**Ch 9: Hidden Chamber
I jumped out of my skin at Tom's resounding voice before realizing my mind had returned to the present time.
"Nothing. A huge spider scurried up over my boot." I sort of lied while I was still trying to comprehend what my vision had shown me.
At that moment, I was still shocked at what had happened. Did the Pharaoh murder that woman? If he did, then he must've broken her neck, which would explain the cracking sounds, I heard.
"Don't do that again! I thought you got hurt!" Tom gruffed. "The last thing I want to do is file a report to Mr. Collin because his trainee got injured."
Without Tom seeing it, I rolled my eyes. It was just like him to sound so selfish, but as of right now, I could care less about his absurd vulgarity. I was more perplexed about why this Pharaoh may have killed his daughter.
Unless she wasn't his daughter, she could have been a chosen princess to marry his son, or maybe she was betrothed to marry him. And if the Pharaoh found out she was having an affair with someone else, that would provoke him to kill her.
My mind was crammed with many questions and theories. I only had one way to answer them.
So I walked to the wall. "I think there might be a secret chamber behind this wall," I notified Tom.
"What makes you so sure?" Tom questioned me in doubt.
"Because I saw that spider scurry underneath that crack, right there in the chipped wall," I replied, pointing my flashlight at the crack to show him.
"I wonder if that blue-gold canopic jar is in there," Tom said, pondering.
I didn't comment on his thoughts. The last clue I found said to find a blue-gold canopic jar, which was odd because canopic jars are used to place organs inside them during the mummification process. Although I had a gut feeling telling me once we find it, there will be another clue inside it, not a dried-out liver. That's exactly why we were in this area to find it.
But honestly, I had other questions on my mind. It's more like I am seeking to find answers. Ever since I arrived, I've been finding this place to be very mysterious. More questions were raised as to why this unknown city had triggered my curse to be activated. After being dormant for so long. I desired to know who this Pharaoh was, and that is precisely what I plan on finding out.
At times the visions weren't always clear, and I had to fill in the parts that didn't make sense. That's how I've been able to find these clues.
So I inspected the wall in the area where I saw the Pharaoh had touched it in my vision to activate that hidden switch, which should open the hidden chamber.
"Victoria, what are you doing?" Tom questioned me like an idiot because he eyed me patting the wall.
For a Team leader, you'd think he would've known how to find a hidden chamber. Click! I found the switch and pushed it harder, but the wall barely shifted downward an inch. Dumb-dumb Tom here, now realized what I was doing, and he decided to help me. Since he was stronger, we pushed on the stone block. It was breaking apart stiffly from the sandy corrosion. With some pressure, a section of the rectangular-shaped hidden door started to slide down inside a void between the mud-brick flooring. Until it got too stiff, merely below our waist. The door wouldn't budge any farther. Very carefully, we both released the hidden switch, and the door held solid.
"I think that's as low as it will go," Tom stated, shining his flashlight into the huge open chamber, while I did the same, searching the floor.
Inside was extremely dusty, and there were some basins here and there. It was a decent-sized room. The room wasn't too big, nor too small, but it smelled stale. It wasn't a pleasant odor, so I put my scarf over my nose and mouth to avoid inhaling too much of it. As I was skimming my flashlight around. In the back, straight in front of us, I found what looked like a corpse.
I shined my light on the body as Tom chippered happily. "Did we find the Pharaoh?"
"I don't know," I sorta fibbed as my heart sank to think this was likely that young girl's body.
If this is her, then why did he kill her, at such a young age, at that? She was only two years younger than me.
"I don't trust this door, so let's call in the team. If something were to happen, then they'll know where to find us." Tom recommended, taking me out of my saddened thoughts.
"Good call," I agreed without arguing with him on that one. Even though he was a jerk, he made sure we did this excavation safely.
~~~
Hardly ten minutes had passed when our team and three other teams came to aid us.
"Tom, did you discover the Pharaoh?" the team leader from Z asked ecstatically.
"I'm not sure, but we're going to find out," replied Tom, just as thrilled.
Everyone was excited to think we had found the Pharaoh. Sadly, my heart knew better. This was the woman I had seen in my vision. However, I kept that to myself while most of us went in. Luckily, Tom was too excited to even tell me to stay outside. Likewise, I took advantage of his excitement and went in too. Tom, me, and seven others walked up to the corpse. The remaining people that came in, started to inspect the basins and jars left in the room.
Upon shining flashlights on the corpse, my heart sank, confirming what I already knew. There she lay, resting on her back where the Pharaoh left her body. Still wearing the same golden jewelry. Only now the golden jewelry looked dusty and dull. Her wig was matted and petrified. The colorful feathers have mostly rotted away. Whatever was left of the feathers was now molded and discolored. Her once white linen gown was pretty much petrified on her body. Whatever was left of it is now discolored into an ugly brown.
The room must've been semi-air-tight because her body appeared to be petrified compared to only being bones. She was partly preserved while she decomposed. Only her stomach area revealed two ribs and a hole in her abdominals.
Using my flashlight, I shined it on her neck, and what I saw was baffling. Her neck wasn't broken, but rather where I thought to have seen him position his face appeared like the bone in her neck was crushed and it looked as if it had two round holes embedded into the bone. This was bizarre. Did he kill her by biting her? I was very bewildered by that thought.
Well, I guess if you apply enough pressure, it would be plausible. However, the two round holes in the bone are abnormal. Unless he was wearing some sort of sharp brace in his mouth, that would be pointy-like fangs. But no, that wouldn't make sense. Dental work like that didn't exist back in their time.
"She's a female," the team leader from E announced. "I'd estimate that she was between twenty or likely twenty-two."
"She was pregnant."
My heart fell to the floor, hearing this more dreadful news when the team leader from Z pointed this out with his flashlight. Not being properly embalmed, her stomach looked like it ruptured from decay. Everybody saw the small petrified bones of a three or two-month-old fetus, or I prefer to say a baby. Maybe she did have an affair, and the Pharaoh assumed she wasn't pregnant with his baby.
"I'd say she was murdered, so she might have been a queen. She may have cheated on the Pharaoh, so he disposed of her body in here." Tom gives his conclusion.
I couldn't agree more with Tom's theory, but I kept my thoughts to myself. However, witnessing the murder in my vision, I didn't understand how he killed her.
"Out of everything we've excavated in the city. She and her baby are the first two corpses we found," Donny reported, standing next to me.
"Unfortunately, it's not the right corpse," Tom added, sounding dissatisfied. "Let's cover her up and move on, since she isn't the one we are looking for."
I was appalled hearing Tom say this.
"Wait, shouldn't we take her and further analyze her?" I argued. "None of us even know how she died."
Tom shone his flashlight on me coldly and warned. "This was my finding, so it's my call! I suggest that you read over your contract, Ms. Perkins. Mr. Collin specifically said to find the Pharaoh, so if you have a problem with this, then you can forget about earning your degree! Are we clear?"
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