The excavation continued normally for about a week after that. Until we got to the center of the ancient city, that’s where we found him… or rather his sarcophagus. Just laying in the middle of the market plaza. 

Everyone gathered around the large granite sarcophagus. We slowly began to clean off, and photograph the area. The sarcophagus was large, but mostly undecorated. There were deep scratches running up the sides going to the center. In the center there was the carving of a handprint, and some hieroglyphics… They said the cursed one…

All the locals started to whisper and back away from the area in fear. He has unearthed evil, he should have never worked this job, I knew I couldn’t hear everything they were saying. I started to panic… 

“Row?” I looked over at Melody.

“I’m fine, let's just survey the site…” I said quietly and walked towards the intimidating sarcophagus and stared at the hieroglyphics. The day continued on as normal after that for the rest of the day, that was until I was getting ready for bed. 

All of a sudden it was like my body had a mind of its own, I started walking out of my tent and to the city. Everyone else was already in their tents for the night and the camp was eerily silent. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. I tried to turn around or stop walking, but nothing was working. I couldn’t stop walking. I was terrified. Further and further I walked until I was in front of him, I knew it was him that was calling me, the pharaoh…

This feeling is familiar, it’s like the dream when I first met him. Slowly my arm started moving upward and towards the handprint carving. My hand fit perfectly inside of the carving, as if it was made just for me. As soon as my hand made contact I regained control of my body. I quickly backed a few feet away from the sarcophagus, and watched it for a few moments. It didn’t seem like anything was going to happen so I started to walk away while still looking back at the large stone. Wondering why that had just happened to me. 

Then all of sudden the sky went dark and all of the stars were extinguished from the sky one by one. Thick dark clouds formed in the sky, just like how I remember from my first dream. A bolt of lightning was thrown from the heavens and struck the sarcophagus, splitting the granite lid in half, slowly both halves slid off in opposite directions and fell to the ground with a loud crash.

Then the gods spoke as one from the heavens.

“Sparrow Grey, your mission has begun.

Guide this lost soul back to the light,

For he is lost in the darkness.

To learn his lesson he is your slave, 

And you are his master.”

As soon as they finished speaking the sky cleared and stars slowly started to return, and I watched in amazement. I looked back at the now open sarcophagus and saw movement. Slowly I saw a figure sit up and then slowly move to a standing position. Even though I was scared, I moved closer to the figure. As I got closer I noticed that he was covered in linen bandages from head to toe. 

He seemed to  notice I was there even with his eyes covered and he started to remove the bandages from his face. After what felt like forever, but was probably only a minute I could see his whole face, and he was looking directly at me. He carefully got out of the sarcophagus and approached me. As he got closer I could see more of his features. He’s tall, his hair is as black as night, but his eyes almost seemed to simmer in the moonlight; they were both blue and gold. Once he was about five feet away he stopped and bent down on one knee and bowed his head to me.

“Master, you have summoned me?” He said as if he was still in a daze. 

Confused, I said “Pharaoh?” 

“While I was once known as Pharaoh, my name is Amun.” He replied, still bowing. 

“Did you hear those voices too? And how do you know english?” I asked, my fear starting to ramp up.

“Yes, those voices were the Gods. From now on I cannot disobey you, and have to serve you for the rest of your life. The gods also granted me the ability to speak and understand the language of my master.” This is going a bit too smoothly.

“That makes more sense… I guess. Well, you don’t have to bow…” I said. He then stood and looked at me as if asking for more directions. What should I do? Do I bring him back to my tent, and how am I going to explain the broken lid? How am I going to explain him?! I looked back at the broken sarcophagus, and sighed. 

Then I heard voices getting closer to where we were and I grabbed his arm and started running to one of the buildings off to the side. Once we got inside I pulled him out of sight. 

“Wait here, please.” I said and ran out of the building to the sarcophagus to meet the group of people starting to form. Melody ran straight to me looking confused and concerned. Everyone was talking about the strangeness of the events that had just transpired. 

“Row! Did you see that lightning just now?” Melody asked. 

“Uh… Yeah…” Leaning forward I whispered in her ear “The pharaoh is back, and calm for now. I don’t know what’s going on.” She looked as if she had seen a ghost.

“Sparrow! You have to come over and look at this! Where did that lightning come from?!” Jun called over to me from the sarcophagus. Melody and I ran over to him while we both tried to keep our composure. 

“I don’t know exactly, I heard the thunder and ran over as fast as I could, but it was already like this.” I looked at the spot in which he had laid for 5,000 years. “I guess we'll just have to take new photographs in the morning and document this in our records. At least we already got pictures of it in its complete state earlier today.” 

“You’re right Row, there’s nothing that we can do right now. Let’s all go back to camp and try to get some more sleep before sunrise.” Melody pitched in. Everyone filed back to camp and went to sleep, everyone but Melody and I who went back to the ruins. Back to the house where I asked him to wait, half expecting him to have run away.

“He should be in that house right there” I said while pointing towards the building I had him hide. When we were only inches away from the threshold I stopped, took a breath and said “Well we shouldn’t keep him waiting too long…” And we slowly walked past the front door and into the building to speak with him and get a few more answers.