Chapter Text
The past year had been… hectic to put it lightly.
Discovering the Egyptian gods existed, your mother died summoning one, having your dad die also summoning one, and going to live with your uncle who’s not only apparently a magician but also possessed by one of the apparently suddenly abundant Egyptian gods, is a lot to handle.
And that didn’t even cover half of what Carter and his sister Sadie had been through and figured out when things had gone from their shifty usual, to much, much worse in the span of a few hours almost a year ago.
Carter knew they were running out of time. Time to find the real Zia, time to save the world from Apophis, time to teach the people who looked to him and Sadie as teachers after they had introduced this world to them.
Logically Carter understood the deadline they were under. Horus popping in and out of his head like a shitty radio transmission and talking about how Carter should just let him take control to fix this whole mess of the world ending really put that into perspective.
But was it so much to ask for a few hours where Carter could just be a kid. A normal high-schooler who’s biggest worry was that a girl he liked might not like back. Instead of the situation he was actually stuck in. Where the girl he like turned out to be a Shabti, who he had never even really known, and who certainly didn’t know him.
He sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands with all the thoughts in his head running a thousand miles an hour as he tried not to feel the crushing weight of responsibility pressing down on him. He was the big brother, it fell to him to step up and take care of not only of Brooklyn house and all the magicians who called it home, but also Sadie.
They hadn’t exactly always gotten along, hell, they hadn’t even lived together for most of their lives.
To Carter that didn’t matter. Whether it was latent big brother instincts, a responsibility half remembered from when their family was whole, or just plain, ugh dare he admit it, affection for his sister he had to step up. To take care of her. Other than Amos, who couldn’t even hang around for ten minutes due to the whole being possessed by the god Set thing, that had happened a few months ago.
Sadie was the only family Carter had left. And he was going to make sure she made it through all this alive, and was able to a normal teenager as much she could.
‘Deep breathes Carter,’ he thought, eyes clamped shut, and hands pressing into his forehead, ‘Four seconds in through the nose, four seconds out through the mouth.’ It was a technique Carter’s dad taught him when he was still small. Whenever the world felt too big, his dad would sit him down and they’d breathe.
In and out. Over and over, and over until all the overwhelming feelings were gone.
It didn’t quite work like it used to.
But Carter still fell back on it. The routine of at least trying to find a center in the chaos, made him feel at least a little bit more ready for what lay ahead. He could’ve sat like that for another hour until his next class he was supposed to teach. He was interrupted from that however, when he heard a knock. It didn’t come from his bedroom door.
It came from the balcony. Not unusual. Horus had a bad habit of possessing birds, to try and convince Carter to let him back into his head on the regular. To form an Eye. The ideal avatar between god and human. As well as to convince Carter that as the Eye of Horus, they could rule Egypt together, they could usher in a new age. With the darker state of Carter's emotions and thoughts in the moment, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to having to deal with Horus and his offers of godly solutions and power.
However, when Carter lowered his arms and sighed out a breath, readying himself, he opened his eyes and saw no Horus.
At least as far as he could tell no Horus. No other gods either, at least none he could see without spells. Instead laying outside on the balcony in front of the door was a package. As if
someone or something had flown down from above and dropped it off, like some sort of godly
delivery service.
Carter pushed himself off the bed, frown etching itself further on his face.
The package was unassuming. It was a brown box. Not too big across, nor too wide when laid
like it was on its back with arrows pointing upwards. There was no return address, only a weird symbol Carter was sure he’d seen somewhere before, a column with two snakes twinning
themselves around it. If he was less tired maybe he would’ve hesitated more, tried a little harder to recall where he’d seen that symbol before.
Maybe he should've found it odd he could make that much out this far from the package, but
he'd seen and experienced weirder, not even a few weeks ago.
In this particular moment, Carter just wanted whatever weird thing was happening to get itself over with, so he could back to feeling sorry for himself over all that happened in the past couple of months.
He pushed open the door and picked up the package. It was light. And it was addressed to him.
Well… him and Sadie. Looking at it closer it seemed that there were hieroglyphics on the side,
shimmering in and out of existence when he’d tilt the box a certain way. Mixed in were other symbols, ones he couldn’t quite make out.
The hieroglyphics didn’t make sense either, blurring the longer he looked at them, only catching
glimpse of clarity in the moments when his attention was focused on something different on the package. But the symbols mixed in the with the hieroglyphics never cleared up, the longer
he stared at them the more his head and eyes hurt. Like the signs of a sudden migraine.
That was probably his sign to do the smart thing. Put the box back out on the balcony and go find Sadie to make a plan. Scry Amos, tell him about the mysterious package and the way it was
addressed to him and Sadie. Go find an adult, any adult, hell even Khufu would probably qualify in this situation. Instead Carter did the impulsive thing, the sort of thing
Sadie would’ve done if faced with a box covered in weird symbols and half appearing, glowing
hieroglyphs.
