Pharaoh's Ghost {Completed/Editing}

XIII*

After traveling up a flight of steps and a hallway that felt like it would never end, Kirk and Shukura stopped at a door that stood proud on the right. "This is your room." She spoke as he stepped inside the room. The sound of metal clashing against metal rang in his ears from the window that stood across from them. The room was small, but it had a bed on the right wall with a table on either side and a wardrobe directly across with a pitcher and basin resting directly inside.

Kirk wandered over to the window, leaned against the sill and stared out. For once, he was able to see and understand where he was. There was no sky and it appeared they resided in a cavern of some kind. Rocks met his vision as far as he could see and the city had mean walls moving in a downward spiral until it reached a gate at the very bottom rung. His eyes wandered down below as he watched the guardsmen he had encountered earlier run what he assumed were drills.

"I put some clean clothes on your bed. Excuse me, while I go prepare you some lunch."

Kirk turned to face her as she headed towards the door. "How did you guys end up underground?"

Shukura's shoulder rose and fell as she sighed. He turned back towards the window and took it. She didn't want to talk about it. He watched as the men lined up in two lines. One side with spears and the other side with shields. The men with spears attacked as the ones with shields blocked. A door closed behind him and his eyes fell on a man who had a small dagger with the blade pointing upwards. A smirk pulled at his mouth as he watched the man jab at another and be blocked.

"Hey, hold the blade upside down!" He shouted from the window. The man flipped his dagger and attacked once more. This time when his opponent blocked, he pushed his arm backwards and placed the blade on his neck. The man turned towards him and gave him a thumbs up. Chuckling, Kirk rested his head on his hands and stared at the training ground blankly. Images of a man in a business suite alongside a younger male with bright red hair crossed his vision. He closed his eyes as he remembered a faraway memory.

 A small wind blew the hair of a young five-year-old boy as he and his father stood in the front yard of their small two-story house. Kirk sat on a decorative boulder-sized rock that had a twin on the other side of the driveway as his father stood at the hedges that surrounded the walkway leading to the yellow-colored house. He watched intently as his father kept placing an object in his pocket before bringing it back out and flipping the blade outwards knocking loose leaves off the shrubs. "What are you doing, Dad?" He asked as he watched his father return the blade to his pocket once more.

Turning his head, his father gave a smile as he approached his son and knelt down before him so they could see eye to eye. "I am practicing some skills that I need to make sure I am keeping sharp in case of an emergency." His father smiled but his eyes remained cold and hardened like he had a deep secret he was hiding from him. "I'm also multitasking, by using my  skill to trim the hedges." His father laughed, feeling Kirk's uneasiness. Clearing his throat, he watched his father's features become serious one more.

"Will you teach me to use a knife one day?"

His father smiled as he let his eyes wander behind his son. "Of course, not only that, but I will give you my most prized possession from my collection."

"Cool," Kirk stated with eyes full of younger. He opened his mouth to ask another question, when his father stood to his full height, reached behind him, put his hand on his back, and pushed him to stand from his seated position on the rock. Kirk looked at him puzzled as the sound of a car pulling up behind them caught his attention.

"Kirk, go inside and not come out until I tell you to. No matter what happens, do not come outside." He looked into his father's eyes. His voice, once playful, was now dark and forbidding. It sent chills up his spine thinking something bad was about to happen. With those words, his father pushed him into the driveway and up the walk, before pushing him into the atrium of the house and pulling the door shut before locking it.