The Sacred Hourglass

The tall, stone structures of the pyramids stood proudly in the sunlight’s awful rays. This heat ate away bits and chunks of the pyramid’s bases, leaving them in swirling fragments. But, another thing was there; the little black dots of people, yelling and screaming impatiently in Arabic back and forth. The badges on a few of the men’s chests glistened like the perspiration on their foreheads, showing their authority. The belts on their hips had handcuffs, guns and other weapons in the pockets and bulges. But, they didn’t need them today, most likely and hopefully.

Today, they had rounded up another group of volunteers to look for a girl, or, worst–case scenario, the body of the girl. She was a blonde tourist who had flown in just days ago, but vanished the first day and didn’t come to her hotel room until late. But, she disappeared again the next day and hadn’t returned for the four days afterwards. For those four days, the police had searched and interviewed the parents, siblings, even the hotel staff and everyone they could, but they did not know where this girl was.

Today, a riot was happening at the bottom of the pyramids because they found her cell phone on a stone of the tallest pyramid. So, police officers and volunteers weaved in and out of the structures and all over them, carefully climbing up as to not damage the ancient things.

The man overlooking this chaos, the chief, stood about a hundred feet away, smoking a cigarette. He wore the same uniform as the rest of the men, enlarged to fit over his growing pot belly. His fingers were gaining fat with purple veins poking out of his dark skin. His stubble, graying beard crawled its way about his face and aviator sunglasses hid the eyes that watched this slow progress. He didn’t want to be here. He was the man who held the frenzied cocaine addict at gunpoint, not the man who watched over a search party. Besides, searching here was probably in vain. The poor girl probably was buried after her murder somewhere in this endless desert. It had happened too many times before for him to think otherwise.

But, his underlings thought that otherwise and asked for his help. In case the kidnapper was with the girl, they needed as many people as they could get. They had to help her, and the chief knew that, but he thought they would probably find a body, so he declined. But, his boss put him on the project, and here he stood, hating every moment of it.

His eyes scanned the scene again, checking to see if anything was amiss, then looked to the east, towards the main part of the city and the Nile. To his surprise, a sleek, black hovercraft limo was sliding across the sand towards the sight from one of the huge industrial bridges crossing the river. He knew it was not an accident and he cursed in Arabic. Flustered by this, he threw his still–burning cigarette in the sand and stalked off to meet this rich intruder.

The hovercraft stopped at the police tape, but a tall woman with long, wavy brown hair stepped out. She wore an ironed white blouse with a collar matched with dark jeans, a jeweled belt and high heels. She took off her jewel and star rimmed sunglasses, revealing her sparkling green eyes, and approached the police tape. By that time, the chief had reached the perimeter of site. Before he could speak, the woman asked if he spoke English in very poor Arabic.
“Yes, I do.” he said gruffly. “But you cannot pass this line, there is a search going on.”
“But, sir, this girl is an elemental and I can feel her element. I know where she is.”
The chief rolled his eyes.
“Bah! That’s the tenth time I heard that today. Run along, miss.”

He turned his back and started to walk away, thinking she would leave. But, the woman was next to him a split second later and sprinted past him at an inhuman pace milliseconds after he realized she was there. He choked on his words before he finally yelled, “Hey! What did I just say? Stop!”
But, of course, she didn’t stop. She ran all the way to the pyramids before the chief could yell a command to his underlings. But, they could not hear his words.

By the time the chief got to the pyramids, the woman had convinced the men to allow her to go inside and help look. The chief argued with the men, telling them that they couldn’t let everyone who claimed to know something pass. They concurred, saying that they needed every hint they could get. Five police officers stepped forward to volunteer to lead the woman into the chambers.

They entered the pyramid, the five police officers leading the woman into the structure. Frustrated, the chief followed them, his hand on his gun in case something happened. She told the men to take her to the Queens chamber of the pyramid and they agreed, but told her they had already looked. She only rolled her eyes and commented, “Obviously not hard enough” under her breath. But, the men led her to the queen’s chamber as if they did not hear it.

Once there, she was the first to enter it and she carefully looked around. It was a basic square structure with several faded hieroglyphics about the walls and a staggered arch.. The woman immediately went to the huge arch and looked at the floor she stood on.