He opened it.
...
…
Grabbing his pocket knife from his linen pants, he sliced into the tape, half expecting for it explode, or to turn him into a donkey that would explode.
{Lots of curses, he’d learned, followed the same philosophy Sadie tended to approach things with blow things up, ask questions never.}
Instead it simply sat there, as his hands hovered over it. He could feel something like a veil over his mind lift for a moment. Cater stared at the package now sitting on his bed, taking a step back. He had no clue what sort of magic could make him ignore how weird all this was, but now he was staring the consequences of his actions in the face. Face blank he wondered if it was worth it now to try to find someone to help. He tilted his head up to the ceiling. And in a fit of what he was sure he would later say was a temporary fit of madness, sent a prayer to Horus for protection. Then he pulled the box closer, and before he could back out opened it and shoved his hand into the box. Carters eyes were squeezed shut, bracing for... he wasn't quite sure. Pain maybe? For Horus to suddenly appear and tell him this was a test? Whatever it was he'd been bracing for didn't come to pass. So Carter opened his eyes, hand grabbing hold of what almost felt like- plastic.
Pulling whatever it was out of the box, Carter felt even more confused when he looked at it. It was the recording he and Sadie had made. Or at least somewhat. It had been spruced up, and placed in a case with artwork on the front. The confusion didn't last long when he finally began to study the cassette. His went wide, and his hands began to shake slightly. The case that cassette was stored in, now had a horrific rendition of the Red Pyramid, Set's Pyramid drawn in expert detail on the front. The picture was small but the longer he looked at it, the more he saw details that only he, Sadie, and Amos would know about the pyramid. He flipped the case over, suddenly desperate to not have to see the picture. On back of the case written in a papyrus script, 'The Red Pyramid, a recording staring Carter and Sadie Kane! With guest appearances from the gods , Horus, Isis, and Set!'
Carter flung the tape onto his bed, wiping his sweaty hands on his pants. "What the fuck!" he whisper-screamed to himself, voice cracking in the middle of the swear. He wanted to run away, from whatever this was. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his shirt beginning to stick to him with sweat. He tried to suck in air but, still felt light-headed. He flicked his gaze between the flung cassette sitting innocently on his bed, and the package on the edge of the same bed. Licking his lips he reached again for the package. 'There has to be some-sort of explanation for this! There has to be some sort of reason for that to be here!' Carter thought desperate for some sort of answer, wrenching open the box to search inside. As he scrambled onto the bed, knocking the cassette to the floor, grappling the package into his lap. The package looked like any other package on the inside. Sitting there in brown packaging paper were two more cassettes with similarly drawn covers on the cases. As well as an envelope. The envelope gleamed in nearly the same manner as the package it lay within. Covered in disappearing and reappearing hiroglyphs. Carter grasped for the envelope, tearing it open, to reveal a letter. It was written by someone he knew. He recognized this handwriting, it was Sadie's.
...
Carter had no clue anymore what was serious and what was a joke. All three cassettes now sat next to him on the bed. After reading the first page of the letter, he'd set it down and grabbed the remaining two cassettes out of the box, and snatched the first one of the floor. The first cassette remained face down, just catching a glimpse of it made Carter feel sick, like he was back at the pyramid itself, with the feeling of evil, true undeniable evil looming ahead. It felt like staring at Face of Horror and realizing Chaos itself was staring back. It was that same feeling that made Carter turn the third cassette around as well. It's cover had been a lot more confusing, it depicted a gleaming obelisk rising from an ever-shifting sea, that wasn't what had made Carter feel uneasy though, it was what lay beneath and behind the obelisk. There where the shadow of where the obelisk should've been was instead the shadow of a giant snake. Even in a still image he could feel how the shadow writhed, and shook in rage trying to get free of the pillar that trapped it. He'd only needed to look at for a minute before he knew that the letter had been telling the truth.
There was no way to prevent what would come to pass. Unless they had some foresight. Unless someone who'd already thought up plans, and tested them out could share them. and if the letter was to be believed, then these tapes would do just that. Carter took one last look at his room. He had a feeling once he relayed everything to Sadie and the two of them recited the spell on the last page of the letter, that he wouldn't see this particular room for a while. Grabbing the folded up letter, and shoving it in his pocket. Carter made his way to his closet to grab his bag. He packed a couple changes of clothes, and a few things he didn't want to leave behind. The last thing he stuffed into the bag was the cassettes, if he remembered correctly, Sadie still had the cassette player in her room. Taking on more deep breath, Carter opened the door and stepped into the unknown.
...