Chapter 8
Race Against Time
We followed Rick out of the bar, running into Dad along the way, who had been sitting on a bench outside.
"What's wrong?" He asked, following us.
"He's here." Uncle Mark replied, and Dad needed no further explanation. We ran through the street, towards the apartment.
"Evelyn!" Rick suddenly called. "Oh Evelyn!"
"Oh, so you're still here." Evelyn replied, smiling, but with a slight tone in her voice.
"Yeah, uh, we've got problems." Rick said. Suddenly we heard a whistling noise, like something moving very quickly through the air, and I turned, nearly screaming. There were huge balls of fire raining down from the sky. I'd read about this in the Bible, but my mind had never been able to really grasp what it would look like, now I had a vague idea of what it felt like to live back then, they must've been drowning in fear, I wasn't, yet, but I had a feeling that this wasn't the worst.
"Big problems." I stated, staring at the fire-balls.
We ran towards the stairs, just as Beni was coming down. Suddenly I wanted to hurt him, badly, which was different, as I'd never meant to hurt anyone badly in my whole life. But right now, I wanted him to die. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to actually kill him, but something in my head wanted to punish him, in some way, for doing this to Uncle Andrew. I knew he wasn't directly responsible, but it was a lot easier to make him cry than to make a 3000 year-old evil being scream in pain, or something.
I wanted to cry as we heard a roar from upstairs, and I realized where Beni had been. They'd found Uncle Andrew. We raced up the stairs, bursting through the door of the apartment.
"No." I said softly as we saw Uncle Andrew, sitting in his chair, dead. Worse than just dead. Not dead like you come home from school and find a rabbit that died of old age on the porch, but he looked like he'd been mummified in about 4 seconds. The skin that we could see was a dark green, and stretched across his bones, and what was left of his muscles. I felt myself sinking to the ground. I registered that the mummy was still there, he was impossible not to notice, but I just sat there on the ground. How could this be happening? This kind of thing didn't happen to people like me. My dad had had enough misery in his life already with mom being gone. But then, her dying wasn't supposed to happen to people like me either. And Uncle Andrew and I had had it worked out already. Roughly, yes, but we at least had a plan. This wasn't supposed to happen, it was supposed to be alright after this. I registered that someone was halfway on top of me, as there was a lot of pressure on my legs, and then the pressure was gone, but I didn't respond.
Suddenly I felt something furry brush over my face, a cat. Then my brain just clicked. The mummy was afraid of cats! I grabbed the cat, although I kinda dived for it, and I stumbled as I picked it up, and it jumped out of my arms onto the piano, meowing in protest.
I looked at the mummy. I couldn't believe it. He screamed. He actually screamed! Terrified, he turned into a dust tornado, whirling out the door. For some reason I felt like laughing, he actually screamed, just because of the cat! It had been a low scream, but still, it counted as a scream. I reached down and petted the cat in apology for grabbing her like that, and she meowed and rubbed against my legs in forgiveness.
"Sarah." Dad and Henderson were standing next to Uncle Andrew's chair. "Sarah, honey, go play with the cat for a minute. Henderson and I have to do something first." Then he turned to Rick and said. "We'll be ready to leave in a few minutes."
I picked up the little white cat and walked into the other room, Evelyn walking behind me. I didn't know what they were doing, but later I found out that they were calling someone to have Uncle Andrew's body sailed back to Texas.
"What are we going to do now?" I asked Evelyn as I petted the cat.
"Were going to go see a, colleague, or boss, I suppose you could call him, of mine." Evelyn answered. "I think he should be able to give us some answers on our mummy."
"Okay." I smiled a little bit. Evelyn hugged me.
"It'll all turn out okay in the end." She reassured me.
A few minutes later we started to walk to the museum. It wasn't a very long walk, and Evelyn talked to all of us, although mostly to Rick, along the way. I walked between Dad and Uncle Mark, holding their hands, something I hadn't done since I was four, when Dad, Uncle Mark, and Uncle Andrew had taken me to Dallas for the first time, and insisted on holding my hands so I wouldn't get separated from them. We got inside of the museum, and they didn't drop my hands, and I didn't try to let go. Mom had told me that sometimes, when you're depressed and sad, it helps just to hold someone's hand. I figured that that's just what they were needing. Evelyn led us through the museum, turning down seemingly random hallways until I was positive that I wouldn't be able to find my way out again without her.
