Jackie: It's finally here! Keeper finally made it!
Avery: We finished shooting in the middle of Of Sewers and Dragons and had to be very patient for this to come out so-
Ellie, Meg, Sarah, Brooke, Rebecca: KEEPER ONLY OWNS HER CRAZY OCS! SURPRISE!
Jackie and Avery: Jerks.
"Jesus, take the wheel, take it from my hands, 'cause I can't do this on my own..." -Carrie Underwood
Thunder rumbled in the distance, making Jackie squeal in delight, "Oh, I love thunderstorms!" Avery smiled at her best friend and room mate, but her mind was elsewhere despite her love of thunderstorms as well. "You're thinking about Meg again, aren't you?"
Avery threw a pillow at her and laughed, attempting vainly to change the topic. "No, I was thinking that you're a dork."
Though Jackie laughed, she knew what was really going on in her head. "You know, I think about Ellie, too. It's okay to miss them, but they said they'll come back for Christmas and Easter, so you don't have to-"
"It's not that I miss them that's bugging me like heck." She interrupted. Though Avery did miss her sister who had a story no one would believe if they hadn't been to 'The Picnic That Changed Everyone,' it was more of a jealousy, a heartache that she was plagued with. "She's always wanted to be a mother, to have a family. So have I. I'm what? A year or two older than her and she's already married, has a kid and another on the way!"
"So you're jealous."
"Yes."
"Is it any consolation that that perfect guy is out there and that if you're just patient, you'll find him?"
"Not at all, but good try."
"Whatever. Can we watch the movie now?"
"Since when are you into 'The Hobbit'?"
"Since you got me into it."
They fell silent. All of the siblings of the five girls who had vanished never went to see 'The Hobbit' because it reminded them of the girls who they had thought dead. Avery loved the book and was a big Lord of the Rings fan, but she had never watched the movie...until today. "Go ahead, put it in and hopefully the power will stay on."
Jackie went up to the DVD player and placed the disc inside, returning to the couch to watch the movie to find that the screen was a fizzle of black and white.
"It's not a VHS tape, why is it doing this?" Avery asked.
"Maybe we're on the wrong channel." Jackie went to fix it, but the screen turned black, then blinked and now had a gold scarab beetle in the center. "I don't think that's what Bilbo is supposed to look like."
"What's going on?" Avery went up and nearly had her nose to the screen, scrutinizing every detail. "I think it's a-" The power sparked, then blew out and suddenly, everything was dark.
In New York, the girls Jackie Smith and Avery Jackson disappeared upon that night.
"Are you alright, love?"
Jackie opened her eyes slowly, her head spinning to a violent stop, focusing on the face of a rather drunk man with a British accent. She jerked forward and looked around; it looked like a museum, there were books and coffins and artifacts everywhere—definitely not the apartment. "Where am I?"
"You're in a museum in Cairo." He replied, helping her stand though it was she who had the better balance in all honesty.
"What's the date?!" She exclaimed, calm that she was at least in her own world and not some other place like her sister had been dumped.
"1923." He eyed her closely. "You look a little pale, darling, perhaps you should sit down. Or better yet, lay down! Come, you can help me spook my sister."
She didn't really have a choice, he took her by her hand and dragged her away while she was left to process that the exact same thing she and Avery had been speaking of earlier was coming true. Avery! She thought. Oh, Avery, wherever you are, please be safe!
"Goodness me, darling! Are you alright? A book case must've fallen on your head when you came in! I am so terribly sorry, that happens to be my fault." A woman with dark, curly hair was leaning over Avery, her eyes full of concern. She looked and sounded like a proper British woman.
"I'm alright," She managed to say, sitting up. She looked down and found that her clothes were rather...old. It was like the style of the 20's. Oh, no...
"I'm so sorry, here, let me get you something warm to drink, perhaps I could send for a relative to come pick you up?" The woman went on and on, easing her into a chair and presenting her with a cup of tea.
"Forgive me, but what year is it?"
"1923, are you sure you're alright?"
She went deathly pale. "I'm sorry, but I have no one here who can help me. I've no idea where my friend could be and I truly don't know what to do."
There was a faint crash coming from down the hallway and the women looked from the hallway to each other. "Well, I'll help in any way that I can, but first I should go check that out. My name is Evelyn by the way, Evelyn Carnahan, but everyone calls me Evy."
"And I'm Avery, Avery Jackson, pleasure to meet you, Evy."
