House of Scarabs

by Hazel Longuet

  Ellie stepped out and looked around, puzzled. The perfume of roses was so familiar, it brought a deep ache to her chest. Grandma, she thought. These were her favourite.

  She stepped over to the glorious display and bent to sniff the soft petals. They evoked the memory of her embrace, the scent of her grandma's hugs. She picked one from the display and walked along the corridor, the rose's soft perfume surrounding her.

  Ellie opened doors as she passed them, checking out the rooms hidden beyond. There were three further bedrooms, decorated in a more masculine manner, each with their own en-suites, and the most opulent bathroom she'd ever seen. It more resembled a waterfall, with water tumbling over a stone wall surrounded with delicate green ferns. Her fingers trailed through the water, and she smiled at the thought of showering there. The room beguiled her.

  Although the rooms were gorgeous, she knew this was not her home. She grappled with her memory, trying in vain to grasp even the tiniest fragment. Nothing. She was adrift in a blank book.

  "Come on, Ellie," she said to herself. "Keep searching. You might find some answers."

  Downstairs, the grandeur continued, every room more breathtaking than the last. She wandered through a vast library with jewel-coloured, deep plush chairs. A vast dining room. A sitting room with a wall of glass that framed the meadow, creating a masterpiece of composition. The kitchen was every chef's dream, with a huge central island that could have sat an entire football squad.

  What there wasn't was any technology or people. She sighed in contentment. It was peaceful and she felt safe, something she knew had been a rarity in her life. Laughing, she twirled and danced. If she had to be stranded somewhere, it might as well be in her dream home.

  Elle rustled around the kitchen, opening cupboards to find the provisions to make a light supper. She took her meal into the sitting room and enjoyed it as she watched the sun paint the meadow, in pink and red tones, in its dying moments. The sofas were so deep and tempting. She lay back, sinking into their softness, and let exhaustion capture her again in its slumberous embrace.

  She woke the next morning, stretching in contentment. A fawn and its mother were grazing in the distance, dew still fresh on the swaying grasses. She leapt up, full of energy, excited to explore. The need to see the gates up close nagged at her subconscious. She'd found the back door yesterday but hadn't discovered a front door yet.

  "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Ellie," she murmured to herself as she made coffee.

  Half an hour later, she was scratching her head in confusion. She couldn't find the house's main entrance, and it made no sense that they would've built such a grand house with just a back door in the kitchen. Giving up her exploration in disgust, she opened the kitchen door and fell back in surprise.

  In front of her was a large, rectangular lake, surrounded by ruins, with people milling around. The scene was familiar to her. Above it, piled up like the layers of a multi-story car park, was the same scene but with different people from an earlier time. Each layer appeared to represent a different time in the history of the complex. It went up as far as she could see, layer upon layer. Same place, different time.

  Turning to her right, she saw a glass tower that housed the great gate, linking it to every plane. A large glass pontoon floated on a pool at the base of the tower. She stared, openmouthed, trying to make sense of what she saw. It was layers of history, one above the other, yet running in parallel.

  Something drew her to the tower. Peering up, she saw it was constructed of a continuous tube of glass, with not a joint in sight. As she neared it, a door slid open, allowing her to take tentative steps onto the pontoon before sliding shut behind her and merging back into the smooth wall of glass.

  She was so close to the gate, she could touch it. Her fingers slid through the tendrils of water as they twirled around her hand, caressing it gently. The bottom of the gate released its form, allowing the water to swirl into the pool and lift Ellie up to the first level.

  She turned to watch the level come into view, her eyes widening as she saw the white bun and rotund form of Elspeth, her grandma, come into view. She held the hand of a small child with a tumble of red curls and sun-kissed skin. The girl was finding it hard to contain her excitement and bounced from foot to foot, smiling up joyously at the man holding her other hand.

  Sam.

  And then it came back to her, hitting her with the velocity of a sledgehammer. She remembered the betrayal, the ultimate betrayal of Mama Aida. She remembered Sam giving his own life to save hers. She remembered the heat of the explosion as it rushed across her cheek. She remembered everything. She realised where she was.

