It's hot – extremely hot. I feel like I'm in a large oven, just melting away as drops of sweat slid down my skin. It also feels like there's hot sand digging into my back. Am I lying on sand? Heaven has beaches?

Or am I in hell? Heat so bad I think I'm turning in to a human puddle, Shit, I think I'm in hell.

I slowly open my eyes and regret it immediately. There's a blinding white orb which is obviously the cause for all this burning and my brain starts to pound inside my skull, likes it's trying to burst free and run as far as it can, away from here. Great, now I have a migraine.

Who knew you could feel pain in the afterlife?

I turn my head to the side as I attempt to not look at the sun, and I see Kiki lying next to me, her eyes still closed. Her chest is rising and falling, which indicates she is in fact breathing, and a sense of relief washes over me. She's alive.

A shadow towers over the two of us, the silhouette of a person it looks like. My chest tightens in fear as it says something in a language I can't understand, in a deep voice that's completely unfamiliar to me. I want to get up, pick up Kiki and run as far away as possible but I can't move. I'm too weak.

There's another voice, speaking in the same language, but I'm less afraid now because I know this voice. It sounds familiar, but I can't put a name nor a face to it. The two voices go back and forth, and I can feel myself slipping into an unconscious state again.

They stop talking and the silhouette above me looks like its bending over. I'm panicking inside but it doesn't last long as exhaustions consumes me and I black out once again.

(Omniscient)

Limbs are tangled together, and soft whispers of love are exchanged as the two bodies lying on pure, gold colored satin sheets become one. The young man on top bites his lip as he pushes deeper, causing the woman under to grip the sheets with and say him name.

"Ahkmenrah," The dark haired beauty moans and her hand finds its way to the back of his head, her fingers gripping his hair. Her other hands falls down his back, digging her nails into his skin as it does so. "My pharaoh. My love."

These words please the young soon-to be king and he begins to move faster, harder. "Raziya," He groans, burying his face in her neck. "Let us let go together." She feels a sense of joy mix with the pleasure she's feeling as a smile graces her lips.

They're both close to climaxing when the door to the bedroom swings open, revealing Ahkmenrah's older brother, Kahmunrah. The two lovers are quick to jump, and scramble to cover themselves as Kahmunruh watches with a smirk.

"You're lucky it was I and not father, baby brother," Kahmunrah mocks as his little brother glares at him. "You know how he feels about you sleeping with the servants." And he sends Raziya a dirty look, who cowers, and clutches the blankets around her tightly.

"Kahmunrah," Ahkmenrah sneers at his older sibling as he scrambles to gather his clothes and put them on, "Get out!"

Kahmunrah merely chuckles. "Father sent me to collect you," He explains. "We're heading into the city soon, and he wants the entire family to go. Make yourself decent, and come join us when you're ready."

With that, Kahmunrah leaves and Ahkmenrah manages to find both he and Raziya's clothes that had been tossed around the room. As he hands her clothing to her, he notices how she refuses to look him in the eyes. "Raziya? What's wrong?"

She grips her clothing tightly as what Kahmunrah had said replays in her head. Her chest is tight as she goes over the words in her head. "Your brother, he said… he said servants. Meaning more than one." She looks up, her brothers boring into the murky green ones of the man before her. "Are you…?"

"No!" Ahkmenrah sits on his bed and takes her hands into his. "You are the only one." His eyes are soft and caring, but it isn't enough to convince her. Still, she smiles and begins dressing as he does the same.

(End Omniscient)

My entire body begins to ache again which makes me realize I'm waking up again. Except instead of scorching heat that burned my skin and an uncomfortable sandy feeling in my back, I now feel cool with something soft underneath me. My eyes slid open, and blinding white dot from before is gone. In its place is what I assume is a ceiling.

For a moment, I feel relief. Then I realize that I'm in an unfamiliar place and my body shoots up, only to bring back the headache from earlier. "Shit!" I curse under my breath as I place my palm to my forehead.

"Be careful, child. You took great fall."

One of the voices from before speaks and I finally notice the man sitting at a table across from where I am, sipping from a cup and looking out a window. "Who – Who the hell are you?!" I ask, the fear and panic present in my voice. Its then I realize, "And where the hell is my friend?! My teacher?!"

His eyes shift to me momentarily, a bored expression adorns his face that only makes me angry. "Your friend is fine. She and Eshe are in the other room," He tells me and goes back to looking out the window.

"Who are you?! Why are you so –"

"Gahiji, don't give her a hard time," Ms. Eshe comes out from behind a pair of beige curtains with an unamused look on her face, glaring at 'Gahiji.'

"Oh, God, Rose!" Akila comes darting out from behind the same curtains and barrels into me, her arms wrapping around me in tight hug. It doesn't help my aching body but I ignore it and hug her back. I'm just happy my best friend is safe. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Me, too! Oh, God, Kiki, I thought… I thought…" I didn't finish, just buried my face in her shoulder and held on to her, as if she'll disappear if I don't.

I look over Kiki's shoulder and my eyes immediately fixate on Ms. Eshe, who is now sitting at the table with this 'Gahiji' man, her own cup in her hands as she takes sips from it. She's staring right back at me with that unreadable expression of hers.

