sun. A pair of intricately carved oars rested against the hull, and the sturdy mast with a thick sail was bound with tight ropes as well. At the bow of the ship was a carved figurehead of a bird, which looked suspiciously similar to the benu bird, which was now perched atop the broken dock post.
The bird stared down at me expectantly, as if it was waiting for me to do something. It danced on the top of the post, ruffling its feathers as it softly sang for me. One of its feathers brushed against my arm and warmth seeped into my skin briefly before it was lifted away once again.
When the bird’s song ended, the pieced together door of the hut swung inward, revealing an interior so dark, I could make out nothing inside, even with my enhanced eyesight. It swung shut again with a reverberating bang.
“You…you want me to go in?” I asked the bird.
The bird answered me by flying to the falling-down shack and perching on the roof.
“I guess you do,” I said. “Okay, then. Here we go.”
I knocked on the door that clung to the side of the home on broken hinges. It hung at such a slant it couldn’t even close properly. As my knuckles rapped against it a second time, it swung drunkenly, giving me glimpses of the dark space within. When nobody answered, I shrugged and pulled open the door. It didn’t squeak so much as groan with debilitating pain as it hung open and stayed exactly where I left it.
“Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing in the space. The dying sunlight cast long lines of pale light through the gaps in the boards of the house, the gloomy streaks making it appear to be more of a prison cell than a home. “My name’s Lily,” I announced in the space as I took a tiny hesitant step inside. “Is anyone here?”
There was a rustle to my right. It sounded like shifting paper or perhaps the scattering of a nest of vermin. A dark shape disentangled itself from an even darker corner of the squalid home, and I heard the rumble of a deep voice.
“What do ya want?” the voice demanded, the question followed by a toxic-sounding round of phlegmy coughing and a snort.
“Horus sent me,” I responded quietly, the tone of my voice rising at the end as if I’d been asking a question instead of making a statement.
The coughing escalated, and the person hidden in the darkness finally stopped and spat. Glistening yellowish pus landed on the sandy, warped boards by my feet. I moved a step back into the frame of the door, suddenly ready to bolt.
A scraping noise indicated the figure was moving closer. “Horus?” the voice questioned suspiciously. “What do I care for him?”
“Isn’t he your master?”
“My master?” The person started cackling, which soon turned into coughing again. More shuffling, and then I heard the jingling of a box. A tiny flame burst into life, growing larger as a lamp was lit. The person in the shack lifted the gas lamp and turned toward me.
Seeing it was a man and not a monster should have offered me a semblance of calm, but instead, I grew more nervous. He was hunchbacked, and though his frame was thick with flesh, his cheeks were hollow, haggard, and his feverish gray eyes were as leeched of color as the boards of his home. Thick blue veins stood out on his heavy arms. Large lips protruded from a wiry black beard that was so unkempt and long, I wondered what creatures might be nesting in its depths.
“Ya woke me from my sleep,” the man accused as he stared at me with heavy brows low enough to impede his vision. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket that was so filthy the only good thing to do with it would be to burn it. I stared speechless as he lifted it to his hooked nose and snorted loudly enough to rattle the floorboards. He must have noticed the grimace on my face because the next thing he said was, “Get out!”
My hands tightened into fists. “No,” I answered, and lifted my chin defiantly. “I need to get to the afterlife, and apparently you have something to do with that.”
The man took a few steps closer and stared down at me from an imposing height. He was much bigger than he’d originally looked. “I don’t ferry the living, girlie.” His pungent breath washed over