  As the doors opened, she sprinted towards the people she loved most. She grabbed Elspeth and smothered her in kisses. Sam swept her into his arms and kissed her in a way no man should in front of others. Ellie extracted herself and knelt in front of the girl.

  "And who might you be?" she breathed out.

  "I'm Amarine, silly. Everyone knows that – right, Gran?" she said, turning to Elspeth.

  Ellie's eyes filled with tears as she stared up at her grandmother, who nodded gently. "Ellie, let me introduce you to Amarine Verity Gamal, your daughter."

  "Oh..." Ellie said, glancing at Sam over their daughter’s head. "Our daughter?"

  Sam nodded, beaming. Ellie wrapped Amarine in her arms and lifted her, swinging them around as she showered the girl in four years’ worth of lost kisses.

  "My daughter," she sighed, closing her eyes as the girl cuddled into her, wrapping her arms and legs around Ellie and snuggling in. Ellie stroked the soft curls and lay kisses upon the sweet-smelling head as she felt the ever-present gaping hole in her chest fill and close.

  Sam came up behind them and wrapped his two girls in his safe embrace. "Home," he whispered softly. "I'm home."

  After some time, they realised they'd forgotten Elsbeth and turned back to her. She was smiling at them, her cheeks wet with the sheen of tears. "I've dreamt of seeing this moment. I've told Amarine every story I remember, but this little miss has been so impatient to meet you both."

  Amarine slithered out of Ellie's arm and skipped to Elspeth. "Gran, does this mean I'm not an orphan anymore?" she asked innocently.

  Ellie looked to Sam, her eyes full of tears. She closed her eyes and shook her head. So much pain, and for what? Why?

  As her eyes swept around, many of the black-clad soldiers who'd been hunting her ambled aimlessly in the distance. "Oh my God!" she said, reaching for Sam.

  "Don't worry, Elena. They can't hurt us now. The poor souls are lost and blind here," Sam reassured her.

  "Yes, their penance for the damage they did on Earth is to wander, blind and deaf, lost in their own senses until the burn of regret takes hold and they fully repent," Elspeth explained, watching the men with a level of pity that Ellie had yet to feel.

  Elspeth ushered them towards the café, so they could sit and chat. Ellie glanced around the shack. To her left was the woman she'd help rescue, sat in her wheelchair all alone. Her heart sank and guilt overwhelmed her.

  "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, walking over to the woman.

  "Do I know you, my dear?" the woman answered with a sweet smile.

  Ellie nodded. "I was the nun that left you in this café. Well, not a nun as such but dressed as one," Ellie said, adjusting the statement at Elspeth's confused frown.

  The woman beamed at Ellie, leapt to her feet, and embraced her. "Oh, don't be sorry. You released me. You're my heroine. Without you, I'd have been locked in that body until I was unable to breathe for myself. You saved me that indignity. I'm so grateful."

  The woman proved her point by dancing them around the café floor, much to Amarine's delight, who shouted, "More, Mommy, more!" The two women collapsed in giggles on the rickety old chairs as Amarine mimicked them. After a few minutes of chatting, the woman bid them farewell.

  "Now I have to find my way home," she murmured.

  "Just close your eyes and thin
k of it. A door will appear, a door to your home," Elspeth explained. Ellie watched in amazement as a door materialised before them. The woman waved goodbye, opened the door, and stepped through into a comfortable sitting room. The door vanished.

  "Wow, that will take some getting used to," Ellie said. Sam and Elspeth shared a glance before smiling back at her. Ellie had been soaking up the sight of her daughter playing hopscotch in the sand and didn't notice the exchange.

  They sat chatting for some time, enjoying the morning sun as Amarine flitted around them, a ball of energy. Ellie couldn't take her eyes off the young girl. Amarine was a perfect counterbalance of both Sam and herself. Her shining green eyes were a duplicate of Ellie's, right down to the crescent of amber, and her hair, although red, was a deeper chestnut tone, which bounced with Sam's curls. She laughed loudly and boldly, just as Sam did, and her features echoed his more chiseled features. Yet, the expressions that crossed her face mirrored Ellie's. Her skin was a milkier version of Sam's bronze hue. Ellie stared in wonder at the beauty of their creation.

