trigger warning: mentions of blood and vomit (though not explicit), knifes, and vivid description of organs.
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(Y/N)'s feet touched the sand at the bottom of the cave in the matter of seconds, already slipping out of the straps from the gear with Layla's help as she dusted herself off. Layla held her flashlight in one hand, and after making sure (Y/N) was in good condition, they turned their backs on the entrance to take a look.

On the sides of the tunnel were two identical statues carved into stone, the figure of an animal-like creature catching their eye immediately. Layla didn't think twice and knelt down to the paw of the statue and drew her father's and (Y/N)'s initials in Arabic into the sand, a gesture that (Y/N) appreciated.

"So, you kissed him," Layla asked as if it was the most casual thing of all. "Didn't you?"

(Y/N) crossed her arms and balanced her weight on the heel of her foot. "Maybe. . ." she trailed off.

Layla got up from her crouching position and gave her a look. "And you liked it?" Although it came out of her lips as a question, her tone told a different story, like she was completely sure.

"I did," (Y/N) fiddled with her gloved hands out of nervousness, and she couldn't know why. She didn't understand this sudden guilt drown her and it weighted her down. "Is that wrong of me?"

"Why do you ask that?" Layla furrowed her eyebrows at the question. "You like him, don't you?"

"I do," (Y/N) replied and winced. "But I sort of. . .like Marc too. And I — " she groaned and cradled her face in her hands. "God, I feel terrible."

Layla stood right in front of her and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders to grab her attention. "Hey, hey. It's okay. I understand if you like them both."

(Y/N) raised her eyebrows. "Isn't it weird for you? That I like two people at the same time? I feel like I'm toying on them — "

Layla shook her head sympathetically. "Of course not. I get it," she flashed her friend a smile. "It's okay for you to feel this way. You can like them at the same time. No one needs to find that weird."

(Y/N) sighed in relief at hearing Layla's reassurance. She didn't know what to do and hearing those words made her feel a little relaxed, though she was hesitant to believe them at first.

The sudden yelp from behind them alerted them and cut their conversation short, the sound belonging to no other than Steven himself as he landed in the sand on his back with great impact. He tried to stand up as quickly as he hit the ground, and (Y/N) instantly rushed over to try and help him.

"Oh my," (Y/N) frowned in worry and still couldn't seem to understand how he fell like that when he had a rope and gear. "Are you okay?"

"I'm aces," "Yeah."

He winced when (Y/N) assisted him in getting up to his feet, and Steven took three steps back to get his balance and finally take over his surroundings. "Ahem. I wish you hadn't seen that."

"It's fine."

"Thank you."

(Y/N) was about to respond to him when Steven lifted his head and muttered out, "Oh, wow, look at you."

(Y/N) felt that giddy feeling return to her in a wave until she noticed that Steven was eyeing the statues from before with eyes full of admiration. Layla tried to pinch her arm to stop the snort from the back of her throat to go out.

"Yeah, they're gorgeous, aren't they? They're just, like, been standing guard for centuries."

"Right? Look, I can't even. . ." Steven's excitement was too much for him to express through words while (Y/N) shook her head at his words and eyed him with a smile. "So, if they just sprang to life right now and asked me a riddle for passage, I'd be thrilled. I'd shit myself but I'd be thrilled."

Steven kept moving and the symbol drawn in the sand caught his eye. "What's this? Did you do that?"

"What?" Layla turned around and saw what Steven was gesturing to. "Oh. Yeah. The one on the left is for my father and the other is for (Y/N)'s. They both would've loved to be here."

"Oh, yeah? Big history buffs, are they?"

"My father was," (Y/N) told him with a nostalgic smile before it washed away. "But it was so much worse."

"Archaeologists on a mission," Layla added, moving away from inspecting the carved walls.

"Cool," Steven breathed out.

The trio advanced deep into the main hallway in between the two statues, all holding their respective flashlight to brighten their way.

"And to him it was a dream worth dying for," Layla continued. "And he did."

(Y/N) winced internally at her sentence and tone and noticed the way Steven dropped what he was doing to look at Layla in a remorseful look.

"Um. . .I'm so sorry," Steven said in a low voice.

(Y/N) placed her hand on Layla's arm and rubbed it up and down in a comforting way, and the woman grabbed her hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "Yeah. No, it's fine, really."

"Yeah."

"It's fine," Layla nodded. "Happens."

"I bet that he and your father," Steven began and gave (Y/N) a soft look before he continued with what he had to say. "Are positively beaming right now, seeing you standing in the proof of it."

(Y/N) couldn't help but give him a smile, he always had a way to make her feel secure. "I think so, yeah."

Layla stared off forward to the dark passage right in front of them, urging the three to step inside. "Well, it's not such a bad way to go, is it?"

