Authors Notes: I know that Imhotep was the architect of King Zoser's
pyramid, but this is my damn story.
"Alright class, remember only the top three people will get to go on this trip. Right now that's," he picked a clipboard up off his desk and flipped through a few papers, "Ian Jennings, Victoria Edwards, and Belle Richards." As he said the last name Victoria's hand shot into the air. Shaking his head he sighed deeply and gave in. "Yes Ms. Edwards?"
"I thought this trip was for the academically gifted, not the financially gifted." There were a few snickers.
"Miss Edwards may I remind you that she passed the same entrance exam you did, with a higher score and holds a higher overall GPA."
Victoria blushed a bit. "Whatever just make sure she brings enough Pedialite."
"Miss Edwards!" She looked at her desk, aware she crossed the line with that one, Professor Derisson rarely ever raised his voice. Setting the clipboard back on his desk he glanced at the clock. "Because it's a Friday I'm letting you out ten minutes early, as a precaution I advise you to get your permission slips in early and start saving now, some people tend to back out at the last minute. Please read the rest of chapter nine and do the summary on page 388."
As soon as he started shuffling through his things that class came to life, throwing their things into different bags and jogging as calmly as possible to get the hell out of the class. Belle packed her things up slowly and as the last person walked out the door she walked up to Derisson's desk. He didn't even look up from his papers. "Can I help you?"
"I just wanted to say thanks." He took a glance at her.
"What for?"
"You know, standing up for me, not playing favorites like some of the other teachers."
"I happen to think academic standing is more important than popularity." She nodded.
"Well, according to Victoria you might be getting a new car." That got his attention.
"I-I'm sorry Miss Richards t-that's not approp-."
"Geez, chill I was joking."
"Yes, well, I'll see you tomorrow in class."
"Yes sir." She gave a mock solute and marched out of the classroom. Shaking his head Derisson went back to grading his midterms, this trip was going to be interesting to say the least.
The next semester flew by, summer vacation was approaching and the candidates for the trip changed rather drastically. Belle was now at the top of the list, Ian Jennings, now number two made it quite clear that he wouldn't be able to go along, so now number three, Frankie Carlyle, and number four, Victoria Edwards were the finalized candidates. All three students had turned in the money and permission slips for the trip, and gotten everything ready from passports to shots.
It wasn't her first trip overseas, not that she was going to give Victoria any ammunition, it wasn't even her first trip to Egypt. She'd gone with some Great Uncle in the mid-nineties, a gift f\or putting up with awful birthday cards and never getting to know her properly. They'd strictly done the tourism thing, stumble over the language, ooh and ahh, and take pictures until they had bags full of undeveloped film, the absolute normal. This time was going to be exactly the same, but she was prepared.
She'd packed one very full backpack. There were no CD's; no makeup, no glamour or glitz, there was one digital camera with three floppy disk inserts. There were normal clothes, things that would hold up in the weather, a few ponytail holders, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, four pairs of underwear, two pairs of shorts, two pairs of pants, two tee shirts, two tank tops, two pairs of socks, one pair of black boots, and one pair of comfortable sandals. She was dressed in something she knew was to cold for Boston, but would adapt immediately to Cairo weather. A pair of khaki shorts and a pink tank top adorned her body, while small white tennis shoes were tied securely on her feet, with her hair up in a ponytail she was ready to go.
She took a taxi to the airport rather than leaving her car there for two weeks and when she walked into the terminal she walked over to the gate, not able to spot immediately her classmates from the other tourists, there were only a few other people dressed as she was and when she finally spotted the rest of her class she walked over and laughed like crazy. "You people are so SCREWED."
"What are you talking about, and why are you dressed like that?"
"Look Victoria, you know I don't like you, but out the of desire not to have to hear you whine I'll tell you this now. You obviously don't know any more about Egyptian climate than you've seen on the discovery channel, no matter what you may have seen people on TV dress like in Egypt you can't dress like that, you'll fry in ten minutes." She took a look around. "Where's Derisson?"
