Chapter 3

Ally woke up to O'Connell hollering from the base of the pillar, her head jerking up. She had been sitting still, her chin leaning down on her chest and her shoulders slumped inward.

Oh, her back and neck were going to give her hell today.

She jumped over the edge of the pillar, onto another destroyed column, and finally down to the ground next to O'Connell. He watched her with unsubdued interest, an eyebrow arched at her display. "What were you doing up there? How did you even get up there?"

"I climbed. I couldn't sleep for a long time. I could watch over the ruins from up there."

"Well, we're going down. If you want to come, you should grab something to eat first." He pointed at Jonathan, who was still sitting by what had been a bonfire.

Jonathan handed her some dates before leading her down to a hole on the ground, through dark passageways and torch-lit halls.

"This is the room where they made the mummies. It had been closed so long that when we came yesterday, the stench was unbearable. Of course, it could have been the Warden, too. Poor chap, ran head first in to a wall." Jonathan talked all the way to the room where O'Connell and Evy were already standing over a sarcophagus.

Ally's blood ran cold. Something was very wrong. I was sent here. There must be a reason I was sent here. There must be a reason I was sent to this time.

"Oh, I've dreamt about this since I was a little girl." Evy exclaimed, looking up at her entering the room with a wistful smile.

"You dream about dead guys?" O'Connell inquired incredulously, standing beside the upright sarcophagus.

Evelyn ignored him, not caring for his opinion on the matter. "Look, the sacred spells have been chiseled off." The brit woman announced, her hands hovering over the dark cover of the stone as she explained its significance to the rest of the team. "This man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the next."

Cursed. This place is cursed. I need to get them out of here. But how can I convince them? "Evy…"

Ally's voice was drowned out by the other men's. "Tough break" O'Connell shrugged, while Jonathan tinkered with a little box.

"Yeah, I'm all tears." The shorter man opened the box, the cover turning into some kind of star shaped piece. He placed it into another star shaped groove on the ancient coffin. A lock. "Now, let's see who's inside, shall we?"

"No, don't open it!" But O'Connell and Jonathan are already pushing the cover off. "It's…" Alive, Ally was going to say, already crouched into a fighting stance. But a definitely dead, decomposing corpse sprung forward when the sarcophagus opened. It stayed unmoving. This is not the threat then? What else is in here?

"Oh, my God, I hate it when these things do that."

"Is he supposed to look like that?" The American frowned at the mummy, while Ally slowly approached them, inspecting the remains.

Evy observed the body, Ally could feel her bewilderment from behind. "No, I've never seen a mummy look like this before. He's still... still..."

"Juicy." The men said in unison, staring at the pile of bones and partially decomposed flesh.

"Yes." The young Egyptologist was astonished, never having expected this from her adventure. "He must be more than 3,000 years old… and, well, it looks as if he's still… decomposing."

O'Connell's eyes flickered from the brit to the brunette standing a few feet behind, next to the head of the cover of the sarcophagus. Her expression baffled him, taking in her transparent concern for the situation. Before he could comment on it, though, his gaze fell on the cover, the scratch marks surprising him more than the girl's face. "Hey, look at that. What do you make of this?"

"My God, these marks were made with… fingernails. This man was buried alive. And he left a message." Evy looked up at Ally once, frowning a bit before looking back down. "Death is only the beginning. "

Ally's heart plummeted to the ground. This has to be it. He is cursed. Buried alive. He will come back. "We have to leave. This place is not safe." She finally reacted, taking a pike from the side and keeping an eye on the body before gesturing at the group. "Something is very wrong with this place. This… is not natural. It's…"

"Don't tell you're scared of the stories of curses and the living dead." Evy grinned at her, amused at her concern for something that had been harmless for so long.

"While I still haven't had to face a mummy, I've come to realize that those whose deaths occur in strange circumstances tend not to say dead." Ally snapped, itching to smash the corpse with the pike, her fingers tightening around it.

O'Connell eyed her hand and rose from his crouch, moving over to her. "Why don't we go back up? We're no Egyptologists, anyway." He grabbed her arm, the one holding the pike, and tugged.

"O'Connell…"

"We'll wait for you outside." He turned his head at the siblings for a moment before yanking her after him.

