Kemamonit Returns

by Paul Edwards

  Chapter fifteen

  I woke up in a hospital bed, I felt slightly intoxicated probably from painkillers. I was in a large private room there was a flat screen television hanging on the wall opposite the bed.

  I looked my arm that had been wounded, it was covered in bandages.

  The door of the room cracked open for a second, then a tall thin man in a gray suit walked in.

  "Ah... Miss Smith, you are awake," he said in a thick accent, it sounded Swedish.

  "Yes... and you are?"

  "I am inspector Nilsson from the police."

  "Police? Have I done something wrong?"

  "No... no... just a few questions."

  He bent down and lifted up a long bronze sword from the floor, it was Semiramis's.

  I heard the heart monitor next to the bed start beeping frantically.

  "Could you put that down," I said sharply.

  I had no idea whether the enchantment was still activated.

  "It bothers you?" the inspector said as he examined the blade closely.

  "Yes, that thing was stuck in my arm."

  "How did that happen exactly?"

  "Um... I was... um... hanging it and it fell piercing my arm."

  "Really? Your husband said you were playacting and you slipped and fell."

  "Um... ya... I'm sorry, I was a bit embarrassed about that... I lied."

  "I'm a bit of an amateur archeologist, remarkable copy of an Assyrian sword, the person who made this sure knew their stuff."

  "I wouldn't know, I found it at an antique store."

  "Where was that exactly?"

  "I don't remember, it was an impulse buy while I was vacationing in New York."

  "You live in Sweden?"

  "No... Seattle... I um... do a lot of business here."

  "What do you do?"

  He finally put the sword back down on the floor.

  "Computer stuff... you know the clouds... kinda hard to explain."

  "The clouds... really."

  "Look... are you done? I'm pretty tired, I lost a lot of blood."

  Nilsson stared at me a quizzical expression on his face.

  "Ok Miss Smith, I'm done... for now."

  He reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card, he set it down on my meal tray.

  "My card."

  He turned and left the room.

  I stared at the large flat screen television, I looked at my meal tray and saw the remote control for it. The buttons were labelled in Swedish but I was able to find the power button, the screen flashed to life.

  It was on a sports channel showing some kind of brutal fighting sport which I despised, I couldn't figure out how to change the channel.

  "And in this corner the heavy weight champion of the worlllld... Henderson Sulva... Sulva," I heard the TV blare out.

  I looked up at the screen, a large muscular man was doing an odd sideways shuffle as he waited for his opponent to appear.

  It was the same man who had defeated Gilgamesh.

  The door to my room opened and Peter walked in, he looked at the television as he walked towards me, I noticed a sheepish expression appear on his face.

  "Hey lover, how are you feeling?"

  He kissed me on the cheek.

  "You... it was you at Babylon? How?"

  Peter stared at the TV, Sulva was pounding his hapless opponent into a bloody pulp.

  "He was ten and oh... said he wanted a challenge, so I gave it to him?"

  "I don't understand... you know two spells, and how did you get back to Nineveh?"

  "Janet's been training me... she's quite a good teacher, I didn't want to tell you I knew you would be angry."

  "That woman is to clever for her own good... and I am angry... really angry."

  "So am I Kem, you shouldn't have sent me away, I want you to promise never to do that again. I want us to face our problems together from now on."

  I stared at my toes at the end of the bed, saying nothing.

  "And I want us to get married," Peter continued.

  Marriage... this was something unknown in my era, no doubt invented by some vacillating man so he could hedge his bets with the prospect of divorce.

  I looked at Peter, I could tell from his expression that I would wound him terribly if I said no.

  I looked back at my toes.

  "Ok," I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

  Peter kissed me again.

  "Why did you stop her... at Babylon?" I asked.

  "I'm Polish... kinda identified with a place that was constantly being invaded by indifferent empires."

  "Oh... where am I anyway?"

  "The same hospital you took me too when I broke my foot a few months ago."

  "What did the doctor say?"

  "Deep cut... good thing I got you here quickly... you'll be fine... there's something else though, you're going to have to be more careful from now on, you have another person to worry about."

  I stared at Peter trying to discern his meaning then I realized what he meant. I stared at my womb, I sensed a certain smugness emanating from it.

  It had been plotting this since I had met Peter, always making me forget to take those stupid pills. I heard my mother's voice in the distance.

  "Now you'll understand little one, now you'll know."

  I heard her laughing.

  I put my hand on my womb, Peter put his over top of mine, I looked at him and smiled.

  "I guess it's time," I said.

  "What are we going to do?"

  "We can't raise a child in the City of Magic, it's too dangerous."

  "So what then?"

  "Leave the place to Shelley and Janet... Janet doesn't need me anymore."

