Disclaimer: I do not own the Mummy. God if I did, that would be a wonderful, wonderful thing if only so I could have the sexy medjai. But I am not that lucky so I'll settle for fanfiction ;)

Author's Note: This story has been a long time coming. It is the prequel to a one-shot I wrote a few years ago called Lost. Feel free to read it or to wait until the end of this one to read it. And for those of you who read lost before, please don't eat me for taking so long! I would also like to dedicate this to WrittenWriter, tigerlily124, and dreamer84. Sorry y'all had to wait so long!

Pulling my hair back I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered what in the world I was thinking. I had only been in Cairo three days and I had already decided that I couldn't stand the place. No, it wasn't the place itself, it was the people I could not stand. Then again, I had never cared for the people my father associated with. They were cold and distant men only interested in power and wealth. I would much rather have sat in a library reading Bryon and Austen or helping in the hospitals. At least that would have been fulfilling. The parties were a pointless waste of time and funds. It was still sometimes hard for me to believe how amazingly selfish people could be.

I let my red hair fall back down around me as I turned to face the window. My eyes went wide as I saw balls of fire falling from the sky. It was the most beautiful and terrifying thing I had ever seen before in my life. I moved forward slowly, clasping my hands to my chest. "God help us," I whispered in a reverent tone. I screamed and fell back as one of the balls hit the ground outside my window, rattling the ground. "Miss Hunting! Miss Hunting!"

My door burst open and I turned to see Husam, one of my father's hired men. "My Lady, please come with me. It is not safe here," he insisted stepping to the side and holding the door open. I could not argue with his assessment of the situation given that I could hear cries of fire and fear from below. I nodded once as I ran across the room glancing down the hall towards the stairs before Husam took my arm and led me towards the servant's wing of the house. I started to protest only to find another crash rocking the household.

I heard screams, one louder than all the rest and ringing in my ears. I did not realize it was my own scream until Husam turned and was shaking me. "Please Miss Hunting. I will protect you, but you must trust me and remain quiet." I swallowed heavily, biting the inside of my lip hard to keep back my screams as I nodded. How he could be so calm and brave was beyond me. I wish that I could have had such a skill, but I knew myself better than that. For all of my self-righteous indignation towards my father and his associates, I was still a cowardly product of their world.

We slipped out of the rear entrance of the house. I stayed close behind Husam who seemed tense and anxious as we moved across the back courtyard dodging rubble and burning souls who reached for us in a desperate hope that we could end their pain. I choked back a sob as we continued down the streets which were mad with screams and fire. I could never have imagined such a world as this. And I never wanted to see such a world again.

I was not sure where we were running, I only knew that Husam was my only hope. During the time I had known him, he had always been kind to me, tolerating my various tirades when I had them and giving me advice even when I had thought it quite unnecessary. I could only hope that now he knew where we were going. Or rather that he knew a way that would not lead us into the fires that seemed to blaze around us.

Time seemed to elongate as we ran. For all I knew, it might have passed at it's normal pace. I could not have said. All I knew was that after what must have been an age, the museum loomed before us. My eyes flicked to Husam and I was surprised to see the look on his face. It was some dark mixture of determination and fear. I had never seen such a look before in my life and it made me want to shy away from a man who, only moments before, I had trusted eagerly.

"Husam..."

"Please Miss Hunting," Husam whispered. "Trust me."

I found myself nodding absently and following Husam as he led the way into the museum. As the doors closed behind us, silence fell. The screams seemed to die into nothing and the fires might as well have never happened for all the calm that seemed to emanate in the building. A calm which made me feel more nervous than the panic on the outside had to my surprise.

Our footsteps made quiet taps that echoed around the large entryway. I had only been in the room once before. Then I had felt bored and even a little annoyed. I wished desperately that I could go back to that moment. At least than I had known without a doubt that I was safe. Now...

"Mahir al-Husam... I never thought I would have the displeasure of seeing you again." Looking up, I saw the museum's curator staring down at Husam. "I'm sorry Miss Hunter, but the museum is closed. You should return home where you're safe from the disasters outside. Your father will, no doubt, be looking for you."

"I brought her here," Husam said stepping forward and holding up his head proudly. "As a comrade, you have every right to kill me, but as my cousin, I beg of you to give her protection from what is to come. She does not deserve this."

"And who says that I will allow him that?" I jumped, clapping a hand over my mouth to hold in my startled scream as I spun around to see a man so dark and so handsome it truly could have been nothing short of sinful.

I looked back to see that Husam had also turned to face the new man, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed into dark slits. "Because you still owe me your life Ardeth Bay."