I awoke semi-conscious in complete darkness, my entire body throbbing in heavy, overwhelming pain. The recurrent fear of having a heart attack began settling in the back of my mind as I began to regain full consciousness.

At first, I thought I had awoken in my bedroom, but the more conscious I became, the heavier the eerie feeling in my chest grew. Like a tumor, it soon grew to the point where I felt as if I would become ill.

I sat up in the lilac silken pyjamas, bile rising to my throat at my gradual movements. My body broke out in a cold sweat despite the obvious chill that pierced my skin.

This is it, I thought, It’s finally happening, this will be the heart attack that kills me.

That was the thought haunted me for about a minute before I began to pick up the acrid scent of blood and rotting flesh. Once those fetid smells hit my nose, I then detected a small, warming light up ahead.

“Where am I? I asked in a hushed tone as I tried to get to my feet.

I was on my knees when I heard a loud, moist crunch from behind me, followed by the sloppy sound of chewing. The eldritch noise sent tremors up and down my back and caused my legs to go numb.

That, unfortunately, was not the worst of it.

“Who are you?” A flat unison of a male and female voice echoed throughout the space, “You are not dead,”

“Dead?” I questioned in a panic, my mouth going dry as I swallowed a large, heavy breath of air down my throat.

If it wasn’t going to be a heart attack that killed me, then whatever this was would surely find a way.

In response to my question, a massive gust of wind swept through the dark, forcing me to shut my eyes as my entire body was nearly pushed backward, and for a moment, I felt the oxygen being ripped from my lungs.

Once the wind seemed to die down, I felt the piercing string of heat as the inside of my eyelids became illuminated in a blinding light and my body began to grow warm in a soft glow.

I was ultimately forced to open my eyes and was horrified to find most of the walls of the once dark, dismal space now enlightened in capes of dancing flames.

I turned my gaze down toward the floor where my horror was intensified.

A shrill scream escaped my lips as all around me, the torn, bloodied, limbs of human remains lay littering the floor, like trash on the side of a highway, inches from my reach.

I felt the bile I had been trying to suppress rise higher in my throat as I dared myself not to look behind me.

Stay calm, stay calm.

I began to remember when I was just a girl, and it had been getting closer and closer to Christmas. I had been so excited I could hardly sit still. All I had wanted that year was a beautiful, sterling silver necklace with a small, silver feather, and beside it hung a small piece of turquoise; my favorite stone. I had wanted to be like all those fancy women I saw on the T.V. my parents left on in the living room while they slept most of their days.

I had desperately wanted it, however, somehow I knew I couldn’t receive it for it was far too expensive. Still, I dreamed and dreamed of the day where I would own that necklace and I would wear it proudly whenever I was out.

On the early morning of Christmas, I walked downstairs, hoping to see at least something under the makeshift tree my brother and I had made of a small wooden chair and leftover lights from years before when we were able to afford a real Christmas tree.

I crept quietly over towards our Christmas tree and saw a small, beautifully wrapped present with its tag reading “To Mirella, Love Daesyn”. Little had I known that my brother had gotten himself two jobs so he could afford to buy me the necklace he knew I had wanted with all my heart.

I tried to hold my back my curiosity as to what it could be, but my willpower had evaporated and made room for my sheer excitement as I began to tear into the paper.

“You couldn’t even wait till I got up, could you Mirella?” I heard the voice of my brother from upon the stairs behind me as I held a beautiful, sterling silver necklace in my delicate fingers.

I then whipped my head around to see my brother standing behind me with a look of amusement on his face as he began to chuckle,

“Good grief, I suppose I should have kept that in my room knowing my sister is a “Curious Carrie”

It had been a little joke then as I ran up to him with a tear-stained hug and a small thank you, but now, as I stood in a cave of dancing flames and human remains; it was anything but a joke.

My horrified curiosity had evaporated any willpower I had left, and I reluctantly turned around to see where the voices had come from, gulping another large ball of air down my throat like a bulky vitamin.

