The Cursed Pharaoh's Bride

Chapter XII

Carolina

I keep mulling over the rest of the events of yesterday’s...get together...hoping I might have missed something. He took me to a hole in the wall burger place - not that expensive or fancy like he said. It was cozy. Being with him felt cozy. 

I wanted to ask him more questions. Yet somehow, I found myself talking to him like he was an old friend. I wanted to know more about his life as pharaoh, and he did tell me, but it wasn’t like what I expected. He told me about growing up an only child with his mother. He wasn’t born into royalty; that was something he acquired later but he conveniently left out how that happened. Am I left to assume that he actually completed seven impossible tasks to prove his worthiness to the gods? He told me how he met Lorenzo, his best friend, when he was traveling as a kid. He said something about a hunting accident. For a second, it really felt like we were on a...

“Hey, can you stop staring at your ceiling for like two seconds?” Alexa complains as she barges into my room. “It’s your turn to make dinner today and I’m getting hungry.”

It takes everything in me to not let out an annoyed sigh. “I’ll be there in a minute,” I say. Alexa lets out an annoyed humph as she closes my door behind her. 

I can’t get Elijah out of my head as I crawl out of my bed and head to the kitchen to make Alexa’s precious food. I hate when Tori leaves me with her on days she works late. It feels like I’m babysitting. As I’m clearing our dirty dishes from the table, even though it’s Alexa’s night to clean up, Alexa decides to bless me with her inner thoughts. 

“You know, ever since you brought him up, I can’t help but think about Elijah Seka from time to time,” she says. 

I pause for a second before proceeding to wash the dishes. That makes two of us. “What about him?” I ask nonchalantly. 

“Well I was searching him up to see if he was an eligible bachelor or whatever, because that’s important info to know. But it turns out he’s dating some super model,” she huffs. 

The soapy dish I’m washing nearly slips out of my hands at the sound of this. “And how do you know this,” I say low enough to be a whisper. 

“Oh, I just read some article about this gala he attended. His date was some foreign model,” she responds, “I didn’t think you would care.”

I bite my tongue to stop myself from snapping at her. Watch your tone, Carolina. “I don’t,” I say as I finish up, “And I’m not surprised. Famous people and billionaires always date super models.” 

Without another word, I finish up in the kitchen and all but storm into my room. I open my nightstand drawer and pull out the beetle ring. Yeah, right. Me, be his queen. What a lie. I let out a sigh as I inspect the ring. Why should I be surprised? He won’t even tell me the whole truth about who he really is. Who is El Hasekrah?

That’s when it hits me. I found him in a real tomb. There are legends about him. There has to be some historical context on him or at least his time as pharaoh. The best place to start is with this ring. But I’m going to need some help. 

.      .       .       .      .      .      .

Stepping into the City College library was a nice change of scenery. The dim yellow light and moderate air conditioning was a nice change from the slightly chilly and gloomy rain outside. It’s a bit cool for a mid-September day. 

Just as I walk past the front desk, I’m stopped when I hear someone call my name. When I turn, I’m surprised to see Jay. 

“Carolina, what are you doing here?” He asks in slight surprise. 

“This library was my closest public school library and I-I needed to do some research,” I stutter. “I didn’t realize you worked here.”

“Well, a guy’s got to pay rent,” he says. 

“I feel that,” I mutter, “I’m thinking of picking up another part time job.”

There is a small pause of awkward silence before Jay clears his throat. “Is there anything you’re looking for specifically?” He asks. 

I hesitate for a second before pulling out the ring from my pocket, which I moved into a plastic sandwich bag. “I was wondering if can find out more about this ring. Like more about the dynasty it came from,” I reluctantly say.

Jay’s eyes widen when he sees it. “That looks similar to a lot of the artifacts from the site in Egypt. Where did you get this?”

“Uh, don’t tell anyone but Dr. Jones gave it to me a while back. She said something about giving me a side research project,” I whisper, “It’s like she treats me like her personal private investigator or something.”

At that comment, Jay flashes me a look as if he knows all too well about being an errand boy. “I think we have some books on predynastic Egypt.”

He leads me to a section full of ancient Egyptian related text. Some of it doesn’t even look like it’s in English. He even points out a section on Egyptian mythology.

“I think you’ve given me enough content to get started,” I say as Jay and I struggle to carry all the books to a desk. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem,” he says as he gives me a small smile, his cheeks turning a little flush. “Let me know if you need anything else.” 

Just before Jay leaves me to my research, he turns to me one last time. “One more thing. I noticed that even though the design of the ring is on the very ancient side, I find it weird that it looks almost brand new.”

I can feel my heart skip a beat. What can I even say to that? “I didn’t even notice,” I say with an uneasy smile, “I wouldn’t put it past Dr. Jones to have it somewhat restored before giving it to me to work with.” 

“True,” he responds as he places his hand under his chin thoughtfully. With that, he leaves me in peace and I can finally take a breathe. 

I let out a huff as I look close the fifth book that doesn’t have the name “El-Hasekrah” in its index. I’m about to go for another scientific book when my eye catches a thick book on Egyptian mythology. I don’t really know what I’m looking for as I flip through the book but find myself stopping at the conflict between Horus and Set. It’s a story about a nephew and uncle viciously fighting for the throne of Egypt with the nephew, Horus, being the victor. 

I flip through the section on Horus when I stop at his children. He had one son with his wife Hathor. But it was speculated that he had an affair with a human at some point while the gods still had a presence on earth among humans. A demigod was born from this affair and he was seen as the embodiment of Horus in life. He became the Pharaoh and held the divine right to rule even after the gods stopped living with humans. 

I continue to flip through the book and when I can’t find any more information on the first pharaoh, I flip through the other mythology books. Then I find it. Hasekrah. They called him Hasekrah or Hasek. It isn’t long before I find some short blurbs on him. Unfortunately, there isn’t much. He ruled shortly sometime between 3200 BC and 3100 BC. He helped to build up Thinis initially and he mostly ruled northern Egypt. At some point he dies. There’s nothing else. 

I bring a few books with me down to the front desk to check them out. Maybe if I look through them again, I’ll find something else. As I’m waiting on line, I notice a magazine rack that has some of the latest trashy celebrity gossip. My eyes immediately find a picture of Elijah looking devilishly handsome in an expensive suit. I feel a pang of hot anger when I see a tall, thin and elegantly dressed woman plastered to his arm. It’s the super model Alexa was talking about. She has a flawless figure, flawless skin, flawless hair, a flawless face, a flawless outfit...she is just as perfect as him. I quickly grab the magazine and flip it over so the cover isn’t staring at me anymore. Maybe this is all a never ending bad dream. Maybe I’m going crazy. I mean, Elijah Seka can have anyone in the world to be his “queen”. Why is he wasting his time bothering me?