Ally huffed, annoyed, but unwilling to fight the man.

Once outside, her took the pike from her and tossed it next to their "camp" before walking to the edge of the ruins. Ally trailed after him, silent, worry still crawling inside her chest.

"So, what is it?"

"What?" She played dumb, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You know what." He tucked his hands in his pockets, gazing at the open desert.

She sighed, knowing he would not believe her. No one would. Except those desert men, maybe. What if that's why they tried to get these people out? What if… "Something is wrong with that mummy, with that place. I know you don't believe me, she won't either, but you should close that sarcophagus and leave it there. Messing with these things… never ends well." She examined the dunes and cliffs, trying to spot the men in dark robes somewhere. If they were close… maybe… she could ask them. If this place was really cursed… who knew what consequences they would have to face for messing with the undead?

She knew close to nothing about ancient Egyptian lore. Well, assuming most of the stories she'd read or heard were pure fiction, made up. Most lore was usually polluted with modern additions. Changed so much the stories rarely resembled what had originally been believed.

"Sounds like you've got experience with… 'these things'" He watched her from the corner of his eye, still resolutely looking at the distance.

"Yes." She shrugged and turned back toward the ruins. "Do you think I can convince her to leave it alone?"

"Not in a million years. She's been dreaming about this place since she was a kid." His lips tilted upward a bit, a soft expression taking over his face. "I already told her there was something bad here, but it didn't make her any less resolute. No one can make her leave this place now."

She smiled, shaking her head at the obviously infatuated man. "Then… let's hope I'm just paranoid."

O'Connell went back inside the tunnels to watch over the Carnahans. Meanwhile, Ally moved to the back of the ruins, where the bodies from last night's attack had been buried. The weapons belonging to those men had been left on one side, half hidden, and she grabbed a couple knives and guns, strapping them to her body. She would probably need them at some point.

The brunette girl climbed back up the pillar she'd spent the night on and waited for the rest of the people to come out. She wasn't sure she could stay down in the tomb without screaming at Evy to leave the dead alone. That woman was pursuing her lifelong dream.

The Americans' workers ran out of the tomb first, keeping to the sides of the ruins while they awaited. Their bosses left the tunnels before her brit companions, carrying small jars and a huge book with them. They waved her over when they spotted her up at the edge of the stone, mouths gaping open for a couple seconds when she jumped down.

"What are those?" She asked as she approached the Americans, the Egyptologist accompanying them casting a suspicious glance at her and hugging the book tighter to his chest.

"Canopic jars. We found them under a statue. We might be able to sell them for good money." Henderson responded, approaching with a smirk. It seemed like his default expression. "What were you doing there?"

"Watching over the desert. Just in case. I didn't like being… in there." She sat next to him, near the makings of a bonfire, Burns sitting on the other side of her. "Didn't see your friends from last night anywhere." She assured them, taking in their little nods as Daniels sat in front of them.

"You didn't hurt yourself jumping down?" Burns wondered, gesturing toward the pillar she'd sat on. At her head shake, he adjusted his glasses, surprised.

"She's still young, children can take falls and bumps better." Daniels intervened, smirking at his friends. "No offense, ma'am, but you are pretty young, right?"

"I'm almost twenty six." She deadpanned, all of them staring in astonishment. "I take it I look younger?"

"I'd have said nineteen at most." Henderson gulped, his lips twitching to an even more marked smirk.

"Well, I'm well above twenty, and have been for a while." She shrugged and turned to look at Burns. "So you three are treasure hunters?"

"Yeah, precisely. We've been partners for a few years now." He confirmed proudly, straightening his back and smiling at her.

"What do you do? You don't look like the kind to stay at home." The blond inquired, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees.

"No. I'm an engineer and physicist." She responded, taking the easiest path. It would be better if they didn't know the whole extent of her job.

"You're certainly a box full of surprises, sugar." Henderson's eyes shined with interest, receiving an arched eyebrow in return.

Jonathan joined the group then, sitting down beside Daniels and watching the blond American flirt with their new friend. She leaned back on her hands while Jonathan talked the afternoon away, the sun soon setting over the horizon and making Ally climb back to her tower.

Her chest felt heavy with a sense of foreboding. She said nothing to the excited woman below, though.