Curse of the Tomb

[PM2K]

New story


The Curse of the Tomb - by PM2K (2014)

Isabel never feels the knife enter her.
Instead, the dark featured girl finds herself suddenly short of breath, her mouth filling with the taste of blood. She glances over her shoulder, her eyes locking onto the icy green ones owned by Kathleen, who stands close behind her. The red head holds her firmly in place, left arm pinning her from the front, her right arm still trembling from the force used to drive the blade home, deep into her back. The tip of the K-Bar extends two inches from her chest, neatly between her breasts, before it vanishes as the military knife is yanked out.
"K... Kath..." is all Isabel can say, lacking the breath to say more. Her dark eyes reflect the hurt of betrayal, of confusion, before her legs give out.
Kathleen supports her victim, and gently lays her down on the dusty stone floor of the tomb. Nearby, Jade flinches, sweat trickling down her golden face. All three women are dressed in the same khaki-colored clothing - short sleeved safari shirts, shorts with hems set mid-thigh, and ankle covering expedition boots.
"Did you really need to do that?" the Chinese American says, her voice tense. Her long hair is tied back from her face, and hangs behind her in a loose braid.
Kathleen stares down at Isabel, watching the light in her eyes slowly beginning to dim. A thin trickle of blood dribbles out of the left side of her mouth, accenting the way her lips keep trembling.
"I didn't want to..." she says, a trace of Irish brogue flavoring her words. "But she was having second thoughts about all this.... and we've already come too far..."
Jade sighs, nodding slowly. Their journey to Sekhet's tomb has already been one filled with deceit. Now murder has been added to the ledger...

According to legend, Sekhet was Egyptian royalty, in line to ascend the throne after the Pharaoh had died. She was forced to flee the kingdom after losing a vicious power struggle with her brother, and with a band of loyal followers laden with whatever wealth they could carry, made her way deep into the desert to disappear from history.... until a chance discovery pointed the way here.
Isabel, Kathleen and Jade were among the students of the archeology program conducted by Professor Kristen, who had made Sekhet his life's work. He had many doubters, but never gave up the faith of his convictions.
Then, just before summer break, the professor announced he had a lead on her tomb, and was in the process of assembling a team and the resources to mount an expedition.
Kathleen, his brightest graduate student and assistant, had access to the professor's notes, and it was while cataloging these did a plan begin to form. Still, things didn't really get rolling until Isabel got involved. Her amazing skill at deciphering ancient languages was well known.
Her roommate Jade knew Isabel from other classes she took, and heard her speak of her Egyptian mother, but didn't know much more. Only that she had no living relatives.
With Kathleen helping the professor assemble his team, and with Isabel's skill set and Jade's experience on several other expeditions, it was easy to get the trio on board. Travel permits and never ending paperwork were another matter, but like all obstacles could be overcome with time and persistence. Within a year, the team was on the ground, close to a small mountain range deep within the desert, near the Egyptian border.
It would take another fortnight before Kathleen and her team made their move...

The trio were able to slip away from the main dig site under the guise of surveying the rest of the area. In fact, they were several valleys over, spending the time searching for the tomb. Since Kathleen dealt with processing and filing the reports, it was simple to cover their tracks with false survey results. It was also simple to nudge the main expedition off track, since she alone had access to the professor's research due to an unfortunate incident which happened in the field...
Professor Kristen had been evacuated due to suffering what appeared to be a heart attack. He was alive, but the team medic determined he would be unable to withstand the strain of remaining on site, so he was sent back to the United States. Before he left, he put a senior member in charge of the dig, ably backed up by his assistant Kathleen.
It was a perfect set up. A deal sealed thanks to several white tablets placed in the prof's morning coffee.

Several months passed. The expedition found tantalizing traces of Sekhet in the form of small items of jewelry and pottery, but nothing to indicate the location of a tomb.
Over at the other site, Kathleen, Jade and Isabel worked on their own, guided by the professor's actual research. It took ages with few results, until Jade got lucky. Her shovel struck something solid beneath the sand. Several hours of digging later, and the threesome stood beside a stone slab, newly uncovered.
All held their breath. The stone was blank, but its rough edges bore signs of humanity's hand.
"It has to be..." Kathleen says quietly. The other two nod.
It took half an hour to pry it loose, and another 20 minutes to muster up the courage to step down the hand carved stairs which run into the narrow abyss which yawned beneath the stone.
The air was musty, having not been exposed to the surface in millennia. Flashlights burning, and walking in tandem, the three made their way carefully down the steep incline, the only sound they made is their heavy breathing and the jingle of their backpacks. After what felt like an eternity, they finally reach the bottom, a small space the size of a modest closet. More carved stone in the form of a doorway sits opposite them.
"Isabel..." Jade said, using her flashlight to stroke the engravings scratched into the rock. "What do you think?"
She peers carefully at the symbols, then nods.
"This is it... see?" Isabel said, pointing at one symbol, which was larger than the rest. "That's Sekhet's seal!"
Jade flashes a toothy smile, while Kathleen barely suppressed a giggle. So close... so close...
"So..." Kathleen said to Isabel, "any instructions on how to open that door?"
Isabel is silent, her fingers running along the rough imprint of the hieroglyphics. They bore signs of haste, as if the carvers were rushed. But that fits the story, doesn't it?
"Hello! Isabel!" Jade said.
"Hm... must be a curse or something..." Kathleen uttered. "Let me guess... it reads "Whoever disturbs my tomb shall suffer an eternity of nastiness!"
"Yeah.... like being condemned to an endless diet of expedition food!" Jade quipped.
The pair laughed, but Isabel continued to frown.
"Poor thing.." she mutters.
Kathleen and Jade look puzzled.
"What do you mean? What does that say?" Kathleen asked.
"This... this is Sekhet's story... the end of it, actually.." Isabel said quietly. "She was only... only 18 when she died..."
"What happened?" Jade's voice was a whisper.
"It says... I mean, this must have been carved by her followers... the few loyal ones she had left..."
"They were carrying the treasure, right?" Jade uttered, a little too eagerly. "Does it say where?" Kathleen fell silent.
"No..." Isabel replied. "It says... here lies Sekhet the Usurped... the lost flower of Egypt..."
Jade frowns, while Kathleen glanced around the sealed doorway.
"There's some stuff here, asking mercy of the gods and their protection... to ensure she remains at peace..." Isabel uttered. "Or... no... not at peace... just that she remain... here.... undisturbed...."
Kathleen snorts, interrupting her.
"It's obvious... the treasure must be inside somewhere."

