The Sign of the Scarab

Faith is daring the soul to surpass what the eye can see.

Anonymous

Chapter 1, Kicked out in History

"Class, today in history we're moving on to Egypt, this unit we'll have the chance to talk to a cryptographer, she translates the hieroglyphs for the museum. She’ll be in sometime this week." exclaimed the overly excited teacher; Mrs. Lynch. I rolled my eyes at her, I'm fifteen years old and I'm stuck inside this stupid hell-hole listening to that 'mouse' squeak on about this and that.. "Ms. Wallace, pay attention!" the 'mouse' broke in to my thoughts, I glared at her and the 'mouse' glared at me.

I suppressed a laugh, "Ms. Wallace do you think this is funny!?" I bit my lip, why do teachers always ask that? If I'm laughing, of course I think it's funny!I was shaking with suppressed laughter when the teacher pointed a shaking finger towards the door, "OUT!" Mrs. Lynch bellowed, barely containing her fury. That look on her face was priceless, once I was out the door I keeled over in laughter. Why did they even force us to take this stupid class anyway? Did they think I would ever use the useless information?

I wish I would have payed attention...

Sitting down in the cafeteria, I pulled out my p.c.d and turned on the music, listening to the heavy guitar music; the only music worth listening to. Leaning against the wall I let the music sink into my senses, overwhelming any feelings I had lingering in my once-agitated senses. "Amelia!" exclaimed a cheerful voice while it's owner made a mad-dash for Amelia; evil glint in her eyes. "Crap, here comes the lecture.." I voiced to myself, putting away my p.c.d in my bag I stood up and walked towards her, "Hey Isis!" Isis looked at me with stern eyes, "I can't believe you did that..." Isis let the sentence trail on before bursting out in a fit off laughter, "Did you see her face?!" I breathed a sigh of relief, I guess she was taking a day off of being the responsible one.

Looking down at my watch I realized just how much time I had been listening to my p.c.d player, "We've got to get to fourth period Isis!" I said suddenly startling her out of her laughter, grabbing my hand she pulled me into the hallway growling about how I was the one with the watch and how I should have told her sooner. I just chuckled and opened my locker, pulling out my school supplies, Isis and I went our separate ways, me to math and her to drama.

I sat there and stared at the teacher, tapping my pencil on my desk and then blowing a stray strand of hair out of my face; after I received the many glares sent my way I stopped and took out a few sheets of blank paper. Letting my mind wander I let my hands move at their own will and soon in the place of the once blank space resided a drawing of necklace; an amulet. Amelia looked down at the drawing, "WHAT THE HELL!" The teacher suppressed a laugh, "Ms. Wallace, do you have a problem with me assigning homework?" I blushed and sunk in my seat.

When the bell rang, the drawing lay forgotten within the pages of her textbook. In her hurry to escape the classroom, Amelia never noticed that her book had grown heavier or how the halls were now decorated for the dance tonight. The one she had been forced into attending so that Mr. Fuzy-Puvy-Wuvy-Kins would remain unharmed. Amelia herself was never interested in the dances and tried to avoid going if at all possible. When she got to her locker Amelia chucked the math book inside of her bag along with a few more books and supplies she would need to complete the assigned homework; before grabbing her bag and slinging it on her shoulder.

Amelia ran upstairs as soon as she got inside her house. The rush of cool air-conditioned air making her feel better, the warm weather outside in October was just too much! Jumping in the shower, she quickly washed her hair, ect. Before rinsing one last time and shrugging on a towel. After putting on her house coat, Amelia would have liked nothing more than to just curl up in a ball and lay down to sleep but she had to go to the dance later and she has to finish her math homework. Pulling out the evil book, Amelia felt a cold chain fall on her legs, looking down she noticed an amulet, an amber and gold scarab amulet. With a sweat drop Amelia said to herself, "I guess Isis had a few last minute additions to my costume, I'll ask her about it later." Amelia set off to work.

About fifteen minutes later Amelia was finished her math and she made a dash to the bathroom to finish getting ready. She blow dried her hair and flipped it out, applied some light eye-shadow, black mascara and some pink sparkly lip-gloss. Pulling on her Egyptian-princess authentic costume (courtesy of Isis who is wearing an Egyptian-priestess costume, also authentic) and pocketing the mystery amulet.