"Behind you Miss Richards." She stepped left and looked over her shoulder to see Professor Derisson, he took this trip every two years and he was dressed nearly identical to her. "I told you all very specifically to dress comfortably, Miss Edwards I seriously hope you have something more suitable in that suitcase or you'll be suffering for the next two weeks."
"I'll be fine." She turned around as the boarding call sounded over the PA and the rest of the group saw her glitter makeup flash in the airport lighting.
They boarded the airplane and found their seats, all in coach, sat down and waited for takeoff. The man beside her wasn't looking too prepared for takeoff he was clutching the armrest so hard he was white knuckled. "We're safe you know, less likely to be killed up here than on a freeway."
He looked skyward. "Tourist." It was spoken in perfect Egyptian, but it didn't throw her off for a second.
"I never said I wasn't." It wasn't spoken like those who took a class and fancied themselves experts and it did catch him off guard. He took a moment to actually look at the girl. Light brown hair pulled back into a french braid and fell to mid back, blue eyes, in good shape, extremely pale, but dressed like she knew what she was in for.
"You're not a native are you?"
"Goddess no, I was born in Montana, but this is my second trip and I think I'm a bit more prepared this time." He nodded. "Do you speak English?"
"Perfectly well." He responded with correct grammar and only a slight accent.
"Then you only speak your native language to insult poor tourists." She chuckled. "I see how that works." The man opened his mouth to respond only to close it again looking slightly greener for the ware as the plane started its lurch forward. She took pity on him.
Belle leaned out into the aisle. "Yo Frank can I borrow a stress ball?" The boy was prone to panic attacks and he had four of the damn balls sitting in his lap. He was turning purple and she leaned back in her seat thinking it was a no. A moment later one of the purple things flew at her face; she tossed up a hand and caught it. "Thank you Frankie."
It took a moment, but she pried his left hand off her armrest and set the ball in his palm. He looked at her oddly. English was the preferred language. "You squeeze the stress away." She clenched his hand around it and he kept it up. A moment later he released and clenched again. "Any better?"
"No." She giggled.
"Maybe talking will help. Hello. My name's Belle Richards and I'm going to Cairo with a few members of my Egyptology class."
"Ardeth Bay III I'm making a stop at Cairo before taking a jeep to Karnak." Belle nodded.
"Sounds fun." He chuckled at that and the green look started to fade. The rest of the flight he was much less uptight and they chatted amicably about nothing important and nothing in particular. She caught a nice nap and when the plane was getting ready to land Ardeth was looking green again. "Oh would you relax?" He tossed a frown at her and she grabbed his hand. "Look we're gonna be fine, this plane is in perfect working order, and in no way is anything going to go wrong. Breathe Ardeth, BREATHE!" He took a halting breath in. Her hand was being clenched fairly tight but she didn't really notice and she patted his arm reassuringly.
The plane touched down without any problems, and as it came to full stop she unbuckled her seatbelt, then grabbed a pen from her pocket and a napkin from her tray table. She scribbled her cell and home phone numbers. Her cell was at home, but she had voicemail attached to it. As he stood up she slipped it into his hand. "I'll be home in two weeks, give me a call if ya want." She grabbed her duffle and filed off the plane with the rest of the passengers.
Ardeth didn't stop to look at her, he walked out into the terminal then out the gates. She ended up behind him as he walked away. "Now that's a nice view." She shook her head at her own girlish thoughts.
"Alright, we're going to check into the hotel, we'll get started on our sightseeing tomorrow morning."
"Is it air conditioned?" Her foundation and her movie star glitter was running down her face. Belle herself was just starting to feel the temperature difference, but she'd learn to at least deal with the heat. They walked out of the terminal and climbed into two taxis. She ended up in the car with Victoria.
"Herron Hotel." Victoria was waiting for the car to move but the cabbie turned around to look at them oddly. Belle understood what the problem was, but it was entertaining to see the rich bitch beside her start flipping through a dictionary for the translation. When she looked like she was going to cry Belle took pity on her.