"The pleasure is mine."
They walked down the hall into a room with golden coffins—sarcophagi—with mummies in them, in search of whatever had caused that sound. In truth, they both were a little tense as the scenery was creepy.
Out of nowhere (a sarcophagus, actually) the upper body of a skeleton popped out and made Evy and Avery jump and cry out is surprise and fear. Then there was a pair of laughter.
"Jonathan Carnahan, have you no respect for the dead?!" Evy exclaimed.
"Jacqueline Smith, I'm going to get you for that!"
"Sorry, Ave, you know how I like to get rid of fear."
"By instilling it in others! What a fine way to do things!"
By then, the man, Jonathan, and Jackie had climbed out and the four were sitting on a step while Evy went about scolding them much to Avery's happiness; well, until Jonathan managed to sweet talk his sister into shutting up. "Oh, and I have something, by the way!"
"Oh, Jonathan, not another one of your silly trinkets for me to try and sell off-"
"I know, I know that happens a lot but I think this is different; please tell me that I have something." He pleaded as he handed her a box.
She stared at it in amazement while Avery and Jackie (who seem to have been forgotten by the siblings) looked at each other with concern. What had they gotten themselves into?
Patiently, they waited outside the curator's office while they listened to Evy and Jonathan speak to him about the box.
"Hamunaptra?" Jackie asked. "We're talking about the city of the dead?"
"It sounds like they want to go." Avery noted, her ear completely pressed against the wall to hear everything while Jackie only got the bits and pieces that floated through the open door. "We have to go with them, but how are we going to convince them to let us go?"
"Easy," Jackie said with a shrug. "Lie."
"What do you have in mind, O Creator of Brilliant Plans?"
"Be patient!"
"Oh, my goodness!" The Curator exclaimed.
"The map!" Jonathan cried. "You've burned off the part about the lost city!"
The three hadn't noticed that the girls had entered when they heard the cries of alarm. "It's for the best I'm sure," The Curator said. "Many men wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra. No one's ever found it. Most have never returned."
"Well, we can certainly try, can't we?!" Evy proclaimed then stormed out of the office with Jonathan holding the map and the box and the girls trailing behind.
"What are you doing Evy?" Jonathan asked.
"The fellow you found this with could lead us to the city, we can go after it." Evy then looked to the girls and realized that they were still there. "Oh, I am so sorry, I had forgotten about you. I don't suppose you'd like to come with us?"
"Is that an invitation?" Jackie asked.
"We've only just met you." Avery pointed out. "Why ask us when you could ask someone else?"
"I don't know," Evy admitted. "I just have this feeling that you ought to be there and it feels wrong leaving you two behind. Besides, it would be good to have someone else watching over Jonathan."
"Hey!"
"Alright," Jackie said. "We're in."
"Good Lord, what the heck are we doing in 1923?!" Avery hissed on the car ride to the prison where Jonathan claimed the man he had "borrowed" the box from was being held.
"You think I know?" Jackie whispered; Jonathan's head was upon her shoulder and he was fast asleep while Evy was absorbed in a book in the passenger seat. "But I'm guessing it has something to do with the same thing that took Ellie and Meg on their adventure."
"Do you think we're going to end up okay?" Avery's harshness had faded and it struck Jackie at just how afraid her friend really was.
"Well, the others were alright, so we should be too."
"They didn't return for three years. What if the same thing happens to us?"
"Then it happens and there's no use trying to change it or worrying over it because what's going to happen will happen and we can't do a darn thing to stop it."
"You're right." She muttered. "You're always right."
"I know."
Avery rolled her eyes and managed to clip her friend in the back of her head.
"Right over here, step over here, please." The Warden said as he lead them to the cell that would hold their man.
Jackie didn't like the fat man whose occupation was deciding the lives of other men who probably weren't raised any other way. Avery wrinkled her nose and bid Jackie to walk in front of her so she did not have to endure the stench of a man who did not bathe.
"That's what friends are for." Jackie said, choking down the bile that had risen in the back of her throat. This must've been the pay back for scaring her at the museum.
"The guards shall bring him out, wait but a moment. Excuse me," And he left, leaving them to wait for the-
The guards pulled a rather neanderthal like man from a door and chained him to a chair, his arms tied behind him. Scratch the waiting. "Who are you?" He asked, then gave Evy a once over without even bothering to hide it. "And who's the broad?"
"'Broad'?!" Evy exclaimed.
