(No copyright infringement intended. Basic character setting for Imhotep, Evelyn and Rick O'Connel is owned by Universal Pictures)

SHARDS OF DARKNESS

=== 1932 / An elementary school in Cairo / schoolyard ===

The three boys, aged around 7, had surrounded one of their comrades. "You, you little creep, you don't belong here!" shouted one of the three, punching the trapped little boy. "Go away! Home to your creepy parents!"

"You're a creepy dummy yourself!" The other boy retorted angrily. He was tall for his age and his skin was light compared to the other children's of the schoolyard. "Leave me alone!"

"No, you leave! You bring bad luck, we always loose in our matches because of you!" He punched again.

The other boy stumbled backwards and raised his fists now. But still, he didn't attack. His mother had said him he should not scrap.

"Yes", another of the surrounding boys cut in. "Bad luck, that's it! My father said it, too! He said, your father is a freak who speaks with the desert demons at night!"

"That's not TRUE! You LIE!"

"It IS true, little creep! Your mother is an English infidel, walking around without veil, my grandpa says! And your father speaks with the demons! He even has a statue of some demon! Heard my uncle from the police saying, he did freaking demon-things some years ago at the museum! So go away, we don't want to have anything to do with you!"

"My father is no freak! And he does not call the demons! You take it back!" With that, the little boy jumped against his opponent and both landed on the ground. "TAKE IT BACK!"

....

=== At home ===

Ani Al-Busiri walked home alone, clothes scattered and dirty from the fight on the schoolyard. At least, his nose had stopped bleeding and he discovered while looking in a puddle on the street, that his left eye did not look as bad as it seemed back then at school. Now he tried to put some order in his appearance, in the hope his mother would not notice what had been going on. He didn't want her to worry about him as if he was a toddler! Nonetheless, he had only passed the door of his home, as he was caught by his mother.

"Ani!" she cried. "My little boy, what have you been in?"

"Aw... nothing, Ma..." He replied, slightly in discomfort as she hugged him. He was grown up, he could handle such things!

"Nothing? I bought the jacket only last week... my God, a wonder that you have no bruises!"

"I'm just smarter then them, Ma!" He grinned proudly.

"I asked you not to fight with the other children!" She looked so pale. Ani thought it had to be because of his new brother (he hoped it would be a brother) growing in her. He really did not want her to be sad or worried!

"I did not start it, believe me", he said. "I only fought back, because one of these dummies called dad a demon-whisperer and such things!"

His mother sighed and closed her arms around the little boy again. So he did not see the tears in her eyes.

...

"We have to move to some other place, Evelyn!" Imhotep was standing at the window, looking out into the still busy night of the Cairouan suburb. "This city... is not good! There are too many rumours around about us, about... me. It's the umpteenth time Ani came home like this!"

"We can't move. You know it." She sounded very exhausted, having pondered about the same things the whole day since Ani had showed up. There was much hostility towards her and her family, it was true. It had not been that way in the first years. But as the economic situation grew more and more difficult for the inhabitants of Cairo, they were more and more on the edge and fanatic against everything 'alien' to them. And her family was an all too perfect victim... However...

"We can't move", Evie repeated. "I have my work here at the Library. And the director finally agreed to give me a pay raise! I don't want to beg Jonathan again for money. I know he would give it, but ..." She bit her lip to restrain herself from adding that Imhotep's off-and-on-work as translator for some old Egyptian texts did not make much money. Nonetheless he grasped it as if she had cried it out loud. He turned around frustrated, watched her in silence for some moments. He would have liked to give his family a decent living - however, he was far from being able to do so... He had been an important and rich man in the past, now he was, honestly spoken, barely more than a beggar... Curse it! He did not want to long for the old times! Determination shone through his dark eyes and a hard line formed around his mouth. "I will work with my hands! I'm still young enough to do hard work, out on the fields or whatsoever! We have to leave this place! I don't want our second child to be born here! I simply don't want it!"

"And I..." Evelyn stepped over to him and took his hands. "...don't want you to do such work! You have so much knowledge, intelligence... you deserves so much better! We... we can look for another school for Ani."

"It will not stop there, you know it! Rumours and hostility are travelling fast! It will get worse."

Evelyn sighed again, not knowing what she could answer, because it was the truth. "Let us at least wait till the baby is born. I would be not of much help right now."

Imhotep nodded slowly and embraced her. "We wait till the next flooding season, then."

Nevertheless, destiny was not that kind to give them time…

=== Some Weeks later / Cairo ===

Imhotep and his little family were on their way back from a Sunday morning walk in the park. Ani was excited, because they wanted to pay Achmad's family a visit – and Achmad could tell wonderful stories! Just as good as his Ma! Moreover, he knew of Osiris and the ancient gods, as his father did! Surely, the other kids at school would call him a demon-whisperer, too… these dummies!

A sudden noise erupted, people shouted and then shots sounded through the streets. Evelyn reached out to grab Ani, but the boy had escaped shortly before to admire one of the huge automobiles on the other side of the road. She called his name, but the tumult made it impossible for the child to hear her.