"We need to go to the Herron Hotel." He nodded and they sped off.
"I should have known you would have paid for language lessons, not like you can't afford it."
"Bitch." That she chose to spit out in German, but Vicky, as Belle referred to her didn't speak that language either so she simply got an eye roll.
The hotel was nice enough. It wasn't a fleabag, but it wasn't the Plaza either. They knew ahead of time that the girls would be sharing one room and the guys another, so she allowed a bell boy to led her and Vicky to their room.
The door opened to reveal a room that looked exactly like the Holiday Inn in Boston. There was a blue patterned carpet, blue curtains, and blue and gold patterned bedspreads. There was a desk by the television and a door that led to the bathroom. Vicky's bags were being brought in behind them and by the time they were all neatly placed on the bag there were seven large and one small overnight bag. Vicky didn't waste a moment, setting the laptop on the desk and connecting it to the phone jack.
As Victoria got reacquainted with her laptop Belle turned on the TV to watch a few of the local stations. It was only three minutes before there was a light knock on the door. "What do you want?" Vicky glared at her.
"It's Frank." She opened the door.
"This room looks just like ours."
"Don't look so surprised I didn't ask for any special attention." He nodded like he was just realizing that and glared at Vicky.
Night came and Belle took a quick shower, tossed on a pair of panties and a tank top and lay down on the top of the bed to sleep. The air conditioner kicked in, but it was still hot as hell, she was out like a light in ten minutes while Vicky tossed and turned all night in her satin PJ's.
Belle woke up just as the sun started to rise. She took another quick shower, got fully dressed, and stepped back into the room to wake Vicky up. The girl was barely starting to snore and she wanted revenge. She grabbed the blanket she was laying on and yanked it out from under the sleeping girl. She tumbled to the floor with a scream.
"You bitch!"
"Yup." Her face turned red and she stormed in the bathroom. She flipped on the TV and waited for Vicky to come out.
Four hours later Vicky emerged from the bathroom perfectly dried and made up, apparently she didn't learn from her mistakes. Belle was in her sand colored shorts and light blue tank top. She brushed her hair; pulled it into a ponytail, put her white tennis shoes from the day before on, tossed her backpack on her back and walked to the door. "I'll be in the guys' room." She left Vicky there trying to pick out the right length leather skirt.
Frank was freshly showered and dressed flipping through the different channels. He looked up and she walked right in. "You get tired of the bitch?"
She nodded. "I think right now she's trying to pick out which leather skirt will go best with her angora sleeveless top." He laughed. "She's gonna fry." She nodded. Frank at least had learned his lesson; he was in a pair of khaki shorts like her, with a white T-shirt. She sat down on the foot of the bed and snatched the remote. She was just going past the second soap opera when the bathroom door opened.
"Too bad you don't look like that in class." Derisson looked up at her in shock, towel riding low on his hips.
"Miss Richards what are doing in this room?" She shrugged as he grabbed a few articles of clothing and walked much more quickly into the bathroom. He came out about ten minutes later freshly shaven and much more clothed.
They sat in the room for another half hour before Vicky walked in. She was in a knee length black leather skirt, a sleeveless turtleneck angora sweater, black knee high boots and perfectly curled black hair. "What are we waiting for?"
"We were waiting for your ass."
The pyramids were different than in the pictures. They looked exactly alike, but for her at least, you had to stop and feel the energy. You could feel the peasants working in the fields, the royalty mourning their lost family, the ceremonies and offerings to the Gods that resonated through the entire place. It was powerful, it was tangible, it was magick. "Would you go on already?" Leave it to Vicky to spoil such a good thing. Loading one floppy disk into the digital camera she snapped a picture and jogged inside.
The tour guide was a bore, at least the last time her Uncle knew someone interesting. They were led around a few different tunnels inside. She was the next to last in a line of twenty people, and as the person in front of her stopped suddenly she ran into him. "Ouch, dude look where you're going." He looked at her. "Professor why'd you stop?"
