by Suzanne Weyn
“Strange things like what?”
“The item that the person had touched seemed to come back to haunt him or her. Some of the stories were extremely frightening.”
“Are you saying that the scarab comes back to me all the time because I touched it?” Taylor asked.
“It must be,” Mrs. Mason replied.
“Actually, that’s only part of the story,” said someone out in the hallway. Taylor and her mother turned to see Dr. Bey standing in the open bathroom doorway. “In this case, the story is much more complex than that.”
BACK IN the Masons’ hotel room, Dr. Bey sat in a chair and laid five golden tiles out on the desk in front of him. Taylor and her parents sat in chairs on the other side of the desk and gazed down at the images etched into the gold. They were done in the same odd style as the other art from the Amarna period.
In all the tiles, lines of sunlight shone down on different scenes. Mostly the tiles seemed to show Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti enjoying the sunlight along with their children. The fifth tile was slightly different. In it, Nefertiti held the sun and its rays shone out in front of her.
“I don’t believe it,” Taylor murmured as she studied the tile.
Nefertiti was shining the light of the sun on a bat.
Dr. Bey nodded. “You see these etchings differently now, don’t you?”
Taylor looked up into his eyes. Could it be true? It suddenly all seemed so obvious. “Everyone thinks that’s the sun in these tiles but it’s not, is it?”
“Smart young lady,” he said, pointing to the large, blue scarab sitting on the desk. “No, it’s this. This scarab is the thing that they’re showing. The rays are the blue beams that protected the people from the Vampya.”
“The Vampya!” Mrs. Mason said with a gasp.
“Are you sure?” Professor Mason asked skeptically. “All the scholars who study this period are convinced that Akhenaten and Nefertiti worshipped the sun — not a scarab.”
“They worshipped both,” Dr. Bey replied. “The light of the sun kept them safe from the Vampya, for whom sunlight is dangerous. That’s why when the Vampya grew powerful and became a threat, Akhenaten moved his kingdom and built a palace in the sunniest place he could find. Akhetaten was built so that very few shady places existed in the city streets. But every night, the sun set, and the people were once more vulnerable to attack from the Vampya. Many were killed — drained of all their blood — during the night.”
“And the scarab fought off the Vampya by night,” Taylor said, somehow knowing this was true.
“Yes,” Dr. Bey said. “Once they found the scarab, the people could protect themselves without the light of day.”
“Found?” Professor Mason asked.
“Nefertiti was walking in the desert one day when she stepped into a cave to get out of the sun. There she found a small girl who seemed lost and afraid. When Nefertiti went to help the child, red beams shot out of her eyes, and Nefertiti’s wrists began to bleed.”
“I met that child,” Taylor said with a shudder, remembering Simone.
“Just when Nefertiti felt she would faint, a blue light knocked the girl down. Screaming, the girl ran out into the desert. A second blue light restored Nefertiti to health. The scarab had saved the queen of the Egyptian people.”
“Wait a minute,” Professor Mason said. “Where did the magical scarab come from?”
“No one knows for certain,” Dr. Bey said. He turned over the last tile, the one that showed Nefertiti using the scarab to battle the Vampya. “The people were safe as long as Nefertiti had control of the scarab,” Dr. Bey continued. “But, in a way, the scarab turned out to be a curse for the queen.”
“In what way?” Taylor asked.
“The only way that the Vampya could be destroyed forever was to put an end to their leader, Nezzamort.”
“I saw a statue of him,” Taylor said. “Is he real?”
“The legends say he was a real creature,” Dr. Bey replied. “The reason Nefertiti disguised herself as Smenkhkare was so she could keep on fighting Nezzamort and the Vampya and keep her people safe even after Akhenaten died.”
“She didn’t succeed in the end, though, did she?” Taylor asked. “If she had, the Vampya wouldn’t still be around.”
