Okay, I know how you all love author's notes so here's a few before you start the story. :)

-It's rated T for language and violence, and maybe some intense scenes

-This story starts twenty years after the SECOND MOVIE (The Mummy Returns), and thus it is 1953 and Alexander O'Connell is 28. Now, we're going on this story as though the third movie NEVER happened. So anything that happened in the third movie, DO NOT expect it to show up here. I don't like the third movie, so I'm gonna pretend it never happened.

-Sorry if this isn't completely up to par, I didn't have much to edit it. So, go into the story with mild expectations, and it won't disappoint.

-Finally: ENJOY! Please read AND review! :) Thanks guys.

Quiet hisses and whispers echoed around, bouncing against the stone walls and ricocheting back again. They warned and worried, telling the occupants of the tomb to leave, leave now, this place was cursed and dangerous. Some spoke in Ancient Egyptian, others in old English, but they all said the same thing, and their voices got louder every step the man took towards the back wall. He could hear them, oh yes, he could hear them well, but he ignored them as though they were nothing more than a beggar on the street.

There was something on the wall that interested him, something he really wanted to investigate. Besides, this wasn't the first time he'd been put into a dangerous situation for exploring. At eight, he'd been kidnapped by an Ancient Egyptian mummy priest and the dead guy's reincarnated girlfriend. At nineteen, he and his parents had awakened a very angry Ancient Egyptian ruler, and they were all nearly killed - well his mum killed again - before they sent that guy right back to hell. Just five years ago, he'd been trapped when a tomb caved in on him whilst he dug. The bottom line; this was not his first risky adventure.

Closer, now, just a little closer. Alex whispered in his head, eyes never leaving the object on the wall. Sand sizzled in his left ear, but he ignored that just as well as he had the voices. A scorpion snapped across the ground in front of his feet, then disappeared into the sand. Yet again, Alex ignored the sound. He was right there, so close to it, and he was just about to grab it when-

"O'CONNELL!"

Alex jumped around at the sound of someone screaming his name, irritation sweeping through him when he saw the woman running towards him from around a corner. He would have expressed such irritation, surely, if he didn't notice the look of absolute terror on her face, and he knew it was time to run. By the time she arrived at his side, he was already turning to run, and they clasped hands tightly so not to lose one another. The sound of rushing water - so it seemed - came from behind them, and Alex put on a new burst of speed. If water got hold of them down here, that was the end, because this was a hole in the ground…deep in the ground.

"What did you do, Elise?" Alex shouted over the sound of the supposed water.

"I didn't do anything, Alex! I accidentally fell on some ancient lever, but that's-"

"'On some ancient lever', you bloody idiot!"

"What's that for?" Elise snapped, nearly stopping to glare at him, but he dragged her along.

"We'll argue about this later, right now, let's go right!" Alex yelled, tugging her to the right and up a set of stairs.

When they reached the top, they both turned to see if the water would follow them up, but no water appeared. Instead, a wave of snakes and sand swallowed the entryway that the two had been standing in only moments before, and kept moving forward. As the wave went on, the snakes and sand came up about halfway of the stairs, but none reached the top. Alex watched in astonishment as the last of the snakes slithered behind, hissing and snapping their wide jaws. When the danger had passed, Alex's face lit up in a magnificent grin.

"That. Was. Fantastic!"

"Fan- Fa-" Elise closed her eyes and let out a long breath, pinching the bridge of her nose to calm down.

"Did you see that, Elise?! Bloody snakes! Wonderful, terrific, horrifying snakes! I can't believe it! How'd they live for so long? Were they just mating and birthing for thousands and thousands of years? My goodness, they must have been eating each other! And that makes me think… just how many were there in the first place? For them to be so many still, after so many years! Elise, don't you see how amazing this is?"

"Amazing, Alex? Amazing?" Elise growled, looking at him with a narrowed glare. "An ocean of snakes just tried to kill us, and this is somehow amazing?"

"It was an ancient booby trap, don't you see? That lever, it was meant to look like a door lever, so gold seekers and thieves, they'd use it to 'open the treasure door', but instead would be killed immediately…" his grin widened a little bit. "or slowly."

Elise rolled her eyes in disgust.

"I don't understand, I just don't. Mum says you used to be just like her. Civilized…" she let out another long sigh. "And now you're as stupid as dad and Uncle John."

"Well," Alex gave her a chuck on the chin as he passed by, still grinning childishly. "when mum started fawning all over you, I had more time to hang out with those two."

