Chapter 3 - Part 1: Beginning of a Great Adventure

Flora couldn't believe how easy this had been.  Now that she was sitting here, simply eating her lunch, it seemed like it was only yesterday she had told her family "I'm going to Egypt!"  And here she was.

It had only been a day since her arrival and she was already acclimated to the heat.

Faith had been worried about her daughter's pale skin, and had constantly reminded her to put on sunscreen while she was "off in that desert".  When Flora had landed in Egypt and finally looked through her bags, she'd found no less than eight bottles of sunscreen which had magically appeared in them.

Though she was enjoying this time to herself, away from the troubles that seemed to plague her family, she couldn't help but remember the reason she had come to Egypt to begin with.

As if on cue, she heard the voice again.  That wordless sound, beckoning her.  Flora shot straight up in the chair, trying to pinpoint the location the voice was coming from.

As her eyes scanned across the marketplace courtyard, her heart skipped a beat.  The same statue that had been in the museum seemed to be staring directly at her.

As she looked into the creatures stone eyes, the spectral voice in her head seemed to get a little louder.

She instantly jumped up from the table and ran to the shop.  Her hands began to sweat and her breath came in short quick bursts.

Flora approached the statue slowly, not knowing what to do now that she'd finally found the object of her search.  She never would have expected what was to happen next: the voices simply stopped.

Confused, she approached the shopkeeper and questioned the man about the statue.  She found out, in broken Simlish, that this too was just a copy of the original (but was conveniently for sale).  The original it was copied from was located deep in the "Temple of the Sea" pyramid.

A pyramid so remote and full of traps and puzzles that guides refused to take tourists there anymore because so few would make it back out.

With that ominous news, Flora headed off straight away.  Not much scared the woman, and the prospect of finally reaching the true artifact was too much of a driving force for her to wait another moment.

The shopkeeper had drawn her up a crude map and several long, hot hours later, in the middle of nowhere, a pyramid rose out of a palm tree forest.

Flora made her way to the entrance to find it sealed.  As she searched around for way to open the door, the massive stone wall started to slide open of its own accord.

The sound of stone grating on stone was almost deafening, but Flora was too transfixed to do anything but stare in wonder, curious as to what she would find inside.

Roaming the dusty halls with little to go on but intuition, she found countless amazing artifacts and sculptures.  It was impossible not to be in constant awe of her surroundings.

The beckoning voice she'd become so accustomed to hearing returned and was gradually becoming louder.

As she followed its lead, she was stopped by a large pile of rubble.  Doing what any other resourceful Sim would do, she pulled out a pickax and started chipping away at the obstacle.

Almost at once the rocks seemed to dissolve before her, revealing a hidden door.  Flora's excitement increased as the ethereal voices continued to climb.

Once she'd cleared the rubble and made her way inside the room, the voice in her head was practically singing.

It didn't take long to figure out why.

She had made it.

Locating the statue had been surprisingly easy.  As if the path had been completely laid out before her.

Making her way to the figure, Flora was shocked to see that it wasn't alone.  There were, in fact, two identical statues.

"What does this mean?" Flora said aloud, thinking herself silly to be talking to stone, "Why have you brought me here?"

"Because I had to see you again," a familiar voice behind her answered.

"Drake!" Flora yelled out in surprise.  "What are you...?  How did you...?" she stammered, not knowing which questions she wanted answered first.

"Because, I love you," he replied, answering all her questions with one short response.

He delicately placed her hands inside his, "when your family took you and left Harmony, I knew I had to see you again.  I could not bear to live a life without you in it, so I brought you here, to this very special place," he finished quietly. 

"I've missed you, too," Flora said, pulling the Vampire into an embrace.  "So that voice in my head was sent by you, calling me to this place?" she questioned, "I should have known it, because it was as impossible to refuse as you are!" She laughed.  "But, what makes this place special?  Why Egypt?  Why this tomb?" she asked.

Drake's eyes glossed over for a moment as a distant memory played across his mind, "This is where I was made into a Vampire," he finally replied.

"A Vampire will always be connected to the place he was made," he continued, "when a human dies, its soul is contained in an object of remembrance.  A tombstone, or an urn, perhaps.  Vampires, however, no longer have such things as a soul.  Therefore our only connection is to the place where we lost it."

"I brought you here, Flora, because this place is the closest thing to 'home' that I have," he told her, his eyes filling with an emotion she hadn't seen from him before.  He continued softly, "you are the closest thing to love I have ever felt, and I do not want to continue existing in this plane without you by my side."

Taken aback by Drake's outpouring of emotion, Flora was left speechless while her heart beat faster than she'd ever felt it before.

"Drake," she finally said, "I have felt the same way since the moment I met you.  I wasn't able to explain the feelings I had towards you to myself then, and I have an even harder time with it now," she said, "I mean, look at us.  I'm all grown up and you're still the same handsome teenager that I met when I was a child.  Feelings aside, how could this possibly work?"

Drake pulled her close, his hand caressed the back of her neck, "my love, I may have the body of a young man, but I can assure you that my mind and ways are quite refined."

Before she had the chance to respond, the Vampire's lips were locked onto hers.

His kiss was deep and passionate, full of raw power and emotion.  Her head began to feel light, her knees started to weaken.  Just as she was on the verge of losing blissful consciousness altogether, he broke the embrace and smiled devilishly up at her.

It took her a few moments to compose herself, "you certainly know how to kiss like a grown man," she said, giggling like a school girl.

"I would very much like to show you what else this grown man can do," he breathed into her ear.

In almost no time at all, the two were back at Flora's camp.  She quickly lead Drake towards the safe shade of her tent.

It would be quite awhile before the two emerge again.

Title / Lou Reed