She takes her pack off of her shoulders, then digs around inside it, extracting a small crowbar. Jade removes her camping spade from where it dangled from the back of her pack, and the two advance on the door.
Isabel finds herself objecting to the violation, as the pair shove the metal objects into the sides of the stone slab. They wouldn't listen to her anyway, but she feels she should try.
"Look... guys... uh... we shouldn't be doing this..." she said. "Based on what this says, I don't think we should disturb..."
Kathleen and Jade lean hard on their levers, sweat flowing freely off of their bare skin. They grunt at the effort.
"Please, stop!" Isabel said. "Listen to me! Just... just leave her alone...."
The slab shifted, and foul air hissed out. Encouraged, the two women redouble their efforts, legs and arms shaking from the strain.
"Please..." Isabel's voice trailed off, and a hot tear ran down her face. "Leave Sekhet alone..."
The slab gave way then, swinging open. Jade and Kathleen fell inside the chamber, sprawling across its rough stone floor. They failed to hear Isabel's sharp cry.
"Isabel! Bring the flashlights!" Kathleen commanded as she slowly stood up. Hearing the woman stifling a sob as she walked inside, lights in hand, Jade picked herself off of the floor, and shook her head.
"This isn't much of a tomb..." she said. Kathleen grabs her flashlight and scanned the chamber. Unlike the steps and rough stone doors, this place seemed naturally formed.
"Huh... this... this looks like a natural cave..." the red head said. "That fits... I mean, it sure looks like she was buried in haste..."
Their lights illuminated the small space, not much larger than a student apartment. Against the far wall, a low platform can be seen, made of broken rock carefully arranged. Atop that was a simple wooden container. Nothing else is visible within the tiny tomb.
Approaching it slowly, Kathleen and Jade scan what is apparently a plain sarcophagus. A crude face and other decorations had been painted upon it, but most of the pigment had worn off, scrubbed clean by time.
"Well... let's meet ourselves a lost princess of Egypt!" Jade says, and moves to pry the lid open. "maybe the treasure is inside..."
Isabel flinched at the sharp sounds of wood breaking. the material was remarkably preserved, but what alarmed her was the lack of burial urns nearby, the receptacles which safeguarded her innards for the trip to the netherworld.
"Hey! Kathleen! Jade! There's no treasure here! Just leave her alone, and let's go!"
"God, you're a pain!" Kathleen spat out, assisting Jade. "I came way to far to leave without something..." With a sharp crack, the lid broke loose...

Kathleen and Jade stare down at the contents of the sarcophagus. Jade beckons to Isabel, who slowly walks over.
Inside, a well wrapped mummy lies, its female curves evident. A gold colored amulet hangs around its neck, a stylized bird with wings outstretched, held in place with a gold chain of many links.
The linen is gray and dirty from age, the parts over the face sunken to show the outlines of empty eye sockets. A small gap in the wrappings shows skeletal teeth. One arm has somehow worked its way free of the bindings, and the body is contorted.
"What the hell?" Kathleen said. "What do you make of this?"
Jade shakes her head, while Isabel just stares.
"It... it looks like Sekhet wasn't dead when they wrapped her up..." Jade said. "Christ! They buried her alive!"
The others gasped in unison.
Kathleen shuddered. "Those bastards..." she said. "She made it out of Egypt all right, but her followers stuck with her long enough to get here, then they did this! Murdered her like this... then I bet they made off with the treasure...."
"Crap!" Jade snarled. "All this for nothing! But... why would they bother to bury her like this? Why not slit her throat, and leave her for the vultures, or just bury her in a sand dune? This seems like a lot of work..."
Kathleen ponders this for a moment, Unnoticed by both, Isabel leans into the coffin, and runs her right hand gently over the mummy's shrouded face.
"You poor thing... how you must have suffered..." she whispered quietly.
"Her murderers were being vindictive..." Kathleen stated. "Burying her this way kills her twice by denying her entrance into the afterlife... plus binds Sekhet here, keeping her from haunting them in this life... That is, if you believe in that stuff..."
Jade is quiet for a moment.
"Well... maybe that necklace of hers is worth something," she said. "We can't say where we got it, but I bet the gold in it alone is worth..."
"Wait a minute..." Kathleen says, and walks back to peer once more inside the sarcophagus. She looked at the amulet, picking it up to gauge its heft, and examined it more closely.
"Holy..." she said, her eyes widening.
Jade glanced over, her expression questioning.
"You... you know what this is? What this really is?" Kathleen said, her voice excited. Her companions shake their heads.
"This is the power of ancient Egypt!"
Jade and Isabel exchanged glances. Kathleen's grin widened.
"It's like the Queen of England's crown... I bet this is one of the earliest symbols of power from the ancient world... and I don't think anyone else has found one from this era..."
Jade nods in understanding. It makes sense... Such objects symbolized not just the power of the Pharaohs, but of the gods which watched over them and Egypt. Of course Sekhet's murderers left this behind... They wouldn't dare touch it, or would face their wrath.
"This amulet IS the treasure!" Kathleen said. "And will set us all up for life!"
"I know people... people who know the value of this and will pay big to own it... maybe even hire us to work as consultants..."
Jade began to grin.
"We'll have to keep it to ourselves... hide all this... bury it again..." she said. "No one will wonder about it if they never find the tomb..."

