Desert Umbra

Bad Omens

The nightmares were constant and almost always the same. They were just like my visions but I was the woman this time. I felt her happiness, passion, anger, and anguish. But I knew which emotion drove my counterpart, anger. She reveled in it, it made her powerful. I was stuck running through her motions, seeing the world through her eyes as she walked naked down a hallway, in what looked to be a preparation room. There were birds tied up by their feet, motionless. Bodies on stone slabs wrapped in cloth, as if they were offerings.

She knelt upon pillows and unfurled a scroll. I recognized Set's jackal head immediately, the god had always stood out to me. I abruptly remembered the book I had been drawn to when Evy toppled the bookcases in the museum, Set Volume 1. I was pulled back into the dream when I felt pain in my hand and wrist. The woman cut her hand the blade tracing up to her wrist the pain evident on her face, but she was determined that this would set her free. Her blood dropped into a bowl filled with a liquid I could not identify. She spoke an incantation lighting a fire with the satisfying click of two stones being swiped together. The kindling easily caught at the first spark and lit the twigs beneath it, smoke emanating from the fire in the bowl. She looked around the room, waiting with fear in her eyes.

Suddenly, a light breeze came through the room, and the birds that were hanging motionless came to life, squawking and flapping around trying to get free of their bonds. I heard a guttural growl coming from behind me but whenever I looked to see what it was it was just a cloud of black. I watched as the girl was presented with the dagger by the shadow. When she reached out to grab it, I felt the pain all over again through my arms, back, and face. The same markings appeared on her skin. Her eyes were the most hauntingly gorgeous thing I'd seen, golden doubled irises replaced her previously brown eyes. This experience changed her, for the worse, however, I knew that this was not her opinion. She was the most powerful she would ever be and she knew that feeling would benefit her in her plans. In one look her entire personality changed, and I could feel it... I could feel it within myself too. This was where the dream normally ended. Everything stopped the birds, the breeze, the noise. Her head snapped towards me, our eyes meeting. Cloth tendrils reappeared on her body, from the vision I had of her outside of London. I was outside of her now, standing in front of her. She stood up from her kneeling position, looming over me her pointer finger grazed underneath my chin before she gripped it tightly and examined me, turning my head sharply from left to right. She smiled close-lipped at me,

"Beautiful, you will do nicely, I knew you would the second I saw you, I needed you to be fully prepared for me." She told me her eyes tracking me as she dropped her hand from my chin and moved effortlessly around the room, nimble and spry.

"So you're my reflection?" I asked her stunned. She nodded in response smiling at her accomplishment to keep that a secret. This resonated with me as I thought about all the times that I had seen my reflection not mimicking me. My jaw dropped in disbelief.

"What exactly do you need me for?" I asked her apprehensively knowing that she most likely wouldn't even answer my question.

"You will find out soon enough, your skills will come in handy, and with my powers," she stopped her thought prematurely, a chuckle replacing the words she was speaking.

"Who are you? Why do I have your tattoos?" I asked her more questions, feeling angry it felt as if I was losing control of myself, I watched her face to see how she reacted to my emotion. Her face contorted into a look of sadness as if she was being rejected by a lover. The sadness changed swiftly and grew to one of anger.

"Were you not watching?!" She yelled at me, composing herself quickly after her outburst.

"My name is Ahmanet, I made a deal with Death. My father promised me the throne, but that all changed when my stepmother had a child, a son. He took away my destiny, what I had been training for my entire life." She told me, her eyes snapping to my own, walking up to me at an unnatural speed. She grabbed me by the neck lifting me slightly above the ground.