The Mummys Trap

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.

The sarcophagus stayed stubbornly put, keeping me trapped and immobilized inside, completely undeterred by my efforts to free myself from it.

"Mmh! Mmf mmh!"

I decided to stop fighting for a moment. Sitting inside the sarcophagus, I could feel the tight wrappings completely encasing my body, giving only slightly any time I squirmed around or pulled against them.

It was impossible to hold completely still. Despite my momentary capitulation, I couldn't help but writhe around inside the tight wrappings here and there. They remained wrapped around my body very snugly, unforgivingly even, and seemed to tighten around me whenever I strained against them, as if to resist my efforts and keep me in place.

Failing that, I gave up and tried drifting off to sleep. But I wasn't tired. In fact, I was strangely energized. Not to mention that I never found myself growing hungry or thirsty. Wrapped up inside the sarcophagus, a certain warmth permeated me, which wasn't altogether unpleasant.

Of course, that didn't make being tightly wrapped up any more comfortable. As the night went on, characterized by its otherwise uneventful stillness, I still occasionally wormed around inside of it, giving gentle pulls and rolling my hips around, and feeling the bindings squeeze back in response. Then I would follow up with further vigorous thrashing and pulling, trying again and again to yank myself out of the sarcophagus.

Eventually, after a long and fitful night, sunlight slowly began to stream through the blinds of the collection room. I could eventually hear footsteps outside, followed by a voice. It was Jason.

"Huh. The door's open," I could hear him mutter outside the room. "Did he forget to lock up?"

"Mmmph!" I cried out.

He gasped and rushed into the room. Looking over me wrapped up inside the sarcophagus, his jaw dropped. "Charlie? Is that you?"

I squirmed around inside the constricting bandages, trying to talk with the thick wrappings covering my mouth. "Mmmh hmmph hmmh!"

"Oh, geez," he said, quickly attending to me, his face visibly turning white. He put his hand on his forehead. "I should've... well, crap." He looked over my completely wrapped-up body, tsking and shaking his head.

I felt a pang of anxiety as he worriedly examined me. "Hmmph?" I writhed and squirmed a little bit more in the heavy bandages.

"Look," he said. "I took some time to read over what we know about this sarcophagus last night. I, uh, we probably owe you an apology. We should have convened on this before letting you poke around in it."

"Mmmph?"

"See, uh, we knew this sarcophagus was rumored to have an enchantment on it. What I didn't know until last night was that the manuscripts we have revealed a protocol for dealing with it safely. Unfortunately, it's too late to take those steps now." He rubbed his forehead worriedly. "Gosh, I've never seen anything like this before."

Oh for God's sake, I thought. Who cares. They're just bandages. Get a pair of scissors and cut them open. I wormed around, wishing I could have actually vocalized such an idea.

Then I tossed about inside the sarcophagus some more, rocking my body back and forth, while making more muffled noises. "Mmmph hmmph!" The heavy bandages covering my mouth were really starting to irk me, rendering me unable to talk at all. Why wasn't he trying to free me? I was starting to get irritated at his inaction and milquetoast demeanor.

He walked over to the other side of the room, looking outside through the blinds on the window. He let out a sigh as I tossed and turned some more in the tight wrappings.

Finally, he stepped back over to me, letting out another sigh. I glared at him, pretty sure my face was starting to turn red under the bandages. Why are you taking so long? Come over and help me out already!

"So, we were right. This sarcophagus belonged to a high priest. Turns out that sometime after his interment, his tomb was looted by vandals and the body was stolen. And that was before it was buried even more deeply under the Pyramid for safekeeping. Nobody knows what happened to the body, and it was forgotten about after that."

My ire increased as he began his lecture. Who cares! Just get me the fuck out of here. I've been trapped in here all fucking night. I angrily thrashed inside some more. "Mmmph hmmph mmmh!"

Brushing aside my protests, he simply continued. "The enchantment on the sarcophagus requires it to be occupied at all times. Since the body of its rightful occupant was lost, it saw an opportunity in you to make itself whole again."

He then looked at me with a pained expression. "I'm sorry. I can't cut you out of that without hurting you. The enchantment has bound you to the sarcophagus. There's no way to free you without a higher understanding of the magics the ancients used. We just don't have that kind of knowledge." He paused in thought. "I suppose you could just run out the clock. Assuming there even is one."

I looked at him wide-eyed before screaming through the bandages. "Nmmmm!"

