Alden Gailor's imagination had always been vivid, ever since he was little. Things he would read would spring to life within his mind, and he could feel the wind on his skin, or taste the salt sea air whenever he let his consciousness disappear into the world he was making up. He knew it wasn't something unique to him and most avid readers usually experienced the same. Certain scents could grab long-buried memories of Alden's and drag them back to the surface, good or bad, like the scent of Earl Gray. He would find himself completely immersed in the memory, as if he wasn't just recalling it, but there, reliving it at the point in time it happened. Alden had always chalked it up to having an overactive imagination and a great memory, however, what he was seeing, now that his consciousness had returned, definitely was not one of his memories.
Panic and confusion quickly rippled through Alden's being as his eyes swept over a sandy, golden brown desert, seeing with eyes that felt like they were his, but he didn't seem to have any control over them. They moved back and forth over the horizon, a vast empty landscape of dunes and despair, and settled on a large plateau a short distance away, his right arm slowly rose and gestured towards the empty desert before him, but he wasn't doing it.
He didn't know why his body wasn't responding to him and moving on its own, or why he couldn't control his eyes, or his arm, which he noticed didn't look anything like what he knew it should. It was smaller, the hand little, and covered in jewels and rings. And the skin was a lot darker than his own. The panic only increased as Alden heard the shouts and cheers of thousands of human beings behind him, and then he heard his voice as he spoke one word, a word he had no idea how to say or what it meant, a word he spoke in a soft, feminine voice that sounded nothing like him, in a voice that was his but wasn't. The shouts and cheers died out behind him and several unfamiliar words were yelled out in succession and then the thousands of humans at his back could be heard marching forward through the sands and towards the large outcrop of rock before them.
What he was seeing changed again, this time he was inside a poorly lit cavern with two laborers who were chipping away at a stone wall. He could feel it, and after months of digging, he was close, he knew it. There was a startled shout from one of the laborers as he swung his tool against the wall and broke through into another chamber, one that was significantly smaller. Alden ushered the laborers away as he grabbed a torch with a hand that wasn't his own and moved towards the opening, shoving the torch inside, revealing what he had hoped would be there. He felt elation and a sense of vindication. He reached into the chamber with his free hand and pulled free a thin stone box. The outside was covered in strange carvings he had never seen before, completely unlike any symbols he was familiar with.
He sat the stone box down and took a long while just looking at it. There was a small almost invisible seam around the middle of the box, like it had been made of two pieces slid together. Carefully he pulled, and the two ends came apart silently, revealing a thing, a dark metal rod seated inside, and it wasn't almost imperceptible, but there was a low hum coming from the object. Lips that weren't his spread into a wide smile as fingers that weren't his own wrapped around the smooth piece of cylindrical metal. As soon as the hand was around the metal, the world went black, both for Alden and the body he was hitching a ride in, somehow.
Suddenly everything changed, like it was a new scene from a movie. The empty desert and plateau were gone, and Alden could see it had been replaced with a small, but bustling city, and a large ornate temple complex was in the middle of construction. Again, he heard words spoken in a language he didn't know or had ever heard, and he saw dozens of craftsmen and craftswomen running around while he stood in front of a fairly large obelisk that had just been set into place, and scaffolding was being erected for the stone carvers to start their job on the blank faces of the obelisk. Alden could feel his thin lips curl up into a satisfied smile.
He could feel a joy and a sense of accomplishment that wasn't his own, and he could feel the gritty granite beneath his soft hands as he slid them over the monument that would tell his life's story when it was finished. Alden felt happy, complete. He had finally succeeded, but succeeded at what? He was scared and confused. This wasn't his memory, he didn't have any control over anything, and what he felt and saw wasn't with his own senses. His feelings and senses had him more panicked and more confused than he had ever been in his life and no matter what he tried, he couldn't make his voice heard, he couldn't control any part of his body. He couldn't even blink if he wanted to.
Alden couldn't help but think that Professor Kipp had put something in his tea without him knowing. That felt like a logical explanation for why he was experiencing what he was, he had taken psychedelics before. It felt like a very bad hallucination. It was an unsettling ride that he couldn't get off and some of his panic and confusion started into anger before logic prevailed. Why would his professor want to spike his tea? He saw the old man open the tea and boil the water and pour it all. Alden was jumping to conclusions, but he couldn't stop himself from trying to understand what was going on. He felt completely cognizant and self-aware, but he couldn't control his body, or what felt like his body.