Shots again! A man in brown garb sprinted around the corner, yelling and pointing his gun backwards. From there other angry gunfire bellowed, but missed him. Now Ani had seized the situation and tried to hide behind the car. Evelyn called again, in vain.

"It's no use. I go and get him!" decided Imhotep and was already on his way.

The fugitive in the brown robe looked around frantically and shot again. One of his pursuers fell. People cried. The diaphone of a police car sounded from somewhere now. Perhaps it had been a robbery…

Imhotep lunged behind another parking car, calling for his son. Ani was cowering next to the rear wheel of 'his' automobile, only some meters from his father. He was right between the two fighting parties and tried to slip down under the belly of the car to get cover. However, just in the same moment, the brown-clad man jumped to exactly this car, obviously his getaway!

"Ani! Back! Go BACK!" Imhotep was on his feet simultaneously to pull the boy out without further hesitation. The sudden movement at his side made the fugitive turn around and shoot again, this time wildly aiming at Imhotep, who dove down onto the asphalt. His enemy missed. Though, Ani had only seen his father fall.

"Dad!" He cried, leaving his place.

Then everything happened in the blink of an eye: Ani running; another shot from the weapon of the nervous fugitive while he tried to get in his car; Ani jumping – and the bullet hit him. Imhotep cried horrified, and Evelyn the same, as their child tumbled lifeless to the ground. For an instant, the exhaust gases from the finally starting car of the fugitive clouded his vision. Then Imhotep was beside his little boy. A rapidly widening bloodstain tinted his jacket and the shirt beneath it.

He felt like dying. "Ani? Ani… do you hear me?" He ripped the shirt apart – and froze. He did not feel like dying anymore, he felt far worse…. Like torn apart from the unearthly pains of the Hom-Dai again. They pierced his soul, his heart, his body… He gasped for air.

Memories flashed through his mind. Memories from the final battle against the Dark Ones in the Great Pyramid 7 years ago… As he thought to die, burned and wounded… As Osiris spoke to him… 'Not you… but the curse has left an imprint… An imprint…'

This can't be… O no…NO!

"Dad? Dad, what's .. going on?"

Meanwhile Evelyn had reached the two of them, stroke over Anis head and wiped the tears from her face with the other shaky hand.

"Heavens, Ani… my sweet little boy! I… I thought you were hit for one moment! I really did!"

"He was hit", Imhotep murmured with a voice as dark as the grave, using the ancient Egyptian language. "The bullet went right through his chest, I saw it myself."

"But… but this is not possible! He's alive! He… he… is…" Her face fell and her eyes went wide, as she grasped what he was about to say.

"He is immortal, Evie. He has… the powers of the curse! Of MY curse!"

"Ma? Dad? What's going on? Why do you look so frightened?" Ani tried to get free from his father's firm grip. "It's only a scratch! Look! I'm fine!"

Imhotep lifted the boy up. "Let's go! Quick! I don't want any questions to answer right now…"

=== At home again ===

Ani had gone out in the garden, playing with his dog – as if nothing had happened at all. He was only sad, that he must not visit Achmad and tell him about the adventure today. His parents, however, had much greater sorrows.

"Perhaps… you were mistaken", Evelyn said. "Ani was not really hit."

"I was not." Imhotep sat on the edge of the bench near the window, face buried in his hands. "Look at his cloths! Look at it! And Ani has not even a little scratch anymore! He is as healthy as on the day he was born! Dammit!"

"But how can that be? Why should HE be punished with the curse? He is only a little boy… He does not even know what you… we… have done in the past."

Imhotep jumped to his feet. "It is my fault! My stupidity brought him this, my arrogance!" In a burst of desperate anger, he wiped the papers and other items from the table.

"What are you talking about?" Evelyn was appalled by the display of fury he showed. She had not seen him like this for so many years. "You said Osiris has freed you from the Hom-Dai, Imhotep. You have no more powers; you are a mortal man! There is no way you could have transmitted your curse to our son!"

"Gods of Egypt! Evelyn! You do not see it, don't you?! Forgive me… I did not want to shout at you…Remember, when Ani was born, and we thought, it was one month earlier than scheduled?! It was not too early! It was the exact date!" He leaned his head against the wall. The coldness of the stone did nothing to soothe the fire of pain and anger in him. He simply burned with hate for himself. "You conceived Ani not in our wedding night, but over a month earlier, during our union in the Great Pyramid, BEFORE the curse was released! I thought… thought I could not…" His voice trailed of and his fists banged against the wall. "Obviously, I could do much harm, at least! This was it, what Osiris meant, then. I had given life when I was bound to give nothing but death… HE already knew what had happened! Seeing their cause with me in danger, the Dark Ones looked ahead in creating a reassurance! With my gladly given help…"

Evelyn put her hands on Imhotep's shoulders and leaned against him. He felt her tears through the fabric of his short, and it made him only madder about his actions seven years ago.

"Ani is doomed, Evelyn… Because of me… I was not allowed to touch you at this time! And yet I did it in my arrogance and desire!"

"Don't blame you. If this was a fault, it was mine as well…I thought I would loose you all too soon. I wanted you as much as you wanted me this night."

Happy laughter and barking sounded from the garden. Ani had no idea which powers slumbered in him.