Chapter 10: Absolutely indescribable

The de Niles waited. Seconds. Minutes.

"Father, do you think she will return?" Cleo asked.

Ramses didn't answer Cleo's question. Instead, he said, "I will keep working on widening the opening."

They watched how he climbed up the 'beds' and continued, then, the girls walked back to the couches to sit down.

"I think she has never intended to come back," Cleo said in a totally depressing tone.

"Uh, excuse me? Ams is super nice, of course she will come back!"

"Have you actually listened to her? That girl talked about herself in third person, Nefera, I think she is a lost cause. I always knew she hated me, but I never envisioned her to be so selfish. No wonder you like her."

"Ew, Cleo, you gross me out!" Nefera snapped. "Ams' way to talk is fancy!"

"She's your one and only friend, huh?"

"Uh? Are you actually that stupid?"

"No. I'm just enjoying that, finally, you can't pick on me anymore for being next in line," Cleo said with a smirk.

"What?!"

"Uncle has taken your place."

"Ugh, I wish I wasn't stuck in here with you. It would be a lot better without you here, you know that? Maybe it would even be enjoyable."

Ignoring her sister's comment, Cleo stated, "I miss Mother."

"I miss my old life," Nefera answered.

"...You don't miss our mother?"

"I miss my servants coming inside my room in the morning to bath, shave and perfume me."

Cleo rolled her eyes. Silence, then, "...Do you think she was..." Cleo lowered her voice, "murdered?"

"Who?"

"Mother."

"I don't know. I wish she was here instead of you."

Cleo gave her sister an angry look. "I hate you."

"I've always hated you."

Ramses interrupted his daughters' conversation by sitting down next to them, obviously exhausted.

Cleo looked outside and said, "The day is almost over, and Amanita hasn't returned."

"I would not count on her," Ramses stated. "But it is alright. I have learned to trust no one but myself, and, since I have been the one working on the opening, I can assure you that we will get out of here in the near future."

"I know we aren't ageing and all," Nefera said, "But when is 'the near future'?"

Ramses looked at the opening, before answering, "Give me one month and I will get us out of here."

Boring weeks passed.

Nefera and Cleo could not do anything but keep themselves busy while their Father was working.

The opening in the ceiling gave them the power to record the passing of days, which Cleo wrote down in her papyrus collection. There were 34 lines on her paper at the day that the family got out.

It was an afternoon when Ramses approached his daughters. "I think it is time," he told them.

They looked at him with big eyes.

"Now, we should be able to fit through the opening in the ceiling."

The girls got up in no time.

"I wanna go first," Nefera whined when the family approached the opening.

"Fine, then," Ramses agreed.

With a loudly beating heart, Nefera climbed up the stone 'beds' her father had stacked on top of each other. She grabbed the opening with both her hands and pulled herself up, into the outside world.

From one second to another, Nefera sat in the sunlight. The feeling of this was simply incredible. Like the feeling she had felt when waking up after 1,300 years in a dusty room that had become her tomb, the feeling of the sunlight on her skin after over a thouand years of darkness, was undescribable. The princess closed her eyes, unable to move, and enjoyed it with every part of her being.

Only a few seconds later, Cleo climbed out as well. Suddenly, she was sitting next to her sister, as impressed as her.

The girls sat in the sunshine, on top of their tomb, until their father was the last one to climb out.

Similar to when the ceiling tile had smashed on the floor, the de Niles sat together, hugging and crying, until the sun went down.