Page 83 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Underworld

“You expect me to believe that, mortal?” he said, his voice laced with a hint of amusement. “Do you take me for a fool?”

With a final, foreboding glance, Anubis raised a hand, and the monstrous entity surged forward with a blinding speed. The light from the staff flickered and dimmed in the face of such overwhelming darkness.

In that heart-stopping moment, as the monstrous shadow reached out for me with tendrils of unrelenting dread, I could only think one thing: I had to escape. How else would I continue to keep up with my reputation? But with the walls closing in andthe air thickening with an oppressive force, my options were rapidly dwindling.

Just as the shadow’s grasp was about to envelop me completely, everything went dark—an impenetrable void that swallowed both light and hope despite how wildly I waved the staff around. My last thought before the darkness took me was: Note to self: never dump a body at an ancient temple again.

Lesson learned.

This was the beginning of something far worse than I could have ever imagined.

And then, the world went silent.

Anubis

When one ofthe spirits failed to transition smoothly to Duat, an unsettling wave of concern rippled through me. The journey from the mortal realm to the afterlife was a process of utmost delicacy, and any disruption was a cause for alarm. I traced the faint, dissipating trail of his life essence, leading me straight to one of the sacred temples dedicated to my name.

I had expected to find evidence of a botched mummification—a result of an amateur's clumsy handling or a misstep in the sacred rituals. Instead, what I discovered was both baffling anddeeply troubling. In the sanctum of my temple, a young human female was engaged in an act of profound desecration.

Her presence was a jarring anomaly in the hallowed space. The temple, once a serene bastion of spiritual transition, was now marred by her crude actions. She was dumping a body haphazardly, treating the once-revered remains with a startling lack of reverence. I watched in astonishment and fascination as she tossed the lifeless form with eased practice.

A female, who also deals with the dead. My interest was piqued.

I could hardly comprehend what I was witnessing. My confusion deepened as I observed her actions. How had a mere mortal, especially one so evidently untrained and uninformed about the sacred rites, come to be in such a position? Her ignorance and haphazard treatment of the body were both an affront and a mystery. What drove her to commit such a violation in a space that was designed to honor and guide the spirits to their final destination?

“By the sands of time…” I muttered.

As I watched from the shadows, it became clear that this was not merely an error but a deliberate act. The energy in the temple was thick with disarray, the once-pure vibrations now corrupted by her presence. I needed to confront this intruder and restore the sacred order.

She caught me by surprise again when she was able to wield aWas-sceptre—a symbol of power. The long staff topped with a forked head emitted a beam of light that pierced through my phantom minions, leading me to believe she played an unexpected role in the spiritual order and that there was more to this little human female than meets the eye.

The shadows fold around us, consuming the grandeur of the temple and transporting us to the darkened realm of Duat. Here, the air was thick with the scent of ancient dread, and the shifting mists echoed with the murmur of my exasperation.

This blabbering mortal will be the eternal death of me. Instead of fear, she continued to stumble behind me, speaking of metal concerts and horror movies depicting beings with pins sticking out of their skulls.

“Hey, stop walking so fast! I’ve got shorter legs than you do.”

I reluctantly led her through all that was Duat, my patience wearing thin with every step she took, wondering if I should just call Osiris here and be rid of her. It wasn’t my plan to bring her here. She should have run like a normal mortal. Instead, she boldly stood her ground with her sceptre, allowing herself to be captured by the darkness.

Foolish mortal.

“Okay, this is not exactly what I had in mind for tonight,” she muttered, stumbling over an uneven patch of ground. Her voice was a blend of anxiety and awkward humor, the kind that would have been more appropriate at a poorly planned party than in the underworld.

Her attempts at casual conversation only deepened my irritation.

When I first materialized before her at my temple, my presence should have rendered any mortal speechless. Instead, she gawked at me with a blend of awe and something that looked alarmingly close to curiosity.

I didn’t like the way my body responded to such a reception. My confusion angered me.

“Whoa,” she said, her eyes widening. “Is this, like, a special effects room or something? Because if so, it’s really impressive. But also kind of terrifying. So, points for both? How much do they pay extras for horror flicks anyway? Oh! Do I get to be the one to open that weird box that destroys the world?”

“Duat,” I intoned, trying to keep my voice steady despite wanting to bite her head off to make her stop yammering. “The underworld, where souls are judged and balance is maintained. And you—” I gestured to her with a mixture of exasperation and incredulity—“are not supposed to be here.”

She blinked at me, clearly not grasping the gravity of her situation. “Well, I definitely didn’t plan for an afterlife detour on my evening stroll,” she said, brushing some dust off her shoulder as though she’d been caught in an unfortunate spill rather than divine retribution. “Any chance we can work something out? Like, a special offer on judgment?”

Arousal stirred within me, catching me by surprise. It was a sensation so unexpected that it made me momentarily lose my composure. I was momentarily at a loss for words until irritation, once again, clouded all other emotions.

Her lack of awareness was baffling. And what exactly could a mortal offer a deity? The vexation of mortals ceases to amaze me.

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