"What is that?" He pointed to a spot on the wall. With the torch illuminating it you could see what looked like a small crack in the stone.
"Looks like the land shifted."
"No, look closer." She did and when she focus in something shifted, like the mirage on a road and a small rectangle of stone appeared. She snapped a picture but it was still there. Carefully she slid her hand over it and pushed the little button in, something else cleared.
"What's it say?" He looked at it and relayed it back in English.
"All who read this and know of him shall be taken to the city after it's latest peak."
"Read what?"
"City of old, city of new, Hamunaptra, in the name of Osiris, I journey to you." Something rumbled and everything shook, the ground below her feet wasn't stable anymore and she collapsed, on the way down something hard struck her temple and she blacked out.
While she smacked her temple on a piece of stone already on the ground Derisson was trying valiantly to get the group to help, he shouted but nothing happened. He caught a look at Belle while she was still up and tried to shout over the noise. "Run for it," but he never saw her go down. Moments later when he looked back she wasn't there anymore.
"What's that?" Alex's questions caused Rick and Evelyn to look down. While the entire Oasis had been sucked into the sand there was something down there. Something small, but something nonetheless.
"Izzy can you take us down closer?"
"Now you want closer. You crazy man." Never the less he lowered the craft. Jonathan walked over to his nephew to see what all the fuss was about.
"What on Earth's that?"
"Who on Earth's that?" He looked at Rick.
"Who?"
"Look, it's a person." They got lower and lower until the bottom of the craft was touching the ground. Evie and Rick, then a moment later Alex jumped over the side and ran to the unconscious girl.
"She's bleeding." The wound on her temple was rather small, but it was gushing quite a bit of blood.
"From what?" Ignoring her husband she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it against the cut. She sat down behind her and pulled Belle into a sitting position. Tired of being left behind Jonathan jumped out and jogged over to his family.
"What's she wearing?" Evie rolled her eyes, that would be what he saw, but Rick took the time to look, and it was damn indecent. Pants that'd been cut and hemmed and exposed almost all of her legs, a shirt that showed her stomach and all of her arms, she couldn't have been more than sixteen and there was a strange looking camera around her neck.
Belle was starting to come around. "Owww." Her hand flew to her head. "Who fucking cold cocked me?" Everyone's eyebrows flew up in surprise. She struggled against the harsh light and opened her eyes. "Who are you people?"
Evie helped her to stand up. "I'm Evelyn O'Connell, this is my husband Rick, my brother Jonathan, and our son Alex."
Belle peeled the now bloody rag from her head. "Alright then, let me rephrase that, how did I get from Khufu's Pyramid to…" she took a moment to look around, "wherever the hell I am now."
"You were at Giza?"
"No, I got all the pictures from a magazine." She held up her camera.
"What is that exactly?" The strap was still around her neck, but Jonathan was looking at it strangely.
"It's a digital camera, birthday present from my Great Uncle Alex." She used the little display screen to pull up the last few pictures she snapped at Giza. "This is where I was, right outside the burial chamber, my Professor found a bunch of writing, read it off, then everything went all black."
"Is your Uncle with the FBI? How'd he get something like this?" She jerked the camera from his hands.
"I suppose he got it from Circuit City. I know he gave me the receipt in case I didn't like it and it was over four hundred dollars." Eyebrows went up again. She pulled the backpack off her back and set the camera back in. "Well, whatever, I don't suppose you guys could help me get back home?"
"We're going to Cairo now." Alex motioned to the little craft.
"Modified hot air balloon, very cool. Could I catch a lift?" Rick nodded. Belle took a moment to stretch out her neck before following them. As she stepped over the railing three things occurred to her, all three she said out loud. "I have three things to say." Everyone but Izzy turned to look at her. "A, my great Uncle's name is Alex O'Connell, B, the sun is in a hella different position in the sky then it was when I last saw it, and C, I think I'm in trouble." She looked around and finally started to take in the style of dress. "What year is it?"
"1933."
"No way." She looked at the young boy now beside her. "Well, hello Uncle Alex, it's nice to meet you, even it is about 52 years before I'm conceived."
