A/N: I own no one from the Prince of Egypt
"Let go of your contempt for life before it destroys everything you hold dear! Think of your son!"
I turned, shifting in torturous sleep. My 'brother', my guardian and my charge, had so boldly pled those words to me, the Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, an empire the world would not hesitate to bow before. Yet he, Moses, had seen fit to challenge me, dressed in naught but filthy rags carrying with him no weapons, save for a staff!
This brother of mine, whom I had so graciously pardoned when he returned to my kingdom, accepted my welcome with a challenge: his new 'god', this deliverer of the Hebrew slaves, against the most powerful gods in the land!
I shrugged it off; the man was raving! But how dearly I paid…
The Nile bled, there were frogs, insects, flies, locusts, burning hail, boils, famine, death of our livestock, and impenetrable darkness. If I wanted to recant, I could not. My heart was twisted in a most malicious way. I did not know this god.
"Rameses, Son of Ra, ruler of all Egypt, you must rise immediately!"
My eyes opened in a rush; I was glad to be rid of my nighttime visions.
"Hotep," I snapped at the priest, "You wake me from my slumbers!"
"My King… the boy…" his voice trailed in to despair.
"What of him," my eyes focused intensely upon his portly, distressed figure.
"He's…he's dead. That plague," He shrank in fear, preparing to be struck; I had not taken in the information.
"He's dead, not asleep?" I questioned in the darkness. "Hotep…"
"His mother is with him."
I inhaled, pulling every muscle in my body taut; the gold of my armaments burned my skin in rage.
"I will see him then."
"He is not ready-"
"I WILL SEE HIM!"
I strode off, sliding in and out of shadow, toward the prince's bedchamber. Four lamps lit the room, casting the place in wild patterns of darkness and light; their flames were lost before they could properly illuminate the chamber. Even Horus had refused my pleas!
My son lay under a white, translucent shroud, surrounded by handmaids and his mother, the queen. I could step no further; the shock was wearing.
"Rameses," the queen turned to address me.
"Leave, all of you," I waived my hand.
The women stood and bowed before retreating, their muffled cries echoing out of the room.
"My son," I mouthed, stepping toward the prince.
He did not move; the little boy's body had already lost heat.
"How," I knelt beside him; his face had frozen, neither serious, nor peaceful. It just was.
Anxiously, I pulled back the shroud so I could touch his face, gracing my fingertips upon his cheek. How many kisses would my boy receive? How many times would he weep, or laugh joyously? What kind of Pharaoh would he be? I could not know.
I closed my eyes, overcome. My sides heaved with anguish.
"I am so sorry…"
I allowed for a moment of vulnerability, shedding my mournfulness in the privacy of darkness before catching my breath.
What are you thinking, you weak nag?!
I sucked in a breath, allowing it to fill my chest.
"No more, my brother. I will not be the weak link!"