Curious, the police officers followed her, and came up besides her. She surveyed the floor. A few moments of silence passed as she stared.
“Um… Miss?” said one of the men, hesitant.
“My name is Gytha.”
“Miss Gytha, what are you looking for?”
“That:”

She pointed to a long crack down the side of the floor, near the edge of the arch. Before getting a reply or consent, she jumped on it, making a hallow noise. All of the men gave startled noises.
“Please, Miss Gytha, the rock is very delicate.” said the one who spoke before.
“Not this rock.” she said and bent down into a squat.

A white purple light appeared at the end of her right pointer finger, and she traced the crack carefully, skillfully. Two large pieces of rock fell away. The men whimpered pathetically.
“Ma’am,” said a different man this time. “You cannot destroy the –“
“I am not destroying the floor,” she said, annoyed. “Don’t you see how it’s heightened a little bit? This is a different rock. It’s newer, artificial. Someone else put it here.”

The men gave each other confused looks, but fell silent. They surveyed it and saw that the stone at the floor was much more flat and it looked much younger. Also, it had a slightly darker shade of brown–gray. How could they not see this before? Gytha continued to run her lit–up finger along the cracks that started to form, and they fell away. But, they didn’t fall in the middle, though; they fell only along the edges, making little piles along the perimeter of the tomb. After a handful of moments, Gytha stood and pointed to the gap.
“See?” she said. “You were looking in the wrong place.”

There was the missing girl, her face relaxed, but full of color. The men gave a gasp of surprise. The chief was shocked. How could the woman find her that easily? How could she have known? He contemplated the possibilities as his comrades asked her questions.
“How is she alive?” asked one.
“This rock is only rock on the outside. In the middle, it’s just energy to hide her. It holds my weight because it’s strong. But, once I break it away, it will be nothing but energy again.”
“Amazing.” they all said.

The chief finally concluded his thoughts and cleared his throat. They all looked at him, giving him curious looks.
“Ma’am,” he said. “How did you know this girl was here?”
“I told you; I felt her element.”
“Ma’am, I know for a fact that no elemental on this team felt her. Plus, you knew exactly where she was.”
“Oh my god! You think I did this?!”
“Yes, I do.”
“Auuugh.”

She fished in her pocket a moment, and then withdrew a piece of paper.
“I got this.” she said.
In rough, Greek–letter–like handwriting, the note said “She lies like a queen, the stone erect upon her head in invisible blocks. Not a scratch or broken bone is upon her for she is unharmed and living. Find her and I will not return until the future you know of.” The men looked at it, confused.
“And I know I could’ve gotten a friend to write it,” said Gytha. “But, I didn’t. If there’s an elemental about you, which I think there is, get him to check it. They’ll confirm that the element cast upon this was much different from mine and that it the only reason I influence it is because it was sent to me.”

One man stepped forward. He had a white mist surrounding his hands. The other men handed it to him and he ran his finger over it, carefully whispering in a weird language. Then, he shook his head.
“She’s right.” he said. “She only came in contact with it only minutes ago for the first time in this paper’s existence.”
The men looked flabbergasted. The chief grew red in the face, but, he could not do anything about it. This woman had too much proof that she was not the kidnapper. So, the woman went back to working on releasing the girl.

Once she was finished, the stone did just as she said it would, and the middle of it vanished. The girl still didn’t move, sleeping away in a possible coma. All she had on was a small white petty coat looking a tad like lingerie. It covered everything, but looked very chilly. The woman squatted besides her and brushed aside the hair from her face. The chief’s eyes drifted to her neck, where a very familiar artifact lay.
“She has the Sacred Hourglass!” he exclaimed.

The men were startled. But, they confirmed it was the stolen artifact. Gytha sighed and picked up the hourglass, breaking the chain it was fastened on.
“Will you do the same element and prove that this girl is innocent?” she asked.
The same man agreed and did the same test.
“Phenomenal!” he exclaimed. “She has only come into contact with this once!” Gytha looked down at the girl, to hide the smile. Thank god he doesn’t know I can influence things to eliminate all of the elements that touched it, she thought.

