EATER OF SOULS
Chapter Fourteen “Knock, knock.” Ahmose looked into the front room and saw the Doctor and Rose standing at the front door. He smiled. “Come in, Doctor,” he said. The Doctor nodded, and he and Rose stepped inside. Ahmose stepped into the front room. “I trust things went smoothly,” he said. The Doctor glanced at Rose. “Yeah, we didn’t encounter any resistance.” “Thank the gods.” “Because everyone was dead.” Ahmose stared at him. “Dead?” The Doctor nodded. “Yup, some animal got a hold of them. Ripped their hearts clean out of their bodies.” Ahmose frowned. “An animal attacked them and took their hearts?” he asked. “Do you know what it could have been, Doctor?” The Doctor scratched his ear. “Well, as far as I can tell. It looks like a crocodile did it. Although, as I was telling Rose, that would be highly irregular since crocodiles don’t come that far inland, nor do they usually take only the hearts of their victims. I…” He paused, as Rose tapped his shoulder. He looked at her and noticed her pointing to Ahmose. He looked at him and saw that Ahmose was almost white with shock. He glanced at Rose, as he grabbed an amulet around his neck and muttered a prayer. “Ahmose, something you wanna share with the rest of the class?” the Doctor said. “Ammit,” Ahmose murmured. They watched, as Ahmose, face white as snow, excused himself from the room. “Ahmose?” Rose called after him. “You alright? What’s going on? What or who is this Ammit?” Rose frowned, as she got no response. She glanced up at the Doctor and saw that he was thinking intently. “Ammit,” he muttered. “Where have I heard that before?” Rose watched him as he muttered, “Ammit, Ammit, Ammit.” repeatedly to himself. Suddenly, the Doctor paused, as a light bulb went on in his head. His eyes widened with unrestrained glee. “Of course! From the Egyptian book of the dead,” he said, overjoyed that he had figured it out. Rose looked at him. “Book of the dead?” she asked. The Doctor nodded. “The book of the dead is a series of magical spells and information that Egyptians use to help navigate the underworld after they die,” he explained. “It describes various demons you must face and what you must say to pass them to get to the hall of judgment. Once you get to the hall of judgment, Anubis weighs your heart on scales and if you are deemed a good soul, you pass into paradise. If not...then your heart, which they believe is the seat of your soul, is eaten by Ammit. He is a beast that sits by the scales and waits for Anubis to judge a soul wicked. Once you are judged wicked and Ammit eats your heart, you cease to exist. Your soul is lost forever. And…according to depictions in the book of the dead of Ammit, he has the hindquarters of a hippo, the torso of a leopard and…the head of a crocodile.” Rose frowned. “But surely…that can’t be it, Doctor. That’s just a myth.” The Doctor grinned. “Ah, but a lot of myths, and folklore, and superstitions have some basis in fact,” he said. “You humans do tend to exaggerate things, and an actual event that happened far in the past could have been altered through the years by people getting facts wrong as the tale was retold.” “So…there really is a hippo, leopard, crocodile thing that goes around eating evil people’s hearts?” Rose said. The Doctor shrugged. “After all the things you and I have seen together, don’t you think there might be a possibility of that?” Rose nodded. “You have a point,” she said.” So then what could this Ammit thing really be if it’s something that’s gotten distorted into a myth by humans over time? You think it might be an alien?” The Doctor shrugged. “I’ve not heard of any alien species that resembles Ammit, but you never know.” “And, this Ammit, if it’s an alien, came to Earth to…devour evil people’s hearts.” The Doctor shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first alien who landed here and did odd things,” he said. He paused. “Normally, if this Ammit creature was here to kill evildoers, I would say more power to em, makes my job a hell of a lot easier. The problem is, we don’t know for sure if it’s only targeting the wicked.” Rose’s eyes widened, as a disturbing thought came to her mind. “Doctor, what if this Ammit thing killed Femi?” she asked. The Doctor’s eyes darkened. “Then we will deal with it accordingly,” he said, angrily. They looked over, as Ahmose entered the room. “I’m so sorry, my friends. I was just so shaken by what you said. I needed a moment to compose myself.” The Doctor held up his hand. “That’s okay, Rose and I were just talking amongst ourselves,” he said. Ahmose looked behind him, as a beautiful, dark skinned woman entered the room and stood beside him. “This is my wife, Amisi,” he said. “Hello,” Rose said, waving. The Doctor bowed. “An honor to meet you,” he said, smiling. Amisi nodded her head in reply. She looked at Ahmose. “Well…are you going to ask them in, or are you just going to let them stay in the receiving room?” she chided him. Ahmose coughed, embarrassed. “Of course…please come inside. My wife is preparing supper, and we will show you to your rooms.” The Doctor and Rose nodded. Grasping each other’s hands, they followed their new friends further into their home.
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