Chapter 4 is a go!
Thanks a bunch for your patience!
-Ravyne
(Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the 'MUMMY' movies or any of their characters. Just my characters Katherine and Bastet belong to me.)
Life Forsakes Her
Chapter 4:
Ardeth had expected that their escape route would be a tricky one but he hadn't expected the creature to be released with more power than he had wielded last time. He was already much stronger than he had been the previous time the O'Connell's had accidentally raised him from the dead.
Outside, Rick skips to a stop abruptly and Ardeth pauses in response curiously. His answer is to have Kat's wilted, cold body passed carefully into his care and for Rick to jab a finger at him threateningly, "Get her to the car."
The short command is all that's needed to snap Ardeth from his momentary awkward pause and turn to do as he's told.
"Honey, whatcha doing?!" Rick chuckles nervously as he turns around to grab his wife's wrist who is busy trying to pull a nearby bench in front of the door they had just burst through. "These guys don't use doors!"
Ardeth rounds the side of the building and-.
Well he comes to a rapid halt. The car that was meant to be their final escape is empty and abandoned with no sign of Jonathan or the O'Connell's son anywhere in sight. He shifts his hold on Kat's body, her head lulling to the side, and a faint wisp of breath brushes against his neck.
His breath stop in his chest and he goes still, listening. Just under the eerie silence lingering over her, Ardeth can make out the murmur of a barely audible moan from somewhere deep in her chest and relief washes over him in a flush of heat.
He sends up a silent prayer but is unable to allow the moment to really settle over him because the O'Connell's come jogging around the corner behind him. Ardeth washes all emotion from his face and buries the feelings deep inside.
"Where the hell's Jonathan?!" Rick demands.
As if on cue, there's a honk of an overly loud horn followed by an even louder roar of an engine. Turning the corner a double decker bus pulls up beside the forgotten car and Jonathan smiles hesitantly down at them from the driver's seat.
"Alex!" Evie exclaims the second she spies her son behind his uncle and a wide, loving smile breaks out across her face. A second later, she's ushering Ardeth towards the back of the bus, "Come, let's get her onboard!"
"What's the matter with my car?" Rick gawks at Jonathan.
"Well, I was…forced to find an alternative means of transportation-."
"A double decker bus?!" Rick snaps, cutting him off.
Jonathan quickly jabs a finger back at Alex behind him as his face pales, "It was his idea!"
Was not!" Alex argues.
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Just go!" Rick orders as he rushes to hop on the bus behind Ardeth.
"Lay her here," Evie tells Ardeth as she motions towards the long seats spanning the length of the back half of the bus. He sets her down, hiding his hesitating thought of having her out of his arms. He ignores the thoughts and sets her down gently anyway so that Evie can have a look over her. She presses two fingers against the unconscious young woman's neck to which Ardeth's eyes widen in response the second he notices the Egyptian hieroglyphic like tattoos circling her throat now. Had those been there last time?
Evie's gasp is filled with both relief and amazement, "My God, she's still alive!"
Ardeth ignores the second flash of heat that radiates through his chest, "What did the creature say to her? I was unable to hear."
Evie shakes her head slowly, "I honestly can't say. I was so shocked…everything happened so fast. I think I heard something about…'broken', 'shattered', maybe 'alone'..."
The bus engine roars as Jonathan pops it into gear and they start to move. Evie rushes to her feet when Rick suddenly exclaims, "No, no! Not my car!"
Ardeth turns to look out the back window of the bus just in time to see the warrior mummies leaping off of what's left of Rick's destroyed vehicle and continue on after them with inhuman speed and agility.
"Oh, I hate mummies," Rick grumbles sourly as his glare pierces through the back window to their pursuers.
"Glad to see me now?" Ardeth asks, keeping his scoff to himself.
Rick O'Connell flips his weapon and heads for the narrow stairs that lead to the top section of the bus, "Just like old times, huh?"
Left to defend the bottom half, Ardeth readies his own weapon and aims his dark eyes out the window at the four mummies racing down the dark streets after them. For a second his train of thought derails to a worrying notion and he turns his head to look back at Evie, "Is there any way to strap her down?"