“No.” Dr. Bey looked out the window at the full moon. “When the Vampya manage to get possession of the scarab, they can only hold on to it until the next full moon. On the full moon the scarab always returns to Nefertiti in any of her forms. But if they can kill Nefertiti before the moon is full, they will be rid of her until her next incarnation. Nefertiti has incarnated again and again, trying to kill Nezzamort with the blue scarab, but each time she fails and is killed instead.”
Taylor didn’t like the sound of this. If she was Nefertiti, would she also be forced to destroy Nezzamort? And would she be killed trying?
“I’m sorry, Dr. Bey, but this is all just too hard to believe,” Professor Mason said, standing. “If this Nezzamort comes near Taylor, I’m simply going to call the police.” He took the scarab off the desk and handed it to Dr. Bey. “Please, take this as our contribution to the museum’s collection.”
Dr. Bey put it back on the desk. “I can’t accept it. This belongs to Taylor. It will keep returning to her no matter what I do. And she needs it for protection.”
Later that evening Jason came by the hotel room. Her parents locked the scarab in the hotel room safe again and went downstairs to socialize with the other adult members of the trip. They left strict orders for Taylor to call them the moment Jason left. They didn’t want her staying in the room alone.
Taylor sat cross-legged on the couch and thumbed through a large book of Egyptian art while Jason sprawled on the floor searching the Internet on his tablet. “Wow! Look at this,” he said moving on up to the couch to show Taylor the screen. “The person on this website claims that Nefertiti has reincarnated as Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Isadora Duncan, and Marilyn Monroe.”
“That’s some list,” Taylor said. “A queen, a queen, a famous dancer, and a movie star.” She studied the dates of their births and deaths. “All these women died before they were old. Cleopatra killed herself with a poisonous snake, Marie Antoinette was beheaded, Isadora Duncan accidentally strangled herself with her own scarf, and Marilyn Monroe killed herself.”
“Could the Vampya really have gotten all of them?” Jason asked. “Maybe they just made the deaths look like suicides and accidents.”
“I don’t know if I believe all that,” Taylor said, but a wave of cold fear swept through her anyway. She was so much younger than all these women had been when they died. But would her fate be the same in the end — a victim of the Vampya?
AROUND ELEVEN, Taylor’s parents returned and Jason headed back to his own room. “I’m going to be up all night to see if I can find anything else,” he said at the door. “So call me if you can’t sleep.”
“Why — so you can give me more creepy info?” Taylor said lightly.
“What creepy info?” Mrs. Mason asked as Jason left.
“Oh, nothing — just Vampya stuff he saw on the Internet.”
“We spoke to people about the Vampya, and most of them said it’s just a legend,” Professor Mason told Taylor. “It’s nothing to take seriously.”
“What about this afternoon in Amarna, or what just happened to me in the bathroom?” Taylor asked. What would it take to convince them? “I saw the scarab work with my own eyes.”
“She’s right. How can we explain that?” Mrs. Mason asked.
Professor Mason opened the room safe and took out the scarab. He placed it on the table. “There’s nothing cursed or haunted about this scarab. It’s going back to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where it belongs, first thing in the morning.”
“But I saw it work,” Taylor said.
“Let’s be logical, Taylor,” Professor Mason said. “Bats roost in the eaves of this hotel. You startled them when you opened the window. They flew i
n and in a panic, you slipped or fainted. While you were out cold, you dreamed that the scarab saved you but actually, the bats simply flew back out the window. When Mom knocked, you woke up.”
“Thanks for the trust, Dad,” Taylor said.
“I trust you. I just think you’re confused.”
“What about those people who surrounded the cab?”
“What? Are you telling me they were vampires?” Professor Mason asked.
“Not vampires — the Vampya!”
“It’s pretty much the same thing, don’t you think?” her father said.
Taylor huffed angrily. There was no sense arguing with him. He simply refused to believe it.
“Let’s get some sleep,” Mrs. Mason said. “I have to be back at the museum for another rehearsal tomorrow morning.”
“And I want to join the tour group headed for the pyramids. Are you coming along, Taylor?”