Kathleen and Jade are startled by a sharp cry.
"No!" Isabel sobbed, and began to weep softly. "No... that would be too cruel... too cruel..."
"What the hell are you blubbering about?" Kathleen said sharply. "That girl's been dead for at least 2,500 years..."
"I don't know..." Isabel said, trying to choke back sobs. "I... I just can relate to her somehow..."
Kathleen approached her, trying to appeal to her reason.
"Look... Isabel... I went through a lot of trouble for this... I mean, we made the discovery of the century, and can't speak of it... ever... or we'd all be in trouble... and heading for jail, At best, we'd be expelled and never allowed to practice archeology again..."
"Besides..." Jade said, "you came after the treasure too, right?"
Isabel nodded, her eyes still drawn to the coffin. She doesn't notice Kathleen as she slowly moved towards her, quiet like a panther...
"But... not like this..." she said. "I thought... I didn't know it would be like this.... She's been left here, alone... to die... and the first people to find her again want to rob her of what little she has left... then hide her again... leave her forgotten..."
Kathleen and Jade exchange looks. The red head's hand dropped to the handle of her K-Bar combat knife, which hung from her belt.
"No... this isn't right..." Isabel said. "We can tell the rest of the expedition... and the professor... that we found Sekhet... just say we got lucky... Then, maybe she won't be forgotten anymore... maybe she can rest..."
The knife impaling her ended her words.

Now, watching Isabel's life ebb out of her, Jade turns to Kathleen, her face questioning. Her partner grunts.
"We leave her here," she said. "Seal her in with her girlfriend. No one will find either of them, if we cover our tracks..."
Kathleen then gestures towards the sarcophagus.
"Oh.... don't forget to grab that necklace..."
Jade steps over Isabel's trembling body. Her legs and arms keep moving, but slowly. Her eyes continue to blink, but she can no longer make any sounds save a faint gurgling, deep within her chest.
The Asian featured woman reaches into the sarcophagus, and carefully removes the necklace, looping the chain from around the long dead neck and head. She smiles as she feels the heft of it. Must be nearly a pound of metal in this...
She pats the mummy on the head.
"Thanks for this..." she says cheerfully, and again steps over Isabel, who feebly tries to reach up, but only manages to brush Jade's golden skinned leg.
Kathleen and Jade turn to leave, taking their equipment with them. Standing by the door, which is still ajar from their earlier entrance, the pair pull it closed from the outside. Darkness falls across the chamber, blotting out the sarcophagus, and sliding across Isabel, whose eyes show fear and betrayal in equal measure.
"Goodbye, Isabel..." Kathleen says, as the stone slab slides home. "Sorry about leaving you alone in the dark... but maybe you and Sekhet can use the time to get better acquainted..."
Isabel manages to blink twice before the darkness envelopes her completely...

It took another hour to close up the surface entrance, then two more to rebury it. Satisfied all traces were erased, Kathleen and Jade clamber into the older model Land Rover they had been using to drive out to the site. Both slump in their seats, exhausted by the events of the day, which is fading with the setting sun. Jade fires up the engine, and shifts it into gear.
"How do we explain Isabel's absence?" she asks.
Kathleen, her eyes closed, sighs.
"I'll think of something..." she says. "Maybe she wandered off to take a piss and got lost.... just dropped out of sight..."
Jade chuckles, then hits the accelerator.

Isabel is cold, so very cold. She cannot see, cannot move. She can feel the hardness of the stone under her body, but cannot do anything about it.
I'm dying, she thinks, vaguely aware of the wetness of her blood pooled around her, sticking her clothing to her skin. Dying alone in the dark... like Sekhet did, all those years before. Too deep for the angels to find me...
A scraping sound interrupts her thoughts. Isabel, her breathing coming only in shuddering wet gasps, finds herself trying to hold it. Her ears strain to pierce the smothering blackness, but detect nothing more.
Must have imagined it... she thinks.
Isabel's heart leaps. The scraping returns, a little louder now. It is followed by a series of taps and scratching sounds. Faintly, she can also hear a faint rustling.
What... what is that?
Terror begins to rise within her. Could it be rats? Oh God, no... The idea of being eaten alive, in the dark, is too unbearable. Isabel begins to pray for her death to hasten...
A sharp bang jolts her. She feels her eyes widen, and vainly tries to catch a glimpse of... something... but the dark is impenetrable. That was no rat. The thought doesn't provide any comfort.
It sounds like... sounds like...
Something moves, making scuttling noises across the stone floor. Isabel bites her lower lip. The sound reminds her of brittle wooden sticks being dragged slowly along, getting closer to her with each soul-chilling scrape.
Oh God... please... please take me home... she prays. Take me home before it reaches me...

