The Heart Of Ahkmenrah | Rami Malek

8. Night as a Normal Man

Word count: 1971

The days in the next week passed quickly, almost every night Ahkmenrah was divulging stories and moments from his life to Elizabeth, ending with both of them growing fonder with one another.
On the seventh night of their discussions Elizabeth noticed something about Ahkmenrah that she hadn't before.
The more he relived his life, the more he seemed to yearn for excitement, almost as if he realized that he had spent so long wandering the halls of the museum and being with Elizabeth and hearing about her life made him feel bored. She wasn't sure how she picked up on this as he did thoroughly enjoy spending time with her, it was when she would walk to his exhibit and see him just staring at walls before they started working that caught her attention.

This night Elizabeth rubbed her sore hand, her habit of squeezing her pencil when she was writing about something that excited her was coming back to bite her, paying attention to the tender skin between her pointer and her middle finger. Elizabeth sat on the subway on her way to the museum, Larry had gone in to work early and she was too tired to get up at the time. She had not brought her books, only a notepad for something important, she wanted to hang out with Ahkmenrah, not just study him.
Slowly Elizabeth zoned out, voices of people around her faded and she barely felt the train halt at each stop. Her mind drifted to him, he made her feel a certain way, it was hard to explain. It wasn't typical butterflies, it excited her and she craved his presence, not admitting to herself that he made her cheeks rosie for more than his endless complements, but his smile and his eyes.
Elizabeth chuckled to herself, for she had thought about his smile so many times that it was burned into her mind, not that it was a bad thing.
Elizabeth couldn't deny it,
She was smitten with him.

The familiar robotic voice came through the speakers in the subway car that announced her stop, pulling Elizabeth from her thoughts and grab onto the pole to get up before the train refilled with passengers. As she walked up to the escalators to get out she saw an ad for the museum and laughed at the drawing of what scientists believed Ahkmenrah and a few of the other exhibits looked like when they were alive, he was much cuter in person.

She got out onto the street and walked the few blocks to get to her destination, it was already dark out and she knew Larry would be upset with her if she took too long, he was protective of her. Elizabeth knocked on the security entrance was welcomed in by her uncle, he looked rather worn out and frustrated, more than he usually was of course. His face had a large painful looking bruise on the side.
"Are you doing okay? What happened?" She questioned him with worry.
"I'm fine Beth, just tired is all, some kids messed up the Neanderthal exhibit and I had to come fix it before they woke up" Larry sighed before running his temple with his fingers.
"If you can't tell, they woke up while I was working, got me right in the face" he spoke gesturing to his cheek.
Elizabeth grimaced at the sight of the sore flesh, she knew the Neanderthals were much stronger than most people today.
Her uncle noticed her expression,
"Its fine, I did startle them, and they themselves were sorry, after laughing for awhile at least" he chuckled.
Elizabeth smiled at him and then looked to the door that lead to the museum.
"He's in his exhibit, sleeping in I guess" Larry told her with an amused smile.
"Thanks" Elizabeth blushed, guess everybody knew how she always wanted to see Ahkmenrah, she didn't think that she was that obvious about it...

Elizabeth walked into the main hall saw only Teddy and Saca sitting together, she did not feel like questioning what the others were up to. She climbed the stairs and made her way towards Ahkemrahs exhibit.
Elizabeth turned to corner and saw the two large jackals guarding his door, they looked down at her and then relaxed their stance moved so she could go past them.
This startled Elizabeth as they were nice with nobody, not even Larry whom they had know for many years.

Pushing these questions a bit to the side of her mind she saw his tomb and walked towards it, once again admiring the magnificent display that the museum had put together.
Elizabeth looked at the edge of his sarcophagus and noticed that it was slightly open, she peered in curiously and saw Ahkmenrah sleeping.
She felt like a bit of a creep for looking at him like this but he had such a look of peace on his face that she didn't want to turn away.
Elizabeth shook her head and pulled herself out of her head and took a step back, it before quietly knocking on the side.
She heard an exhale and Ahkmenrah sat up and ruffled his hair, it was beautifully curly, a rich chocolate colour.