“Sure. I wouldn’t miss that.”
Her cell phone buzzed, and Taylor took it from the desk where she’d left it. It was a text from Jason about the next day’s pyramid trip. He wanted to know if she was going and she texted back that she was.
“Get to bed,” Mrs. Mason called from her room.
Putting her phone back on the desk beside the scarab, Taylor went to her room and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Taylor dreamed she was walking in a vast desert with nothing nearby but sand dunes. Her sandal hit a hard object and she knelt to see what it was. A large blue scarab sat in the sand.
“Khepri,” she said, picking up the scarab. Somehow she knew it meant “He who came forth from the earth” and seemed like a fitting name. Cupping the scarab in her hands, she bent and kissed it.
When Taylor woke up two hours later, she had the feeling that some noise had caused her to awaken.
There it was! A scratch as though someone in the outside room had knocked into a chair.
She heard it again. Somebody was definitely out there. It wasn’t one of her parents, either. They’d have turned on a lamp, and no light shone under the door.
Too scared to turn on her own lamp, Taylor searched in the moonlight for her phone so she could call her parents in their room. Where was it? Had she brought it in with her?
No! It was still on the desk!
Taylor heard the sound of the sliding glass door onto the balcony being opened and then closed. If the thief was outside, maybe she could make it over to her phone and then crawl back to her room.
Cracking open her door, Taylor peered out. Moonlight gave the room a soft glow, and right away Taylor noticed that her phone was on the desk — and the scarab was no longer there. Turning, she checked her room to see if it had come to her, but didn’t see it. No, the scarab was gone.
The room was empty so Taylor felt brave enough to crawl toward her phone. It was possible that the thief had come in and left from the balcony. In that case there was nothing to fear, but just to be safe, she stayed on all fours.
Keeping low, she made her way toward the desk. From the middle of the room, she had a good view of the balcony. No one was out there so Taylor stood up, only to find that the blue scarab was now perched on the railing of the balcony.
Why had the thief left it there?
Taylor’s heartbeat quickened as she slid back the door to the balcony. She didn’t want the scarab to fall to the sidewalk below.
As soon as Taylor wrapped her hand around the scarab, a shadow fell over her.
An unpleasant musky smell filled the air and Taylor was aware of the warmth of another presence.
Slowly she lifted her eyes.
Perched on the balcony railing was a creature nearly ten feet high.
It was Nezzamort — half-man, half-bat.
Before Taylor could move, the beast clutched her under her right armpit, its talons digging in painfully, and grabbed the scarab with its other claw.
Screaming, Taylor was lifted into the air, her legs and arms flailing, as Nezzamort carried her off into the night.
TAYLOR DARED to open her eyes. The bright, colorful lights of Cairo twinkled below her. Instantly she squeezed her eyes shut once more. They were flying so high up!
What if Nezzamort dropped her?!
Taylor clutched on to the creature’s rough leg just in case he decided to let go. A warm breeze swept her hair back and made her clothing flutter. Under other circumstances she might have been thrilled at this open-air journey, but at the moment she was too terrified to enjoy the experience.
After another few minutes, she summoned the courage for a second peek. The colors of Cairo had receded and now sand dunes lay gorgeous and silent below them.
After almost twenty minutes, Nezzamort spread his wings wide and descended into the center of the city that had once been Akhetaten. The ruins shimmered in the moonlight. The beast gently deposited the scarab on a stone slab, but kept his talon on Taylor, who remained in his grip and lay flat in the sand.
An old woman this time, Simone stepped out from behind a slab of rock, her wiry white hair creating a halo effect around her haggard face, and her colorless eyes seeming to glow. She bowed low to Nezzamort. “O, great one, you have triumphed,” she said.
Valdry and Sethor joined Simone. “At last,” Valdry said, staring down at Taylor with his white eyes, “this is the moment we have waited centuries for.”
