March 30th, 1925

Betty,

I know, I owe you the rest of this tale. As I said before, I am ashamed for my part, and horrified remembering it. 

As I wrote before, we found Shakti's Cairo business place, and Violet recognised one of the men from our fracas at the pyramid. Louis sits down beside him and puts a gun discreetly in his side and "I think you should take us upstairs." I am beginning to wonder what sort of a man Louis was when he was away with the legion. 

The man led us to the back of the shop and upstairs. Louis sat him down in the chair. The rest of us searched, but there wasn't much beyond clubs and other weaponry stashed about the offices. Then the gentlemen turned to the man in the chair...

He did eventually tell us another way in to the pyramids. Covington, surprisingly, lost his nerve during the interview. I don't like to think of him like that. I don't like to this of any of us as we were that day...

We purchased burkas and rope and headed out to the pyramids, four of us in the native female garb.  Covington was our male escort, and the rest of us were his wife and her sisters who wished to view the pyramids, or at least so we told the police who asked were clearly worried due to the previous night's excitement.

We found the hidden entrance to beneath the pyramid, and slid down the rope to a dark passageway. Once our eyes adjusted, I could see evidence of things, bodies, dropped down into the hole. It occurred to me thst these people we have been dealing with are truly depraved and cruel creatures. I cannot see a glimmer of goodness in those who would dump people into a place like this. 

We followed a passageway, that was altogether frightening. The silence was oppressive in places. Occasionally there were drafts and foul stenches, causing our torches to gutter. It was altogether eerie. Red liquid dripped on my head and I could not bring myself to investigate what exactly it was. I found myself closely crowding to my compatriots. 

The passageway kept branching. At one point, there were drag marks to the right, we went left. We had to cross deep pits, past luminescent fungi. Louis kept a pratter on about inane things, tales when he was young. It reminded me of Searle, which for once I found comforting and a source of strength. If that was his intent, there are surprising depths to my brother-in-law.

Somewhere down there, I found a black flower. A flower, living in the dark! I had never heard of such a thing, so I picked it up and it stung me, like a thorn. I folded it into my robes.

Eventually, we met a dead end covered in heiroglyphs, so Covington went forward to read by the flickering torchlight. It warned of Children of the Sphynx that dismember for their Dark Lord living there. With more trepidation, we back tracked.

Out of nowhere, two things grabbed Covington from behind. He yelled and shot, and I turned to see an ugly, mummified hands gripping his shoulders. Whatever it was seemed to be pulling him away from us, so I dropped my lamp, grabbed his arm, and began hauling on it to keep him from being taken. 

The monsters were hugely tall. Even the gentlemen barely reached their midchest. One looked much like a crane for a head, while the other looked much like a crocodile on a man's body.

Shots rang out, which was deafening in the tunnel. I changed my grip to around Convington's waist as the crocodile's teeth splintered along both sides. He roared in rage which was cut off as Webber stepped up and removed his head. 

I lost my grip as Covington was freed, and fell back into the sand as Covington fired at the ibis looking monster. It rushed at him, stabbing him with its beak. I grabbed my lamp and began crawling to Violet as the men fought on. When all went silence, we were all standing. 

We eventually came to a cavernous room of black marble. Far side was too far for lamp light to reach, but the ceiling was made of stars. We crossed a creepy bridge across a wide expanse, that would no doubt be filled with adoring masses if the chamber was open, to find a vile green throne with a giant hole behind throne, pitch black, ripped open... A mummy on a dais surrounded by canonic jars. Attempts to destroy the mummy were unsuccessful and instead the jars were unceremoniously smashed.

I will admit to being completely terrified. It was a place of dark magics and dark desires. When Louis and Doctor Webber went into a red mist and came back ashen faced, I was too frightened by their fear to ask questions and too petrified to follow in their wake.

In exasperation, I believe, the gentlemen decided to throw the mummy into black emptiness. Webber and Louis lay dynamite at the throne & altar as we left, having never found the girdle of Nidicris. As the explosions went off, I resolutely refused to look back.

It almost sounds benign, writing it like this, but I assure you it was a harrowing experience. I felt ill by the time we were leaving, hours after we had entered. Perhaps it was the exhaustion.

And that was Cairo.

Respectfully,

Rose