"Why don't we find out?" (Y/N) grinned mischievously, the words that Steven had said getting through her. Now she didn't have no one to stop her from taking the adventure, and she wasn't going to waste the moment.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's find out."

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The passages of the cave were growing darker and darker every time (Y/N) took a step, each one making her go farther away from the sunlight all the way back to the entrance. Her flashlight was held in a firm grip on her hands, illuminating the walls and the branches that were dangling off the sides for any sign of direction.

"Strange," she heard Steven mutter after a long time of silence, all coming together in a wide area between different passages and had a rock in the center of the room.

Layla frowned after eyeing one passage and turned back to the two. "It's a maze."

"It's a-maze-ing," Steven commented, and felt an urge of pride wash over him when he hears (Y/N) snort a few feet away.

Layla gave them a look before proving her point. "No, like, there are six paths."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Steven muttered under his breath. "Right. Six points."

(Y/N)'s flashlight shined on something in the sand that caught her eye and she knelt down to see what it was. When she saw they were bullet cartridges, she frowned. "What would they be shooting at?"

Layla patted her on the shoulder and (Y/N) looked behind her to see her gesture towards Steven looking down at the rock in the center of the room. Steven, in the other hand, concentrated on what he was doing and used his finger to draw on the layer of sand covering the rock.

"This whole structure is a symbol," Steven spoke up and (Y/N) finally caught on what he was drawing. It was a symbol she knew too well.

Layla's realization was said before because (Y/N) was too busy staring at Steven in admiration at the moment. "It's the Eye of Horus."

"Yeah," Steven illuminated it with his flashlight and it reflected in the roof. "Look at that. It's the royal symbol, protection in the afterlife."

"I mean, like, the resources needed to built this
thing," Layla looked around amazed.

The gears inside (Y/N)'s head clicked and she cut in. "Ammit's final Avatar was a pharaoh."

"Whoa! A bloody pharaoh!" Steven shared the same enthusiasm.

"So what?" Layla edged on, leaning on the rock while being careful not to damage the drawing. "You think it's a map?"

"Yeah, well. . .Right. So, the eye of Horus is also the eye of mind, yeah?" Steven began to explain, and based on (Y/N) and Layla's nod, he proceeded. "Representing the six senses, six points."

"So you got the eyebrow that denotes thoughts. Pupil, sight, obviously," Steven continued and passed his finger over the line once again. "This point here is, uh, hearing. Smell. Touch. And this long line ending in a spiral is the tongue."

(Y/N) felt a smile of pride making its way to her lips while her gaze was fixed on the man before her. "The Avatar would be Ammit's voice."

"That's right."

They eyed the tunnel on their right side and raised the flashlights to lighten the way, thinking for a moment that they had the upper hand in finding the tomb before Harrow did.

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The path they had followed led them to a new dark room, this one having a stone table in the center and with some sort of wooden structure on the side of it. (Y/N) didn't want to acknowledge the bones laying in the floor, her flashlight shining through the hieroglyphics inscribed in between sections of the other wall, which contained mummified bodies.

The stone table in the center of the room seemed to be covered in that familiar dark red substance and it dripped all the way down, leaving some sort of trail. Parts of flesh were displayed in it and (Y/N) was trying hard in stopping the metallic smell run all the way up her nose.

"Oh, wow," Steven muttered.

Layla's flashlight shined in the painting right above the sections. "Heka priests," she revealed. "Judging by their masks and ceremonial stance. They would've been entombed in here to protect the pharaoh."

"The heck's a Heka?" Steven frowned.

"Sorcerers of their time," (Y/N) explained to him. "They've been down here for centuries. These probably are some of the unlucky souls who crossed their path."

"Right," Steven nodded shakily at the new information. "An impressive send-off."

Steven's attention drifted off to the stone table and he gagged when he realized what was displayed all over it. He covered his mouth in disgust. "Oh, my God. Oh, God. Is that fresh blood?"

(Y/N) and Layla moved over to the table too and the latter used her own flashlight to take a better look at what Steven was referring to as he kept panicking.

"Isn't that little chunks of meaty bits?"

(Y/N) knelt down to see the canopic jars lined up in the ground right underneath the table, some even covered with a light layer of blood. "Shit. Layla, look at this."

Layla followed her line of sight and she gulped down the knot in her throat, standing up just to see the tip of one of the tools on the table covered in blood too. "Let's keep moving. Yeah."

(Y/N) got up and fought back her nausea while taking small steps back away from the bloodied canopic jars. "Fine by me."

They were ready to walk out of the room and never look back when they noticed that the trail of blood was following down the passage that they were supposed to take, making the trio hesitate in advancing.

"Um, just a minute. Just a minute," Steven started. "I'm just saying what I see, and I see lots of bones and blood going that way. So I'm just thinking, like, what if there's maybe another. . ."

