Page 24

"Are there two Kayvon's in there?"

Kayvon cocks an eye, an oddly familiar gesture but somehow wrong. "Merytamun, what's wrong?"

I blink in shock as my brain pieces together what he just said. If he is calling me by that name, then he's not my Kayvon. "Where do you think we are?"

"In your tomb, in Luxor. Is that not correct?"

"Oh... Oh no. Kayvon, you are not in Egypt anymore."

He looks around again. "Is this Parsa?"

"No, Jesus, I don't even have time to explain this..." I gently take his hand and look him in the eyes. "Kayvon, I'm not your Mary. Your Mary has been dead for over two thousand years."

Kayvon just stares at me, confused. "No, Merytamun. You are here; I see you."

"No, I... Just. Look!" I point to the open sarcophagus. "See? I read that incantation."

He looks at it, then back to me. "Yes, I put that there for when you returned. For after you vanquished the facet of Kamak."

"Okay, that. Was that the Druj?"

"Yes, of course."

"That! That's the problem! I didn't do that!"

"What do you mean?" Kayvon asks, horror building on his face.

I point back to the sarcophagus. "I accidentally opened the tomb and released the Druj creature."

His eyes go wide in disbelief. "You said no one ever disturbed priestly tombs!"

"I never said that! I just met you!"

There's a clattering of stone, and through the open door to the case, I see the remaining shards of the horned canopic jar crumbling to black sand on the display floor.

Kayvon sees it too. "No, not the Kamak."

"But you do know what it is, right?" I ask

"How long has it been since you freed it from the tomb?" he asks.

"I don't know, maybe two or three months?"

Kayvon looks around, and when he sees the way back out to the exhibit hall, he darts for it. I follow and find him staring up and out through the large glass panes framing the obelisk in the park behind the museum. Through the window, we can see the funnel has grown and taken shape to the point that it blots out much of the sky. From within its smoking mass, those horned avian features emerge, mixed with large shroud-like bat wings.

This time the shadow has real weight. This time the shadow touches down in front of the window, its immense shape and wings shaking the glass. From where it lands, black tendrils begin to splinter across the earth, causing rot and decay. Sidewalks erode in an instant, plants wilt, and an unlucky squirrel turns to a rotted, withered mass as it gets caught in the wake of the creature's malevolent wave.

I turn to Kayvon, and he clutches his head, clearly in some sort of pain. I quickly move to steady him. "Are you okay?"

"He's... In my. Head. It's. The other me." I try to keep Kayvon steady as he says, "Our souls are out of sync."

A loud, high-pitched scrape cuts through Kayvon's words. I carefully look up to see the creature's head pressed to the glass, horns cutting deep scratches that seem like they'll easily break through the storm-resistant panels at any moment.

"Kayvon, we need to move. Now!" I pull him with me as the creature presses into the glass, the panel bending impossibly far before it warps inward. It doesn't break, doesn't shatter; the horn marks are still there, but the glass itself isn't, at least not in the way it was before. In whatever way this thing is decaying, it has made the window a victim of its infinite rot.

Kayvon and I are off, him stumbling, arm slung over my shoulder as the massive lumbering shadow creeps along behind us. In my mind, I know there is no hiding. It's not a feeling, simply knowledge. I know it the same way I know Kayvon is wrestling with something inside him: there is a new awareness in him the same way there is in me, one that is guiding him, even as it seems at odds with him. It is why I know we can't fight or hide, not like this anyway. We need to run, so I do, pulling Kayvon with me.

We keep moving as the creature stops lumbering and melts into an inky black shadow that extends behind us, a singular void ever-expanding from a single point centered on its body. I keep moving, watching walls and pedestals become one with the dark behind me. As I move, I am very diligent to ensure I don't guide Kayvon and me into any dead ends, grateful for my encyclopedic knowledge of the museum and its layout.