  "But they despise each other."

  I thought back to what Semiramis had said, that conflict had made the city thrive.

  "Ya... guess they'll just have to find a way to deal with each other."

  "I have your bracelet," Peter said as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

  I took it from him and shrunk it down so it looked like a piece of cheap jewellery then put it on my good wrist.

  "What happened to the City?"

  "Shelley went back to Semiramis's quarters and played Shave and a haircut with a flute, right before the two musical notes, the puzzle disappeared and then a papyrus scroll appeared in its place."

  "What did it say?"

  "She didn't touch it, she just left and resealed the door."

  "Good idea... that's what Imhotep did in the first place."

  "They want to stay away for a few months just to be sure."

  I looked at Peter, I felt a weariness come over me.

  "Why don't we go up north, rent a cottage on a lake, then fish and have barbeques?"

  "What about your movie?"

  "Oh Gwenny can look after it, I'm not too interested in it anymore."

  Egypt 2600 BC The first time around.

  Imhotep stared at Semiramis, she was on her knees in front of him, he held his sword against her throat.

  He had won, he had finally defeated her, all around them the landscape was destroyed, everything was scorched black, the ground was pock marked with large craters.

  "Are you going to kill me now Imhotep?"

  She had no fear in her eyes, he was still amazed even after all these years how beautiful they still looked to him.

  She thrust her neck against the his sword in a playful almost childlike way. He flinched and jerked the blade back slightly.

  "Lost your nerve... the great Imhotep."

  He thought back to their battle, it had lasted almost a day, the spells they had thrown at each other had destroyed enormous swaths of land, turned the skies black. Only the gods knew the number of men and women they had killed.

  It had been his knowledge of small infinites that had saved him, allowing him to dampen her last attack, trapping her.

  He examined her face, her hair was matted and full of dirt, there was dry crusted b
lood smeared across her cheeks, it did not diminish her beauty.

  "Nothing to say? After all these years."

  He could not kill her, even after all the deceit and treachery, he still loved her, even now his heart ached, he felt an overwhelming urge to put his sword down and comfort her.

  He said a command word, she froze in place, she was like a statue now. He put down his sword and stepped backwards, he conjured up a large tomb around her, on the outside it looked like a large unremarkable outcropping of granite.

  Imhotep sheathed his sword and walked away.

  She would escape the spell eventually but it would take thousands of years. He and his children would be dust when she emerged.

  She was the futures problem now.

  Los Angeles 1939 The second time around.

  Selznick sat by himself at the back of the theater, there was a test audience of a few hundred people seated before him. he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small silver flask, he took a long swig of bourbon.

  "Goddamn director," he thought to himself as he stared at the screen.

  Things had been going well, he had bamboozled that ditzy blonde Smith had sent in her place, even managed to get her to put the story back to the civil war.

  Then that asshole director Bay had seduced her.

  He took another long swig of bourbon.

  "Maybe I could get Louie to take care of him," Selznick shuddered for a moment, Louie had taken care of a lot of things Hollywood.

  "Ordered so much goddamn dynamite the FBI was knocking on my door."

  They had thought he might have been shipping it to Germany.

  "Germany! I'm a goddamn Jew... goddamn asshole Hitler."

  He was starting to get a bit drunk now.

  A spaceship whizzed across the screen, he heard the test audience murmur in excitement.

  "Jesus... that was pretty good."

  He took another swig.

  He wondered what had happened to that Smith chick, why she sent had the blonde in her place, she sure had been pretty for a colored broad. There was something about her though something that caused the hairs on his neck to stand up.

  She knew things about him too, secret things.

  The screen flashed to life showing a large expanse of desert, there was a large mansion in the middle of it, there was what looked like a party on the verandah, people in odd costumes talking and drinking.

  Dorothy Dandridge made her first appearance, he heard the audience giggle.

  "Jesus... her goddamn hair."

  It looked like she was wearing some kind of ear muffs.

  he listened to the dialog.

  "Oh fiddle dee dee... the Empire won't attack."

  Selznick took another long swig from his flask.

  "Shoulda brought more booze."

  It was late and he felt his eyelids start to get heavy, the bourbon hadn't helped, he was soon fast asleep.

  He woke up, he noticed the test audience was staring raptly at the screen, completely silent. He looked himself, Dandridge was being held by what looked like a futuristic soldier, a large man in black armor was in front of her. He saw a large planet in the window behind them.

  "No! Atlantaan is peaceful! We have no weapons, you can't possibly..."

  The large armored man paused what sounded like tortured breathing, then he heard a deep baritone voice.

  "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

  Selznick heard the audience gasp as the planet exploded.

  "So that's why he needed all that goddamn dynamite"

  The end