CHAPTER TWO: Ominous

She did not know when she had fallen asleep. All she knew was that upon waking up, she was alone in a dark room with almost no light source beyond the torches in what from presumed to be a hallway of some sort. She lifted herself from the floor and rubbed her head. She felt oddly cold, as though the whole world had gone numb, and she did not like that.

It was not until she stood up that she notice how every part of her was cold. And then she realized she had no clothes on. She let out a shriek and jumped back into the bed covers. How embarrassing! And when she was surrounded by men as well! There was no way she would have dared do such a thing under such circumstances. The thoughts of what could have happened made her face go even redder, so she looked to distract herself through other means, like finding her clothes.

Lying on the end of the bed was a pile of thin cotton which, upon opening, was revealed to be a tunic. It was not the best of things to wear with no undergarments, but until she managed to find her own clothes it would just have to do.

She stepped out of the room into the dimly lit corridor, which was both eerie and unsettling. The room had no door, so she could not close it. In fact, none of the rooms had doors, but that was not what was the most unusual of things. The walls were painted with figures and images in a style that was often associated with Ancient Egypt. But it did not look quite right. The images were distorted, and red paint was splattered across painting depicting battles. A lot more gory than normal images…

As she continued down the hall, she noticed how many of the faces had been chipped out and covered in this exact same red paint. For a moment, she thought she saw the image of the king, but his eyes were also chipped out and his arm destroyed beyond repair.

'Who would do such things to such beautiful art?' she thought bitterly as she finally reached the end of the hallway. At least, that's what she presumed it was as it spread out into balcony which led to a garden. When she looked up, she discovered that it was a full moon. When she looked down, she saw a figure in this garden. They were sitting at the pond, kicking their feet in the water making loud splashing noises. Even from a distance, she could tell that they were of quite high class, being adorned in elaborate jewellery which wrapped around their arms and around their hair. She felt quite uncomfortable speaking to them considering her total lack of clothes, but it could not be helped; she needed to know where she was.

"Um, excuse me?" she edged closer to the figure, and came to the conclusion that they were male. That was a good start at least. "Excuse me, I'm a little lost. Can you tell me where I am?" the boy had stopped splashing his feet, as though listening to what Lydia had to say, but not fully understanding what she was saying. She tried it again in Arabic, but he still failed to understand what she had to say. She tried again, this time in French, and then in Spanish. She tried every language she could think up, but no response came.

The boy seemed to have grown bored of listening to Lydia and stood up.

'Apple sauce! Just when I had managed to find someone as well.' But the boy did not leave. In fact, he turned around. And what Lydia saw when he turned around sent shivers down her spine.

"Well if it isn't the little warrior girl Lydia." Lydia let out a yelp and jumped backwards. She was unable to focus on what he had said, as she could not stop looking at his face. Among the torn flabs of skin and blood were two gaping holes were his eyes used to be. The boy grinned in a disturbing fashion, and creaked over to her. "It's been far too long, I missed you." Lydia jumped away before the boy could get any closer and ran for the balcony, but it was no longer there. The scenery melted away into a dark, lonely pit, so that all that was left behind was Lydia and the boy.

"W-what do you want?" Lydia stuttered her eyes scanning the nothingness wildly, hoping for an escape. This was definitely a dream. So why was she not waking up?

"It's simple really. I want you." Lydia gulped.

"W-what do you mean by that?" The grin on the boy's face widened, as he shut his eyelids in a vain attempt to look more innocent.

"I meant exactly what I said." Lydia began to step away as the boy stepped closer. Was… was she going to die? No, this was a dream. Wait, people died in their dreams! "Why are you running? Especially when there is no exit." She had to think quick. If she did not think fast enough, she might actually… she could not think about that. There had to be a way out. If it was her dream, then surely she could manipulate it.

"Lydia…" The boy looked up, scowling at this interruption. "Lydia…grab my hand…" Light suddenly filled the dark pit as someone seemed to open a door from above to get inside. "Hurry up!" They ordered. Lydia ran into the light and grabbed the hand, even if it might be another trap she no longer cared. She just wanted out of this hole. It clasped tightly around her wrist and began to lift her out of the darkness.

"You stay right there!" The darkness was starting to take over again. The boy grabbed Lydia's leg as the person above pulled her out of the darkness. Lydia could see the person's silhouette as she got further into the light, but still the boy struggled to keep her in the frightening pit, looking like a rabid dog ready to tear her into pieces.

"Don't let go, no matter what!" The figure yelled, struggling to hold on.

"You think I'd do that out of my own free will!?" Lydia yelled back, trying to get the violent child from below to let go of her. Desperately, Lydia swung her other leg and kicked the boy in the face with her heel, forcing him to let go. At that moment, the person from above was also flung back by an invisible force, losing grip on Lydia's hand. Lydia dropped into the darkness, but just as she was about to hit the ground, she woke up.

Lydia sat up in her bed, panting and shaking. Sweat was running down her body. She checked her wrists, terrified that she was still in the dream, but there were no bangles there. She let out a sigh of relief and dropped back onto the bed.

'What was that all about…?' She rubbed her eyes and got up. 'Must be this heat…I heard hot weather affects dreams…' She got out of her makeshift bed and stretched. 'Still, that was really scary…what if I didn't wake up before I hit the ground, and what did that freaky boy want?' she shivered at the memory of those empty eyes, but shook herself of the memory. 'There's no point thinking about it, it's not going to get anything done. Besides, it was just a dream. This isn't one of those ridiculous novels people write about Egypt.' She pulled on her boots and made her way outside. Today the tomb would be revealed for sure! The thought banished the nightmares from her mind as she focused entirely on finding the tomb door.

…at that time, Lydia had no idea what was about to happen to her.

And the creepy kid gets creepier! Sinister~ Yep, I'm also doing chapter three today re-edited, so I'll stop commenting there and blowing up your e-mails.