"What the hell?"
Kathleen glares at Jade as she attempts to restart the Land Rover. The pair had drive about a klick and a half away from the valley when their vehicle suddenly stalled in the middle of nowhere.
"I don't know... dammit!" Jade replies, cranking the ignition. Nothing. The Rover didn't even attempt to turn over. "It's dead... it is just dead!"
"Well, do something!" Kathleen snaps. The sun is touching the horizon and they are too far from camp to easily walk back.
"Like what? I'm not a fucking mechanic!" Jade snarls back.
"Damn... damn, damn, damn..." the red head mutters. They are still on the valley floor, surrounded by mountains. Cell phones are useless in the region, and radios were at best iffy.
Jade sighs. With the light fading fast, they really had two choices. Stay put or walk out. Either way, they'll have to brave the desert night.
Kathleen nods to herself, and opens the Rover's door. Her companion glances over to her as she strolls around to the back, and opens the tailgate, removing her pack. Jade opens her door and follows suit. In a moment, both are ready to go.
"Where to?" Jade asks, as Kathleen takes out a compass to get a bearing. "Are we hiking, or..."
"We're camping..." she replies. "Too dangerous to wander this place at night... There's an oasis to the northeast, maybe an hour walk from here. We can wait things out there... plus the radios should work once we're clear of these hills..."
Jade nods, and without another word spoken, the two start walking.

It lies close to her now, crawling nearer with each passing moment. Isabel can hear the click of what sounds like claws as they scratch along the stone floor... Her nose begins to fill with musty smells...
Something falls across her chest, forcing a quiet whimper to escape from her bloody lips. Something like a dried talon grips her shoulder, and she feels it use the anchor point to drag itself on top of her.
I want to scream... Isabel thinks. I want to scream and scream and scream but I cannot...
The mass is fully upon her now, and in her mind's eye she can picture what it is... but couldn't accept it, even as it grasps the sides of her face with what she now knows are skeletal hands...
She can sense its face close to her own, and she is enveloped in the horror of realizing she will live long enough to experience whatever it had in mind...
Then... deep within, Isabel senses something else, reaching out to touch her... something beyond the physical, something warm and comforting. To her astonishment, she feels her fear evaporate, and before her eyes flash strange sights of green landscapes, lush gardens, and magnificent buildings...
And just as the last of her life force fades away, and long dead lips press onto her mouth for a kiss, she gets a mind's eye vision of a face reflected in a mirror, one of exotic beauty...

Night has fallen. The desert chill keeps them moving, their way now lit by the full moon. So far they've encountered few troubles, but Kathleen feels uneasy. They should have reached the oasis by now...
The pair had been following a track which branched off of the main route towards their intended destination, but it now seems to have faded completely from view.
Kathleen frowns. She checks the compass again, illuminating it with a small penlight, then gives it a shake. The damn thing seems broken... instead of giving a steady reading, the needle drifts aimlessly. Yet it was working fine earlier at the dig site...
"Maybe we should head back to the Rover..." Jade says. The gold necklace and amulet remain on her person, carefully wrapped in a neckerchief, close to her skin. For some reason, she just couldn't leave it in her backpack.
"Hang on... hang on..." Kathleen mutters, now tapping the compass. Even the GPS is worthless out here... the whole area is a dead zone.
Jade shakes her head, and turns around, intent on backtracking. Instead, she stops after taking a few steps, and stares in disbelief.
"Hey... where's the path? Where the hell's the path?"
Jade exclaims. She sweeps the ground with her flashlight, but sees only the sand swept rocky surface they have been trudging over for hours.
Kathleen turns around, grabbing her larger flashlight to try and find the pathway, but is also unsuccessful. It seems to have been erased from the landscape completely.
"Shit..." she mutters, then turns to Jade. "Don't worry about it, Jade... All we have to do is keep an eye on the moon, and we'll be..."
"I have been!" Jade snaps. "I've kept an eye on it all this time, and yet... yet... I swear, we've been going in circles!"
Kathleen snorts.
"How is that possible? You saying the moon has been moving or something?"
"I... I don't know..." Jade replies. "But... this place seems wrong, somehow..."
Kathleen falls silent. She looks again at the loosely spinning compass needle and finds it hard to disagree with her companion's assessment.
"Damn..." she mutters to herself. This is not how it was supposed to go. The oasis should be to the north, and yet somehow they seem to be heading in the other direction... back to the valley of Sekhet's tomb.
She catches movement out of the corner of her right eye. Glancing over her shoulder, she sees Jade making her way over a small ridge of blown sand.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Kathleen says.
"If you must know, to take a piss..." Jade retorts acidly. "It's either that, or wet my shorts..."
Kathleen scowls, then sighs.
"Fine... but don't go too far..." she says, resuming her efforts to try and figure out where they are.

Idiot...
Jade makes her way carefully over the ridge, then down the rocky slope. As soon as she is safely out of sight, she intends to run.
Ever since she felt the heft of the small treasure, Jade found herself wondering why did she have to share it with anyone else. Sure, she didn't have the contacts Kathleen claimed to have, but she wasn't without some people she could call. Hell, maybe she could claim the fame of finding it first... after all, that was partially true.
Since the pair left the tomb, the amulet kept burning in her mind... The gold wings of the bird... a noble bird... speak to her, whispering in a low tone of ancient words... Jade doesn't understand them, but their tone caresses her, assures her...
Me.... it choses me to be the next Queen of Egypt...
Running along the desert floor, she feels her face redden. That is silly... I'm not even Egyptian, for God's sake... just a third generation California girl...
Yet... Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian by birth, either, and no one would deny she was Queen of Egypt...

