Click to join
JenniferMuellergroup
Enter Card Pick-up ID below:
Egyptian Nights Excerpt
Victoria forced her eyes open to find herself staring at a small statue of a cat with an earring glowing in the faint light of a single lamp. The man was not in the room. Night had fallen and even though it seemed as if he was there only moments before she had no idea how long she had been asleep. How long since he had wiped those tears away? The moon was full when Victoria ventured out the door. The dizziness had vanished, but her arm still felt as if she had been hit with a bat. It felt so real that she held it as if it was indeed broken even if it wasn't. Her stomach felt as if she was in endless labor. How she had slept at all with the pain, she couldn't understand.
A high wall shut out the rest of the world, though faintly she could hear the river close by. Tall palm trees reached to the sky but there before her were vineyards in the center of the compound, highly prized by the care that had been taken of them. Fishponds broke the monotony of trees and plants, magnificent flowers almost bent under the weight of the blooms. Arbors for resting were scattered here and there under the wide shade of ancient olive and fig trees. Under one of them, Victoria saw Khaemhat. He was in his mid twenties at most, maybe a bit younger. In the moonlight, he looked like a statue carved into the cliffs that she had seen in books. Fantasies weren't this real were they? Victoria could see herself becoming another person to forget Neil, but if this was a fantasy, why would she want to remember every beating he had given her, but yet having nothing she knew around her? Wouldn't she have herself know everything in the world she created if this was all an illusion?
Khaemhat spun around and before Victoria could say anything he had her enveloped in his arms. Neil . . . Victoria forced the thought of him away. Until she saw him again she was just going to have to push him out of her mind. Until she saw otherwise, she was free of him.
"How long have I been asleep?" It seemed the only safe thing to ask at the moment.
"Two weeks. The servants have been giving you wine and broth at meal times even if you never woke." He answered huskily and she swore he was crying.
How could she tell him that his beloved was indeed gone forever? Oh God no! They hadn't switched places had they? She hadn't been saved only to put another in her place...
