Divine Interruption

Arsinoë eyed the smaller drawers and walked over to select one at random. She was still traumatized by the vision of shrunken heads rolling and moaning and thought tattooed skin would be much more palatable. Plus, it wouldn’t be as noticeable if she put a drop or two of blood on the ink if it was dark enough.

Inside the drawer, three rather large skin chunks looked like they had come from a back or chest and a smaller one with a simple black tribal band.

That’ll work.

 She removed the drawer and set it on top of the cabinet, letting her purse slide from her shoulder. She set it next to the drawer and pulled out the Aida cloth.

She took the needle out and studied it, twisting it between her fingers.

“Do it!” Isis screamed.

Arsinoë pricked her thumb with the needle. She pocketed it as her blood gushed. She pressed her thumb to the smooth, leathery skin. She tried her best to contain the blood to the black ink.

She slowly counted to three and lifted her thumb.

“Now…focus,” the goddess told her. “Concentrate on making it move.”

Arsinoë stared at the skin sample, unblinking. Without warning, it popped up out of the drawer and flapped at her face. She watched in amazement and disbelief as it fluttered in front of her eyes.

And slapped her.

She reached a hand to her cheek where the skin had made contact. “Ow.”

She answered with a slap of her own to make it go back in the drawer. It levitated back up and smacked her again, this time across both cheeks.

Shocked, she struck it again, harder this time. It retreated back into the drawer and shriveled into itself slightly, almost like it was pouting.

“Is it…”

“Of course it’s crying, you just slapped it,” Isis said. “Now, let’s try something bigger like an actual mummy.”

Arsinoë rubbed her cheek. Her gaze remained fixated on the tattooed skin even as she involuntarily moved to the mummy drawers. The skin was now flexing itself into a crude gesture.