Chapter 1

Not everything that resides in a tomb is dead forever...

15 year old Tamara Rodgers knew she should not have snuck away from the tour group. She also knew she should not have ducked into the small opening in the side of the pyramid that apparently no one else noticed.

And now, hiding in a dark dusty corridor as several figures in hooded robes chanted inside a circle of candles inside the room in front of her, she was fairly certain she never should have come with her parents to Egypt.

Three days into the tour, she had been bored with the seemingly endless stream of artifacts, museums, and ruins. At the time she made her choice anything seemed preferable to another accented guide describing another 'Wonder of the Modern World.'

When she noticed the fresh dirt around the edge of a cut into one of the great pyramids, her boredom got the better of her and she quietly peeled off from the back of the group where she had been lurking and wishing she had some music.

Poking her head inside, she noticed some light flickering far ahead, as if at the end of a long tunnel. That turned out to be a small torch in a holder at a junction, but she could hear the muffled voices of what she thought was her tour group. Expecting to meet up with them, hopefully quietly, Tamara tried to focus on them, but confused by the echoes in the cramped tunnel system quickly became lost.

Growing more agitated and afraid with each turn in the gloomy chambers, she almost sighed with relief as the voices suddenly swelled ahead of her. About to rush forwards, she suddenly stopped as she realized the voices she was hearing were not in English or any language she recognized.

When she peered around the corner, she saw the current hooded occupants of the chamber from whom she was now hiding. She thought about retreating, but the idea of going back through the twisting, dark, cobweb and spider filled tunnels was worse, so Tamara figured she would wait until the strange figures left and follow them.

The cowled figures were gathered inside a circle etched into the stone floor, which looked like it had been there for a while. Egyptian hieroglyphics covered most of the walls and floor of the small chamber, seeming to move in the flickering light.

As the figures moved in a circle, they started to chant louder, in what sounded like a strange version of the Egyptian she had grown used to hearing. Each time their voices got louder, they stepped a little further apart, and sprinkled some powder on a small fire burning in the center of the group.

As one of the figures danced in front of her a little of the smoke from the thrown powder blew back in Tamara's direction and tickled her nose. Before she could control it, a sneeze exploded outward.

Covered heads whipped toward her, and the teen spun to bolt back down the tunnel. Before she could flee in terror, she bumped into the wall behind her and found herself ricocheting back into the flame-lit chamber. The robed figures were still chanting and Tamara looked around frantically for an exit as they started to move towards her. One of them was too close to her original entrance. She spotted a partially ajar doorway on the side of the chamber Tammy dashed into it, somehow pushing the heavy stone door closed. As the exit sealed behind her, Tamara was unaware of the circle leader's words, "It appears we will not need to provide our own sacrifice after all."

Leaning against a wall, Tamara tried to get her heart to stop pounding and her breath to slow. No pursuit was coming through the door, which was good. There was no other exit visible, which was bad. Looking around, she saw she was in another chamber about the same size as the first. Except for one guttering torch providing a dim light, the only other object in the room appeared to be an unadorned stone sarcophagus in the very center.

Engrossed in her fruitless search for another exit, Tamara failed to notice the chanting from outside had increased enough that it could now be heard inside the chamber, and that the lid of the sarcophagus was moving slightly in time with the raised voices.

While she was searching the wall underneath the torch, Tamara was startled by the sound of the lid sliding open. Thinking it was the stone door, she spun around to check for pursuers, but as she did so, she struck her head on the stone torch holder and slid to the floor, stunned.

The chanting outside of the room rose to a fever pitch, then ceased abruptly, leaving the chamber suffused with a deafening silence. Above the now partially opened coffin, a cloud of black dust arose, then began to swirl around, forming a pattern like a minor spiral galaxy.

The dust started to coalesce into a tendril and began to spread out, seeking something in the tiny room. First, it found a small bowl of water left for it. Dipping an end into the water it quickly consumed the contents. Several more tendrils spread from the cloud, questing. As one of the tendrils moved through the air over Tamara's semi-prone body, it paused, as if sniffing the air. Sensing the moisture emitted with each of Tamara's breaths, the tendril dipped lower.

As it brushed its tip across the teen's slightly opened mouth, the dust structure absorbed the tiny droplets of saliva that had gathered on her lips, then moved between them, forcing itself between her teeth as it expanded in width to suck every bit of liquid from inside.

Tamara gasped uncomfortably as the rough material probed around her tongue and caressed the inside of her mouth.

Sensing sustenance, other tendrils formed out of the dust cloud and moved sluggishly towards Tamara's body. As the first tendril dueled with the young girl's tongue, the tiny traces of moisture traveled back along its length, revitalizing the long-parched creature that had been slumbering in the stone sarcophagus.