He took several steps back and raised his flashlight above his head in order to see if there was any way to escape in the upper level of the wooden structure in the room. "There's, like, another. . .There's an opening up there. You see that?"

"Yeah," (Y/N) used her own flashlight to see for herself and Layla uttered the same response as her while standing on her tiptoes to see.

"Should we check it out?"

"Yeah. All right," Layla agreed and then looked back at Steven. "You go."

"Me?" Steven frowned and turned over to (Y/N) in aid but she shrugged and offered a tight smile, silently saying she agreed with Layla.

"You," Layla stated.

"Yeah. All right."

Steven did as told and pushed himself up to the second level of the structure with the flashlight still in hand. He laid on his stomach on the wooden floor and used his hands to crawl forward, proceeding in finally getting up and looking back at the two women in the ground.

"All right, yeah," Steven let out a breath as he got up to his full height. "I did it. I'm up."

"You okay?" (Y/N) asked from below.

Steven gave her a nod. "Yeah."

Using his flashlight, Steven moved it to inspect the area where he was standing and took cautious steps forward, trying to ignore that disgusting smell coming through his nose again.

"So, according to ancient texts, Ammit should be bound to an ushabti, those statue thingies."

He walked forward and brushed away the mummy wraps dangling from the ceiling and then pointing his flashlight to the body laying in a wooden table with a canopic jar sitting beside it.

"How's it looking?" Layla asked.

"It's looking amazing," Steven's voice was dripping with that excitement from before and (Y/N) saw his body moved to stand over the body with curiosity. "I mean, this. . .It looks like a freshly filled canopic jar, and snake skins, and self-regeneration — "

"Steven?" Layla called. "Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"The exit."

"Yeah."

Steven walked further with the flashlight in hand until stopping right in front of another lit passage, no signs of blood trails and bones like the other one.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "Yeah, we can go this way."

Before either of them could utter another sentence, several gunshots were fired in the distance, repeatedly shooting at god knows what while (Y/N) and Layla were forced to take a step back and press their backs against the wall to prevent getting spotted.

"Harrow," (Y/N) stated.

Steven couldn't help but frown in confusion. "What are they shooting at?"

"I don't know," Layla muttered.

She and (Y/N) tried in taking slow steps towards the wooden structure in order to join Steven and leave before they were spotted by Harrow or his disciples, but a loud and strange clicking noise made the trio freeze in their spots.

(Y/N)'s eyes widened in terror when she heard how the clicking sound began to grow louder, meaning that it was approaching the room.

"Hide. Hide," Steven frantically whispered.

Layla was forced to kneel down and hide on the bottom side of the table that wasn't facing the passage where the noise was coming from, and (Y/N) desperately tried to find another place to hide and moved to  while Steven crouched down behind a table.

The Heka Priest continued to make that sickly clicking noise and his movements towards the stone table were slowed down because of the additional weight he was dragging.

Steven recognized him to be one of Harrow's followers, and the priest placed him down on the table without care and the smallest sound of a groan left the man's bloodied lips. Layla was shaking from her spot and saw how the priest reached out to grab one of the tools to cut through the stomach of the man, that squelching sound being the only thing in the room as the groans from the man died out.

The Heka priest began to grab onto the intestines of the man and tossed them into one of the opened canopic jars with ease, (Y/N) had to cover her mouth with her palms in order to stop her nausea from taking over and blow her cover.

Since the priest was lowering his hands down to the canopic jars right beside Layla, she tried her best and quietly slipping away, successfully doing so before she accidentally knocked over one of the jars and caused it to fall with a loud thud to the ground.

This alerted the Heka Priest and he made that clicking noise again, this time making Layla even more anxious than she was before. With slow and precise movements, she slid over the other side of the table just before she got caught, that annoying clicking noise getting louder.

Steven, who was watching everything from above, had to hold back his gasp behind his hand but that didn't stop the creaking of the wood underneath him and this caused the Heka Priest to jump on the table in a quick motion before jumping down and snarling at the sight of Steven above him.

Steven gasped out of fear and couldn't do anything as he hopelessly watched how the priest crawled underneath, his hands sticking out through the holes of the wooden boards before it prepared to jump on him. (Y/N) crept from her hiding spot and grabbed onto one of the canopic jars from the ground and threw it to the wall in order to buy Steven time.

The new noise made the Heka Priest jump up and snarl loudly as he decided on who to follow, since (Y/N) and Layla were now running on opposite directions of the room.

"Run! I'll find you!" Steven cried out as the priest let out another snarl before he threw the table before him and knocked him down.

Steven didn't think twice in whirling on his heel and running towards the passage behind him, now all three lost in their own direction in the immense cave.

longest chapter i've written by far in this book.
we love layla being a supportive friend <3

it's my first time writing a poly relationship and it's going well so far. any mistakes or notes you have you can give them to me politely and i'll see what i can do.

- see you soon, bex