Princess, Crown Not Included

I couldn't get her off my mind. Everywhere I looked, there was something that reminded me of her. Bronze reminded me of her skin, obsidian made me think about her hair, gold brought back memories of my gift... I groaned aloud in frustration, earning some funny looks from the guards. A few games of sennet did nothing to help relieve the frustrated atmosphere that was pulsating in the room. It was too hot. I went and changed into a cooler set of clothes. Now it was too cold. I changed back. I considered going down the Nile in the barge, but then decided aganist it: it took nearly an hour to prepare the damned thing, and by then I'd have decided to do something else.

Ra damn the woman: I was the Pharaoh! How could she reduce me to such a mess with one swish of her hair?! I twisted my own through my fingers inlovelorn annoyance and dully registered that it was nearly sunset. I turned round and "informed" the guards they could go home(as in, bodily forced them out of the door). After a few more funny looks, and the voicing of some concerns that I would be alone, I finally pursuaded them to get out and leave me in peace.

Alone was just what I needed right now.

After exausting every possible option that anyone could have when both bored and alone, I gave up and collapsed on the bed. Maybe a sleep would get rid of a few hours.

I jerked up from my lying position: something, I didn't know what, had woken me. Looking across the room, I saw a slim figure, their back to me, at my window, the night breeze lifting black strands of hair and waving them around like living tendrils. A glimmer of gold on one wrist told me who it was- Astarte. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and made my way over to her, reaching out a hand to touch her shoulder. The second my fingertips made contact, her legs crumpled beneath her. I tried to catch her, but her fall was too fast. She hit the floor, emerald eyes staring glassily at the ceiling. I heard a low, evil snigger from above me, and a shadow moved on the other side of the curtains separating the balcony from the rest of the room: a human silhouette, one arm raised and a dagger held in the raised hand. I forced myself away from Astarte's lifeless form, and ran as fast as I could down a side corridor, which had never been there before. The floor suddenly became uneven, dipping one second and rising steeply the next. I stumbled, and felt the ground give way to a black abyss. I pluged through it, voices surrounding me: Astarte's voice, scared and thin from screaming, Femii's worried tones fighting with Seto's smug berations, and another voice I hadn't heard before, as clear as if the speaker were right next to me.

"No use running, Atem... I'll get you eventually...The thing you love most..."

"Who are you?!" I screamed as my hands scrambled for a purchase they wouldn't find, the words tearing my throat. "What do you want?! Why is Astarte dead?!"

A sinister chuckle filled the air. "All in good time, Pharaoh..." The voices faded, as I felt myself falling, terror filling me. "All in good time..." I knew the ground was rushing up to meet me...

My eyes flew open, and I forced myself to a sitting position. A cold sweat glued the thin linen sheets to my skin. Pulling them away from myself, I half-jumped out of bed and ran to the window, half expecting to see the same crumpled form I had in the nightmare. But the balcony was empty.

Pulling back the curtains, I closed my eyes as the cool night air rippled round me, brushing away the cobwebs of sleep. My forearms resting on the wall of the balcony, I half-leant over the edge and stared out to the horizon, not yet tinted wth the glow of sunrise. I couldn't figure out the dream. "The thing you love most..." - what would that mean? Whose was the sinister voice? And how had Femii found her way into my head?! That was the most puzzling thing...

On impulse, I turned back into the room, pulled the sheets off the bed and a few spare ones from the chest against the end of the bed, dragged them out and piled them up against the wall. When I was satisfied with the effort, I flumped down onto the pile, staring up at the stars. My thoughts drifted till eventually, I lost track of them: from the dream, to Astarte, to how the stars reminded me of her eyes, to why some people had green eyes and some had brown...

I suddenly realised how heavy my eyelids were. I tried to keep them open, not wanting to fall back into the nightmare, but eventually I dozed fitfully, haunted by disembodied voices and tunnels without ends. And, for some reason, frogs.