Evelyn hurries to Kat's side and starts feeling around in the bus seats, finally shaking her head in frustration, "This is the reason I refuse to take the bus."
"Mom!" Alex cries.
An unearthly shriek echoes around them and Ardeth turns toward it to find a mummy dangling inside the doorway to his right. Taking aim, he opens fire on the beast, each round zeroed in on the creature's waist. A second later, the legs fall off, rolling to a stop on the road behind them, and the mummy's upper half is left dangling in the doorway.
The creature and Ardeth glance down at the absent lower half before turning back to glare at each other. The beast roars, swinging a clawed hand out vengefully.
Ardeth tries to let off another round of bullets but the gun jams in his hand and he's forced to back away into the bus as the mummy swings into the confined space like a chimp from the hand railings along the ceiling.
Briefly, Ardeth's gaze shifts to Kat's still form and his face pales in realization that she's left vulnerable to attack. The mummy uses his distraction, grabbing hold of Ardeth's robes and slamming him face first into one side of the bus before throwing him backward into the opposite side.
Evie and Alex wince as they stay backed as far to the front side of the bus as they can get. She keeps her arms latched protectively around her son.
Ardeth regains his footing, swings around and slams a fist into the mummy's chest, sending it flying back onto the bus seat opposite of Kat's limp body. The bus jolts and she rocks dangerously towards the edge, threatening to fall to the floor. His breath catches in his throat and his eyes widen, shifting restlessly from her to the creature that has started to scramble to an upward position. At least, as best as it can since it hasn't any legs.
The bus swerves to cut a tight corner and Kat rolls back safely onto the seat, her eyes fluttering open in confusion.
At first, Kat can't make sense of all the noise. It's nothing but a jumbled mess of chaotic screams and shouts and screeches and groans. She could've sworn that somewhere in her dream there had been gunshots as well but that wouldn't have made any sense—she hates guns. She's never dreamed about them once…at least, not that she can remember.
But then again…she doesn't remember falling asleep either. No, she would've remembered that. Sleep is supposed to be a soothing thing that calls to you when you lie down. All she can remember is the surge of agonizing, white-hot pain that had exploded through her like a bonfire from hell. That pain she vaguely recalls from a distant time many years ago. It had happened once before and now…
It's happening again, she thinks as the deep, dark terror fills her up again. Why her? Why couldn't this happen to someone else?!
Her blurry vision clears and she realizes that she's staring up at a window. An unfamiliar window. Kat's eyebrows furrow in confusion and she tilts her head a bit to get a better look. It's dark outside. At least that can be seen through the filthy window.
Another screech pierces her eardrums so terribly that she scrunches up into herself and claps her hands over her ears tightly. Kat twists her head around and has little than a split second to register what's happening. A half-mummy is climbing up by its arms onto the back of a bus seat, lifting a hand to extend deadly claws even more than they already are, and then glaring at Ardeth threateningly.
She's not sure where the sudden surge of energy comes from (maybe adrenaline, maybe fear, maybe panic) but one minute she's lying on her back across a hard, bus seat and then the next she's throwing her body through the air and into Ardeth's torso.
They both fall out of the way just as the mummy rips its claws through the air where Ardeth's chest had been only now they cut through the material of Kat's shirt and into the flesh of her lower back. She doesn't have time to react to the pain before her elbows knock into the hard floor of the bus and replace it with a new pain.
Evie gasps from somewhere nearby and screams, "Turn, turn, turn! Jonathan, turn!"
The bus lurches and everyone is tossed dangerously off balance. Kat rolls off of Ardeth and her back hits the bars of the bus seats, blazing the pain from the injury there back to life. Hissing, she twists away from the pain and slowly climbs to her feet, Ardeth's large hand gripping her elbow to aid her. They're unable to respond to each other though.
The mummy is coming right back at them! Kat ducks as it swings its arm again and those lethal claws tear open the front of Ardeth's robes, no doubt ripping flesh as he's thrown back into the bus seat. Kat stands back up to full height to counter attack but the thing grabs the back of her neck and hurls her into the window head first. She falls right onto the top of Ardeth, her back meeting his solid chest with a thud.