"Alright class, remember only the top three people will get to go on this trip. Right now that's," he picked a clipboard up off his desk and flipped through a few papers, "Ian Jennings, Victoria Edwards, and Belle Richards." As he said the last name Victoria's hand shot into the air. Shaking his head he sighed deeply and gave in. "Yes Ms. Edwards?"
"I thought this trip was for the academically gifted, not the financially gifted." There were a few snickers.
"Miss Edwards may I remind you that she passed the same entrance exam you did, with a higher score and holds a higher overall GPA."
Victoria blushed a bit. "Whatever just make sure she brings enough Pedialite."
"Miss Edwards!" She looked at her desk, aware she crossed the line with that one, Professor Derisson rarely ever raised his voice. Setting the clipboard back on his desk he glanced at the clock. "Because it's a Friday I'm letting you out ten minutes early, as a precaution I advise you to get your permission slips in early and start saving now, some people tend to back out at the last minute. Please read the rest of chapter nine and do the summary on page 388."
As soon as he started shuffling through his things that class came to life, throwing their things into different bags and jogging as calmly as possible to get the hell out of the class. Belle packed her things up slowly and as the last person walked out the door she walked up to Derisson's desk. He didn't even look up from his papers. "Can I help you?"
"I just wanted to say thanks." He took a glance at her.
"What for?"
"You know, standing up for me, not playing favorites like some of the other teachers."
"I happen to think academic standing is more important than popularity." She nodded.
"Well, according to Victoria you might be getting a new car." That got his attention.
"I-I'm sorry Miss Richards t-that's not approp-."
"Geez, chill I was joking."
"Yes, well, I'll see you tomorrow in class."
"Yes sir." She gave a mock solute and marched out of the classroom. Shaking his head Derisson went back to grading his midterms, this trip was going to be interesting to say the least.
The next semester flew by, summer vacation was approaching and the candidates for the trip changed rather drastically. Belle was now at the top of the list, Ian Jennings, now number two made it quite clear that he wouldn't be able to go along, so now number three, Frankie Carlyle, and number four, Victoria Edwards were the finalized candidates. All three students had turned in the money and permission slips for the trip, and gotten everything ready from passports to shots.
It wasn't her first trip overseas, not that she was going to give Victoria any ammunition, it wasn't even her first trip to Egypt. She'd gone with some Great Uncle in the mid-nineties, a gift f\or putting up with awful birthday cards and never getting to know her properly. They'd strictly done the tourism thing, stumble over the language, ooh and ahh, and take pictures until they had bags full of undeveloped film, the absolute normal. This time was going to be exactly the same, but she was prepared.
She'd packed one very full backpack. There were no CD's; no makeup, no glamour or glitz, there was one digital camera with three floppy disk inserts. There were normal clothes, things that would hold up in the weather, a few ponytail holders, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, four pairs of underwear, two pairs of shorts, two pairs of pants, two tee shirts, two tank tops, two pairs of socks, one pair of black boots, and one pair of comfortable sandals. She was dressed in something she knew was to cold for Boston, but would adapt immediately to Cairo weather. A pair of khaki shorts and a pink tank top adorned her body, while small white tennis shoes were tied securely on her feet, with her hair up in a ponytail she was ready to go.
She took a taxi to the airport rather than leaving her car there for two weeks and when she walked into the terminal she walked over to the gate, not able to spot immediately her classmates from the other tourists, there were only a few other people dressed as she was and when she finally spotted the rest of her class she walked over and laughed like crazy. "You people are so SCREWED."
"What are you talking about, and why are you dressed like that?"
"Look Victoria, you know I don't like you, but out the of desire not to have to hear you whine I'll tell you this now. You obviously don't know any more about Egyptian climate than you've seen on the discovery channel, no matter what you may have seen people on TV dress like in Egypt you can't dress like that, you'll fry in ten minutes." She took a look around. "Where's Derisson?"
