The Red Pyramid

A Short Story By Nate Butkus

The stepping stones around her clicked with the sound of her shoes tapping on them. When she got to the end of the stepping stones she took a sharp left turn and started climbing across the rope ladder. She then turned to the right where there was a hollowed out rotting log with a sort of shiny veil covering both entrances to the log. She slipped into the rotting log with ease but to her shock it wasn’t rotten and filled with bugs on the inside, no it was beautiful. Gold latticed with the red velvet centering around a single black chair. As perplexed as she was, she sat on the black chair. When she got up, she was not herself anymore, for she had just put herself in the middle of the Red Pyramid. She was no longer herself when she was heard from again. She was something much more primal, but her fate would only be learned 8 years after her disappearance. 

The computers at the A.A.O. Were full with Emails when they got the transmission. It simply read: I am at the Red Pyramid. What you do now is up to you. 

The A.A.O knew the Red Pyramid well. Well, at least they knew as much as anyone else did about it. They knew that it was a pyramid, and that it was red. They sent 5 people to go and deal with the transmission. Their names were Ben Malaurda, Reginald Vekabol, Thomas Nonan, Darek Cox, and Ellie Sartam. They flew into a town right next to the Red Pyramid called Raypaer. Immediately after they landed, they were met with hatred from some of the locals claiming that the A.A.O. didn’t protect their daughter 8 years ago when she went missing in the Red Pyramid. The members of the A.A.O task force moved on from the vengeful pasture and towards the Red Pyramid. Before they got to the Red Pyramid a bar was in the middle of nowhere blocking their path. They entered the bar after hearing noises coming from the inside of it. Inside they found many of the town residents sitting on booths waiting for their drinks to come. When the task force went further into the bar, they found several ape-men who were serving the drinks. Ape-men had been banned from working at bars and other restaurants after several incidents that left many people either dead or hospitalized. They had to leave behind Ellie, Ben, and Thomas to deal with the ape-men situation. That left Darek and Reginald to go into the Red Pyramid alone. They wandered over to the entrance to the Red Pyramid, and slowly creaked the old door coated with aging red paint. As they entered the Red Pyramid, instead of some mummy that came back to life, or a little boy trapped in a sarcophagus, they found something that looked kind of like a nature preserve. There were about 20 stepping stones coming out of what looked like a very deep pond. Darek and Reginald gingerly hopped across the stepping stones until they turned to the left and started climbing across a rope ladder. When they got to the end of the rope ladder, they saw the rotting log with a thin shiny veil covering it. 

“Darek, this is clearly it. We should get out of here.” 

“No Reginald the A.A.O. clearly said that the threat of the Red Pyramid had to be neutralized once and for all.” 

Suddenly a black mass with the shape of a little girl emerged from the rotting log. Reginald ran. 

“Are you kidding me Reginald? Are you abandoning me?!” 

Darek started to run too. All three were running out of there. Suddenly Darek turned around wielding an A.A.O. flamethrower which he promptly ignited. He lowered it to the black mass’s head, but before it could deal any real damage, Darek’s guts were laying on the floor of the Red Pyramid. Reginald ran out of the Red Pyramid and met up with the other members of the task force at the bar. He told them what had happened to Darek, although he modified it to not include his treachery. In the end, they decided to return to the A.A.O with the information that they had discovered. The A.A.O and the Red Pyramid were going to war.