Glancing over to the moon, Jade keeps going. She has been getting the bad feeling Kathleen has been jerking her around all this time, and talk of an oasis was a ruse... a way of getting the amulet away from her. Possibly even killing her...
She certainly didn't hesitate to kill Isabel, Jade thinks, and shudders at the recent memory.
Urged on by the amulet, which bounces against her chest... (Chest? Why am I wearing it around my neck? When did I?..) ... Jade reaches the bottom of the slope, and takes a moment to scan the terrain ahead.
It looks to be easy going. A span of level, rough grained sand weaving its way between the ridges and dunes. This should take me back to camp... she thinks. If I really boot it, I can get there before the sun bakes me...
Jade shifts her pack, which hangs off her left shoulder, while her right hand drifts to the amulet, lying across her breasts.... (I don't remember... when did I put this on? When? Why?)... and heads out at a brisk pace...

Jade gets about twenty yards out before her boots break through the surface, and she feels her feet slide downwards past the ankles in gritty slime. Frowning, she uses the strength of her long legs to pull her right foot free, and is surprised to find it thickly coated with wet sand.
What the hell?
Jade can feel her left foot being pushed downwards to the lower shin as a result of her shifting her weight. Leaning now on her right leg, which is folded on the surface in a kneeling position, she grits her teeth and uses her hands to grab hold of her trapped leg. Pulling and rocking in place, she can sense the whole sandy mass slowly jiggling in time with her movements.
Cursing to herself, Jade leans sideways and pulls hard, her muscles trembling with the effort. Finally, her lower left leg emerges from the muck.
Now kneeling on the wobbling surface, Jade looks around at the sand. Where it had been dry, now shivering puddles of moisture appear all around her, glittering in the moonlight.
Water? Here? she thinks, confused. Leaning carefully forward, Jade dips her right index finger into the fluid and touches her tongue. She quickly spits the brackish taste out of her mouth.
Brine... it's brine... and a cold chill runs through her.
Salt... it's a salt marsh... oh, Christ, no....
Even as the thought races through her, Jade can feel the sand melt under her bare legs, and begin to creep over them. Her very presence on top of this sand bog is enough to turn it into quicksand, and every movement she makes just loosens the deadly trap further...
Don't panic... just don't panic...
Jade feels cold sweat run down her face and soak her shirt. What to do? What to do? Even as she waits, her hands, which she had been bracing herself with, slip under the sand, which is rapidly turning into a thick slurry around her.
Gotta... gotta get out of here...

Jade slowly turns herself around, trying to avoid watching how the salt marsh wobbles and ripples in response. Crawl... I gotta crawl to solid ground... she thinks. Sliding carefully atop the surface, still kneeling, she makes her way back along her path, reasoning if it held her up this far, it should serve as a bridge back.
But Jade underestimates the impact of her motions on the sand, and as she lunges herself forward towards what she thinks is more solid ground... her legs and knees suddenly vanish into the shuddering surface, which slaps thickly against her groin. She falls forward, her torso and breasts pressing deep into the sodden sand with a wet slap.
Out of reflex, Jade arches her back and thrusts her pelvis forward, trying to extract herself. She manages, but at the cost of forcing her legs deeper. Somehow, she is able to straighten them out, forcing them through the gritty ooze, but this doesn't help her... in fact, it only serves the sand, allowing it to draw her in...
Jade, her shirt plastered wetly to her form, settles waist deep in the sand bog. She can feel it pressing hard against the trapped curves of her ass and her groin as the cold sloppy sand oozes into her shorts, filling them... Squirming, she is aware of how deep she has gotten, how trapped... and now she can sense the sand creeping upwards...
No. Not the sand. She is creeping downwards. Each breath she takes seems to encourage the liquid earth to suck her down another inch.
Jade chokes back a surge of panic. I can't feel any bottom! None at all! She wiggles in place, hoping to break the sand's grip, but only succeeds in making the mass quaver in all directions.
When she feels her belly submerge, Jade starts to yell, all thought of running away now forgotten.

"Help! Kathleen! Help meeeeee...."
The red head, her pack in place over her right shoulder, picks up her pace in the direction of Jade's voice. She had already started following her footprints, wondering why she had been taking so long.
Trying to make off with the amulet? She wouldn't dare...
"Help!"
"I'm coming!" Kathleen shouts, noting the raw panic in Jade's shrill cries. Gliding down the slope Jade had followed earlier, she quickly sees why.
Jade is chest deep in a wide mass of wet sand, which sluggishly wobbles like a grimy jelly around her. She looks at Kathleen as she approaches, and holds her right hand up.
"Stop! Don't come any closer!" she says. "It's quicksand!"
Kathleen stops in her tracks, then slowly moves her right foot out to test the sand in front of her. It bends and quavers under her boot.
"How the hell did you get out that far?" she shouts to Jade, who is several yards away.
"I don't know..." Jade says, cringing. "It's an old salt marsh, or something... it just... melted under me..."
Crap!
Kathleen watched how Jade's motions are reflected in the deadly sand trap, liquifying the landscape around her. The salt in it provided some firmness, but her tromping and thrashing about destabilized the while thing...
"Don't move! You're making it worse!" she says. "I'm coming to get you... but I need to do something first..."
Jade, still feeling herself sinking deeper with each moment, nods. She watches Kathleen extract a long coil of utility rope from her pack, and grab her camp shovel. She swiftly ties one end of the rope with a slip knot, then heads back up the slope, uncoiling the other end of the rope as she goes.
Then, half way up, Kathleen shouts down to Jade, who is trying not to squirm as the quicksand cups her breasts through her shirt.
"You... you do have the amulet, right?"
"Yeah! I have it!" Jade shouts back, her predicament distracting her from the meaning of the question.
"Good..." Kathleen replies. "Hang in there... I'll be right back!"