Kiki finally let's go of me and wipes away tears I didn't know had formed in her eyes. But as glad as I am that she's alright, I still have an unanswered question. Well, many unanswered questions. "What's going on? Where are we?"

Ms. Eshe stands from her chair and walks over to a stove I'm just now noticing, where she grabs a cup from one of the shelves above it and grabs a kettle was sitting on one of the burners. She pulls something from a box sitting on a different shelf and places it in the cup before pouring in steaming water, then brings it over to me.

"Drink this, Rose. You'll feel better," She says.

"Ms. Eshe –"

She holds up a hand, "It's just Eshe, no Ms." She then holds out the cup towards me.

I eye it warily before taking it from her. "What's in it?" Then I take a sip. I scrunch my nose at the sour taste of the warm liquid but there's a slight cinnamon flavor to it. It tastes sort of like someone poured a bit it into a cup of day old milk (without the curdled chunks floating in it).

"This is awful!" The words came out before I could stop them and I smack my hand over my mouth, hoping I hadn't offended her, but I'm quickly surprised when she smiles and laughs.

"Isn't it?" Kiki agrees. "I had to drink some earlier. Almost threw up everywhere!"

"Not supposed to taste good," Eshe tells us as she walks back to the table. "It's merely a potion to help you speak normally."

Potion? Speak normally? "Can someone please, for the love of God –"

"It's Ra here, child," Gahiji speaks with a hint of amusement. I don't even understand what that means but I send a glare his way and tell him to shut up, which only seems to amuse him more.

"Gahiji, be quiet." Eshe glares at him and he raises his hands in front of him before sitting back in his chair. She looks back at us and sighs. "There is a lot I must explain."

She takes a deep breathe, and begins, "First, the potion I gave you and Kiki will allow you to understand our language as well as translate your language to ours even if it may not sound like it to you. You see, children, we are in Ancient Egypt. Four-thousand years in to the past for you, but seventeen years into the future for me."

Mine and Kiki's mouths drop open in shock.

"Nineteen years ago - for me, at least - a tablet was created. The tablet you two know as The Tablet of Ahkmenrah. It was created the day he was born and was gifted with power by The Moon God, Khonsu. Merenkahre, the current Pharoah of Egypt, and Ahkmenrah's father, had it created so that no matter what, he and his family would always be together."

Kiki scoffs, "Yeah, so much for that." I nod my head in agreement.

Eshe ignores the remark and continues. "I had heard many things about the powers Khonsu would bestow upon an item that would then be given to someone as a gift. Most required sacrifices but being Pharoah, that was not needed."

"Two years later, the palace of the royal family was raided, and the tablet was taken. I won't go into detail here, just know that it fell into my hands." She gets up from her seat and walks over to the window, staring out it longingly. "I should have just returned it but I…"

I can hear the regret in her voice as she goes on. "But I'm a witch, as you've seen from the potion I gave you. I wanted to know what it could do. I wanted to see its power in action. It was during a full moon when I began to tamper with it. It… It began to glow, and suddenly… I was no longer in Egypt." She turns back to us. "I was in your time; in your city. I woke up in the museum"

"But the tablet was at the museum. Surely you could've just gone back during another full moon?" Kiki questions.

Eshe shakes her head slowly, her eyes filled with sadness, probably the first emotion I've seen from her yet. "I tried," She tells us. "But never lit up again, like it did before. I thought I was stuck forever in the future, never being able to return."

"Then I saw you two, and I just knew, those two are my ticket back. I just didn't know how. Then," Her browns eyes meet mine, "you touched that the tablet and suddenly, I was back."

I feel bad for Eshe, I really do. But this was a lot to stomach and left me with more questions then I started with. "So then, Kiki and I will just touch the tablet, and go back."

"That's not possible, unfortunately," Gahiji speaks up and I turn my attention to him as he places his cup on the table. "After Eshe disappeared, I wasn't sure what to do. You see, I am her assistant. So when she disappeared, I was out of work."

"I knew it had something to do with her disappearance, but I thought it killed her. So I returned it to the palace."

"So, then, let's just go to the palace and explain what happened. They'll understand, right? And let us use the tablet to go home," Kiki says.

Gahiji laughs bitterly and shakes his head. "Those at the royal palace despise witches. They won't let her anywhere near that tablet." He explains before looking at me. "Telling them you're from a different time will make them capture you and lock you up. They don't like different here."

My stomach flips at his words. "What do we do then?" I ask.

The serious look on his face dissipates and forms a large grin from ear to ear, and claps his hands together. "First, we must go to the city and stock up on food."

"I would also like to visit some… old friends. I'm sure they would be happy to see me," Eshe adds with a glint in here eyes that tells me she's up to something.

"But what about Rose's hair? You just said she'd be imprisoned for it," Kiki points out.

Both Eshe and Gahiji both look at me in deep thought before exchanging glances. "Well, we could leave you here every time we run to the city, and it could be hours before we get back. You two might be here for a while. You'll need to know your way there and around since we can't keep you locked up the entire time."

Gahiji stands and walks over to a chest. He pulls out cloth and hands them to Eshe. "You'll both need a change of clothes. Eshe can make you some. Rose will also have to wear a scarf over her to cover her hair."

Eshe takes the cloth from him and begins walking to the next room. "Come," She says and gestures for us to follow her. "I'll get you both set up."