Chapter Fourteen

Cherie slowed as Kyle approached the run-down building, he called home, her eyes looking over the peeling sills and grubby frontage. It reminded her of a seedy half-way house, a haven for thieves and other ill-bred occupants.

The carpet on the stairs was tacky underfoot and it was impossible to tell what colour it had been, clearly the fibres had not been cleaned since it was laid down, maybe even before, she assumed the sickly shaded matting had been second hand to begin with.

She dared not even touch the breaking handrail, Lord knew what germs and filth bred on it.

"How can you live like this?" She asked with genuine intrigue as she stumbled in the gloom. "No offence but I'm not surprised the scarabs didn't touch here."

The smell of cannabis reached her nose as she turned the bend for the final steps, leaking from the room opposite and home to a former student. Kyle never believed he had ever been at college; the man rarely left the room except to open it for a delivery or a dealer.

"All I can afford," he answered snippily, glancing to the gap under the door and relieved to see no blood had seeped through. The scarabs had infiltrated, just not in his room. "It's a roof and I can go out for most of the day and just use it as a base camp." He narrowed his eyes. "Unlike you I'm no socialite and I didn't get born with a silver spoon. My mommy and daddy weren't there to give me everything my little heart wanted."

"OK! Gee, I only asked," Cherie held her hands up. "And if you must know I do actually work for my cash as well. Although," she stopped in her tracks, shoulders slumping. "I suppose I've been lucky."

"Understatement of the century."

Kyle pushed past her and opened his door. He rarely locked it, there was little point, even burglars didn't bother with this area. They just lived there.

He stepped aside and allowed Cherie to pass him with a sarcastic 'ladies first' before he followed, shutting the door with a sharp click, the noise sounding like the clang of a prison cell closing to her.

"You have an... interesting style," she said as her eyes scanned around the room, settling for a time on the chest in the corner, an odd sensation flowing from it. "I would say I'm sorry you have to live like this but..."

"You've already said it," Kyle snorted and retrieved a bottle of vodka from under a pile of papers. "And don't be, I'm used to it and like I said, it's all I can damned well afford." His eyes burned into her as he took a long gulp from the bottle. "Perhaps its people didn't keep getting me the sack then I might be nearer to being on easy street."

Cherie cringed and turned to gaze out the window, keeping her senses on high alert as she heard him pacing and rummaging behind her. She shuddered at the mass of birds that spanned the sky, gruesome titbits hooked in their beaks and beady eyes scouring below for more.

Kyle kept a furtive gaze on her as he opened the cupboard, feeling a wave of dread and arousal wash over him as the figure came into view.

'Blood for the bull.'

The words repeated in his mind as he reached for the switchblade, he kept under his bed just in case. There was little chance of purposeful intrusion but drunks and drug addicts had little sense when they were addled.

He placed it on top of the chest nonchalantly as Cherie turned around, her eyes fixated on the blade. Kyle smiled at her sickened silence and shook his head.

"Precaution. These doors aren't exactly top quality, I don't want anyone trying to get in." He chuckled lightly, flashing an overly gleeful smile. "I don't want to hurt anyone either but I'm not being thrown out my own place! Maybe you ought to keep something close by as well, there's stuff in the box over there."

He gestured to a haggard cardboard box near his kitchen area where he kept a variety of utensils, the side punctured where the knives had been dropped back in after rinsing. He hadn't time put them in order and whatever he pulled out normally worked for the purpose.

"I suppose." Cherie backed towards the box, her legs barely holding her upright as her muscles spasmed with tight fear.

She relaxed slightly as Kyle held up his hands and moved towards the window, listening to the cruel choir of crows that rocked the air.

A single feather floated down, getting caught in the sticky residue of an abandoned cobweb outside. It rocked slowly with the breeze, reflecting a teal shimmer from the glossy surface.

He seemed so taken with the sight that Cherie turned her back to sift through the items, taking care not to pierce her fingers at the precarious angles some lay at.

She didn't hear him move; she didn't see object he picked up.

The last thing she felt before blackness closed about her was the blunt force connecting with the back of her head.

____________________________

"Tell Thoth I shall need his help." Atum looked solemnly to Shu as he held the paper. "I feel this mortal might be of more importance than first thought, perhaps not just a shield to deter any interference on our part."

"Yes, great one," Shu bowed his head, rising from where he had been seated for some time, the untouched wine glass still in his hand. "What is it you require?"

Atum drained his own glass and set it aside, his face set with determination shaded with nerves as his eyes read over and over the scrawled message, searching for anything that would change his interpretation or his thoughts.

"Tell him I need him to send the spell that will open up lost memories, to give those lucid dreams that reveal the lost part of the psyche. I don't want him to suffer any side effects but I need it to be thorough, every atom of his mind must be purged and brought to the fore."

"Yes, great one. You think...?"

"I think," Atum interrupted calmly "that Am Heh is not completely without heart, that, while he prided himself on my error as he put it, he simply hides it well and I did not make such a mistake in his creation." He gave a wry smile. "Old I might be, but I have never been past my best!"

Shu smiled, to him and the others, Atum had never been any less than perfect.

As if reading his mind Atum shook his head. "I am prone to errors, Shu. I am proud of all my children but they also have their faults. Faults which I hoped they would learn from, sometimes what they do is most displeasing. Set and Horus would be a good example."

Shu chuckled as he prepared himself to head back to Thoth. "They have settled to a strange truce of being fickle friends with benefits. Let's be honest, Horus is his mother’s son and Isis was headstrong and would do anything to get what she wanted. Since Set seems to think with his lower half much of the time then it works, just don't provoke the warlord in him."

"Yes," Atum wrinkled his nose is distaste, scouring his bookshelf. "I wouldn't mind if they weren't related. That, dear Shu, was an error of mine. I forgot to order them not to promote inbreeding to humans, as Gods it was the only way. Humans ended up suffering for it."

"Their error also," Shu replied airily "humans seldom learn either. I shall return shortly."

Without waiting for a rebuttal, he vanished into the air, leaving only a cool chill in his wake.