  There was a slight shimmer in the atmosphere as a door appeared again. "Maybe she wants her wheelchair back," she joked. This time, she caught the glance that passed between Elspeth and Sam. "What?" she asked with a frown.

  The door opened, and the singularly most stunning woman she'd ever seen stepped through it. Ellie saw a courtyard with a fountain behind the woman before the door slammed closed.

  "Hello, Elena. I have waited a very long time to meet you. Elspeth. Sam," she said, nodding at them.

  "Kiya, Kiya," Amarine shouted, dancing around the woman. "Mommy came, just as you said. She didn't know my name. Can you imagine?! Oh, and she looks just like me," she said, swirling around in a circle. "She's almost as pretty as you."

  "Oh, sweetling, if she looks like you, then her beauty far exceeds mine," Kiya answered.

  Amarine studied her intently and then nodded. "True," she agreed. The adults laughed as she fluttered off, pretending to be a butterfly.

  Ellie’s eyes flitted from Elspeth to Sam before settling on Kiya. "Tell me," she said.

  Kiya looked around the group, her eyes resting on Amarine for a moment before she said simply, "You have to go back."

  "Go back where?" Ellie asked, glancing at Sam and Elspeth, whose sad expressions said more than any words. The realisation hit her. "Oh, no, go back to Earth? Leave them? No way in hell, or heaven, come to that." Ellie scrabbled up out of the chair, moving away from them. "Amarine, come here, darling. We have to go home now. I'll take you to Scarab's Rest. You'll love it there."

  Amarine raised her eyebrow and laughed. "Mommy, I already live there with Gran and now Daddy. Kiya explained everything earlier, when she told me you were coming for a visit. You can't stay because you're alive, Mommy. We're all dead, so we can't visit you, but you can come back and visit us. Isn't that right, Kiya?"

  Kiya smiled down at her gently before lifting eyes full of sadness to stare into Ellie's. "Yes, sweetling, perfectly correct."

  "Sam," Ellie croaked. "No, I won't leave you again. I can't."

  He walked to her slowly, as if approaching a nervous colt, and reached for her hands, pulling her into his embrace. "Rohi, my soul, my own love," he whispered into her hair, "you must. It's not your time. I understand now. You were born for great things. God has willed it so."

  She pulled away and stared at him in utter disbelief. "I don't care. My family comes first, and I'm not leaving you."

  "We are all family, my child," Kiya explained gently. "For your greater family, the family of humanity, you must return. I'm so sorry. I know how hard it must be."

  "You know nothing. Who do you think you are? You barge in here and order me about. Well, open that door and go back where you came from," Ellie said, thrusting her finger into Kiya's chest.

  Kiya sighed and swirled her hand in a full circle. The three deities appeared behind Kiya: Khepri, Sobek, and Bastet, standing tall in their human form. With a large flash of blue, Ellie found herself once more contained within a blue sphere.

  "I'm sorry to take her. I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this." Kiya said, sadly. "I'll bring her back to say her farewells."

  Destiny’s Path

  Ellie struggled pointlessly within the sphere as it glided towards the glass tower. She screamed every obscenity she knew at her four companions, who studiously ignored her as they entered the tower and descended in the lift. She turned and watched her family shrink into the distance.

  Kiya walked, her hips swaying, as she guided the sphere towards the gate house. Ellie studied her in mutinous silence. Kiya's golden toga shimmered as it moved. She had calfskin sandals on her feet, and her ears, fingers, wrists, and neck were adorned with elaborate gold and garnet jewelry. Thick, black kohl highlighted her cornflower-blue eyes, and her hair was up at the front and raining ringlets down her back. She resembled a blonde goddess.

  Maybe she is, Ellie thought.

  Kiya walked around the house, having clearly visited before. She made a pot of coffee and then gestured for them to follow her to the library. When Ellie was last there, she hadn't clicked that the room was a direct replica of Bertram's. Kiya settled herself in the chair next to Ellie's favourite. She gestured towards the fire, which sparked to life, and poured two cups of coffee.