Chapter 1; My mystery man

Isis waved her arms back and forth trying to catch her friend's attention, "AMELIA OVER HERE!" she yelled when she was fed up with waving her arms. Isis smiled when she saw her run towards her, "Hey, the costume looks great!" Amelia pouts, "Why'd I have to be the princess? Couldn't I have had the less-revealing costume?" Isis sticks out her tongue and says as if it were the most logical thing in the world, "Because you're descendant to Egyptian royalty and I'm the descendant of their most loyal priestess." I frowned, "What are you on? I'm British." She grins goofily, "But your mother was Egyptian and I looked it up!" I sweat dropped, "I forgot about that..." Isis then grins again and states, "And because your parents are in Egypt for vacation, so you could actually leave the house wearing that costume; my parents would have barbecued me!" I laughed, "Ok, ok, but why didn't you just come to my house to get ready?" Isis looked confused, "How would I manage to keep my brother under control at your house?" I giggled, "All right, fine."

The clinking in my pocket as we walked inside reminded me of the amulet, "Hey Isis, did you slip an amulet into my bag to go with my costume?" Isis frowned, "No, I don't know your combination, maybe it's from a secret admirer?" I blushed and pulled it out of my pocket and she looked at it admiringly, "It's beautiful! And it matches perfectly; so put it on!" Isis winked before continuing, "And maybe we'll find out who put it in your locker inside?" I shrugged and put it on my neck, too preoccupied to notice the tug I felt inside when the amulet touched the skin on my once-bare neck.

Once inside, I looked around the elaborately decorated room, suddenly I was excited, everybody was dressed up, Isis and I adjusted the masks we put on out in the hall and walked to the punch bowl, my forced grace hopefully wasn't too apparent. Isis looked like the real thing, she really played her part, but if she can do it I can too right? "Hey," said a deep voice, startling me out of my thoughts. "Hey," I answered while acting poised and graceful in front of the Pharoh, he grinned while stating, "you know we match." I smiled while answering, "I suppose we do." He extended his hand and murmured, "Would you like to dance?" I nodded with a smile, "That'd be great."

He pulled me onto the dance floor as we danced in between the couples of British royalty and the men and women of the Spanish Court. "We seem to be the only one's dressed as Egyptian royalty," I pointed out quietly, "All the better, I suppose we'll have to dance together all night then?" he answered coyly. I mock-pouted, "But I wanna dance with all the guys!" He chuckled and said quietly playing along, "Well too bad."

We danced together the whole night, until we had to sit down and catch our breath. He smiled charmingly at me, I blushed, how did he get that side out of me so easily? "So, why don't we go catch some fresh air?" I asked him, "sure, why not?" he replied. We walked out the side door and into the gardening club's pride and joy; the garden was lit up with multiple lights, all of them flickering different colors, the commity went all out for this dance.

"So do you go to school here?" I smiled, "Yea, do you go here too?" He shook his head, "No I go to St. Grace, my friends thought I didn't get out enough and decided that I would come with them, " he chuckled and I laughed along with him, "My friend kinda blackmailed me into coming, I'm not really into this kinda thing either," he looked down at his watch and stated, "It's twelve o'clock," slowly we both took off our masks, "Ma'at" I stated in a surprised voice, "Amelia" he stated. Ma'at was the last guy I expected to be behind that mask, my best friends’ older brother, god, she is going to freak! He smiled at me and then did the second thing to surprise me that night, "Do you want to go get something to eat later? I know this great all-night cafe down the road," I smiled up at him and nodded, "That'd be great, I just need to run inside and tell Isis I'm leaving, k?" he smiled and nodded, "Alright."

I ran inside and looked for my priestess friend, noticing her with the school hunk I grinned, great blackmailing information alert! I walked up to her and said, "Isis, I'm just going to head out, me and your brother are heading out to the coffee shop down the road; see you tomorrow!" I winked and then continued before running off, "Have fun!" After meeting Ma'at at the doorway I smiled and we both headed off to the coffee shop. Who would have thought that I'd find myself on a date with Ma'at of all peoples?

Every evening must end, no matter how much I don't want it to and this one would send my stomach in flips for weeks to come, Ma'at asked me out again for Sunday. “I really should have guessed that he was related to Isis, the Egyptian costumes are her trademark..” stated Amelia with a laugh before rolling over on her bed and falling on the floor. Amelia groaned, slipped off her sandals and then crawled under her fluffy covers with the air conditioning on full blast.