On top of a large pile of human remains sat the head of a crocodile with what looked to have the torso of a large cat and the hind of a hippopotamus. Its bright green, reptilian eyes stared hungrily in my direction as a threatening growl escaped its closed lips. Despite the walls of swirling flame, the creature seemed to cling to whatever sort of darkness it could find atop its throne of limbs, using it as a cover to try and mask its hideous form.

I placed a hand over my gaping mouth in arrant shock. What had I done to deserve this? Better yet, how did I even get here in the first place?

“You don’t look so good,” the crocodile head remarked flatly in its chorus of two voices.

“Why the bloody hell am I even here?” I dared myself to ask, mustering any courage I had to even slightly raise my voice above a whisper.

“You think I care as to why you’re here, human?” The beast retorted with an arrogant laugh, shifting its position on its mound of human limbs.

I whipped my head back around to the blinding light I had seen earlier. What was it? It was definitely not part of the golden fire since it seemed to have a more of a purple tint to it.

“I can tell you this though,” The beast began again in a low growl, “if you don’t leave soon, I think I’ll help myself to your body. I’ve never eaten a living human before, I wonder what they taste like?”

I decided, right then and there, that this was my only other option. I could stay here and be eaten alive, or I could try and find a way out of here. The option seemed pretty clear to me, and at that moment, I decided to make my way towards the glow.

“Here goes nothing,” I whimpered through my teeth before making a hast run for the light, trying to ignore the fact that my bare feet were stepping upon bloodied, severed limbs and strewed bones, I felt like an actress in my own horror movie, except this didn’t seem to be a movie and I definitely was not acting.

No, this was real; real as anything else I had faced in my own life. From high school, to my birthday parties, to even college, this was the real deal. I had to find a way to escape it; I had to find a way to escape this reality I had awoken in.

I gave an agonized wince as my bare foot was jabbed in the side by a stray, serrated bone; my stomach curdling in the sharp pain, but I tried to ignore it as I kept running.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The beast roared, its tone sending out another large gust of wind, which nearly knocked me to the ground.

I didn’t say anything; I just kept running as fast as I could towards the light.

Please don’t kill me yet, I thought, relaying my message to my beating heart, just wait until we’re done here and then you can kill me.

With every step I took to the light, I felt as if it were moving farther from me. I kept on running, however, as my mind began to grow blank from fear. It felt as if I were now running solely on autopilot, like a plane about to crash into the sea.

“You think you’re quite clever, don’t you?” The creature retorted in open amusement as a large, black shadow began to take form in front of my path, blocking my view of the light up ahead.

I was forced to back up a few inches as the obscure mass began to form the shape of a man with the head of a ferocious canine. A look of heated anger burned in his bright red eyes as he turned down to glare at me.

“Uh-oh,” I nearly choked as the creature kept its eyes on me, bringing a monstrous hand down to my level; a hand that would have crushed me like an insect if I hadn’t found the energy I needed to jump out of the way.

“Listen,” I tried in a weary voice as the creature before me kept coming at me, his hand about the size of a flatbed truck, “I’m terribly sorry if I have said anything to upset you, I really didn’t mean it, I swear.”

“You think your groveling will save you now?” The voice integrated, but this time, there was only a female tone to it.

“One can only hope,” I replied in a shrill squeak as the hand began to bring itself down on me, and I only prayed it wasn’t for the last time.

Just then, the bracelet I had nearly forgotten altogether began to glimmer brightly on my wrist. I didn’t have time to register it completely before a large wind swept in from the back. Its force heralding a large, silver scaled snake that came crashing into the harsh, shadowy figure; causing both creatures to fall to the floor in a thunderous crash.

“So it is you,” Was the last thing I heard before I ultimately decided to make a run for it.

I heaved myself carefully over the two brawling forms, trying desperately not to fall backward, and once I found my footing on the other side, I sprinted with all the energy I had left toward the light.

I then felt something take a hold of my waist, and I began to scream as I saw that the tail of the snake now had a hold on me.

I waited for it to squeeze my body like a stress doll, but instead, it threw me across the space. I landed face-first on the floor, praying that the moist substance on my face was not blood as I began to get up.

This can’t be good for me. I thought to myself in a whine as I began to open my eyes.