The chief yelled in Arabic suddenly and stormed off, his men staring after him.
“What was that?” asked Gytha.
“He gets upset when he’s wrong.” said one man. “He thought the girl was dead and that we would find a body.”
“Ah,” said Gytha.
She turned back to the girl and brushed the hair out of her face again.
“Thea,” she murmured, stroking the girl’s face.
Thea didn’t stir, just kept on breathing evenly.

Gytha sighed and put a hand over Thea’s round face. She cast a little element and then drew her hand away. Thea gasped and suddenly sat up. She whirled her gaze around, taking in everything.
“Wh–what’s going on?” she asked.
Gytha put a hand on Thea’s shoulder.
“It’s all right, sweetie. You were kidnapped by Grim and he put you here.”
“What? No, it wasn’t Grim!”

Startled, Gytha gave a sputtered sound.
“What?! Grim Ace Vampiress didn’t kidnap you?”
“No! He let me go! It was someone else! But… but… I don’t know who… I fainted and then… woke up just… now…”
Gytha gave Thea a worried look.
“All right,” said the faery. “C’mon, let’s get you to your mom.”

Thea nodded and got up. But, the men delayed them further, telling them to wait for an ambulance to come. Gytha looked and saw one of the men were on a cell phone, speaking quickly in Arabic. Annoyed, Gytha protested, but the men said they would not let them leave, so she had to agree. The men led them outside and beckoned Thea to sit down.

In a few moments, a boxy white hovercraft with red crosses on all of its sides sped towards the pyramids. Paramedics jumped out before it stopped, equipment in hand. They rushed to Thea and started tending to her, checking to see if she was all right. They checked their heartbeat, blood sugar, blood pressure and everything else under the sun. Everything was good, for the most part. She had a good heart beat, but her blood sugar was low, as well as her oxygen. So, they begged her to come and stay at the hospital overnight to stabilize her systems. She agreed if they let her contact her mother first.

They strapped an oxygen tank to her and connected the nose–tubes to her as she dialed Stephanie’s number. Her mother picked up on the second ring.
“Thea?!” she said, her voice hopeful and frantic.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“OH MY GOD!!! Where are you?! Are you all right?!”
“I’m at the pyramids. They found me inside one of the chambers. The medics want me to spend a night in the hospital, is that cool?”
“Let me talk to them.”

Thea held out the phone, telling them she wanted to speak with one of them, and the nearest paramedic took it. He spoke to her calmly, explaining why she needed to be kept overnight. Her mother agreed and asked where the hospital was located. He explained as his partners put Thea on a stretcher. With a smile, he returned her cell phone after they hoisted her up into the back.
“It seems we’re in a race.” he said. “Your mother said that she would beat us to the hospital.”
Thea laughed.
“Yeah… that sounds like my mother.”

*

Thea leaned back on the cushy white pillows of the hospital bed, staring up at the blue ceiling with a green boarder. The sounds of the oxygen tank they gave her a whisper against her ears. She remembered a recent scene well. The doctors had given her this room, the medics laughing about how they had beaten her mother, when she came in and commented how she heard everything. They turned very dark in the face and apologized. They left soon after that, wishing Thea to get better. She was left in the room with her frantic mother and pure, flammable O2 being pumped into her lungs.

Now, about fifteen minutes later, her mother was outside talking with Gytha, her father as well, while another doctor went about to stick an IV needle in her arm. The man didn’t warn her, though, and just stabbed her with the thin, hallow metal. She yelped and tried to pull her arm away, but he held fast.
“Sorry,” he said. “I thought you would watch to expect the poke.”
“No!” she shrilled.
She looked at the needle sticking half–way out of her arm and the blood drain from her face. Her eyes squeezed shut and she turned away.
“I hate needles…” she murmured.

Thea kept her eyes shut until the doctor fixed the needle and had hooked the needle up with a machine. It whirled to life and pumped a cool liquid into her body, chilling the spot where the needle lay. The man stood and started to leave. She finally opened her eyes and watched as the liquid traveled down the tube. He had told her the liquid was made up of vital nutrients she had missed in the last ninety–six hours. They were to stabilize her system so she could eat normally once she left the hospital.
“Thanks,” she said, remembering her manners.
He nodded, smiled, and left for her to be alone.

