Sadie Kane Finds a Bigger, Blacker Pyramid... Among Other Things

[Madotsuki]

The eye undulated in shock as it burst, torn asunder by the force of the explosion. The two pillars beside it toppled over, but since they were the same color as everything else, it was hard to see where they landed. Without the Sauron-wannabe providing a lightning storm, there was absolutely no light; it was as if I was in a black void. The pyramid fell dead silent. I fell to my knees, trying to stay conscious with a burning fever; I almost burned myself up there.

Even though I lacked the energy, I called out for the man. "Can you hear me?" I asked, squirming on the eerily warm onyx floor.

"Who is that?" he replied, his accent decidedly ancient, albeit not Egyptian. Had he really been unaware of me the entire time?

"A friend. How did you get yourself in this mess?"

"I had to. Everyone else had been snatched up in the pyramid. I couldn't bare to be alone anymore, not with the unending pain..."

I thought for a moment. The tribesmen in my dream also had peeling skin; if that wasn't painful, I don't know what is. "Do you think we can save the others?"

"They're not in here anymore."

"So they're dead?"

An uncomfortably long moment of silence passed before he replied. "Not exactly."

"Then where are they?"

"...Have you been to the other structures here?"

"Yes, but I didn't see anyone--" Suddenly I was struck with a horrifying thought: those things were warm, like human... flesh. Oh, Osiris, was I really walking on some old civilization's corpses?

"You get it now?"

"But how would you know that?"

"Every time someone entered the pyramid, a new structure appeared out of the sand. ...One of them was my mother, but I forgot which one was her."

"That's terrible," I consoled, struggling to hold back tears. "I lost my mom, too." I decided to stop talking there, mainly because I didn't want to start bawling, but also because I didn't know what else to say.

"Thank you for saving me," he added suddenly. "You're a brave soul, miss...?"

"You can call me Sadie."

"And you can call me Haru."

Several minutes passed as we waited and recovered. Despite the rest, I wasn't feeling any better. Nevertheless, we should probably go before something bad happens. "You ready to leave?" I asked, struggling to my feet.

"Most definitely. But where are you?"

"Just follow my voice." After a minute or two of calling into the darkness, Haru finally grabbed onto my shoulder-- at least, I was pretty sure it was him, even though I couldn't see him in the darkness. "Alright, the eye was over there, so I think the hallway is here."

As soon as we entered the hallway, the floor began to shake. There was a loud splashing sound behind us, and I dared to look back. Moonlight was streaming through the gaps of the ceiling as it fell. But it wasn't crumbling. Instead, it was melting. A giant, black wave rolled towards us like an oil spill. "Run," I whispered in my friend's ear, bolting for the exit with him in tow.

I wasn't in any condition to exert myself like this, but I'd rather pass out from exhaustion than get trapped under a sea of this liquid alien onyx. Haru seemed to share the same sentiment, since he wasn't objecting despite the pain I could only assume he was in. We barreled towards the exit, desperate to leave the deforming pyramid. Moonlight eventually came into view on the other side, and then we finally burst through the entrance to the terrifying structure.

Around us, the other buildings began to capsize; the ribcage I had passed through earlier had already melted into a large puddle that turned the sand black wherever they touched. The two front columns of the Roman-like building buckled and melted, sending the platform on top flipping end over end. It landed with a "thwump!", sending a huge pile of sand our way followed by a roaring, abyssal tidal wave. In short, everything fell into chaos as we tried to stay as far away from the buildings as possible, which meant that we were heading towards the village in the center.

I was starting to get tunnel vision; I stumbled and would've fallen face-first into the sand multiple times if my tribe buddy wasn't keeping me on my feet. I couldn't pass out-- not now! Not when we were so close! But my legs gave out, and the last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the immense, wavering wall of black racing towards us.

*******

When I awoke, I was staring up at a clay ceiling. Haru knelt nearby, his hand on my forehead.His skin was starting to heal, so he no longer looked like a beet. "Miss Sadie!" he cried out, wrapping me in a hug. "You're alive!"

"What happened?" I muttered, waiting for him to let go of me. Once he did so, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the hut. When I saw what awaited me, I gasped in disbelief-- the ground surrounding the village was no longer sand, but black dirt. Oases and forests took the place of the foreign buildings, and flowers of all shapes and sizes were scattered about. Maybe whoever built those buildings had an Egyptian ideology after all, because black meant life-- the dark soil was fertile and perfect for farming.

"But... how?" I asked, looking down at a rose.

"Perhaps the life forces of my tribe members migrated to the earth when the buildings collapsed?"

"I guess that makes sense."

We spent the next few days recovering from the incident, which proved easy since this place could provide us with all we needed; fruits in the forest and water from the oases. It was pretty good, although I wished hamburgers could grow on trees. It couldn't last forever though. Once I filled my bag to the brim with food, I would leave.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" Haru asked as I slung my backpack over my shoulder.

"I need to find a way home. I can't do that here."

"I understand, Miss Sadie. Just promise me that you'll stay safe, okay?"

"Knowing me, that'll probably be a promise I can't keep. But I'll try." And with that, I ventured back into the Dunes.