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Before he could focus his thoughts, the scene changed again and he was sitting in a stone chair that had been risen above the heads of the people in front of him. The sky was dark, the sun had set long before and the stars were bright. His right hand gripped a metal rod while his left rested easily in the larger hand of a man next to him and he turned to look at the male. Again, unknown words were spoken by Alden's lips and celebratory cheers erupted as everyone turned their heads upward. Towards the stars. Something odd was happening.
The constellation that Alden knew as Orion's Belt was directly above them, and the stars that made it up were sparkling like stars do. They seemed to be getting brighter with each passing second until they stopped, and then the twinkling turned into a pattern of gentle pulses. Each star in the belt would brighten and dim steadily, from left to right and back again. Alden had never seen anything like it, anywhere, and with each pulse, he could hear something. A faint buzzing, or humming that made him think of electricity. It felt and sounded like it was coming from the stance metal rod he was holding. He lifted his hand with the rod towards the sky and suddenly the humming stopped and the stars in Orion's Belt stopped their display and deathly silence fell over the temple complex and a sense of reverence came with it.
Yet again, the scene changed, like in a movie. Alden had to accept that he was just a spectator, and he was somehow experiencing the memories of a long-dead woman from the ancient past. How he didn't know, but he knew it wasn't a hallucination. The memories came like a gentle but strong river, flowing easily from one to the next. Alden saw the woman's life unfold through her own eyes, from her earliest childhood memory to her final moment. He saw her struggles and successes, how she rose from just a daughter of a High Priest to become one of the most powerful individuals of that era. All he could do was be an unknown passenger as this woman lived her life, watching as strange and peculiar things unfolded around her.
Alden experienced the woman's entire life while only a few seconds had passed since he took in the unique scent of the mummy. He didn't know what to think, about anything. He couldn't comprehend how he could experience what he had, or how to process the weird, unnatural things he saw through the woman's eyes. Things that should have been and were known to be impossible during that time in human history. Surely they were aware of electricity, but they didn't know what it was, and there was no way they had the technology or the means to control that force. And the stars? Such a phenomenon must have been recorded. It's not every day that stars shine in a rhythmic pattern.
Then the last scene was playing out before him. He could feel the weight of age in the woman's bones and could hear the whisper of death in her voice as she spoke to a handful of people gathered around her. Their faces all held similar expressions, from sadness to reverence to brave smiles. They knew she was dying and that it would be soon, and they wanted to send her off to the next life with love. Alden watched as each person approached and spoke softly to her. He didn't need to know what they were saying, he could feel the meaning behind them as he heard their voices. She was loved, and respected.
The last person approached as she sat there, rolling the peculiar metal rod between her hand and thigh. She looked the child up and down as he stopped before her and knelt. Her youngest grandson was now 11 years of age. His head was shaved in the customary way and his eyes were painted appropriately. She engaged her kin in a short conversation before he held out his hand, a look of fear and awe battling on his young face as she placed the rod into his small hand.
She nodded and waved her hand as the boy collapsed and two guards gathered him up and took him away to rest easily. She sat there silently as the torches crackled, their faint flickering mirroring how her soul felt, sputtering. Now that she no longer had that metal rod, she felt empty, and she could feel death walking up to her. It wouldn't be long now. She sighed content, and leaned back into the chair, closing her eyes.
"Beware you demon," The woman spoke to the empty room. In English. A sense of existential panic washed over Alden. Was she aware of his presence? And she spoke English? "My time is soon ending and thus yours. I know you're real and not a sickness of my mind. I've known since I first touched that object. I can feel your fear and confusion."
Alden tried to speak, but he was just a separate consciousness somehow attached to the woman. The most he could do was communicate through faint emotions. He wanted to know how. How she knew he was inside her mind, how she could feel him and what that rod was and what it did.
"You've been with me my whole life, a constant stranger in my head. You have experienced everything I have." She continued, still smiling. Somehow she knew about him, and he felt like she knew everything. Slowly her eyes closed and Alden's vision with it. He could hear her last breath slowly pass her lips, and then there was an intense, almost unbearable ringing in his ears and the complete blackness around him exploded into the purest of white light.
Suddenly Alden was back in the present, with Professor Kipp and Dr. Moore around him right where they had been before, sharing a secret smile that Alden couldn't see. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn't, as he was falling to the tiled floor and blood was dripping from his nose as he started to convulse, splattering bright red splotches all over the white ceramic. Dr. Moore was instantly by his side and enacting her medical training to help, while Professor Kipp picked up the phone on the nearest wall and called for assistance.