She sighed and slumped, trying to relax, but it didn’t really work. The door creaked open and Gytha stepped in. Thea looked and tried to sit up, but Gytha sent a gentle element at her to keep her down.
“You’re here to rest, sweetie.” said the faery. “Please stay put.”
Thea sighed, but complied. The faery lifted the element before pulling up a chair and sitting beside her bed.
“Are you sure you don’t remember who kidnapped you?” Gytha asked.
“Nope,” said Thea. “All I remember is Grim letting me go, then I ran down a dark hall and I fell. I blacked out, but I woke up and found this golden hall. It was filled with all these names.”

She saw Gytha tense.
“You did?” she said, her voice nervous.
“Yeah. They had every realm existing. I saw the weirdest names under the Quarters Realm, the Sagittarius Realm and the Jupiter Realm. It was crazy.”
“Oh… Did you see the Earth Realm?”
“Yeah. I saw that it had like… seven or six–ish spots for names.”
“Six?!… Did you read any of those names?”
“Nah. They had a glare on them, so I moved, but some voice like… attacked me, screaming that ‘it’s not my time’ before I could see a letter.”
“I see.”

The two fell silent. Thea wondered why that had happened. All she did was look at something. She decided to ask Gytha.
“Do you know why that happened?”
“No, honey, not at all,”
“Okay.”
They fell silent again. She tried to remember if anything had happened after she had been chased out of the hallway. Before she blacked out, she had felt relieved of the voice and exhausted. It was strange how the voice had worn her out. With dread, she realized that maybe it wasn’t just the voice. She remembered Hades and pictured him lurking over her, smiling to himself then dragging her off.

“Hey, Gytha?” she said.
“Yes, Thea?”
“Um… do you think there’s other faeries besides you?”
“I know there is.”
“I meant in the Earth Realm.”
“Oh… no. I thought I was the only one.”
“I saw… um… Hades.”
“Really?”

Gytha sounded so shocked, but a little hopeful, like she wanted him to be there. Thea’s mind started racing, remembering the other thing that looked like a faery, the shadow that crept into her room to tell her he was going to murder her.
“Yeah… um… are faeries the only human–like things with wings?”
“There’s pixies.”
“But… do they have bat wings?”
“Not usually, no. They usually have dragonfly–like wings.”
“Okay.”
“Why?”
“I think… I met another faery with… bat wings.”
“That’s strange.”

Thea nodded and felt her eyes sting. Her chest hurt and she had to clutch her hand into a fist to keep from crying. The little slits on her palms opened up again.

“He… he told me that he was gonna murder me.”
“Thea, that’s silly. You won’t let him.”
“I know… but I’m scared… that he will like… knife me in my sleep.”
“Thea. No one would be stupid to do that, especially the guy you described.”
“Do… do you know him?”
“We’ve met once or twice before.”
“So… is he a faery?”
“I don’t know what he is, sweetheart. He could be, but possibly not since I’ve only met him recently.”
“Oh,”

Thea bit her lip, still trying not to cry. Gytha noticed and put a hand over hers.
“Hush, now.” she said. “It’s not going to happen.”
“How do you know?”
Gytha gave her a knowing look.
“Trust me. No one would let that happen. You’re very special and can do things others can’t. Remember that, okay?”

Quickly, Thea nodded and looked away. She wanted to ask how she was special, but decided not to. Gytha probably just meant that she had more energy than the average elemental, which she already knew. The faery noticed how Thea was acting and got up to leave. Silently, Thea thanked her and took calming, but big gulps of the oxygen attached to her nose. Well, thought Thea, If that guy doesn’t kill me, Grim might.

Her imagination created a picture of herself wrapped up in Grim’s arms for her to view. Blood trickled from her dead wrists, slashed like a suicide attempt accomplished, as he clutched her limp body. His face screwed up in pain, sorrow, like he had killed her. It turned out that the picture seemed much more appealing than any other form of her death. But, strangely, it gave her comfort knowing she had a possibility of dying like that, serving someone who cared for her. She thought about it a moment, but decided it was the truth. Though he claimed he loved her after he had hurt her for so long, she still was convinced there was no other path for her.

Yes, she was okay with dying for Grim.