She lopes up the slope as swiftly as she can. Cripes, Jade is going down fast... Looking around, she spots a pair of boulders near the top of the slope, just where she remembered them, and wedges the shovel between them. She then tests this anchor by pulling hard, using her body weight and all of her strength. It holds firm.
Kathleen swiftly runs back down the slope, trailing her lifeline behind her, then reaches the firm shoreline at the edge of the quicksand bog. The moonlight shows Jade remains breast deep, but has sunk close to her cleavage.
"Thank God..." Jade says. "This stuff is sucking me down..."
"Hang on... I'm coming..." Kathleen says, then begins to take off her boots.
Jade frowns as the red head removes her footwear and socks, then takes off her shirt. She is startled when her partner then strips off her undershirt, allowing her large breasts to bob free in the cold air.
"What... what the hell are you doing?" Jade exclaims, confused as Kathleen steps out of her shorts, leaving only her white panties in place. After a moment's hesitation, she hooks her thumbs under the waistband and shimmies out of those as well.
"Coming to get you..." she says. "Clothing drags you down, fills with sand and gets heavy... and it is easier to clean off skin..."
Gripping the rope in her right hand, after looping it around her palm and wrist to secure it, Kathleen walks naked into the wet sand, shivering at its cold temperature. Still, it is warmer than the air.
Sinking to her ankles, she quickly kneels, stretches out to lie belly down on the surface, then slowly begins crawling toward, the rope trailing out behind her.
The sand is slimy against Kathleen's skin, as she makes her way towards a trapped Jade. She feels her body weight pressing into a thick wobbling surface, and she cannot help but think of a fly making its way across a deep bowl of jello.
It is slow going. The quicksand licks and caresses her all over as she makes her way across, leaving a thick coating of sand in its wake. Despite the peril, Kathleen is all too aware of how hard her nipples and clitoris have become in reaction to the sand's stimulation, but she tries to put that out of her mind.
By the time she has reaches the looser parts of the sand bog, she is half swimming, her arms hooking into the semisolid muck to haul her forward. Her legs drag behind her, her toes leaving behind a shallow trench in their wake.
Damn... even spread across the surface like this, Kathleen can feel her body slipping deeper into the quicksand. She's already half submerged, the sand covering the small of her back, leaving the curves of her ass rising like an island behind her.
Good thing I'm close...

"Hurry! I'm going down!"
Jade grits her teeth, willing herself to remain still as she watches Kathleen close the gap between them. Still, she can feel herself being drawn downwards with each passing moment.
"I'm... moving as fast.... as I can..." Kathleen says between gasps. Most of her form is now covered in wet sand, including portions of her face and her red hair. It is clear she is struggling to stay afloat, even in the prone position.
"I... I think the sand is firmer over here..." Jade says, moving her right arm slowly to point. "It isn't moving as much as the rest..."
Kathleen glances over to where Jade is pointing, even as her chin dips into the sand slurry. Sweat drips from her forehead and the tip of her nose. This effort is really straining every part of her body... but she reaches towards the slower moving sand.
Carefully, she places her right hand on it and pushes gently. It bends under the pressure, but holds. Creeping slowly, Kathleen crawls on top of this tiny island, careful not to disturb it any more than necessary. She is now within a couple of feet of Jade, who's expression brightens. She is close to shoulder deep now, with only the top of her chest still clear of the sand.
Kathleen feels the sand beneath her wobble, reminding her of lying on top of a waterbed mattress. She stretches out her left arm, finding her finger tips falling just short of Jade's hand.
Needing more reach, she plays out the rope, only to find she is literally at the end of it. Several sharp tugs confirm it.
Slowly, she rises from her prone position to one where she rests her weight on her knees and legs. The sand bends and jiggles, but holds firm. Using this increased mobility, Kathleen shuffles from side to side, trying to find some slack in the rope, but to no avail.
Jade watches her actions with growing alarm. She has sunk to her armpits, her arms spread over the quicksand's surface in an effort to try and stay above it, but now even these were beginning to push through the rubbery crust.
"Kathleen?" she asks, watching clumps of sand slide off of her companion's body to make soft plopping sounds on impact.
"The amulet... quickly!" Kathleen says. Her perch is already softening beneath her, and she feels her legs begin to slip under the shivering sand.
"What? Kathleen?" Jade asks, confused.
Kathleen is now up to her crotch, and reaches out.
"Toss me the amulet! We can't risk losing it..."
"But..." Jade touches the chain around her neck, and uses it to haul the golden bird to the surface. Strangely, the quicksand sloughs off easily, leaving the metal unstained.
"Hurry!" Kathleen says, then sees the reluctance in Jade's eyes. "Look, I can't reach you... toss me the amulet, but hang on to the chain... I can use that to bring you closer to me..."
"Will... will it hold?" Jade asks. The chain is fairly thick, true, but gold is a soft metal...
"You have no choice! The rope is all played out..." Kathleen replies.
Jade slowly nods, and takes the chain off of her neck. Only the tops of her shoulders poke above the quicksand, so it is a strain to lift the amulet up and toss it. Kathleen catches it easily, then grins broadly.
"Thanks, Jade..." she says cheerfully, then with a sudden tug, yanks the chain free from Jade's hand before she gets a chance to secure her grip.

