Open wounds

34

"What is this?" Marc asked as Steven walked up to Marc.

"This is the underworld." Steven gasped.

"I'm not crazy." Marc said with a smile

"I'm dead." Steven and Marc looked at each other and held onto each other's arms.

"Where did you say we're going?" Marc asked and looked at taweret.

"We're sailing to A'aru. To the Field of Reeds, right, Taweret?" Steven told Marc letting go of his arms.

"Ah, so he's the smart one, hey? Well, if your heart's balanced in life, then you will spend eternity in paradise. The Field of Reeds. But before we get there, I've just got to do a quick little..." she explained.

"Whoa! Easy! Easy, easy, easy there!" Marc yelled as taweret grabbed into his and Steven's chest and grabbed out there hearts.

"Oh, goody! It worked! Look at that! Here was little old me worrying I'd blow your chests wide open." She squealed in excitement and walked away with the hearts.

"Sorry, what?" Steven asked as he turned to face taweret.

"Wait, what's she doing?" Marc asked as taweret walked over to a pair of scales.

"She's weighing our hearts on the Scales of Justice and the Feather of Truth." Steven explained as she put the hearts on one side of the scales and a feather, "You see, the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the sign of who you really were in life. If the Scales balance by the time you end the journey, then a soul is permitted to pass into the Field of Reeds."

"What if they don't balance?" Marc asked and him and Steven walk closer to the hippo.

"You get thrown overboard. Whoo!" She mimicked a bomb explosion, "The dead will drag you down into the Duat, where you will remain forever, frozen in sand. No unbalanced souls on my boat. Them's the rules."

Marc and Steven looked over to the boat and looked down at the sand. "Please come back to me Marc" he heard echo cry.

Marc turned his head but he didn't see anything. "What is it Marc?" Steven asked.

"Something never mind" Marc sighed.

"Fingers crossed for you guys, hey?" The hippo smiled, crossed her fingers and then looked back at the scales.

"I don't care what this hippo says. There's no way we're ending up down there. And we're not going to the Field of Reeds, either." Marc whispered to Steven.

"All right. What are you proposing?"Steven asked in an uneasy tone.

"If it comes to it, kill the hippo, steal the boat." Marc told Steven.

"Kill?" Steven asked and turned back to the hippo then back to Marc.

"Um, fellas?" The hippo said not sounding as happy as she did earlier. Marc and Steven turned around and saw the sales rocking side to side quickly.

"What? Why is it doing that? Why is it moving like that?" Steven asked pointing to the scales.

"I don't know. I do not have a card for this." Taweret sighed and she took the hearts of the scales, "Oh. It's the hearts. They aren't full. And trust me, I'm a goblet half-full kind of gal, but... It's like they each feel incomplete."

"What does that mean?" Marc asked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Without balanced Scales, the Duat will eventually claim your soul." Taweret explained and put the hearts back on the scales.

"Do you have any other suggestions?" Steven asked taweret.

"This boat contains all of a life's memories. Now I don't know what you two guys have been hiding, but my advice, get in there and show each other the truth. Balance your Scales before we arrive at the Field of Reeds, or your souls will be destroyed." Taweret explained and then Marc and Steven went back into the psychiatric hospital.