That's a Wrap

Windswept sand swirled over timeworn stones, glistering in the golden rays of a fading sun. The Great Pyramid loomed before us, an ancient wonder from ages past or whatever. Then the field trip became even worse than boring.

It became… educational.

“Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple,” The teacher droned to a group of restless schoolchildren. I nudged my classmate and pointed to the passage next to us.

“Let’s ditch this lesson before my brain drips outta my nose,” I snickered as Luke followed me away from the class. We passed a set of intricately carved hieroglyphs, showing people, and pretty badass crocodile eating them up. Only, he wasn’t really eating them, just a part or something. I got bored and yawned.

That’s when we heard it. An inhuman laughing, echoing down the stone halls.

“Sounds like some kind of animal,” Luke glanced at me, seeing if I was chickenshit. You bet I was. I just didn’t want him to know. “Could be someone tagged along behind us and is trying to be funny.”

The cackling howl bounced off the walls again, even stronger than before. I ran towards the source. Luke ran from it. I cursed at him but it was lost in the hideous cry.

When I turned the corner, there was nothing behind it. I was almost positive there was some kind of dog or hyena there, but it was just more carvings and pylons. Then Luke shrieked.

When I got there, he was squirming in a sarcophagus. Something had wrapped him from head to toe, turned him into a living mummy. “Hold on, I’ll get you out!” I reached towards Luke. That’s when I saw it, in the corner of my eye.

A jackal-headed creature, grinning beside me. “Oh ho, you’re a brave one.” Raising a pair of golden scales, he tilted his obsidian snout and drilled into my mind with a piercing look. “Tell me, is your heart lighter than a feather?”

I didn’t give him an answer, but I don’t think I had to. He just knew.

Summoning a pair of undead Egyptian priests, the demonic duo stiffly cocooned me in linen cloth as I fought against the paralyzing hold the jackal-man possessed. “Let me go!” I bellowed, making the entity laugh. “Better pray you are pure of soul, otherwise Ammit will devour it.”

After shoving my wriggling body into a sarcophagus, the shriveled disciples went to a table filled with strange-looking tools. I remembered my teacher going over them with us. The instruments of... something.

Something was selected. I couldn’t see it. Then I wished I hadn’t. A slender rod drew near my nose, the curved end glinting wickedly.

It was a brain hook.