"Behind you Miss Richards." She stepped left and looked over her shoulder to see Professor Derisson, he took this trip every two years and he was dressed nearly identical to her. "I told you all very specifically to dress comfortably, Miss Edwards I seriously hope you have something more suitable in that suitcase or you'll be suffering for the next two weeks."
"I'll be fine." She turned around as the boarding call sounded over the PA and the rest of the group saw her glitter makeup flash in the airport lighting.
They boarded the airplane and found their seats, all in coach, sat down and waited for takeoff. The man beside her wasn't looking too prepared for takeoff he was clutching the armrest so hard he was white knuckled. "We're safe you know, less likely to be killed up here than on a freeway."
He looked skyward. "Tourist." It was spoken in perfect Egyptian, but it didn't throw her off for a second.
"I never said I wasn't." It wasn't spoken like those who took a class and fancied themselves experts and it did catch him off guard. He took a moment to actually look at the girl. Light brown hair pulled back into a french braid and fell to mid back, blue eyes, in good shape, extremely pale, but dressed like she knew what she was in for.
"You're not a native are you?"
"Goddess no, I was born in Montana, but this is my second trip and I think I'm a bit more prepared this time." He nodded. "Do you speak English?"
"Perfectly well." He responded with correct grammar and only a slight accent.
"Then you only speak your native language to insult poor tourists." She chuckled. "I see how that works." The man opened his mouth to respond only to close it again looking slightly greener for the ware as the plane started its lurch forward. She took pity on him.
Belle leaned out into the aisle. "Yo Frank can I borrow a stress ball?" The boy was prone to panic attacks and he had four of the damn balls sitting in his lap. He was turning purple and she leaned back in her seat thinking it was a no. A moment later one of the purple things flew at her face; she tossed up a hand and caught it. "Thank you Frankie."
It took a moment, but she pried his left hand off her armrest and set the ball in his palm. He looked at her oddly. English was the preferred language. "You squeeze the stress away." She clenched his hand around it and he kept it up. A moment later he released and clenched again. "Any better?"
"No." She giggled.
"Maybe talking will help. Hello. My name's Belle Richards and I'm going to Cairo with a few members of my Egyptology class."
"Ardeth Bay III I'm making a stop at Cairo before taking a jeep to Karnak." Belle nodded.
"Sounds fun." He chuckled at that and the green look started to fade. The rest of the flight he was much less uptight and they chatted amicably about nothing important and nothing in particular. She caught a nice nap and when the plane was getting ready to land Ardeth was looking green again. "Oh would you relax?" He tossed a frown at her and she grabbed his hand. "Look we're gonna be fine, this plane is in perfect working order, and in no way is anything going to go wrong. Breathe Ardeth, BREATHE!" He took a halting breath in. Her hand was being clenched fairly tight but she didn't really notice and she patted his arm reassuringly.
The plane touched down without any problems, and as it came to full stop she unbuckled her seatbelt, then grabbed a pen from her pocket and a napkin from her tray table. She scribbled her cell and home phone numbers. Her cell was at home, but she had voicemail attached to it. As he stood up she slipped it into his hand. "I'll be home in two weeks, give me a call if ya want." She grabbed her duffle and filed off the plane with the rest of the passengers.
Ardeth didn't stop to look at her, he walked out into the terminal then out the gates. She ended up behind him as he walked away. "Now that's a nice view." She shook her head at her own girlish thoughts.
"Alright, we're going to check into the hotel, we'll get started on our sightseeing tomorrow morning."
"Is it air conditioned?" Her foundation and her movie star glitter was running down her face. Belle herself was just starting to feel the temperature difference, but she'd learn to at least deal with the heat. They walked out of the terminal and climbed into two taxis. She ended up in the car with Victoria.
"Herron Hotel." Victoria was waiting for the car to move but the cabbie turned around to look at them oddly. Belle understood what the problem was, but it was entertaining to see the rich bitch beside her start flipping through a dictionary for the translation. When she looked like she was going to cry Belle took pity on her.
"We need to go to the Herron Hotel." He nodded and they sped off.
