Under the Cemetery

Under the Cemetery 

I quickly grabbed the object from Tessy's hand, just as she was preparing to drive the metal spike into the crack. My reaction startled her a little, making her heart jump. She looked at me with her beautiful, innocent eyes.

"Why—what's wrong, Mr. Wescon?"

I exhaled deeply, lowering my gaze. There was a slight sting in my finger, and when I lifted it, I saw it was bleeding, the pain emerging. I looked up and saw the metallic fang dripping with blood.

"Don’t be too hasty to destroy the artifact, Tessy," I said firmly. "Some things can be brought back."

I walked closer, still holding the object aloft, showing it to her. I stopped right in front of her, leaned my head slightly toward her face, and whispered, "Or sold."

Her arm moved, lifting to brush her hair back from her ear.

"Alright, I'll listen for a bit," she said.

But I didn’t leave her confused without any explanation. I fumbled through the pockets of my brown trousers, planting the torch I had been holding into the sand, keeping it horizontal for a moment, and then pulled out a small guidebook. But I couldn’t find the artifact I was holding listed in it. Tessy didn’t seem to mind destroying it. Realizing this, I started explaining, in a somewhat convoluted manner, the basic rules she hadn’t learned in the training barracks. I excused her since she was a volunteer member.

"You heard me, right? Remember, that cone should either be in its place or taken," I said. "It must not be destroyed without permission from the conductor—"

"You are the Conductor."

"Yes," I sighed, "So, be careful, be vigilant." I took back my torch, dropping the guidebook back into my pocket. I intended to explore the room adorned with raised carvings around us, the place where the artifact was stored.

Tessy placed her metal blade down. Only after seeing this did I hand the lightweight cone to her—a cone made of bronze, adorned with beautiful Ancient Egyptian motifs.

"Be careful," I said. "Don’t drop it! Don’t let it fall!"

She received it with open hands, her face scrunching slightly, though the expression seemed more about controlling her emotions. "Yeah, yeah, don’t worry—I know this is valuable!"

She stared at the object with her small eyes.

"That’s not it," I said, explaining, "What if you dropped it, and we don’t even know what this thing is? Do you think like me?"

She shook her head, smiling, laughing, stopping, then raised both her arms to get a clear view of the object, which emitted an intense black light.

"But who put it in here?" she asked warmly.

I plunged my torch deeper into the sand so I wouldn’t have to hold it horizontally anymore. Its flame flickered red, yellow, and orange, swaying with the slight breeze. Sweat trickled from our foreheads and throats, but we barely noticed.

"This is five meters underground," I explained, kneeling beside her. "And this is the tomb of a Pharaoh's priest whose genius shouldn’t be doubted; but, is it logical for him to have something like this? And after we found his treasure, this thing lights up!" I paused briefly, wiping my damp face and glancing at Tessy, whose greenish eyes were glowing.

"Imagine what’s inside it?" she demanded again, "Precious, magical, and dark spiritual knowledge—imagine reviving a person…"

"What!" I snapped...

She turned to me, her eyes droopy beneath the mist she hadn’t wiped away. "It’s possible, isn’t it?" she asked, curious.

I sighed and continued to watch her, especially since she hadn’t let go of that impressive antique.

"Maybe the Pharaoh—" she added, but then quickly turned to me with a blank, suspicious look. I didn’t understand her, but I didn’t react. "No—never mind."

"What was that?" I asked while trying to pull out the torch.

Since she didn’t answer right away, choosing to remain silent and contemplative, I had to repeat my question.

"Go on, Tessy!" I urged in a low tone...

"Nothing!" she insisted, turning her back on me, lowering her head to study the cone again.

"Alright, don’t leave the labyrinth," I requested.

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Wescon," she replied. "I’ll stay here while you work…"

Then I left her briefly to explore the 7 by 7-meter room. I approached the walls, as I had written before: they were engraved with raised carvings. I brought myself as close as possible to the dusty walls so I could see them clearly. I planted my torch back into the sand. Then I began analyzing, starting from the very bottom, about ten centimeters above the sand. I knelt down, grateful for the light, and saw: hieroglyphic symbols that were neither too blurry nor too clear, more frequently found than those on the upper walls.

I observed the symbols for about twelve minutes, until I found something that made me stop and take notes. I could translate the common symbols and characters, but there were some unfamiliar ones. This forced me to pull out a small notebook from my pocket, carefully sketching them, and continuing to encounter hieroglyphs that were very—very uncharacteristic of typical hieroglyphs. I intended to draw all of them on my paper to extract new meanings I hadn’t encountered from scholars like Brother Smith. But unfortunately, I had to stop this task because my trembling fingers were too tired, so I paused for a moment, sitting on the sand to rest. I hadn’t realized that my breathing had become labored, and I hadn’t noticed either that when I took a sip of my water, I drank it all without thinking twice. My work wasn’t finished yet—I hadn’t sketched all the characters and symbols on the lower wall.

I glanced at Tessy, who was still at the edge of the corridor, engrossed in observing her cone. I called her name, but she didn’t turn. So I had to get up, but for some reason, my body felt extremely weary and exhausted. I thought it was because of my haste in drawing the symbols and unique characters on the wall—but could it spread throughout my body if only my fingers and hands were moving?

I stood up but couldn’t manage it, so I had to crawl. I called Tessy again, extending my arm to grip the sand. With that small effort, I made it to the side of the Pharaoh Priest’s Sarcophagus, not turning but still calling out to Tessy. Why on earth wasn’t she responding to my cries!

My exhaustion had reached its peak. My brain! Now I began to feel the pain from my swollen nerves in my head, affecting my vision. God, I had no choice but to close my eyes. I gave in to the demands of my organs to stop feeling the pain gnawing at my body. But before closing my eyes—one last time—I called out to Tessy, and still, she didn’t respond. Finally, I closed my eyes and saw empty darkness.

I woke up facing the wall… a dirty wall—then I tried opening my eyes wide and feeling my body. "Much better," I thought as I propped up my head.

Slowly, I got up, dusted the front and back of my pants, stomped my feet, and that was it—I turned to the corridor’s edge. Tessy was no longer leaning there. Perhaps she had left earlier—but my attention didn’t stop there, as I noticed that the sarcophagus lid was slightly ajar, revealing darkness inside. I rushed over, yanking the torch from its place, and approached the sarcophagus, peeking into the opening. I saw a lump of legs wrapped in tattered, blackened cloth. I wouldn’t bring the torch closer to the corpse to get a clear visual of them; instead, I began opening the lid—feeling that this was the real treasure, more important than the cone Tessy had been holding all along… and this is what happened: the unlocked tomb opened, without the archaeologists having to break into the sarcophagus to see its incredible contents!

Yes, with excitement, I pushed the lid open: first the part covering the legs, then the middle covering the bandaged body, and finally, the head—though I shouldn’t have been grinning with excitement when opening the last part, too eager to see the body!

It was indeed a mummy, but—is it normal to have over ten bodies in one sarcophagus? And should the body on top be a dried woman with newly styled hair? Furthermore, could that glowing cone really belong only to the dead?

Epilogue:

[Tessy's final message was written in my notebook. It read: "I stabbed you earlier. I revived you using the cone. It is indeed a healing cone. Forgive me, dearest, Tessy." Below that, there was a messy symbol (a sketch of something chaotic).]