I noticed that the floor beneath me carried a soft, dancing glow upon it, and immediately, I turned my gaze upward.

“You’re welcome,” Came a haughty, female voice as I began to marvel at the massive, purple-tinted light before me. To my dismay, it was not a way out, not at first glance. No, this massive sphere of light seemed to encapsulate a man with skin the color of warm copper and his long hair was a shade as black as coal. This man wore nothing but a tan, ragged loincloth and his body seemed to be held by an array of smaller, silver snakes; their forms coiling around his wrists in tight ropes.

I had become so engulfed in my fasciation, I had completely forgotten I was on a battleground and ended up paying for that ignorance as my body was kicked to the floor.

“I thought I would learn to never let anyone do what I am more than capable of doing,” The woman above me replied with a sneer. I instantly recognized her voice as the voice of the crocodile beast, but right now, she was not a conjoined being of animals; she was about as human as I was.

The deep copper-skinned woman wore a dress made of dusty tan fabric with a headdress concealing parts of her coal-black hair. She glared down at me with bright, reptilian green eyes as she then threw a kick at my limp form once more.

“Why even waste my goddess form on a mortal?” She questioned herself with a sly shrug, “My mortal form will be able to fight you just fine,”

I wasn’t ready to give up quite yet; I had made it this far after all. I summoned all the adrenaline I had left and shot my body upward as I kept my arm outstretched. I then grabbed the woman by the collar and brought her form down with me.

This can’t be good for me. Was the only thought encircling my mind as I tried my best to survive this hell.

The woman put up quite a struggle, but I eventually got her to fall forward as I then began to make my way up to my feet.

As I had gotten up, she grabbed me by my ankle and tried to pull me back down.

“Let me go!” I commanded in an anxious high-pitched tone, absentmindedly thrusting the arm that held my bracelet in her direction. As I did so, a burst of light shot out from the gem in the center and struck her in the forehead; causing her to grow comatose for the time being, her head falling to the disturbingly moist ground beneath us.

Soon after, any feeling I had left in that arm began to go out like a light, but with everything going on around me, it made little to no difference in my situation.

I watched her for a couple of seconds to make sure she didn’t get back up as I took hold of my limp arm. I then went back to the barrier as I heard a bellowing, male voice cry out, “AMMIT!”

I turned to look and saw that the snake still held the livid shadow creature in its tight, coiling body, but now the shadow creature looked at me with a furious sneer. I felt another wave of bile rise to my throat.

I had to find a way out of here before it broke free from the snake.

“You could try freeing the man?” A female voice in my mind suggested and I turned to see if it was the woman I had just fought.

To my relief, she was still unconscious, but that wouldn’t’ do me too much good if I didn’t get out of here.

“That’s why I’m saying, free the man,” Commanded the female voice, her tone breaking through all the thoughts I had stewing in my brain.

“Alright, how do I do that?” I asked my thoughts, my body shaking with fear as I stood in front of the barrier.

“If you’re the reincarnation of Ma’at, then you should be able to call out my name and free this guy,” The female voice continued with labored breathing, “hurry, I can’t hold this thing for long,”

I was as confused as a student on their first day of high school, but I knew I at least needed to try and free this man; it seemed to be my only other option.

“Names, all right, names,” I stated to myself as I began to conjure up any names I could think of.

There were my parents, my brother, my friends, even an ex-boyfriend, but none of these names seemed correct.

It was then I heard something stir from beside me, and I turned in horror to see the woman making her way back up.

“Lucky trick,” She growled angrily, making her way toward me with a livid glare.

“A name, a name,” I repeated hastily as I felt the woman grab hold of me and throw me to the ground causing everything but my still numb arm to glow in throbbing pain.

It was at that moment that my head hit the ground that I finally remembered the name.

“Let’s make sure you can't-“ Ammit began, holding her fist out for a punch as I began to scream at the top of my lungs,

“With the power of the goddess Ma’at, I command you, Jumishat, to release this man from the barrier!”

I then held my eyes shut as a brilliant light began to envelop my body, causing me to fall into an arrant pit of darkness as I then felt myself drift off to sleep.