Themes/tags: Nonsexual, heavy bondage, mummification, encasement, immobilization, entrapment, magic, nonconsent
Entry for
Literotica Halloween Story Contest 2024
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It was afternoon on a Thursday when I went to my regular haunt, the Department of Archaeological Studies at my local university. My lifelong fascination with the subject had brought me here some months ago, getting to work on a PhD program studying ancient ruins and artifacts, and on a full-ride scholarship, no less. How could anyone ever turn that down? Would there ever not have been a reason to jump at the opportunity?
Even better was that I got to set my own hours as long as I completed my work on time. This meant that I could avoid traffic by going in later in the day, sometimes working at night after most of the other faculty had left.
Today was to be particularly interesting, given the newly-arrived artifact shipped in by the Egyptian government. I was very eager to catch a glimpse of it. I had heard a lot about it, and my understanding was that it was well-preserved and in immaculate shape.
Sitting in the cafeteria across the table from my colleague, Jason, I idly worked through a light mid-afternoon snack as he filled me in on the details of the task in front of us.
"Well, we've got a real treasure to look at today, Charlie," he said. "That sarcophagus they unearthed is sitting in the collection room right now."
I looked up from my plate. "Yeah. They sure got it here quick."
"Oh yeah," he replied, taking a sip of his drink. "So as you know, this is a special one. They found this in a partially-collapsed chamber in the Great Pyramid, way underground. Every time we think we know everything about that structure, they find some new area in there to poke around in. It's wild."
"Mmhmm. So what do they know about it?"
"Not as much as they'd like," he said. "That's where we come in, I guess."
"It's weird to think that they went to all the trouble to haul this thing out of the pyramid, just to bring it here for us to study."
"I know, but they feel we have some of the best researchers in the world working on this stuff. And it was just logistically easier than having to ferry teams in and out of the Pyramid." He shrugged. "That being said, we don't get to hang onto it forever. The Egyptian government's going to want it back pretty soon."
I finished off the bagel I was eating. "So this thing is cursed, huh?"
"Yeah." He chuckled. "Well, enchanted rather. I'm going to do some reading up on that tonight. We have some manuscripts that might give us some clues about its owner, and what the supposed enchantment is all about." He stopped for a second to take another sip of his drink. "I think it was the tomb of a high priest of some kind. From what I know, he had supposedly put some spell on the sarcophagus prior to his death to protect it during his journey into the afterlife."
"Huh."
"Well, I'll let you know once I learn more about it."
After finishing up his snack, he continued, starting to stand up. "You know how interesting this kind of work can be, Charlie. Try not to get too wrapped up in it." He winked.
I just rolled my eyes and smirked. "Har har."
"Okay, have fun. I'll see you tomorrow."
That evening, I went to work. The large sarcophagus sat tilted against the wall in the collection room, clearly standing out amidst the other smaller artifacts, and mere feet away from me. Donning some gloves, I examined around its stone exterior. From what we knew, this thing had remained mostly undisturbed for hundreds of years, and was in surprisingly good shape.
I took several notes about its condition, finding the experience of exploring such a well-preserved artifact quite fascinating. And even better, it was brought right to me. It was almost spooky. This thing was designed to hold a dead body, after all, and an ancient one at that.
I looked over the face carved out on the front, noting its stolid, expressionless gaze, then moved down to explore the front of the body that had been carved out over it too. A couple of skinny arms crisscrossed against its chest, holding some kind of a rod.
Now to see the inside, I thought. I reached over with my gloved hands to gently grip the sides of the heavy lid. Then suddenly, I stopped.
There was so much history contained within this thing. I got a very nervous, excited feeling in the pit of my stomach, but also a strange sense of unease that I couldn't quite place. Anyone probably would though in that situation. It may have simply been that I was standing in front of thousands of years of history. As long as I took good care of it though, then that's all anyone could ask for.
Slowly, I pulled the heavy lid off of the sarcophagus. It made a grinding sound as I slid it aside before propping it up against the wall of the collection room.
