Page 17 of Ancient Obsession

Oliver grinned and sent back two groom emojis and two eggplants. After placing his phone on the table, he saw Robin enter the student union. They waved as they got in line, and it wasn’t long before they sat across from Oliver, a large latte in each hand.

“I have a great idea.”

Oliver sat back. “I’m not robbing a bank with you.”

“No, not that.” They paused, considering. “At least not yet. I haven’t figured out a good entry point.”

“Again, no.”

They laughed. “My idea could possibly help you launch your TikTok presence.”

“Oh?”

Robin furrowed their brow. “Are you always this reluctant to hear ideas?”

“It’s not reluctance. Maybe it’s guarded curiosity. I’m all about riffing on ideas with people. When I was a reporter, I used to toss story ideas around all the time with the other reporters. But I’m skeptical until I hear the pitch.”

“All right.” They took a long drink from a latte, and Oliver casually moved the second cup a bit farther away. “I have a friend who’s an Anthropology major with a specialization in archaeology. She’s working with this professor who just returned from a dig in Egypt.”

“Wow, that would be an amazing class trip.”

“Right? Anyway, this professor…what’s her name?” They thought a few seconds. “I can’t remember, sorry. But not important. My friend’s professor was working within this site in some place called, like the valley of tombs or something, and she found a previously overlooked burial chamber, right? Inside of it was this, like, coffin, or whatever it’s called, and the professor has said it’s, like, one of the servants or something of the person sealed in the bigger tomb.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” They lifted the cup again. So much caffeine.

“That is pretty interesting, but what does that⁠—”

“Dude! It’s more than that, it’s, like, completely epic shit. A university this size receiving the coffin or whatever it is⁠—”

“I think it’s a sarcophagus?”

“Whatever. But something like that finally discovered after, what, like, seven billion years?”

“Before Earth was formed?”

“This is going to be a big deal.” Robin leaned in over the table. When they spoke, Oliver could smell the cinnamon flavoring on their breath. “There is an actual fucking mummy being brought to our university and opened up. Wouldn’t that bump up the views for your TikTok neediness?”

“I don’t really think of it as neediness⁠—”

They sat back, slouching a bit, and looked out the window. “If you’re not interested, I can tell my friend thanks for you, but I’ll just be needing a single ticket.”

“They’re selling tickets?”

They snapped back to attention, excitement burning in their eyes. “No, but wouldn’t that be fire? Like, look at us, we scored front row tickets to this awesome mummy reveal.”

Oliver considered the opportunity. A mummy would blend well with the cryptids and paranormal creatures he’d blogged about in the past.

“Okay, okay, I’m in. When’s this sarcophagus being opened?”

“Tomorrow at eight.”

“In the morning?”

“No, bro, in the evening. I guess it’s being delivered tomorrow morning, but the graduate archaeology group is busy all day with classes and dissections or translations or whatever, so they’re getting together tomorrow evening. And my friend thought I’d find it pretty cool, and I asked if I could bring you and she said she didn’t see why not.” They sat back again and drained their first latte. “This is going to be epic. Like, The Lord of the Rings expanded edition trilogy level.”

A beep sounded from their phone. “Ten minutes to class.”