With a cry, Jade slips back into the loose slurry. Her eyes widen, her face slowly showing a sense of shock as she settles deeper.
"What... what did you do that for?" she says, Her arms keep pressing into the thick surface of the quicksand bog, which bends and wobbles under the force, yet she cannot seem to keep herself up. Beneath, all she can feel is the sand's hungry suction pulling her down.
Kathleen smiles coldly, maybe a foot beyond Jade's reach. Her left hand grips the amulet and chain, her right the rope, firmly attached to its camping spade anchor.
"Hey... you can keep the damn amulet..." Jade says. Even through her shirt, she can feel the cool dampness of the sand pressing hard against her skin, her nipples painfully stiff against the wet fabric. "I don't care... just get me out of here!"
"Now why would I do that?" Kathleen replies.
A look of shocked despair crosses Jade's visage, even as the sloppy muck gurgles and flows around her, pressing hard on her chest, making it difficult to draw in air. She flinches as the slimy sand begins to ooze over the tops of her shoulders. With soggy slapping sounds, her arms dig at the deadly bubbling sand in a grim parody of swimming, but the actions do nothing to slow her downward progress.
"Please... Kathleen... get me out of here..." she gasps, reaching towards the red haired woman. The gritty mire quavers and slurps in response to her desperate efforts, even as it spills around her neck, lifting up her braid which snakes across its turgid surface.
"You mean you haven't figured it out, yet?" Kathleen says. "This treasure is all mine now..."
"No..." Jade moans, gurgling sand pressing under her jaw and lapping at her earlobes. She can feel the quicksand's eager tug, determined to draw the rest of her under.
Kathleen finds herself laughing at Jade's last moments. This is so perfect! If asked, she can say in all honesty she never killed Jade at all... she just disappeared...
"Bye bye, Jade..." she says, grinning. "And thanks for holding on to the amulet for me..."
Jade cries out once more, her voice reduced to bubbling gurgles as the sand slurry slops over her chin and lower lips. She tries to cough out a mouthful of sand, but has sunk so deep all she succeeds in doing is swallowing far more...
Her eyes are wide with terror as the quicksand laps at her flaring nostrils, and presses inside her ears. Her cries are muffled by the heavy sand mire. Her hands thrash and dig at the heaving surface, leaving behind shallow trenches, which fill with brackish water...
The quicksand in front of her disappearing face explodes into a dirty froth as her nose is filled, forcing the last of her air out of her sunken mouth. The sand bucks and heaves as her trapped body thrashes, suffocating and drowning in equal measure.
These last motions drive the rest of Jade under, her forehead and eyes covered with gritty slurry which oozes to fill the shallow dent her submergence leaves behind. The sand froths and bubbles, as her long braid slithers atop the surface briefly before slipping under to join the rest of Jade under the quaking mass...

Poor fool... Kathleen smirks, as she watches the sand slowly churn and bubble. Jade's trembling right hand is all that is visible of her now, slender fingers flexing and clawing at the cold desert air. Gradually, the hand slips out of sight... first the palm, then the fingers, joint by joint, and lastly the tips with their well formed nails.
The sand churns again as the sunken hand thrashes for a moment. A few more bubbles break through the gloppy surface, then it calms.
But it doesn't stop moving. Kathleen can feel it still lapping against her, wobbling sluggishly with her every movement.
Still, she takes a moment to examine the amulet in the moonlight, bewitched by its stylized look. A falcon, maybe, with wings spread. Feathers hand carved into the gold. A jewel forms its eye, its head shown in profile. Noble bearing, large curved beak.
The cool quicksand shifts around her, and Kathleen snaps out of her reverie. Get it together, girl.... she thinks. I can't linger here much longer. Even with her anchor, she feels her hips slowly being swallowed by the muck.

Who knows how much time passes as Kathleen struggles to make headway through the grasping quicksand, her waist now surrounded by a thick ring of grainy jelly.
Draping the amulet around her neck, she pulls hard on the rope with both hands, only managing to move forward an inch or two at a time. She finds her bare legs have been rendered useless, being deeply mired in the slowly shifting mass.
Now denied the chance to crawl on the surface, she instead pulls herself forward through the quicksand, going hand over hand, her eyes fixed on the pile of clothing mere yards away, marking solid ground.
Dammit... this stuff is... impossible... she thinks, sweat beading on her face. The sand plastered on her body, slathered on her breasts and torso, forms a dense second skin, weighing her down...
Her groin and belly slip under, then her ribs, even as she continues to haul herself forward. The sand seems to be getting thicker around her, becoming more and more like wet cement.
Then, with only a couple more feet to go...
Damn! I'm stuck!
Kathleen wiggles her hips, thrusting forward and back, attempting to loosen the quicksand's grip on her lower body. But her efforts are useless. Now she finds she cannot move forward at all, no matter how hard she pulls on the rope.
Cold sweat beads on Kathleen's skin as she chokes down the panic beginning to rise within her. Already, she can feel herself sinking in place, as the rest of her ribs slip under, the bottoms of her breasts hovering just above the shuddering quicksand.
Oh, God... don't tell me I'm going to drown in this shit too!
Kathleen pulls hard on the rope again. The amulet weighs heavy on her chest, as if trying to push her under. She ignores it, snarling and grunting with effort, determined to drag herself out of this death trap...
Then, the rope suddenly goes limp. In the distance, she hears a metallic clang and knows her anchor has come undone.
"No!" she exclaims, shuddering as the cold sand rises to slap the underside of her breasts. Deep beneath the swirling mire, her bare feet are pointed downwards, and detect nothing solid at all... no hint of a bottom.
Kathleen starts digging at the dense sand slurry, her arms flailing at the wet surface. Much like Jade, she finds herself trying desperately to swim her way out, only to drive herself deeper into the grainy slime.
The quicksand fills her cleavage even as her nipples disappear beneath the quaking surface. She is all too aware of the sand creeping inside her, easing its way into both of her openings as she struggles to stay afloat, clawing frantically.

I'm going to die... I'm going to die naked and buried in bottomless quicksand, and no one will ever know...

