The Lost Tomb Of Abanoub

**By: Michael Julien**

Hidden deep within the borders of the Ammon Desert is a small, rundown town called Bast. At first sight, Bast is a poor, dingy, desolate town but underneath the gravel roads and crumbling sandstone houses populated with many people lies a sinister secret waiting to be uncovered…

———

“Hello! Welcome to Bast’s very own Jewelry Emporium, We sell jewelry.” The old woman at the counter said as Azazel and Desdemona walked into the ramshackle shop. “Perhaps you will buy an item from me to give to the beautiful lady you have with you?”

The shop had a few rinky-dink pieces of jewelry lying on surprisingly nice wooden tables topped with red table cloths. The jewelry was covered in dust. Clearly no one in town had the money for the Jewelry “Emporium”. Hanging from the ceiling is a low hanging lantern that let off a dim orange light. Azazel tried his best to not hit his head on it walking over to the counter.

“Your selection looks… wonderful, but I’m here for a different reason.” Azazel replies.

“Oh?”

“I have heard that you know more about this town then anyone else.”

The old woman looks down at a stack of scribes on the counter, seemingly dismissing Azazel. Desdemona walks up to the counter after panning the small selection of jewelry and places her hand right next to the scribes. She turns her hand face up and reveals a talisman. The talisman is made of gold it’s a triangle with a small circle and three rays pointing to the corners.

“I see, you’re here to learn about the tomb of Abanoub.” The old woman said eyeing the talisman. “I have no clue where it is, is there anything else you want? If not please leave my shop.”

Azazel replies by slamming a sack of gold coins onto the table with a loud clunk.

“Do you know anything else?” Azazel asks.

The shopkeeper sighs. “Come with me.”

The shopkeeper walks over to one of the wooden tables and picks up cheap looking watch. The old lady slowly spins the dial on the watch, seemingly setting the time. As she does this, the wall slowly creeps open revealing a long dark hallway. As the door finishes opening the lady grabs the low hanging lantern from the ceiling.

“Stay behind me, and whatever you do, do not say a word.” The old woman instructs.

Azazel looks over to Desdemona and nods and she nods back. Then, the couple follows the old woman into the dark hallway.

After hours of the old woman, Desdemona and Azazel traveling through the hallway they come across a grand downward staircase. The staircase seemingly descended into darkness.

“The tomb is down there, this is where I stop, now your on your own.” The decrepit woman says as she hands the lantern to Azazel. “Remember, when you get to the tomb, don’t say a word.”

“Thanks.” Desdemona says as the old lady walks back into the big seemingly endless hallway.

“Are you ready, Mona?” Azazel says to his newly wed wife.

“Yeah, I’m ready, but this isn’t really what I had in mind for a honeymoon.” Desdemona says, smiling. “Couldn’t we have gone to Libertas or Victorium? You know I’ve always wanted to go to Victorium.”

“Trust me, this will be the best honeymoon ever.”

As Azazel and Desdemona descended down the grand staircase, their footsteps echoed loudly in the grandiose sandstone corridors. The walls were made of massive sandstone bricks that have been here for thousands of years, far before modern times, far before the great war.

Azazel and Desdemona walked where people last walked a millennia ago. As they could see the bottom they started to speed up their pace.

At the bottom of the stairs there was another grand hallway but this hallway was lined with sandstone statues of soldiers wearing armor made of pure gold.

“We finally made it! Mona, we made it!” Azazel shouts excitedly. The booming echo of his voice breaks the over 1000 year silence. Then the room begins to quake. Sand rains from the cracks in the ceiling; one of the warrior statues collapses and crumbles into thousands of pieces.

Then one of the towering sand soldiers begins to move. In its hand is a golden halberd.  It lifts its arm up above its head preparing to swing. Then, it swings its halberd with the force of the mighty sandstorm winds straight towards Azazel.

Right before he gets chopped in half, Azazel strafes backwards. However, the tip of the halberd still leaves a large gash in his chest. Desdemona and Azazel quickly rush through the hallway as four of the sand soldiers begin to step towards them.

They reach the end of the hallway and are faced with a door. The big booming steps of the four hulking statues continued to approach, although very slowly, so this made Azazel and Desdemona on edge. A brick protruded out of the wall next to the large door.

“I guess that's the button?” Azazel says as he starts to move his hand towards it.

“Azazel! Stop!” Desdemona screams as she gestures to the, quite obvious, trap door underneath them. “They set these traps to stop tomb raiders.”

The large statues continued to approach and were almost in swinging range of the couple.

“Azazel what else can we do?” Desdemona asks desperately, obviously not having enough focus to come up with a lifesaving plan like she usually does.

“Mona, for once, I have a plan.”

“Hey, you grainy sand soldiers!” Azazel screams at the looming titans before him. “Come get me!”

The hallway begins to quake once more and the soldiers begin to move faster. The colossal stone giants seemed enraged. As the soldiers quickly approach Azazel, Desdemona was standing by the wall hoping to the gods that Azazel wouldn’t kill himself performing his “plan.”

As the soldiers become in reaching distance of Azazel… he slides under them. The hulking masses topple like dominos and crush the door open.

Desdemona runs to Azazel and hugs him. She is just happy that he’s okay. The couple interrupts their moment of joy by looking over to the obliterated door. Behind that door is another hallway, but this hallway has a sarcophagus at the end. The sarcophagus had a green glowing light emitting from inside of it. The walls of the hallway were lined with quartz and had hieroglyphics carved into them. The floor was pure gold encrusted with the occasional diamond, but these diamonds were of extraordinary proportion. Azazel and Desdemona begin to walk down the hallway. They scale the fallen giants and enter the secret tomb.

“What do we do now?” Azazel asks.

“I think that you have to place the talisman in the sarcophagus.”

The sarcophagus was made of pure gold, like the rest of this tomb. The sarcophagus was made to look like a man with the head of a snake. The sarcophagus was cupping it’s hands under a triangular slot.

“If I put it in here, it should open.” Azazel says as he proceeds to place the talisman into the slot. As he places it in the slot the sarcophagus begins to open. Inside is a body wrapped in bandages. The bandages looked freshly wrapped. Suddenly the bandages unwind from the dead body and fall to the bottom of the sarcophagus. The body looked like it died days before, not a millennia ago.

“What the…?” Desdemona says as he begins to reach into the sarcophagus. Then the bandage that was wrapped around the body flew towards Desdemona and wrapped itself around her waist. Desdemona screamed as Azazel tried to help the situation by prying the persistent bandage off of her. The bandage quickly wrapped around her whole body, from head to toe.

“Mona!!” Azazel tried to peel off the stubborn bandages with no avail.

The sarcophagus began to emit a ghastly sound behind Azazel. Azazel turns his head and sees a ghost but this ghost had long sharp claws and was hunched over. The ghost flies towards Azazel at incredible speed and picks him up in one of his giant clawed hands. Azazel struggles to escape the ghastly grasp to no avail. The phantom then sticks his razor sharp claws inside of Desdemona’s abdomen.

“M- Mona!!!” Azazel screams. Then his vision is flooded with green light.

Azazel wakes up laying on the hot sand. Next to Desdemona who’s bandages had uncovered her upper face. He notices a tattoo on his right arm. The tattoo was the same symbol on the talisman. He places his hand on it and it glows a dim green.

“Wow, we actually did it…”