The wind is knocked right out of her but the mummy gives her no chance to breathe before swinging in over them like a towering giant and cocks back an arm to strike.
Eyes widening and body going ridged, Kat gasps and grabs hold of the tops of the bus seats so she can lift her legs and cross her ankles around the creature's throat, holding it at a distance.
The beast roars in frustration and claws down at her furiously, some of the attacks ripping open the legs of her pants and slashing into her calves. Kat hisses at the sharp sting and her scream is echoed by a loud bang!
The mummy is thrown back!
Bang!
The creature screeches as another blast tears into its body. Another bang sends it flying off balance and onto the floor at the back of the bus. Kat quickly climbs carefully off Ardeth only to crouch suddenly to the floor off her injured leg.
Why on earth are these things so hard to kill?!, she swears to herself. Better yet, shouldn't this stupid curse be acting up by now?
"Look out!" Alex screams and the bus lurches again as Jonathan takes another sharp turn. Kat's head hits the side of the bus seat, her brain jumbling out of order for a second. Evie gasps in alarm as the mummy starts to twitch and scramble across the floor again.
God, I hate these things!, Kat lifts her head and throws a glare at the creature crawling back towards them. If her anger hadn't been raging and boiling in her blood, turning her thoughts to wrath, maybe she would've noticed the red tinge around her vision that washes the world over in near darkness. Maybe she would've paused in confusion.
But she doesn't. All she wants, all that's going through her head, is to kill this thing, to rip its head off and tear its jugular from its throat.
This anger isn't hers.
The red of her gaze pulses, making everything in her vision twitch in time with the strange beat pounding in her skull, and Kat can feel her eyes begin to burn with familiar heat. She can feel the familiar energies then, the ones of the cursed weapon taking over her.
Darkness wouldn't be far behind.
Right now, she welcomes it.
Ardeth tries to sit up but the sight before him tells his instincts to remain motionless. Kat's eyes are beginning to glow the neon green, spiraling like a frantic dance in time with the rising anger coming across her face.
She opens her mouth, fangs extended, and the weapon lets out a feral scream at the mummy before her. The beast returns her threat with a shriek of its own before hurling itself up off the floor and through the air at her. The weapon flashes forward like a blinding light.
Hands latching onto the ceiling rails, she kicks her legs out straight and slams her heels into the mummy's chest. It tears backward, crashing through the back window, and disappears into the dark streets behind them.
Again, Alex screams out in alarm and the bus takes a screeching turn, forcing everyone to grab ahold of something to keep their balance. A few moments later there is a terrible crunching noise and screaming of bending metal from above and the bus shudders something fierce.
"S…Sorry," Jonathan calls back from the driver's seat.
A few more screeching turns and the bus comes to a noisy stop along the bridge with a final hiss. Alex, breathing heavily, skips down the center isle of the bus, followed closely by his mother, to his aunt who is still crouched low on the floor.
With the silence that pursues, the heavy breathing from Kat sounds stranger than usual; Evie grabs hold of her son's shoulders and stops him quickly with a sharp jerk backward.
Unsure of what's going on, Alex glances up at his mother and then down at his aunt still bent on the floor, "Aunt Kat?"
Blazing green eyes spin around and glare up at the boy through the hair that has come loose around her face and the weapon growls low. Evie pulls her son behind her and holds up the gun, Ardeth quickly unsheathing his sword and baring the blade to the weapon's throat, every fiber in his being sickened by the action.
Before either of them can act, however, the weapon seizes up and a haze of red power rips around her flesh angrily. She screams a feral cry of pain as she drops fully to the floor of the bus and spasms against the invisible attacks wrecking her body.
Ardeth takes a step towards her but halts himself as the memories from years ago flood into his mind. No, he tells himself, Do not.
The red haze vanishes back into her flesh and the woman's body collapses, breathing laboriously. She sits up shakily. Ardeth and Evie tighten their holds on their weapons. Her head lifts. They hold their breaths.
Kat's eyes stare up at the blade tip and gun barrel aimed at her face and her flesh pales even worse than it already has, eyes widening hastily up at them, "Oh, God, what'd I do?!"
They both ease, glancing at each other, before Evie answers, "Nothing."
