Some time ago, a friend of mine found something amazing, but this wasnt very popular.

My friend is an Egyptologist and he found something strange in a tomb. Inside, there were the sarcophagus with the mummy and some trap rooms, but there was also something more. They found the skeleton of a young woman in one of the trap rooms. My friend told me that there were scratches on the walls, and they found a manuscript between her bony hands, and he brought me a copy, in my language, of course. - And how did she arrive there? Why? I asked. - Read that, OK? We think that its a story told to a scribe and written later. Its very interesting, but we know only the information in that paper, and we can only deduce the rest. I read it with growing interest. It was resumed, but the ideas were clear. After reading it, I made a lot of questions to my friend. First, he answered me with emotion, but in the end he answered a little bored and tired. After he left my house, I continued thinking about the manuscript, sat in the sofa and smoking. I was in other world, or maybe in the same world but in other time. When I opened the door and I saw my friend, he said hello saying Imagine!, and that was what I was doing in that moment, imagine A long time ago... She was looking at him while he was working. He and a lot of people were working building the great pyramid. Nerit couldnt look to other place, she felt good watching him, but she had to go, so she started to walk to her house. She had to work that day, to help his father and mother. She was a weaver, and she had to work with the white linen. She also danced in the streets. People gave money to her for that too. Before disappearing in a corner, she turned back her head, and she saw again that man. The beads of sweat were falling from his head and flowing in his neck. He raised his head and their glances coincided. She felt something strange in her

stomach. He stared at her. She felt that his face was red, and she started to walk, first slowly, but then very fast. He followed her with his eyes. This was the first and the last time their eyes coincided, although she had looked at him many times, and he had done the same other times, when she was dancing in the street, he looked at her with absent look. She danced well, and she was very beautiful, he liked watching her hair flying around her head. Sometimes he amused himself looking at her while he was working. Often he saw her when she was looking to other place. He wanted to talk to her, but he never did it. Next day, Nerit went again to observe the construction of the pyramid, and watch the young man working there, but she didnt see him that day. She went back the next day, but he wasnt here. And the days after, he wasnt either. One day, she decided to ask to a worker about the young man. She did it. When he answered her, she went back to his house walking slowly, but when she was at home, she started to cry. She couldnt believe that, she didnt want to believe. His brother, who was a Scribe, asked her, and she answered. His brother wrote a manuscript telling that story, he usually did this with important things. The worker in the pyramid looked at her sadly when she asked him. - Are you looking for Zaid? She didnt know his name, so she didnt say anything. - The boy who worked sometimes with me here?... Four days ago, we were trying to move a big stone. He was pushing with other men, and I was pulling with the rope. The ropes broke, the stone was too heavy, so the stone fell down. All the men could ran, but he didnt have enough time, and The ropes broke, they were broken, and fell, the stone fell. He will be in a small tomb with other corpses, this evening there and he pointed with his finger to a small and far bulk in the sand. She felt her stomach contracted and the world around her started to spin. In her house she still felt the world falling to pieces. Later, when she was calmer, she decided something. In the afternoon she went to the tomb with the funeral cortege. Some women were crying and regretting. In fact they didnt know the dead man, but it was their job, crying in moments like that, and they received money for that. Nerit saw some men who worked in the pyramid. They looked sad and spiritless. They knew the dead person. Nerit knew a little about the tomb. It wasnt very big. There were some traps rooms, and a bigger room with some niches. Two men put the corpses in the niches

and then they left the tomb. When anybody was inside, they closed the tomb, and they went away. But the tomb wasnt empty. When the men were coming in the tomb a leaving, she gained access into the tomb, and she was hidden inside. She had a torch inside a bag, she made it, and with two stones and a lot of time she achieved to light it. Then, she lighted the other torches in the room, and she could see better. She wanted to be there to receive the resurrection from the dead, and meet that man again. She took something from the bag. It was his brothers manuscript. She wanted to show it to the young man when she meet him.

She waited, waited and waited. Nerit looked around inpatient. Maybe he is in the room with the rest. This idea in her head made her walk into the tomb, to look for him. She walked; she thought that the men with the corpses went to the last room of the long corridor. She went there, lighting all the torches, but the room was similar to the first room. She left it and went to other room. The same story again She went to all the rooms, but at the end she didnt know what room was each room. She was lost. She started to be frightened, and she fell on the floor. She started to cry. The hours passed, hours and hours. Nobody was there. First, she was hungry, and later she was thirsty. She didnt know the time. Suddenly, she felt that someone was watching her. She looked fast around her, looking with cats eyes. She observed the pictures on the walls, and she felt strange. The room became very uncomfortable. She felt some presences moving around her, shadows whirling about the corners and laughing at her. At the light of the fire, she looked again to the pictures on the wall. The paint started to fall from the wall, becoming dust, and she could see the real objects that were hidden behind. She saw the pictures of eyes falling and lots of new red and viscous eyes fixed there. The big eyes were looking around with nerves. Where there was an image of Anubis before, Nerit could see some zones with hair and the veins swollen in his neck, in an intention of turning it. She was looking at him with the eyes very opened. The head of Anubis came up from the wall with a cloud of dust. He looked at Nerit, and all the eyes in the rooms did the same and there was a big silence. She was paralyzed. Anubis broke the atmosphere with a noise. He had taken out his arm and a long scepter, and then his torso left from the wall. It was too real. He moved his fingers in front of his face, producing a slight movement of a muscle of his shoulder. His bones and veins were mark in the muscular arm, and his dark skin shined at the lights of the torches.

The bones emphasized in his clavicle, and the skin stretch on his torso. On his neck the veins grew so much, and Nerit thought they were to explode. Then the other arm left from the wall with a terrible noise and more dust. Next, he did the same with his legs. Terrific, and also great, he looked at her with solemnity. She moved back to the wall. She felt something viscous under her hand, and she saw a grotesque eye. She move her hand fast, it was wet. She screamed and closed her eyes. She put her hands on her head. She opened her eyes, full of tears. There was nothing. She looked at the eyes. They were pictures. The same with Anubis was also a picture. She took the manuscript and she looked at it. She didnt know how to read, but she knew what her brother had written. The tears fell from her eyes, and she dried them with a hand. She thought in the man. His name was Zaid. She remembered his eyes, he looked at her, and when she was in her house, she was happy remembering him. She didnt know that he was very happy too. But now, he was dead, and he didnt come back from the dead, and he would never go with Nerit. She continued waiting forever. Before my friend left my house I asked him a question. - What do you think about... about this? and the girl... - Its a beautiful story he said with sarcasm, he never liked romantic stories, but I could see that this story affected him. Probably she died of hunger and thirst. I think so. And then he went without saying anything else. I sat down holding the manuscript and said to myself: I'm sure it was LOVE!

By Alba Faria 4 ESO