The sand swallows the rest of her breasts, leaving only their pale tops to shine in the moonlight. Kathleen is breathing hard as the weight of it presses against her, trying to think of options, and coming up with none.
Then, up on top of the slope, she spots a shadow against the full moon. It appears to be a person standing still, and maybe looking downwards.
"Hey! Hello! Over here!" she shouts, waving her right arm. To her relief, the figure moves, and starts to make its way down the slope.
"Hurry! I'm stuck in quicksand!" Kathleen says, hope rising within her. Maybe... maybe I'll get out of this yet... The stranger seems smaller than her, but so much the better... If she gets me out of here, it'll be easy to shove her in...
"Please! I'm sinking..." she says, then her voice dies in her throat.
Standing now at the bottom of the slope, kneeling next to Kathleen's clothing, is a familiar figure. Even in the cold light of the moon, her face is unmistakable.
"Isabel.... oh, dear God....."
The dark haired woman looks over to her, eyes glittering. She is topless, her moderate, well shaped breasts stiff in the cold desert air. A dark stain coats her skin within her cleavage, but it no longer shines with moisture.
"Isabel? Yes... I go by that now, don't I?" she says quietly. "Hm... so many memories... it is still a little confusing, you know..."
"Isabel?" Kathleen's eyes widen, even as quicksand now laps at her collarbone. But... but how could you still be...
"Alive? Oh, it has been so long..." Isabel sighs. "I haven't felt the air on my bare skin in... well, it feels like centuries, but it could also have been yesterday... I'm not really certain any more."
Kathleen keeps staring at Isabel's chest. Dried blood is still evident, and she is able to detect a hint of a wound where the blade had emerged, but it seems to have closed up somehow...
Isabel notices her staring at her, and smiles.
"So shocked by my appearance? In the hot seasons, I'd walk naked in the summer palace... the marble was always cool on my feet... the breeze from the Nile so refreshing... But that was a long time ago..."
"Isabel? What...? How...?" Kathleen sputters. Her shoulders slide under, and cold sand encircles her neck.
"It will take time for me to remember it all..." she continues. "I do remember being betrayed by those damned priests... and by you..."

Kathleen feels impaled by a spear of ice. Her eyes lock onto Isabel's as the latter leans closer to her, while staying out of reach.
"Please... Isabel... help me... please..." she pleads, settling chin deep in quicksand. She reaches out with her hands, her arms sunk so only the tops are still visible in the sucking surface.
"I remember saying that to the priests as they wrapped me up, smothering my cries with fine linen..." Isabel says coldly. "I also remember the knife tearing through me, of being left to die in the dark... by you. It seems by doing so, you helped awaken me..."
Cold sand laps at her ears, her lower lip. Kathleen feels it pressing firmly against the back to her head, oozing over her arms, jiggling and shifting all around her. She can feel its suction, the way it sucks on her legs, her ass and groin, kneading her trapped breasts...
"For... for the love of God... you... you can't just..."
"Can't I?" Isabel retorts. "I watched you let your friend and partner drown in this muck... heard you laugh at her as she died in terror... If anyone deserves this fate, it is you..."
She leans closer, whispering to emphasis the point.
"You have been judged... by forces more ancient than you could ever imagine..."

Kathleen gasps and sputters, quicksand spilling over her lips and into her mouth. Her right hand retreats, only to rise above the sand to show the amulet. The left is gone, following its arm beneath the wobbling sand.
"Here..." Kathleen says. "Take it back... it is yours... just spare me... of this..."
Isabel looks at the amulet for a moment, then looks back at Kathleen.
"It is no longer mine to own, or take back..." she says quietly. "I'm no longer entitled to it... I have not been Queen of Egypt for millennia..."
Kathleen stares in surprise at first, and then in horror as the full realization of what has happened occurs to her. She tries to plead again, but finds her mouth full of quicksand, which rapidly flows over her nose and ears.

Isabel watches the quicksand bubble and foam as Kathleen vanishes beneath its surface, her screams smothered by thick sand. Her eyes bulge for a moment before the gritty stuff forces them closed and fills in the dent she leaves behind. Strands of red hair swirl for a moment among the liquid grains before gliding under.
Her right hand still holds the amulet above the quivering sand, clenching it tightly. Then it too slides under, taking the treasure with it.
"Goodbye, Kathleen..." Isabel says.

She sits quietly as the bubbling surface of the quicksand slowly stop churning. Once it has flattened out, she turns towards the pile of clothing, taking hold of Kathleen's shirts.
A little big... but they'll do... she thinks as she puts them on, tying off the shirt tail so it didn't hang too low over her shorts. In moments, she feels warmer.
Isabel thinks a moment, then stuffs the rest of the clothing into Kathleen's pack, careful to remove the small radio, water bottles and the canteen. She then heaves the gear far out into the quicksand, watching with satisfaction as it sinks out of sight with a wet splat.
Better they both disappear, she thinks. Less questions that way.

Isabel makes her way up the slope, turning on the radio as she does so, She isn't surprised to see it is working just fine. Smiling, she makes her way down the path, which is clear to the eye, even at night.
I'll wait until dawn, then call... she thinks. That should give me time to sort out my thoughts, my memories... and my story before I let them know the whereabouts of mine... no... Sekhet's tomb.
Why, Kathleen and Jade grabbed something from the tomb and locked me in there... took me all night to get out... Where did they go? I've no idea... I found the Landrover, but no sign of them...
I guess the desert swallowed them up...

[Stephymink]

Another lovely tale of betrayal and punishment. <3

Poor Isabel, I wonder if things would have turned out differently if her friends took her advice...

[sinkwithme]

Very well written! Exciting, terrifying and incredibly arousing all at once! Thanks for your efforts!

[nachtjaeger]

Excellent tale! You've leveled up again in writing.

[Chimerix]

I really enjoyed this!

[voidexistensia]

Always a pleasure reading your stories.