  "We have much to discuss, Elena. I am more sorry than mere words can express that you are in this position. Much as I also regret the impact it has had upon my existence. But there you are - it is what it is, and we don't have time to dwell on it."

  Ellie glared at her in silence, her arms crossed, her foot tapping.

  "I can release you, and we can sit and discuss this over a nice coffee, or I can bind your mouth and show you why you must return. But be sure, the vision will not be pleasant. Which is it to be, my child?"

  "I am not your child," Ellie spat back with venom.

  "When you've lived as long as me, everyone appears as a child. I have seen life before me, and I see life not yet lived. Every soul in comparison is young. I apologise if it annoys you. Believe me, Elena, I am your friend. Now hurry. The coffee is getting cold. It is a secret pleasure I've taken from your time," Kiya said with a serene smile.

  Ellie nodded up at the three deities standing behind the chairs, "What of them? They've been dragging us around like dogs on leashes and not said a single word. Are they about to get chatty too?"

  Kiya chuckled, the sound of perfectly tuned wind chimes blowing in the breeze. "Oh, they can't talk. Well, only through me and my fellow seers. But I am their voice. It was to me they first voiced their prophecy all those millennia ago. It was I who selected your families to form the House of Scarabs, and it's I who have guarded you ever since via the power they granted me." She smiled up at them. "They are more than happy with my choice and thank you for your help," she said.

  "I haven't agreed to help them," Ellie replied.

  “Ah, but you will,” Kiya said, staring into the distance. "You will do so much, my child. So much good.” She turned back to look at Sobek, who'd stepped forward. "We must hurry. Gerhard and Ben await you. Ah, well, our little chat will have to wait for another time. I'll precis it for now."

  She released Ellie from the bubble and passed her a coffee.

  "Elena, I think you're aware the three of you together form the House of Scarabs. To forge the House, it was necessary you each complete a challenge in which you'd die and pass through the ritual of resurrection with the god you represent. That's because the gods were endowing you with their powers, the power of resurrection."

  Ellie gasped, her eyes widening.

  "It's bound to be a bit of a shock," Kiya said kindly.

  "Bit," Ellie spluttered. “Resurrection, like bringing people back from the dead?"

  "Yes, precisely so. The House of Scarabs is the key to the gateway from Heaven. Together, you can return anyone to life as long as a part of their body still exists on earth. They will return clear of illness and at their optimum age. You have much t
o do and to beware of, for these powers engender great greed."

  "Hang on a minute. That sounds ghoulish. I don't want to be Frankenstein, raising bodies from their graves. It's horrific. No, I want no part in that," Ellie said, pulling away. "Everyone I love is here, and you want me to leave them to bring back dead people? No - no way!"

  "It's too late. I'm sorry, but you are already Khepri's key. Now hurry. You have your farewells to say. I so wish your family could go with you. That was what I planned, but as Sam pointed out, Amarine didn't ever fully exist, so she can't go back. She needs at least one parent here."

  Ellie sobbed, shaking her head from side to side. Kiya patted her hand and passed her a perfectly pressed linen handkerchief.

  "As the key, you can come and visit upon occasion. This house is yours. It's modelled on your dream house, I believe," Kiya said, smiling at Khepri, who nodded. "You can stay for two days - no more. And beware, as your body is at its most vulnerable during that time. It's the only time you can be killed, so plan your trips carefully."

  Ellie stared at her, at a loss for words.

  "Truly, child, I know we ask a lot of you, more than of Ben and Gerhard, but your role in the fate of humanity is crucial. Without you, two millennia of planning and work will come to naught. We have no choice. You have no choice. Our destinies were preformed long before our births." Kiya eased Ellie out of the chair. "We will talk again, my child. Remember I am always here, for you are my kin. Our purpose is to protect and support the House of Scarabs. We are at your service. Now go – hurry. You have but moments for your goodbyes," she said, gesturing at the door which had appeared next to them.

  "But how? I mean..."

  Kiya shook her head. "We don't have time, but it will become clear in due course. Go."

  Kiya pushed her through the door, which slammed behind her.

  "Mommy, you've been ages," Amarine said, pouting. "Now we have no time to skip together. I love skipping. Do you?"