Jackie put a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Try not to be too offended, we are in a prison and we have more important things to do than be insulted."
Avery rolled her eyes; only Jackie was going to attempt to calm an insulted British woman. Smart.
"I'm just a local sort of missionary chap, spreading the Good Word, you know." Jonathan said. Jackie snickered; she was beginning to like Mr. Carnahan. "This is my sister, Evy and our...cousins, Jackie and Avery."
"How do you do?" Evy asked. Jackie rolled her eyes and then preceded to endure a rather painful jab to the ribs from Avery.
"Guess she's not a total loss." He muttered.
"I beg your pardon!" Jonathan nudged her with his foot and whispered something about the box and with a scowl, she explained, "We've found your er, puzzle box and we've come to ask you about it."
"No."
"No?" Jackie looked to him, surprised. "Did he just say no?"
"Shut it if you know what's good for you." Avery growled under her breath.
Jonathan placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's alright, love, I get that a lot."
"You came to ask me about Hamunaptra." He said dryly, his face seemed to have a permanent bored expression.
"How did you know the box pertained to Hamunaptra?" Avery asked, unable to help herself.
"Because that's where I was when I found it. I was there." Jackie smiled; she enjoyed annoying Avery, but watching him annoy her was pure gold. She glared darkly at him and he held his hands up like he was innocent, then returned his attention to the siblings.
"How do we know that's not a load of pig's wallow?" Jonathan asked, coming close to the bars.
"Do I know you?" The man asked, examining every inch of Jonathan's face. Jackie sense something funny was going to happen.
"No, no, I just got one of those faces-" Realization dawned on him and he punched him.
"Jonathan!" Jackie exclaimed, then went to his side, trying to rouse him from his spontaneous nap.
Avery went to stand by her friend, but her attention was mostly on the man, wondering what his intentions were and if he truly meant that he would not take them to Hamunaptra. "You were actually at Hamunaptra?" Evy asked, stepping over her brother and making her grin. She liked Evy.
"Yeah, I was there. Seti's place. City of the Dead."
"Could you tell me how to get there?" Evy stammered, excitement hard to conceal in her eyes. If the man did not give her what she wanted, Avery would be surprised. Who could deny her simple directions? He beckoned her closer and closer until her face was nearly pressed against the bars and then, he kissed her.
Avery's eyes widened and she looked away, her eyes drifting to Jackie who was staring at them like an owl. She kicked Jonathan and made him groan, instantly drawing her attention back to the writhing man once more.
"Then get me out of here." Was the last thing she heard before the guards dragged him away.
"Where are they taking him?" Avery asked the Warden who had returned at that instant.
"To be hanged."
Well, shoot.
Whilst Jackie went with Jonathan to tend to a bloody nose, Avery went with Evy and the Warden to the Warden's box seat to oversee the hanging. She didn't feel comfortable watching a hanging at all, but Evy was persistent that she come despite the threat of a man's life because she thought she could bargain for his freedom.
Drums sounded as he was prepared to drop which echoed in a strange tune with Evy's offers to the Warden who only truly cared about getting her in a bed. Each offer was denied. He called out the Arabic word and Avery found she was unable to look away as the man fell through...only to find himself wringing by his neck.
"His neck did not break!" The Warden exclaimed. "I am sorry, now we must watch him strangle to death."
Unable to stand it any longer, Avery spoke up, "He knows the location to Hamunaptra."
Evy looked at her in surprise and horror while Warden looked as though he had just noticed her and was very disbelieving. "You lie." He accused.
"I would never!" That was a lie.
"He knows the location of the City of the Dead?"
"Yes and if you set him free we'll give you ten percent." She knew Evy had him; she had such a determined look in her eye, that Avery knew she would not have to worry about anything.
"Fifty percent,"
"Twenty,"
"Thirty,"
"Twenty-five!"
"Deal!" She exclaimed with a smile as he realized that he had made a stupid call.
He groaned in annoyance, "Cut him down!"
"Great job," Avery commented as she and Evy walked to find Jonathan and Jackie. "I especially enjoyed the last bit and I hope you can forgive for telling him about Hamunaptra, but we needed him."
"Don't worry, I forgive you. In fact, thank you for doing so, it may have cost us everything."
Somewhere, deep in the desert, a man with dark hair and tattoos in the language of his people across his cheeks and forehead woke from a strange dream of a woman with long, dark hair and hazelnut eyes and her companion who had fiery red hair and green eyes.