Kat sighs heavily in relief and her shoulders droop as if a large weight has been lifted from them. Alex instantly pushes out from between his mother and Ardeth and swings his arms around his aunt's neck.
"That was so cool! You took care of that mummy as if it was just a sack of-."
"Alex," Evie threatens her son.
"Dirt," the kid rolls his eyes, "I was going to say dirt."
Kat chuckles as she grabs Alex by the hand and climbs shakily into the seat, pulling him towards her. "Did I growl at you?" she asks, half in jest and half in worry.
"Totally!" he grins.
Kat laughs harder. The kid has never been easily scared and right now, she's glad he's so brave. If not fool heartedly so… So much like his dad, Kat thinks.
"Everyone okay?"
They all look up as Rick comes down from the top layer of the bus covered in dust and shards of broken glass in his hair. Kat scrunches up her eyes at her brother. What the heck had he done now?!
He takes his son's face in his hands, gives him a good look over, and brushes his knuckles over his blonde hair before going to lean against the front wall of the bus next to his wife. Rick jabs a finger at Ardeth who has collapsed into a bus seat diagonally from Kat, "You alright?"
Ardeth's smile is a little unnerved, "This was…my first bus ride."
Rick chuckles as he turns his gaze next to his wife. She motions him over with half lowered eyes and a tired flirtatious grin. He smiles back at her before pulling her into his arms.
"What would I do without you?" Evie whispers to him.
"Are all librarians this much trouble?" he shoots back as she nods and pulls him close for a kiss.
Kat and Alex groan and roll their eyes. "Ugh!"
"Geez, get a room," the boy grumbles as he hops up from the long seat at the back of the bus next to his aunt and turns towards the back window of the vehicle to check out the damages.
Wanting nothing more than to escape their PDA but too exhausted to do so, Kat falls back onto the seat and hoists her injured leg up with her as she lies down to catch her breath. She closes her eyes and starts to drift a little only to be met with an all too familiar lash of power that cuts into the back of her skull.
Sleep races away like a scared puppy from a spanking.
Kat's eyes open wide as the realization sets in—the curse is back.
She's a prisoner once again. Only this time…she may not survive long enough to win her freedom.
A shudder shoots up her body and she wraps her arms around herself to keep it from outwardly showing to the others, sighing heavily in defeat. Kat tears up out of her seat as a dreadful feeling grips her stomach like a vice.
"AGHM!" Twisting around despite the pain, her eyes zero in on Alex who has let out a scream just as he's pulled from the back of the bus by a pair of huge, strong arms.
"ALEX!" she and Rick scream.
Kat is the first to make it to the back, her panic stirring the curse within her and causing the weapon's power to shimmer threateningly behind her subconscious. She leaps down the stairs and lands on the asphalt, legs absorbing the impact as best as they can despite their injuries, as her eyes scan frantically ahead of her. Alex disappears into the back of a car as the familiar cult member she had faced down at Rick's house climbs in after them.
The door shuts in Kat's face right as she's mere inches from the car. The vehicle speeds away and her heart screams as she watches the door handle slip right out of her fingers. Her palms start glowing green and it soaks into her finger tips and nails but she doesn't notice it. Her mind doesn't register as the claws extend, tearing into the metal of the car and raking gashes all down the side as if it's made of paper. Her flesh rips, shreds, splits; warm blood floods into her palms and down her arms and spills onto the street.
But she doesn't feel it, even as she falls to her knees in the middle of the dark street. The world has stopped, gone cold, silent. All she can center on is the breath leaving her lungs and the car disappearing down the bridge into the night, carrying Alex away with them.
He had been right there. Right next to her. She had let him walk away.
It's my fault. Why didn't I pay attention…? Why wasn't I more alert…? I let this happen. It's my fault.
Her blood pools around her hands resting palm up between her knees where she's fallen; dark as night, it snakes off across the uneven asphalt and mixes with the water lingering there from the recent rains.
It's my fault.
Author's Note:
Just FYI:
Italicized words: personal thoughts or sounds or words said in Egyptian language.
Italicized/Bolded words: power infused words of otherworldly beings said in Egyptian language (AKA: Imhotep or Bastet)