Then, I got to look inside. What a privilege it was to get to do this, I thought. It was dark and musty inside the thing. And conspicuously, empty. This immediately raised many questions. Was this sarcophagus ever used? Or perhaps, it was looted, rummaged through, and the body disposed of.
The outside of the lid didn't contain any damage that was immediately observable, but perhaps I missed it during my initial inspection. If it was vandalized, surely its outside would have shown signs of tampering too. I made a mental note to check again once I was finished looking at the interior.
Looking back inside the empty sarcophagus, my unease only grew. While I could easily see its cushioned inside, it was still almost like staring into an abyss. Plus, there was something forlorn about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
My unease became tinged with curiosity as I suddenly observed a single bandage slowly slithering out of the opening, extending out of one of the cracks between the rear cushion and side wall. With a faint, ethereal glow emanating from it, it briefly hovered in front of me before inching its way toward me. I watched in stunned silence as the bandage flitted about in the air. Was this some sort of a prank by the other researchers? Or did I fall asleep and was dreaming?
As I watched it, almost mesmerized by the way it danced in front of me, it suddenly slipped toward my wrist, quickly wrapping around it. It was not unlike one of those bracelet toys that you snap around your wrist. I could feel it tighten around my wrist with a surprising amount of strength.
"What the..." I pulled back against the bandage a few times, finding its hold around my wrist impossibly strong. Then I yanked back a few times, flicking my hand around in an attempt to dislodge it.
"What the hell..."
The bandage tightened even more, resistant to my pulling. I used my other hand to pull at it, and tried using my fingernails to pry it off of my wrist. Then I jerked my arm back, attempting to yank it away.
My eyes wide, I began to panic. As I fought with the bandage around my wrist, a few more slithered out from the dark interior of the sarcophagus, slowly working their way toward me.
"Get... get off! What's going on?!"
I tried stepping backwards, away from the encroaching wrappings, yet was held in place by the single bandage around my wrist. This was met with another one wrapping around my other wrist, and two more slithering out to curl around my ankles. As the bandage wrapped around my second wrist, it pulled it away from the first one, disrupting my attempts to break its grip.
Frantically, I tried turning around and pulling away from the bandages. They tightened around my joints and began pulling back. My feet slid across the floor as I was drawn closer to the opening of the sarcophagus.
"What... what's going on?? Help!"
Yelling was pointless. I was the only one in the building at this hour, at least within earshot of anyone, that is. But what else was I supposed to do? In addition to that, I tossed my head about, trying to get more leverage against the bandages, pulling against them with my body weight as they pulled right back.
They were too strong, too durable. And as they pulled, I found myself sliding backwards right into the sarcophagus, my back brought against its cushioned interior.
Frantically, I yanked and pulled at the bandages around my wrists as they began rapidly wrapping around my forearms. My arms were drawn up toward my chest, crisscrossed into an X shape. I could also feel the bandages around my ankles drawing them together, and more of them slithering out to wrap around my feet, working their way up my ankles and legs, tightly binding them.
"Agggh! Help!" I tossed my head back and forth as the bandages wrapped around my body. I felt the bandages wrap around my torso, covering my crossed arms and pinning them against my chest. Squirming around, I attempted to pull my arms away from the wrappings as they encased me even more tightly.
The bandages wrapped around my shoulders and neck just before they moved up to enclose my face, completely covering my mouth. The wrappings continued to crawl up my face, covering the front of my nose and forehead, and completely encased my head, save for my eyes and nostrils.
"Mmmph! Mmmmh hmmmph!" I struggled to yell with the thick bandages covering my mouth. Trapped in the sarcophagus, I could only look outside of it into the dimly-lit room I was working in just moments prior.
I tried pulling at my arms, unable to pull them away from the front of my chest. Then I attempted to throw my chest forward, but couldn't get enough momentum to extract myself from the sarcophagus. Eventually, I tossed my body from side to side before making more vain efforts to heave myself out.