"I should have known you would have paid for language lessons, not like you can't afford it."
"Bitch." That she chose to spit out in German, but Vicky, as Belle referred to her didn't speak that language either so she simply got an eye roll.
The hotel was nice enough. It wasn't a fleabag, but it wasn't the Plaza either. They knew ahead of time that the girls would be sharing one room and the guys another, so she allowed a bell boy to led her and Vicky to their room.
The door opened to reveal a room that looked exactly like the Holiday Inn in Boston. There was a blue patterned carpet, blue curtains, and blue and gold patterned bedspreads. There was a desk by the television and a door that led to the bathroom. Vicky's bags were being brought in behind them and by the time they were all neatly placed on the bag there were seven large and one small overnight bag. Vicky didn't waste a moment, setting the laptop on the desk and connecting it to the phone jack.
As Victoria got reacquainted with her laptop Belle turned on the TV to watch a few of the local stations. It was only three minutes before there was a light knock on the door. "What do you want?" Vicky glared at her.
"It's Frank." She opened the door.
"This room looks just like ours."
"Don't look so surprised I didn't ask for any special attention." He nodded like he was just realizing that and glared at Vicky.
Night came and Belle took a quick shower, tossed on a pair of panties and a tank top and lay down on the top of the bed to sleep. The air conditioner kicked in, but it was still hot as hell, she was out like a light in ten minutes while Vicky tossed and turned all night in her satin PJ's.
Belle woke up just as the sun started to rise. She took another quick shower, got fully dressed, and stepped back into the room to wake Vicky up. The girl was barely starting to snore and she wanted revenge. She grabbed the blanket she was laying on and yanked it out from under the sleeping girl. She tumbled to the floor with a scream.
"You bitch!"
"Yup." Her face turned red and she stormed in the bathroom. She flipped on the TV and waited for Vicky to come out.
Four hours later Vicky emerged from the bathroom perfectly dried and made up, apparently she didn't learn from her mistakes. Belle was in her sand colored shorts and light blue tank top. She brushed her hair; pulled it into a ponytail, put her white tennis shoes from the day before on, tossed her backpack on her back and walked to the door. "I'll be in the guys' room." She left Vicky there trying to pick out the right length leather skirt.
Frank was freshly showered and dressed flipping through the different channels. He looked up and she walked right in. "You get tired of the bitch?"
She nodded. "I think right now she's trying to pick out which leather skirt will go best with her angora sleeveless top." He laughed. "She's gonna fry." She nodded. Frank at least had learned his lesson; he was in a pair of khaki shorts like her, with a white T-shirt. She sat down on the foot of the bed and snatched the remote. She was just going past the second soap opera when the bathroom door opened.
"Too bad you don't look like that in class." Derisson looked up at her in shock, towel riding low on his hips.
"Miss Richards what are doing in this room?" She shrugged as he grabbed a few articles of clothing and walked much more quickly into the bathroom. He came out about ten minutes later freshly shaven and much more clothed.
They sat in the room for another half hour before Vicky walked in. She was in a knee length black leather skirt, a sleeveless turtleneck angora sweater, black knee high boots and perfectly curled black hair. "What are we waiting for?"
"We were waiting for your ass."
The pyramids were different than in the pictures. They looked exactly alike, but for her at least, you had to stop and feel the energy. You could feel the peasants working in the fields, the royalty mourning their lost family, the ceremonies and offerings to the Gods that resonated through the entire place. It was powerful, it was tangible, it was magick. "Would you go on already?" Leave it to Vicky to spoil such a good thing. Loading one floppy disk into the digital camera she snapped a picture and jogged inside.
The tour guide was a bore, at least the last time her Uncle knew someone interesting. They were led around a few different tunnels inside. She was the next to last in a line of twenty people, and as the person in front of her stopped suddenly she ran into him. "Ouch, dude look where you're going." He looked at her. "Professor why'd you stop?"
"What is that?" He pointed to a spot on the wall. With the torch illuminating it you could see what looked like a small crack in the stone.
