The Demon of Egypt: Nala's Side by Amber Riel (good beach reads .txt) 📕

Antinique looked at the flowers and smiled.  “Thank you.”

Imhotep walked back into the room with green stemmed planets and walked over to me.  I looked at them.  “For you.”

“I don’t want those,” I replied.

Imhotep eyed me.

“I want water lilies.”

I could see Imhotep’s light colored skin become red with anger.  “Okay then,” he hissed.  He stormed out of the room and throw the papyrus to the ground as he left.

I couldn’t help but laugh.  This is kind of fun, I thought.

Imhotep walked back into the room not too long later with some beautiful water lilies and handed them to me.

I just stared at them.  I sighed and looked at Imhotep.  “I changed my mind…. I don’t want flowers anymore.”

Imhotep shot me the dirtiest look ever.  It looked as if he wanted to kill me.

I just shrugged it off.

My father and Antinique left the room while Imhotep kept eyeing me.  “You evil little---”

“Save it.”  That’s when that scream struck my ears again and I fell to the floor in pain.  I covered my ears to block out the noise.  I looked up at Imhotep who was just staring at me.  “Do something, you idiot….” I hissed at him.

“I don’t think so,” he mumbled under his breath.

Even with my ears buried under my hands I could still hear him.  The pain, the screaming…. I needed to know where that noise was coming from.  I knew that I was about one of the few who could possibly hear it.  It was so far away, but because of my supersonic wolf hearing, it sounded as if it were right next to me.

I was curled up, blocking my ears with my hands.  The blood curdling scream hadn’t stopped and I felt like an idiot, curled up in the fetal position.  The scream…. I yelled out in pain as if my insides were on fire.

Imhotep just stared at me like I was a moron.  Of course, he was human how could he understand my pain.  He couldn’t hear the screaming.

The odd thing about the screaming was that it didn’t even just sound like screaming.  It sounded like the Gods or Goddesses were torching the humans in some odd ritual that no human would ever understand.  The screaming…. I slowly rolled over on my knees, still covering my ears.  My body was bent over the ground as if I was caught up spit or blood.  It was painful.

Imhotep walked over to me and kicked my stomach.  I eyed him and the next thing I know the screaming had stopped as if he kicked the trigger or something to stop it from continuing.  “Get up, princess.”  He voice was odd to me.  It sounded strong, but not mocking like usual.

“I can’t….” I couldn’t move.  For some odd reason, I couldn’t feel my legs and I didn’t have the energy to stand.

Imhotep looked at me with a serious look but one that wasn’t mocking me.  Something strange was going on.  He grabbed my left arm and pulled me up to my feet.  He was helping me.  That was really strange.  There had to be something…. Something alarming going on.

A woman with a head of a lioness walked over to me.  Her face was made of brown fur and her human skin tone was dark brown.  She wore a long white dress which touched the ground.  The shoulders of the dress were attached by beads the filled the collar of the shirt.  She was the Goddess Sekhmet, another Egyptian Demon idol the humans worshipped.  She dealt with vengeance or something of the sort.  Like I said about Anubis, I could really care less.

I kind of started laughing.  I never cared about our culture and beliefs.  I felt that there was something wrong about them anyways.  “What do you want?”

Sekhmet stared at me with her black lion like eyes.  “You mock us, princess.  I bring you warning.”

I raised an eyebrow and sighed.  I was inhuman.  I couldn’t die.  At least, not as easily as my human victims.

Imhotep eyed me.

“I promise I’ll be a good little Egyptian,” I mocked the goddess as she eyed me.

“You will die, your highness.”

I smiled.  I could care less.  “Yea whatever.”

Sekhmet looked at Imhotep.  “You will join us soon.”

I looked over at Imhotep and I could see the fear in his eyes at her words.  I didn’t think that I had even seen Imhotep fear anything but that was the first time.  I looked back at the goddess but she was gone.  I laughed.  “You’ve been marked by death.”  I remembered what that dead servant girl had told me, “You are marked with death.” I shook my head to get those words out.

“Can you show a little more respect?”

“For those damn demons that you humans worship?  No.”

“They’re Gods and Goddess.”

I shook my head.  “They’re not…. They’re demons…. I have fear for the Hebrews’ God…. I mean He can destroy me more than they can….”

Imhotep looked at me, oddly.  He was confused.  “You believe in the Hebrews’ God?”

I thought about what I had said which confused me even more than it confused Imhotep.  That was when I realized that I wasn’t the only one in control of my body anymore.  “Get out of there Vanessa.”

Imhotep looked at me, even more confused than before.  He looked around the room, wondering who I was talking to.

“You can’t do this….”

“Who are you talking to, Nala?”

I looked at Imhotep and growled.  Thanks to Vanessa, now Imhotep knew my deepest darkest secret that not even Niki knew.  “No one,” I replied, covering for myself.  Now I really had to do something about her before she took over completely.  I closed my eyes.  When I opened them, Vanessa was standing in front of me.  “You need to stop messing everything up.”