"Well, he does seem to like Evy." Jonathan said.
"Yeah, what's that about?" Rick asked.
"And what's this guy want, anyway?" Uncle Mark spoke up.
"There's only one person I know who could possibly give us any answers." Evelyn replied. As she rounded the corner with us, she exclaimed "YOU?"
The person that this was directed at was Ardeth. There was an older, slightly shorter man, wearing a red hat similar to that weird one that the Doctor always wore, but she seemed to know him.
"Miss Carnahan." He said by way of greeting. "Gentlemen." I noticed that Rick, Jonathan, Uncle Mark, and Dad had pulled out their guns, again, I sighed, typical men.
"And hello, young lady." He addressed me. I smiled just a little bit, to show that I'd heard him, and gave a small smile to Ardeth, and he looked at me, not saying anything.
"What is he doing here?" Evelyn asked.
"Do you really want to know, or would you prefer to just, shoot us?" He asked. The men gave in, and put away their guns. The older man motioned for us to sit down.
"Evelyn, whose the older one?" I whispered quickly.
"That's the Curator. Dr. Bey." She whispered back. I nodded, and sat down on the floor, next to Uncle Mark, who was sitting in a chair.
"Now." Dr. Bey began. "We are part of an ancient, secret, society. For three thousand years we have guarded the City of the Dead." He paused for breath. "We were sworn at manhood to do any and all we could to stop the high priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world."
"And now because of you, we have failed." Ardeth said, a slightly acidic undertone in his voice, directed at Evelyn.
"And you think all this justifies the killing of innocent people?" Evelyn shot back.
"To stop this creature, let me think" Dr. Bey said, then he and Ardeth said at the same time "YES!"
Evelyn shook her head and walked towards a chair, but she didn't sit down.
"Question." Rick spoke up from the chair he was sitting in. "Why doesn't he like cats?"
For once I didn't feel useless. "Because cats are the guardians of the underworld!" I spoke up, Uncle Mark looked at me.
"Yes." Dr. Bey actually gave me a small smile, and I thought I could see the ghost of one on Ardeth's face too. Then they were serious again. "He will fear them until he is fully regenerated."
"And then he will fear nothing." Ardeth snapped.
"Yeah." Dad said, sounding slightly hysterical. "And you wanna know how he gets himself fully regenerated?"
"By killin' everyone who opened that chest." Uncle Mark said, somewhat quietly
"And suckin' 'em dry! That's how!" Dad yelled.
Evelyn wisely decided to switch the subject from Imhotep regenerating. "When I saw him alive at Hamunaptra, he called me 'Anck-su-namun'." She said.
I saw Ardeth and Dr. Bey turn to each other. And something in my mind clicked as she said the name. It was familiar, but I couldn't place it. Maybe it was something mom had told me.
"And now, when Mr. Burns was killed, he, he tried to kiss me." Evelyn said.
"It was for his love of Anck-su-namun that he was cursed." Dr. Bey said, looking at Ardeth. "Apparently sill, after 3000 years"
"He is still in love with her." Ardeth finished.
"Well that's all very romantic, but what's it got to do with me?" Evelyn asked.
Ardeth and Dr. Bey gave no inclination that they had heard her. Ardeth was still turned to Dr. Bey. "Perhaps he will once again try and raise her from the dead."
"And it appears he has already chosen his human sacrifice." Dr. Bey and Ardeth both turned to look at Evelyn, who gulped.
Jonathan winced. "Bad luck old mum."
"On the contrary." Dr. Bey said, standing. "It may just give us the time we need to kill the Creature."
Ardeth looked up at the skylight. It was getting darker, a solar eclipse. "And we will need all the help we can get, his powers are growing."
Apparently Jonathan and I remembered the same Bible verse at the same time, because we said, simultaneously, "And he stretched his hand toward the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt."