"Looks like the land shifted."
"No, look closer." She did and when she focus in something shifted, like the mirage on a road and a small rectangle of stone appeared. She snapped a picture but it was still there. Carefully she slid her hand over it and pushed the little button in, something else cleared.
"What's it say?" He looked at it and relayed it back in English.
"All who read this and know of him shall be taken to the city after it's latest peak."
"Read what?"
"City of old, city of new, Hamunaptra, in the name of Osiris, I journey to you." Something rumbled and everything shook, the ground below her feet wasn't stable anymore and she collapsed, on the way down something hard struck her temple and she blacked out.
While she smacked her temple on a piece of stone already on the ground Derisson was trying valiantly to get the group to help, he shouted but nothing happened. He caught a look at Belle while she was still up and tried to shout over the noise. "Run for it," but he never saw her go down. Moments later when he looked back she wasn't there anymore.
"What's that?" Alex's questions caused Rick and Evelyn to look down. While the entire Oasis had been sucked into the sand there was something down there. Something small, but something nonetheless.
"Izzy can you take us down closer?"
"Now you want closer. You crazy man." Never the less he lowered the craft. Jonathan walked over to his nephew to see what all the fuss was about.
"What on Earth's that?"
"Who on Earth's that?" He looked at Rick.
"Who?"
"Look, it's a person." They got lower and lower until the bottom of the craft was touching the ground. Evie and Rick, then a moment later Alex jumped over the side and ran to the unconscious girl.
"She's bleeding." The wound on her temple was rather small, but it was gushing quite a bit of blood.
"From what?" Ignoring her husband she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it against the cut. She sat down behind her and pulled Belle into a sitting position. Tired of being left behind Jonathan jumped out and jogged over to his family.
"What's she wearing?" Evie rolled her eyes, that would be what he saw, but Rick took the time to look, and it was damn indecent. Pants that'd been cut and hemmed and exposed almost all of her legs, a shirt that showed her stomach and all of her arms, she couldn't have been more than sixteen and there was a strange looking camera around her neck.
Belle was starting to come around. "Owww." Her hand flew to her head. "Who fucking cold cocked me?" Everyone's eyebrows flew up in surprise. She struggled against the harsh light and opened her eyes. "Who are you people?"
Evie helped her to stand up. "I'm Evelyn O'Connell, this is my husband Rick, my brother Jonathan, and our son Alex."
Belle peeled the now bloody rag from her head. "Alright then, let me rephrase that, how did I get from Khufu's Pyramid to…" she took a moment to look around, "wherever the hell I am now."
"You were at Giza?"
"No, I got all the pictures from a magazine." She held up her camera.
"What is that exactly?" The strap was still around her neck, but Jonathan was looking at it strangely.
"It's a digital camera, birthday present from my Great Uncle Alex." She used the little display screen to pull up the last few pictures she snapped at Giza. "This is where I was, right outside the burial chamber, my Professor found a bunch of writing, read it off, then everything went all black."
"Is your Uncle with the FBI? How'd he get something like this?" She jerked the camera from his hands.
"I suppose he got it from Circuit City. I know he gave me the receipt in case I didn't like it and it was over four hundred dollars." Eyebrows went up again. She pulled the backpack off her back and set the camera back in. "Well, whatever, I don't suppose you guys could help me get back home?"
"We're going to Cairo now." Alex motioned to the little craft.
"Modified hot air balloon, very cool. Could I catch a lift?" Rick nodded. Belle took a moment to stretch out her neck before following them. As she stepped over the railing three things occurred to her, all three she said out loud. "I have three things to say." Everyone but Izzy turned to look at her. "A, my great Uncle's name is Alex O'Connell, B, the sun is in a hella different position in the sky then it was when I last saw it, and C, I think I'm in trouble." She looked around and finally started to take in the style of dress. "What year is it?"
"1933."
"No way." She looked at the young boy now beside her. "Well, hello Uncle Alex, it's nice to meet you, even it is about 52 years before I'm conceived."