The Shadow From Khem

By Jeff Baker

My studies at University having finished, and thus having been given a clean bill of health from academia, I went into the wide world to seek my fortune. If I had known that I would have encountered Madame Pyrrah I would have stayed home.

She seemed exotic and mysterious when I first saw her at the museum. She seemed to know as much about the artifacts as I did and she mentioned the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, (Mind you this was in the year 1897.) I complimented her on her curiosity and introduced myself as Arthur Ward, “Artie” to my friends. I encountered her several times and that was when the dreams started.

They always involved her.

In one, I saw here on the prairie, kneeling and summoning a whirlwind. In another, I saw a vast, starlit expanse of desert with a lithe figure walking towards me. Knowing what I know now, I must assume the dreams were a portent of some kind, for I always awoke in a cold sweat, and to the certainty that for a moment there was someone else in the room with me…

Author’s Note: Only got around to writing a beginning this week, inspired by my recent reading of some of Sax Rohmer’s Egyptian-themed horror stories.