The mind settles at last, finally resigning itself to fate as you prepare yourself for death. You wonder what the sand will feel like when you breathe it in. Will it hurt? Will you cough? Will you feel the grit filling your lungs? How long will it take for you to suffocate? And what will happen to your body after you’re dead? Will you sink to the bottom, eventually hitting solid ground, or will you just fall forever, sliding through slippery nothingness until the sand rips the flesh from your bones and little pieces of you are messily strewn around in the quagmire?
These were my thoughts as my body sank. Every object that touched my skin, sand and other, was a new sensation. The pressure on my lungs, the tugging on my body hurt in a way I’d never experienced before.
I became hyperaware of my surroundings, which was why, when my legs suddenly became cold and the sand creeping up my pants began to slide back down in wet clumps, I knew something had changed. That there was at least a pocket of air directly beneath me.
Even though my lungs were ready to explode, I held my breath for a few more heartbeats, then shifted. My lower half dangled freely, but my upper half, the half that needed to breathe, was still stuck. The quicksand seemed to clutch at my shoulders and hair, unwilling to give up its victim.
Desperately, I dug down, scooping handfuls of sand until my fingertips broke through and a dry wisp of air tickled the pads of my fingers. I kicked and thrashed, wriggling my exhausted body until, with a wet sucking noise, the sand gave way and I was expelled into a dark cavity.
Choking, I sucked in a quick breath as I fell, not knowing if I was going to hit solid ground and die or be sucked back into the quicksand and have to go through it all over again. My ears were full of sand, but I thought I heard a ghostly voice calling my name. Gasping and wheezing, I flailed at the air, my body twisting and somersaulting as I dropped.
I developed a sudden sympathy for Alice, slipping down the rabbit hole. I didn’t know what I wanted the most—to stop falling, to throw up and get it over with, or to be able to see. Any one of those seemed like an incredibly precious gift at that moment.
As I plummeted, the minutes stretched long and torturous, and I came to accept my fate. I was no longer hoping for deliverance. If I were going to get out of this, it would have happened already, I told myself. No, I was in some kind of never-ending limbo. A terrible purgatory that reminded me of all my weaknesses, faults, and regrets, and there was no way out. Perhaps I was already dead. My eyes stung with tears and I whispered a name. It wasn’t the name of my parents or my grandmother; it wasn’t even God.
“Amon?” I whispered in a tremulous voice. “I’m sorry.”
With my death, his time on Earth would be short, but there might still be enough time for him to bond with someone else. I was imagining my happy reunion with Amon as disembodied spirits and wondering whether the Egyptian version of the afterlife overlapped with the Anglo-Saxon version of heaven, when I hit something. The impact knocked whatever little bits of sand I’d breathed in right out of my lungs with the force of a gunshot blast. Coughing violently, I tried to figure out why I wasn’t dead. The gritty object that broke my fall was now wrapped around me, smothering me. Then it spoke.
“Cease your wriggling, Lily. You are safe.”
Stilling, I stretched out my hands and touched a sand-covered chest. “Asten?” I whispered.
Two gleaming golden-bronze orbs twinkled in the darkness. “Were you expecting someone else?”
“No. Not at all. I was expecting to die, actually,” I choked out.
Asten grunted. “Not today, it seems. Are you injured?”
“Injured?” I echoed, as if not understanding the word.
“Can you stand?” he clarified slowly.
I blinked. “Oh. Yes. I think so.”
“Good.” Asten set me on my feet. “Now that you are here, you can help me with Hassan.”
“Dr. Hassan is here?” I gasped.
“He is. His body is heavier than yours, so he emerged more quickly than you did.”
Asten moved away and I stumbled after him, stretching my arms out in front of me.
“Ah, I forget you cannot see in dark places.” Asten lit his body and surrounded us in a soft white bubble of light. Other than the hard-packed dirt floor under our feet and a few small pebbles, there was nothing else.
“Where are we?” I asked.