In an apparent attempt to console me, he gave a small smile. "Well, it seems that you have been chosen. This would have been a great honor among the ancients."

"Mmmmmrph!" I yelled again through the thick wrappings.

"Look, I've liked working with you," he continued. "You're quite intelligent and dedicated. The ancients would have loved to have had you too. Despite how much I was looking forward to our research, it seems you have an even higher calling in front of you."

"Nmmm!" I thrashed around some more, trying to throw my body forward and out of the sarcophagus. Then, I tossed back and forth some more, my hands clenching and unclenching inside the thick wrappings, pulling and straining against them with my elbows.

He leaned forward and put his hand on the front of my bandaged chest, looking at me a bit solemnly. "I have to say, I'm going to miss you. But I'm happy for you too. You're helping to bring a resolution to an ancient injustice. So, we all owe you a debt of gratitude."

A pang of fear welled up in my stomach. I didn't ask for any of this bullshit! My job was to study history, not be a part of it! Frantically, I pulled and strained at my arms before writhing around in the bindings even more.

He looked at me. "Look, fighting it won't help. Just try to relax and accept your destiny, alright?"

I glared at him angrily through the openings afforded by the thick bandages around my eyes. "Ymm fmmhmm mmhmm!" I screamed at him through the wrappings over my mouth.

Then, he grabbed the heavy lid and pulled it over the opening. It grinded noisily against the edge of the sarcophagus as he slid it over me. I gave one last frantic, muffled cry as the lid slid shut.

Then, everything went pitch black as I was enclosed inside.

It was difficult to hear anything from that point forward, given the thickness of the sarcophagus and the weight of the lid. Occasionally, I could hear some mumbling outside of it, some occasional noises such as footsteps, or banging around.

Completely immobilized inside the sarcophagus, I nonetheless often pulled and strained against the bandages keeping my arms pinned to my chest while writhing around within the sarcophagus' small confines.

I never got hungry, never had to use the bathroom, and I could breathe just fine, despite the air inside retaining its mildly dusty and stale odor. What was happening to me?

Eventually, I could feel the sarcophagus jerking about. I felt it get leaned backwards, and then some movement as I suspected it got wheeled away. There were a few bumps, and some stops and starts, coupled with the occasional faint sounds of people talking.

At one point I could feel the sarcophagus get laid on its back, coupled with what sounded like the low hum of a jet engine. Then it got propped up again, wheeled around some more, followed by what sounded like the engine of a vehicle.

Any time I heard someone outside, I tried to scream through the bandages covering my mouth, to no avail. Failing that, I repeatedly attempted to thrash back and forth, hoping that the commotion inside the sarcophagus would alert anyone outside to my plight.

Some time later, the inside of the sarcophagus felt slightly warmer. I could occasionally very faintly hear what sounded like people speaking in a foreign language. Then the warmth went away as I was transported wherever I was going, before hearing multiple bumps, and feeling the sarcophagus lowered down, down, and down some more.

Wherever I was taken, I could tell that the journey had ended with the sarcophagus propped upright against a wall. I never heard anything or felt any movement after that.

All I could feel was the restrictive bandages around my body, which I couldn't help but frequently worm and writhe around inside of. And the occasional, intermittent spike of panic at my trapped situation.

"Mmmhh! Hrrmh!" My muffled voice only echoed faintly within the sarcophagus, unlikely to have made it outside.

Locked in the embrace of the sarcophagus, I could eventually feel the enchantment becoming more pronounced, making its presence known more and more. It wanted me to stay, to be part of its story. And clearly, it also wanted me alive and conscious every step of the way, to lucidly experience my place within its grand history, even as it severely restricted me inside of the ancient tomb.

It needed to be filled, to be complete, and it had judged me to be just right for the job. As far as it was concerned, I belonged to it.

Aware of my unwitting sacrifice, it seemed intent on taking good care of me while I rested in its grasp. How long would it keep me? I had no idea. The uncertainty around the length of my imprisonment filled me with terror. And despite its intention to treat me well, the fact remained that I was trapped and couldn't get out.

I didn't ask for any of this honor, of course. So I did everything in my power to escape its cruel grip. I frequently fought, strained, and pulled against the tight bindings that kept me trapped inside, trying vainly to get out of their hold. But they held on tight, never letting me go, as if to gently remind me that I needed to stay where I was, and that they had the power to keep me there for as long as the enchantment required. And I knew that the desperation I felt would be completely masked by the stoic expression of the face carved into the front of the lid, a dispassion equally exhibited by the ancient magic itself.