Prologue The situation was the embodiment of a horror movie, minus the chilling, suspenseful background music.

Darius was running for his life. His brain was in a trance-like state, he couldnt think of anything except run. The sound of his hurried footsteps echoed through the dark tunnel. The only source of light was a soft, red glow from a leather satchel hanging around Dariuss neck. Beyond the tunnel, a shaft of light radiated from his only savior, the opening of a trapdoor. Dariuss breath was coming out in rapid spurts, his lungs were burning. He couldnt stand it much longer. Not now you bloody idiot!, his brain shouted. His legs however, had a mind of its own because it was slowing down...and then he heard an awful voice. Hand it over little thief... It scared the hell out of him. Instantly, he felt adrenaline roar through his veins, jerking his legs back into motion. He thought that aliens usually screech, not talk in that sing-song, creepy way. In fact; aliens didnt talk, period. Thank heavens the creatures were slower than his fat neighbors son, he mused. He gave a look over his shoulders just in case any of the creatures decided to show him some other ability he didnt know of, like flying for instance. Darius gave a soft chuckle when he saw the creatures were quite behind him, he couldnt believe his luck! His legs felt numb, he had never run this fast and hard. He gave another look behind him and saw one of the creatures closing in. The creature was pale and faceless and its body was covered with light gray fur. It had no arms or legs and it was moving towards him in a gliding motion. His body gave a nervous shudder and he almost tripped himself. The creature laughed, the terrible sound reverberating around the walls of the tunnel. Darius took a deep breath and kept on running. He couldnt get caught now, not after surviving months stealthily snooping around the cunning creatures. He was a few arm lengths away from the trapdoor. He patted the full satchel that was bouncing beside his hip, to ensure himself that what had transpired wasnt a temporary messed up dream he was having. Sure enough, a series of chime emitted from the satchel and as his hand reached the handle of the trapdoor, a smell permeated from the satchel. He pulled the handle of the trapdoor, jumped inside and closed it shut with a bang. Immediately, the trapdoor vanished out of sight. He was safe.

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Darius rushed to his working table and cleared the things on it with one vigorous, albeit shaky swipe of his hand. Ignoring the mess he just made, he gently put the satchel on the table. He opened the leather flap and pulled out the stuffed paper bag inside it. Inside the paper bag was the most magnificent, out worldly substance Darius had ever laid eyes on. It looked like pixie dust, if they ever existed in the first place. He flipped the whole content of the paper bag and watched intently as the pinkish sand flowed gently from the bag and congealed on his desk. A dark red glow pulsed from the sand and Darius deeply inhaled the heavenly aroma wafting from the substance. The smell was a mixture of roses, rain and fresh cut grass this time. The first time he smelled it he thought of morning dew and chocolate peppermint, it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He examined a single grain of the sand like substance on his fingertip. It was slightly bigger than a sugar grain and had a perfect round shape. It was clearly more magnificent than any rare gemstone on Earth. He decided to call it Amaranth, the way it shimmered different tones of pink strongly reminded him of the beauty of the Amaranth flowers he saw outlining the back of his neighbors house. No doubt, the Amaranth was going to make everything worth it. A slow smile crept on his face.

Chapter 1: Imhoteps Diary

All the time spent hiding, spying around and jotting down ludicrous notes about the peculiar tunnels inhabitants had finally, thankfully ended. He couldnt believe that he was the first human who actually made it to the tunnel of Oblivion, and came back in one piece. It was mentally exhausting, eluding the creatures every single day. Reaching the end of the tunnel took ages. The only available food there was a slimy fruit which tasted like sweet ginger and left a metallic aftertaste. It made Darius retch merely thinking about the dreadful fruit. Adventures are so overrated, Darius thought. Darius pulled a wooden chair under the working table and sat down. It took him almost a year to find the exact location of the trapdoor. After months of intense research, he had finally made preparations for the magical adventure awaiting him beyond the trapdoor. He was confident that everything was in order, his mothers old notes were concise and the instructions were easy to follow. The only time consuming problem was collecting all the scattered notes and organizing them into a neat compilation. His mother was a complete mess when it came to organization. Dariuss eyes automatically lay on a weathered, leather bound book. A sad smile went on his face. Mama would have been jumping and whooping all around the room right now. She had sacrificed too much to not be able to experience the success of her work. Her early obsession with the Oblivion tunnel had ironically casted her into oblivion itself. Her world had been revolving around finding the tunnel and persuading Darius to work alongside her. Darius remembered the painful moments he had to endure, keeping on a straight face while his mama swallowed painful ridicule from their neighbors, her close friends and even Pa himself. The only thing that kept him from spewing venom from his infamous sarcastic and overly honest comebacks was seeing the pleading look his mama gave him. He reached for the worn book and opened it, flipping the yellowed pages; his eyes blankly going through the scribbling in it. He stopped at a page with a date on it; September 25th, 1917. That was the date mama came back from a conference in Cairo, Egypt. She had brought back a shoddy looking diary which the souvenir shop owner claimed to have belonged to Imhotep, before he even designed the first pyramid in history; the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Being a historical architect herself, mama was beyond ecstatic; she immersed herself in the diary for weeks, decoding the hieroglyphs and drawings. And then one night when they were having dinner together she told Pa and Darius that she had found a huge revelation to mankind. She fervently explained that Imhotep wasnt only an architect and healer, he was also a sorcerer. He wrote in the diary that in every single

