**Ch 6: A Curse or Gift
By the next morning, I woke up with crusty eyes from crying myself to sleep. Once I somehow managed to sit up at the bedside after my exhausting night, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and saw it was nearing eleven-thirty o'clock in the morning. I scrolled through my messages yawning. Suddenly, my phone started ringing in my hand. Crystal was calling me, but I was hesitant about whether I should answer. I mean, she was my best friend, but she was also Orlando's cousin. I puff out an enormous exhale of air when holding the phone to my ear to answer.
"Hey, Crystal."
"Hi, sweetie, I promise I am only calling to check-in. This isn't about Orlando," Crystal proclaimed.
"It better not be about him," I retorted, stubbornly.
Unfazed, Crystal giggled, "I wanted to know how your first day went, so did you find anything?"
I giggled, knowing quite well that Crystal knew my stubbornness. "Actually, I did." I shared everything with her and she was amazed.
I also told her what Tom did to me. Crystal, Orlando, Zach, and Orlando's brother Alejandro knew how to read the rare language, hardly anybody can read.
So I rant all my frustrations out as I heard Crystal put me on speaker for Zach to hear me bellow it.
"Do you need me to get a plane ticket and fly down there to rough him up a bit?" Zach asked, which made Crystal and I giggle.
It was just like him. Zach was always protective over Crystal and me. I wouldn't be surprised if he broke Orlando's jaw for cheating on me.
"No, I'll be alright," I replied, giggling.
"Alright, I'll let you ladies chit-chat," Zach chuckled, and then I heard him smooching Crystal for a second.
"Ok, girl talk, he's gone," Crystal informed me, chuckling. "I have something to tell you, but I don't want to break your heart after that incident with Orlando."
I sighed, "Tell me, I'll be fine."
"Zach proposed, and I said yes!" she told me like a chipper, girly-girl squealing.
I wasn't shocked since I knew Zach loved her deeply. "I'm so happy for you guys!" I honestly told her because I am.
"Are you sure you're ok about this?" Crystal asked, sounding worried.
"Of course, sweetie," I replied, trying to hold back my tears from the pain Orlando caused.
"I understand you are in pain, and I am so sorry," Crystal said sadly. "You still love my cousin?"
"Of course I do, but he cheated, and I won't stand for a cheater," I exclaimed bitterly, with tears sliding down my cheeks.
"I wish you'd talk to him, sweetie." Crystal hinted while I wiped my tears away with my fingertips.
"That will never happen!" I retorted, having a cracky voice.
"Awe, don't cry," Crystal cooed, sounding sad.
"I'm fine," I lied, sugarcoating it. "Anyways, when's the date for the wedding?"
"Likely this spring, I was hoping you could come back to be my maid of honor?" Crystal replied.
"Awe, sweetie, you know I'd love to, but I don't believe it would be possible. I am under strict orders to stay here, and get the job done. I signed a contract with Mr. Collin. Unless he fires me, then I can't leave," I explained, feeling bad.
Crystal sighed deeply, then warned me. "Mr. Collin can be a difficult man to work under. Just be careful, even my family doesn't trust the Collin family. It's been rumored people disappear when they work for him."
"If that's true, then why do you guys attend Harvard University?" I challenged her conspiracy because I felt these stories were purely canard.
Crystal huffed in my ear, explaining, "All I am saying is just be careful. We go to the university because, in the Mill family history, we sold Harvard to a friend, who then somewhere down the line was bought out by the Collin family."
"I see."
I was puzzled because they never told me this before, but I understood the Mill family was secretive like the Collin family. Unless Orlando and I did get married, then I'd know the real truth about all these conspiracies.
"Anyways, I gotta get going," Crystal said. "Text me and tell me what else you find."
After saying our goodbyes, we hung up then I gathered my clothes. Today I picked a black tank top and a pair of tan shorts. I'll look like a cute excavating girl, I thought, giggling aloud to myself.
Once my shower was done, I put on my waterproof presentable makeup. Afterward, I went to the kitchen and got a bowl of Cheerios. While I ate at the bar, I uploaded those photos I took yesterday. It gave me something to do while I munched on my cereal. Once I sorted each photo into the correct order, I began to read through it a second time.
Again the hieroglyphs didn't make sense to me. This Pharaoh only talked about his mate and how much he loved her. The way he used his wording was as if he had never met her, like he only ever dreamt about her. Was she some fantasy girl to him?
This wasn't your typical hieroglyph. Egyptians normally talk about their culture. At times they may write about warfare or a drought that affected their food sources. The Egyptian priests would be talked about, along with their gods. They were more concentrated on living in the afterlife rather than anything else.
Yet I didn't see any of that here. This Pharaoh only wanted to talk about this woman. He mentioned transforming her into her true self on the brightest blue something. The hieroglyph was too far faded from age to read it. Then it went on mentioning something about her being his gifted queen, and together as mates, they will live an Imm...
Even that part is chipped so badly that you could no longer read it. Regardless, what I did read is quite bizarre. I'd say this pharaoh was delusional and seemed a bit on the possessive side about this mysterious woman he loved. Not to mention he seems to be possessed about time. He talked as if he had immortality by the way he spoke. Which is more like how early Egyptians acted. However, everything else he said hardly made sense.
Beep! Tom texted to say we were getting ready to go, so I cleaned up breakfast and gathered my things.
~~~
December came, and we made tons of progress by finding a lot of clues. Back in November, on the third day of being here, I started having these dreams that showed me what the city looked like before it crumbled from age. A lot of the clues had been destroyed from either getting broken or faded from deterioration over time. However, my visions started to help me figure out where to look. After the first week in November, my dreams turned into visions. I started to see a mirror image of the people who once lived here, including the Pharaoh himself. Unfortunately, I never saw his face but his body was perfectly sculpted into defined muscles, but not overly built. This was puzzling because pharaohs and the high-class society were known to never lift a finger whenever it came to labor. Naturally, their bones waned and their muscle tone grew weak. Ultimately, it would debilitate their immune system and be one of the leading causes of death from diseases and infections.
Yet this vast beautifully golden tan skinned Pharaoh walked with pride. He barked his orders broadly, but his voice was hard to make out. Each time I was about to see his face, I faded out of the vision only to realize Tom or somebody else was speaking to me. Every time it happened, I had to make up a good excuse as to why I drifted off, which was outright embarrassing. But I had no control over this so-called gift or more like a curse, I'd call it.
It felt strange to feel my curse or gift had resurfaced again. I hope it goes away because it feels like I am losing control. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, it's helping me in this excavation.
Things were a bittersweet moment for me, because Tom has egocentrically taken it upon himself to claim my findings for his credit. Out of everyone, I was the only one finding the most important clues, but it didn't matter because they think Tom is the reason why we are finding good evidence on narrowing down where that secret chamber is located.
There was nothing I could do about it. He was my boss and supervisor. Tom could end my career before I even had a chance to earn it. Luckily, I was a fighter and didn't let this drag me down. Overall, we were finding many clues by discovering these artifacts that weren't destroyed. Thanks to my curse or gift. It's hard to say why I can see things others cannot. And if anybody found out, I'd be told I was crazy, and likely get...
Knock! Knock! Knock!
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