Amelia was sweating. The hot, dry air around her made her thirsty. Amelia looked up, her eyes finally open; with a gasp she closed them again. “This isn’t happening!” she said her voice slightly squeaking. Amelia pinched her arm, hard, with another squeak; this time in pain, she opened her right eye. A golden hallway met her line of vision and she cursed under her breath, “Shitataki mushrooms!” Amelia thanked Isis in her head, if this really was Egypt, at least she knew Egyptian! “Rah help me..” Amelia said quietly while getting up and walking to the nearest door. When she opened the door she came nose to nose with a boy her age, clothed in gold cloth and gold bracelets; he glared at her and Amelia laughed outright, drawing attention to herself and the boy. A man, little older than herself sat on the throne and the boy continued his unfaltering glare, Amelia murmured thinking of English class, “All that glitters isn’t gold.” The sentence bought a dry smile to her lips, this had to be Isis’s doing, revenge for going to coffee with her ‘annoying’ brother.

So Amelia stated, thinking herself smart for realizing it, “Ok, listen I don’t know how much Isis payed you guys to act like ancient Egyptians but I the gig is up. I know you’re just actors!” The ‘Pharoh’ looked at me funny and asked the boy next to me in ancient Egyptian, “Priest, do you understand?” The boy shrugged and I repeated my sentence in ancient Egyptian, my accent weighing heavily on my speech. I looked somewhat frantic.

“It’s not funny, whatever Isis is paying I’ll double it for you to quit acting!” stated Amelia in Ancient Egyptian while looking somewhat frantic, the people continued to look at her as if she’d grown a second head. Feeling somewhat caged; in a lion in a cage sort of way, Amelia began prowling around the room and when she approached the ‘pharaoh’ the guards rushed her. “Darns’ Crooksnakes!” she cursed once again while leaping towards the window. Silently thanking her pushy parents for gymnastic classes; Amelia hopped into the tree. If the sun had been hot inside the palace, than this must be what it feels like to live in a frying pan. Letting herself drop into the scorching sand; Amelia ran, legs wobbly and head pounding -straight into a wall.

--

When she finally woke up Amelia was once again inside the palace, this time surrounded in restraints and guards. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF RAH DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOOING?!” I screamed at them in ancient egyptian when one grabbed my ass, “YOU’RE A DEAD MAN!” I continued with a glare while I struggled against my bonds, “As soon as I get out of here, I’m going slit you throat and feed you to wolves!” I screeched while I struggled more forcefully against the bonds that were now stripping my skin raw. The boy I’d bumped into early appeared in my face; smirking, “No escaping now is there?” My bonds came loose and I pounced, “SCREW ESCAPING YOU’RE GOIN’ DOWN!” Amelia screamed while beating on the priest; violent behaviour even for me.

The ‘pharaoh’ looked down at her as she ran around the room chasing his high priest while she shook her fist and sighed. Things weren’t looking good for either one as the priest was now fighting back, Amelia’s amulet came loose; the scarab pendant fell to the floor. Everything grew silent and the priest hissed, “Girl, pick it up now!” The outdoors grew dark and the pharaoh’s court seemed to edge towards the door. “What?” asked a tired Amelia while she looked around the room to see what was wrong. “The AMULET YOU TWIT! PICK IT UP!” hissed the high priest in english at Amelia; his voice barely above a whisper. Shrugging her shoulders, Amelia reached down and picked up the amulet. The sky returned to it’s sunny splendour and the colour returned to the faces of the pharaoh’s court and those around them, other than the still clueless Amelia. “Girl, you’ve angered the gods. You insult them by dropping their amulet and paying no tribute to the pharaoh. That style of design is said to be carved on the scarab amulet by Ishtar herself… You’ve now got to make a sacrifice to the gods.” Stated an angry priest to a completely confused Amelia. “Sacrifice?” asked Amelia raising an eyebrow, “Yes a sacrifice you sacriligious scum.” Answered the angry Priest. Amelia looked the priest straight in the eye, “I wont do it, I’m not killing anything or anyone.” The priest chuckled darkly, “You’ve no choice in the matter girl, you will have to make one eventually.”

Amelia sat in front of the oasis under the hot shade of the palm trees and stared at the amulet, “What’s so special about this ol’ thing anyway? Couldn’t I just chuck it into the oasis and be rid of it?” The bush nearby whispered as a breeze of hot and sticky air brushed over Amelia’s silk outfit, “Because then you’d have to be killed since you’d have doomed us to endless deaths at the point of a fine needle,” responded the same priest from earlier. Amelia growled her frustration, “what do you mean?” The priest sat down next to her and adjusted the hem of his garb, “Well, there’s a legend behind that amulet you hold so carelessly in your palm..”