building, there is a hidden place only reachable through trapdoors which could be uncovered after a series of complex incantations and geographical calculations . Pas baffled look upon hearing the word incantations was comical; he scolded mama for falling for such utter rubbish fictionalized by an obtuse, over-imaginative salesman. Mama said that nobody got the chance to open any secret trapdoor because Imhoteps diary was stolen from him by an illiterate crook who threw it into the muddy banks of the Nile River. Darius thought Imhotep had a rather weak memory, not being able to reproduce similar work after losing his diary and all; or maybe he was overwhelmed by the new project Pharaoh Djoser later assigned for him. In that case, Imhotep must have possessed a very short attention span. Mama couldnt contain her excitement with her neighbors and friends either, she told them she and her son would be making history within a year. Pa left the house not long after that, he wasnt really the patient type, especially when it came to things that didnt make sense to him. In a way, Darius pitied Pa. Mama was not the average wife. She didnt prepare the food in a kitchen, preferring to cook them at the back of their house using wood and fire. The neighbors thought them to be the last generation of Neanderthals. Mama had a list of other queer habits best left unmentioned. Even after Pa left them, Mama kept on with her research, and started smoking cigars. She said that way she can be both father and mother to Darius at the same time. Darius was highly intrigued by Imhoteps diary, so besides his weekly tutorials on Arithmetic, French, Latin, Astronomy and World History; he also spent most of his days listening to mama lecturing about the complexity of Egyptian architectures, the popularity of sorcery during the golden age of old Egypt and how excited she was looking forward to finding the mysterious trapdoor at their own home. It took mama two whole years to figure out the exact coordination of the trapdoor, she had to decipher some non-hieroglyphic alphabets used by Imhotep in the diary. After finding the location of the trapdoor, they still had to find out which of the hundreds of incantations to use; or how to pronounce them in the first place. And so, mama spent another year literally speaking to the corner of the wall of Dariuss room. Darius could almost memorize all the incantations by heart because he had been listening to his mama repeatedly muttering and chanting the same series of incantations every single day. At that point, Darius was seriously contemplating about getting help from a close relative. Uncle Seth was quite well-known for treating cases of sudden idiocy and temporary insanity. But then, Darius didnt quite trust his un cle who had a knack for talking to his own shadow. Just when Darius thought mama had finally lost it, he noticed a peculiar thing. When mama started muttering a particular series of incantation which, according to Darius, sounded like

a couple of rats fighting over a bit of cheese; a thin red glow would appear on the wall. Darius knew mamas hard work was being rewarded at last, but before Darius could even inform his mother, she suddenly stumbled from her chair and fainted on the floor. That evening, the local physician in town told Darius that his mother was suffering from a severe lung disease. Darius wasnt really shocked by the news, really; he too would be suffering from lung disease if he spent every three hours smoking on a new cheroot. He was disappointed that mama didnt change any of her smoking habits even after the near fatal incident. Her health was slowly deteriorating; even her daily enthusiastic chanting to the wall had lost all of its vigour despite Darius telling her the red glow he saw the other day. Finally on one rainy afternoon, mama didnt wake up from her sleep. Darius had removed Imhoteps diary clutched in her hands, and laid his head on her unmoving chest; checking for any signs of breathing. He remembered staying in that position, listening intently, searching; although he already knew the truth... Darius gave a start when he felt something wet touch his hands. He closed his tear brimmed eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath; unconsciously inhaling the rich smell of the Amaranth. Mama had loved roses; Pa had said that that was the only normal thing about mama, so he would give her a bouquet of roses every week in hopes that it would trigger any inspiration of conventionality. God, he missed mama so much. Darius slowly shook himself out of his melancholic reverie and focused on his next plan. The Amaranth is a substance which, if heated to a certain temperature, will show some unique properties. Darius witnessed the miracle himself in the Oblivion tunnel; the creatures used the Amaranth for almost everything, from healing, to transportation, even as accessories. Darius was more interested in its ability to transport a being. In order for the Amaranth to display any of its special properties, it needed to be measured first, and then heated to a certain degree of temperature. Darius took out a piece of paper from Imhoteps diary and scanned through the writings on it. A pinch would do, he gave a confident nod and headed to his closet where he stored all his scientific devices. He pulled out a wrought iron spatula, a gas burner and some matchsticks. Darius lighted the gas burner and blew the fire out on the matchstick he lit. He took a pinch of the Amaranth and placed it on the iron spatula. Here goes nothing. He placed the spatula over the fire on the gas burner, and scringed. There was a low whistling sound coming from the pink sand. It turned a dark shade of magenta and it gave a huge fart like sound, vanishing out of sight. Well, I guess that didnt work, Darius shrugged. Looks like he had to dedicate a lot of time; experimenting with the substance to find out the exact measurement required to get it working. Thank heavens he didnt have to go back to

the tunnel in need of more Amaranth. The sand could easily be multiplied by adding salt to it. Darius heaved a huge sigh. He would not be satisfied using the Amaranth only for its healing abilites. He knew the substance was able to transport him to a different place beyond this world. In the tunnel, there were long periods where the creatures would vanish out of sight after using the Amaranth, only to return after days and sometimes even weeks. They clearly had gone somewhere and Darius was going to find it out, whether it would take him months or years; he didnt care. A grim look went on his face as he took three pinches of Amaranth and places it on the iron spatula. It was going to be a long day...