“I’m doing what I can to keep us from getting murdered,” Vanessa replied.

“Murdered?” I asked.  “Only humans can get murdered…. We’re practically immortal.”

“No.”  Vanessa shook her head.  “We’re not…. We can die just like everyone else…. Human or not…. We’re not going to live forever…. We will die…. And honestly, I think that would be the best choice, because you’re killing off people and animals who don’t deserve it.”  She eyed me.  “You don’t realize it yet, but you’re a demon and a monster.”

I couldn’t believe the words that came out of Vanessa’s mouth.  That pushed me over the edge.  I grabbed Vanessa’s arm and dragged her to a room where she would have no way out…. Not even teleportation would help her this time.  “Hope you enjoy the darkness, Vanessa.”  I laughed evilly as I threw her into the room and closed the door, locking the key.  She was locked in the darkest part of my mind where she would stay forever.  I snapped back to reality and looked at Imhotep.  He was still giving me that strange, confused look.  “What?”

He shrugged as if he hadn’t noticed anything odd.

“Leave me alone, honey,” I spoke in a mocking tone then left the room.

          Later on that day, Niki and I stood in a large round room filled with statues of our “Gods and Goddesses” when Antinique walked in.  She was wearing a long gold dress which like before was kind of revealing.  I rolled my eyes at her.  “Prostitute,” I mumbled.

          Niki kind of laughed at what I had said.  I assumed that he was thinking the same thing.

          “Children,” Antinique told us.

          “We’re not children,” Niki replied, kind of growling at her words.

          “I’m sorry then…. Old man and…. Old maid.”

          “I’m not an old maid remember?  I’m going to be….” I could bring myself to say it again.  The nausea had worked its way into my throat and the thought was too sickening.

          “She’s going to be marrying Imhotep,” Niki replied, finishing for me.  Of course, he knew my plan and I knew that he wasn’t going to blow my cover.  “Whereas you’re going to be marrying our father.”

          Antinique bit her lip.  She couldn’t figure out what she wanted to say.  I took that as a good sign.

          “Antinique….” I began.

          “I would like it better if you call me mom…. Or something like that,” Antinique replied, faking a smile.

          “Well, you’re not our mother and so….” Niki started.

          “We’re going to call you….” I continued.

          “What we want to call….” Niki picked up where I ended.

          “You,” we both finished.

          “Okay, Antinique?” I asked.

          We could tell by Antinique’s expression that she was trying to keep that fake smile, even though the anger was building up inside of her.  “Okay.”

          “Kids one….” Niki told me, smiling.

          “Step-mother zero,” I replied, also smiling.

          Our father and Imhotep had walked into the room.  Something was up because Imhotep was keeping his distance from me unlike before.  My father walked over to Antinique and hugged her.  “Well, how are my children and my wife doing?” he asked.  Him and Antinique still weren’t married yet but he was just preparing us for when they were to be married.

          “We’re doing good, dad,” I lied, acting like an angel.

          Niki smiled.  “We’re getting to know each other.”

          My father looked at Antinique.  “Is that true?”

          Antinique faked another smile.  “Yea.”  I noticed that she moved her attention toward Imhotep and I could tell that they were planning something.  “Um…. I want to look around the palace…. You know to get use to everything.”

          “Okay.  Will you want someone to go with you?”

          “Yea.”

          “I’ll go with her, sir,” Imhotep replied and that was when I knew for certain that those two were up to no good.

          “Okay.  Imhotep will go with you.”

          Antinique smiled.  I noticed that her smile was fake like before and that her thoughts were pointing toward one thing: Imhotep.  “Okay.”

          Imhotep and Antinique left the room.  I watched them as they walked out the door.  I knew something was going on and I had a good feeling that I knew what it was.  “I’m getting tired,” I told my father and Niki as I pretended to be tired.  I headed for the door.  “I’m going to go to sleep.”

          “Okay.  Good night, Nala,” my father told me.

          “Good night, father.  Good night, Niki,” I told them.

          “Good night, Nala,” Niki replied.

          I left the room and followed Imhotep and Antinique’s scent.  I stayed hidden in the shadows, along the walls so that they wouldn’t see me.

          Imhotep smiled.  “I’m glad that you thought of this, Antinique.”

          Antinique shared the smile.  “Anything to be alone with you, Imhotep.  I hate them, especially the princess.”

          “I knew it,” I whispered to myself, while I stayed hidden from them.

          “I know,” Imhotep replied.  “I hate her as well…. And there’s no way she’s Egyptian, because she hates cats…. One time, I watched her eat a cat….”

          “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HATING CATS!!!” I exclaimed, loud enough to where Imhotep and Antinique could hear me.

          They looked up and around.

          I covered my mouth as fast as I could so that they wouldn’t realize that I was ease-dropping on them.

          Imhotep continued looking around although he didn’t move from his spot.