“Nefertiti and her power over the scarab will finally be ended,” Simone went on. “We will sacrifice you to Nezzamort tonight, on the full moon. Your soul will be trapped with Nezzamort, no longer able to travel and fight the Vampya forever. The scarab will remain under our power, and then nothing can stop the rise of the Vampya. The world will be ours!”
Nezzamort lifted his talon from Taylor and she inhaled, once more able to breathe freely without his crushing weight on her. Standing, she looked around frantically. Her mind raced, trying to form a plan.
The only place to run would be the police booth down by the Nile. She could outrun Simone for sure, and probably Sethor and Valdry.
Then she thought of Nezzamort. There would be no escaping him.
But Nezzamort had already lifted off into the sky, his wings outlined in the full moon. He perched on a tall stone rectangle that had once been a doorway and settled there, folding his immense wings around himself.
Taylor dug her bare heels into the sand, preparing to spring forward to escape. Before she could move, though, she sensed movement around her.
The ragged people who had surrounded the cab were moving in a slow, steady pace, forming a knot around Taylor and her three captors. Their expressionless faces made Taylor think of zombies, but their ripped clothing reminded her of mummies. Either way, her heart sank.
The strange people came from all directions. Simone, Sethor, and Valdry stepped away to allow the creatures to tighten their knot around Taylor. As they closed in, she saw they wore the same bat amulets as they had the other day at the cab. They stank of unwashed and rotted flesh. Taylor had never experienced such an awful stench.
“Come, my helpers,” Simone commanded them. “This is the moment that you servants of the Vampya have been working toward for so long.”
The servants of the Vampya pressed in closer and closer. Taylor was determined not to faint, but fear and the terrible smell made her stomach clench. Cold beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
A rotted hand with filthy, jagged nails reached out and grabbed a handful of Taylor’s hair before yanking her head back painfully. Another one of them poured a vial of steaming liquid down her throat.
Taylor’s world spun — and then all she knew was nothingness.
The next time Taylor opened her eyes, she was in the same open square of the former Akhetaten, but the huge moon that hung in the sky was completely full, lighting everything with a brilliance that made it easy to see.
Taylor quickly realized she was tied to a stone pillar. In front of her stood about fifty people dressed in black with the same pale skin, white eyes, and black hair a
s Valdry, Sethor, and Simone. The Vampya — it seemed — had all come out for the occasion. Behind them the tattered, dazed servants who had taken her prisoner all stood, shuffling slightly.
As panic set in, Taylor strained against the ropes that held her, and when she moved, bracelets jangled on her arms and legs. Looking down she saw that she wore golden sandals and was dressed in a silk gown of purple and gold. A heavy crown sat on her head.
They’d dressed her as Nefertiti!
At her feet was a large bowl. Its outside was covered in jade and rubies. What were they going to do with it?
A thwap thwap thwap of wings caused Taylor to look up.
Nezzamort flew down to settle on top of a high stone doorframe that stood on its own about ten yards away, an ancient monster on an ancient ruin.
Simone, Valdry, and Sethor stepped forward from the crowd of Vampya and approached Taylor. All three of them wore black robes that trailed behind them.
Picking up the bowl, Simone turned to face Nezzamort and lifted the bowl above her head. “Now, O Nezzamort, will your great enemy be destroyed.”
Valdry reached into his robe and took out a cage containing the blue scarab. He opened it, and the scarab did something Taylor never knew it could. With rapidly beating wings and a high-pitched buzz, the scarab burst from the cage and flew to her shoulder, where it perched. It was no longer made of stone, but a living beetle. Its antennae twitched and its tiny black eyes moved back and forth alertly. The scarab’s wings were many shades of clear, translucent blue.
“Your secret weapon can’t help you now, Nefertiti,” Simone shouted. “It comes alive on the full moon so it can fly to you. But that also gives us the chance to kill it. Never before have the Vampya had this opportunity: We have both Nefertiti and her scarab in our power. There is nothing you can do to stop us!”
Simone turned back to Taylor, and her white eyes — and those of Valdry and Sethor — now shone with red light. Together the threesome approached Taylor.