Beauty and the Pharaoh

Chapter 33 - [Beauty and the Goodbye]

After the encounter with the old lady, my relationship with Atem suddenly felt awkward. I mean, we acted normal... the rest of the trip was great. But there was something off about us now.

We did practically everything we could possible do in that foreign city, like visiting museums, a science center, eating at multiple different restaurants and much more. And then we made our way home.

It was during my ride home that I started to think.

Driving always gave you time to just think, especially when you were driving in the middle of nowhere, not having to worry too much about signs and random idiots running across the streets.

And I eventually realized what the problem was.

Have you ever had someone in your life who you knew for certain was going to leave you? Maybe someone struck with a disease or a grandparent who you know has a certain number of days to live. Or maybe something less morbid... like a family member or friend who's moving away for good...

Well, it was the feeling you get when stuff like that happened. That's what I was feeling.

I had to be real with myself.

I knew now that if Atem was given the chance to go home, he would take it. To be fair... he kind of had to. No matter how much I didn't like the idea, he was right. If he was sent back... he could change what happened. Maybe even rescue some people.

And some was better than none.

Plus... his brother was murdered.

I couldn't even imagine how that felt.

If he got a chance to fix that... how could he not take it?

To add to this, that weird old lady said that he was going home soon. How much did I believe her? Well I dunno. After all this craziness that has happened over the year... I guess so.

But even if the old lady was a fake who didn't know what she was talking about and was simply hoping that we would pay her to get her to read our palms... one thing that was certain was that the wizard was back.

And he wasn't happy.

I had no idea what the wizard was gonna end up doing to Atem... but it wasn't going to be good.

And if I put what the old lady said and the fact that the wizard is back together... my best guess was that the wizard was going to send Atem back.

When I turned my head and looked at Atem, he was simply staring out the window as he ran his fingers through Neferkiti's fur. He was completely preoccupied by whatever he was looking at outside.

Or maybe he was deep in thought like me.

I looked back at the road.

And suddenly considered going to therapy.

I guess, over the trip, I started to accept it.

Like I said before, I couldn't blame Atem for wanting to go back home. That was selfish... and childish.

No matter how weird this sounded, even in my own head... Atem was a King.

He was a goddamn Pharaoh.

He had a kind of responsibility that a schoolgirl like me who bakes cakes for a living could never understand.

Despite loving him, I was in no place to pretend that I could understand how he felt.