner and entered into an antechamber. Gold statues of figures with heads of jackals and bodies of men stood lining the walls. Chests overflowing with gold jewelry, wine goblets and coins obscured the stone floor. Colorful hieroglyphics covered the walls.

  We walked to the back of the room full of treasures. A short hallway led to a second, smaller room. More hieroglyphics lined the walls. They seemed to tell the story of a king that had fallen in battle. We saw a painting on the far wall that depicted a man with an elaborate headdress reaching for the hand of another man with a jackal’s head. This man appeared to be a god that the ancient Egyptians worshipped, and he was pulling the king to heaven.

  A large rectangular stone box sat stationary at the center of the room. It was adorned with extravagant winged carvings along the sides that spread upward to touch the heavy stone lid. The cover sat at an angle, covering only half of the ominous final resting place for the man that we saw being carried across the sand. Our eyes were suddenly drawn to the lid as it slowly shifted and exposed more of the inside of the box.

  “Surprise!” yelled Peanut as he jumped out of the box. “What have you guys been doing? It took you a while to find me. I’ve been waiting in there forever. This is the coolest place. Look at all the gold and jewels. Is this a room for a party?”

  I glared at him. “You scared us half to death. You could have gotten stuck in there. What were you thinking? We are already stuck in a time that I’m sure is not our own, and we need to figure out how to get home.”

  P looked like he was about to cry. “Hey, it’s okay kid. Everybody’s all right,” added Zack. Just as long as we’re all safe.” He looked around. “Come here, I think we’re all safe now.”

  P ran to me, and I hugged him. “I’m sorry kiddo. I’m just a little scared and don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  P smiled. “I’m sorry too.”

  Just then a noise came from the entrance to the pyramid. It was the throng outside chanting. It became more musical sounding as they entered through the door and proceeded down the narrow hallway. They were coming closer and closer.

  “We need to hide...now!” Zack grabbed me with one hand and P with the other, and we ran and hid behind the tall golden statues in the farthest corner of the room.

  The chanting was travelling down the hallway but getting quieter. It sounded as if only a small group of people was left from the large crowd. We watched the group emerge through the door. The priest entered first. He wore a jeweled headdress with a golden crown sitting atop his head. Silken cloth intricately embroidered with stripes of golden thread draped down from the crown. Four muscular men dressed in colorful robes carried the golden sarcophagus into the antechamber. They were followed by two very thin men dressed in plain white fabric.

  The group continued through the treasure room and entered the attached crypt. The men in white robes walked over to the box at the center of the room, then yanked and pulled on the lid to Peanut’s hiding place until the heavy stone fell to the floor. The priest was continuously chanting words we did not understand and lifting his hands toward the heavens. The other men appeared very solemn as they walked toward the open coffin. They slowly lowered the human faced sarcophagus into its final resting place.

  The priest continued his prayers over the deceased, and we saw him gently place a jar with a hawk’s head into the coffin with the sarcophagus. Three of the other men pulled jars out from under their robes and placed them beside the other jar in the coffin. Each jar had a strange head on it. I remembered from school that these jars held the deceased man’s organs.

  “Gross,” I thought, but kept it to myself.

  I saw the strong men then step back and the thinner men slowly lift the heavy lid onto the large box. The priest continued to chant quietly.

  The men were unaware of our presence, but their movement through the anteroom and into the crypt had stirred up the sand floor and the air was full of dust. I felt my nose tingle. I wiggled it as best I could but I couldn’t suppress the sneeze. “Achoo!”

  The sound rang out in an echo over the antechamber. The priest stopped his chanting and we all caught our breath during the silence. One of the larger men peered out of the doorway down the short hallway. None of us moved. He scanned to the right, then the left, then went back into the crypt. He looked at the now quiet priest, shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands in the air. He hadn’t seen us. The priest completed his prayers, and we stood motionless, waiting for the men to leave.

  The men in white slowly slid the lid over the top of the coffin and covered the contents. We watched as the face of the sarcophagus vanished and the men turned to leave. They solemnly marched through the anteroom and towards the hallway. The seven of them disappeared into the darkness and we all breathed.

  At first P and I couldn’t speak, so Zack had to break the silence. “We need to get out of here. As soon as those guys get outside they will seal the outer door.”

  We all scrambled to the doorway. “Shhh!” Zack said. “I hear something.”

  We heard a loud grinding sound and looked up to see a stone panel slowly lowering to block our exit from the anteroom. We ran. First P, then I raced under the stone door. Zack then came sliding through the sand under the stone, barely missing being crushed by the block. We all scrambled to our feet again and ran
fast through the darkness of the hallway.

  We had no time to feel our way along the walls like before. I tripped going around a corner and fell into the sand. I had scraped my head against the stone wall as I fell, and blood trickled down my nose and dripped onto my hand. P had run on ahead, but Zack stopped and rushed back to help me up. I felt the warm squeeze of his hand and I felt safe. He yanked me up and we raced to the exit.

  We saw faint light at the end of the hallway. We ran towards it, but it was only a torch hanging from the wall. From what we could see, with the small amount of light, the hallway became wider further up and we knew we were nearing the final doorway. We ran as fast as we could, but were too late. An even louder grinding noise came from outside. As we entered the larger hallway we could see the heavy stone closure nearing the sand on the ground.

  “No!” I yelled, but it was over.

  The light became narrower, then just a small sliver, then blackness again as the stone made a kthunk on contact with the ground. We were trapped inside a pharaoh’s tomb. We were imprisoned with the mummy king and would soon meet the same end.

  I sat on the sand and cried. My tears rolled down my cheeks, but I realized they were not reaching my knees that were tucked up under my chin. I looked down to see that I still held that magical book in my hands. I held it in front of me in the dim light from the single torch. Each tear that touched the book seemed to uncover parts of letters on the front cover. What had appeared to be a foreign language before slowly turned into English letters, as the warm liquid flowed past. I wiped away the tears from my face and streaked a wet finger across the letters.

  I caught my breath. “It says believe!” I shouted to the boys, and held the book out for them to see.

  Golden letters peered back at them. “BELIEVE”. We were stunned yet again, but Zack had the forethought to open the book, as he did before, and place it on the ground. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew in out of nowhere, like it had in the attic. The pages rustled and finally came to rest on a single page. I drew the book closer to me and read aloud the letters that had transformed on the page. “Believe in the truth that you see before you. Leave behind riches and death. Step forward to the future.”

  As soon as the words came out of my mouth, the swirling mist formed again, faster this time, encompassing the entire hallway. The magnetic pull of the massive circle was stronger now and the three of us were pulled toward the gaping hole.

  Don’t lose P!” I screamed as Zack and Peanut were travelling to the opening far in front of me.

  Zack grabbed P’s hand tightly, and I saw their bodies disappear into the vapor. I pulled the book securely to my chest and held it so tightly that my fingers ached. I let the black hole swallow me up once again and I floated in space, wondering where this enchanted passageway would take us now.