"I'll have to have a talk with mum about that then,"

"Oh, by the way, thanks a lot for pulling that lever just as I was about to get my treasure. I was this close -" at this, he held his fingers barely apart in measurement. "- and you go and pull a random lever in an ancient tomb with mummies and curses. How brilliant was that, eh?"

"Hey, we've all done it, alright. And I told you it was an accident! Don't you get angry with me!"

"I'm not angry, Elise, I'm positively livid. That was what I came down here for, that thing. And after being so close to it, now I've lost it. Who knows what happened to it when those snakes came by. The wave could have…smashed it! Or…or…carried it along with them? Damn it!" Alex cursed, kicking one of the stone walls around them and letting out a yelp. He glared angrily at his hurt foot, as though this whole thing was its fault.

"God, Alex, why don't we just go back down now the snakes are gone?"

"No. We can't today. We've got to wait until tomorrow now."

"Why?"

"Elise, how many times have we done this? We just have to give the snakes time to clear out."

"That's ridiculous. They've all gone that way, we're going completely-"

"Have you ever heard mum and dad's stories? Last time they stayed in an Ancient Egyptian structure after a booby trap was set off, they woke up one of the most dangerous creatures to ever exist - twice - and nearly got themselves killed, lots. So, tell me again why you want to stay?"

"Maybe you've still got some of mum's smarts up there," Elise teased, ruffling her older brother's hair and turning towards another set of stairs that led to an exit. Alex was just going to follow her when he noticed something on the wall he hadn't seen before. It was on the far wall, a line of ancient Egyptian words, and he felt automatically drawn to it.

"Alex, what are you doing? Didn't you want to leave?" Elise grumbled, noticing that he was going in the wrong direction.

Alex ignored her, stopping in front of the wall and staring at the words. Half of the saying was clearly chiseled into the wall, while the other half was scraped away and unreadable. He looked at it curiously, tilting his head one way to another, trying to figure out what to do about this. Elise called his name again, sounding impatient now, but he still ignored her. Something about these words intrigued him, told him that they were important, maybe it was the fact that the first half of the phrase was part of a warning.

"Those who pass…" he whispered, running a hand over the words carefully.

"Those who pass what?" Elise questioned, appearing next to him. Alex shrugged, trying to see if he could decipher the rest of the words, but they were too chiseled.

"I have no idea. The rest is scratched off."

"It probably says 'those who pass will get attacked by lots and lots of snakes', you think?"

"No. They wouldn't warn you of a booby trap," Alex muttered with a roll of his eyes. "This place is cursed, we already know that, but this must be warning us about it. Perhaps there's a special box or book or stone that unleashes the curse?"

"You don't think the lever-"

"Elise, will you please stop being ridiculous. The lever was for the snakes, and that's that. The booby trap has been used, it's gone. Get over it already," Alex hissed, eyes flashing with frustration.

"Whatever. I'm leaving, because this place creeps me out. Good-bye,"

"I'm going to go back down,"

"What? Alex…weren't you just the one to tell me we shouldn't do that?"

"Yeah, well, this has been curious. I want to see what it's talking about,"

"So you are going to try and unlock a dangerous, possibly life-threatening, curse on us? Are you even listening to yourself right now?"

"Are you coming or not, Lis?" Alex asked her, going straight for the stairs leading further down into the tomb. Elise grunted in frustration, took two swift glances at the entrance longingly, then bounded after her brother, grumbling the whole way.

"S'pose it'd be terrible of me to leave you all alone, wouldn't it?"

"Thought you'd come 'round," Alex chuckled, bumping her shoulder playfully, and then taking the lead.

Alex led the pair straight towards that wall - and more specifically the thing on the wall - that he'd been so focused on before Elise had set off the trap. He'd never gone on an adventure like this on his own before. Usually, he had his good old mum and dad right by his side, but now the folks were retired, it was all him - and Elise of course. An excited tingle ran through him, followed directly by nervousness. What if he couldn't save the world like his parents? Oh, don't work yourself up. The chances of this being a life-threatening, world-killing curse is 1 in a million…or a thousand…or hundreds based on past event…This isn't helping. Just don't worry about it, Alex.

They walked on slowly, not wanting to trigger any other traps, looking earnestly for something that might turn out to be really dangerous.

And yes, Alex does have a sister now. She is nine years younger than him, so in this story she is currently 19 years of age. :)