A/N: Yes, I know it's been forever, and y'all are probably planning on throwing something heavy at me the next time I take this long. I'm sorry, I just had a little bit of writer's block, but I'm alright now, so...without further ado, chapter 9

Chapter 9

Desperation

I breathed a sigh of relief as we came to the apartments. I knew that we weren't safe by any means, but it felt a lot safer to be in here than on the streets, especially for Dad and Uncle Mark.

"What are we gonna do?" Dad asked Rick and Evelyn as we climbed the stairs to the apartment.

"Well" Evelyn replied "we need to come up with a plan."

"And fast." I said, clinging on to Dad's and Uncle Mark's hands. Dad looked down at me, and leaned down and picked me up, and I clung onto his neck like I used to do with Mom when we'd go exploring somewhere. I turned my head toward Uncle Mark, and he looked at Dad, concerned.

"Well, we need to start somewhere." Jonathan spoke up as we got inside the room, and everyone sat down. "Aside from keeping as many people as possible from dieing, what's our main goal here?"

"Well" Evelyn started "first we must stop him from regenerating, so, who opened that chest?"

"Well, there was me and Daniels here." Uncle Mark said. "Oh, and Burns, of course."

"And that Egyptologist feller." Dad's voice sounded loud in my ears, probably because I was leaning against his chest, and my other ear was near his mouth.

"What about my buddy Beni?" Rick asked.

"Naw, he scramed out of there before we opened the dang thing." Dad said.

"Yeah, he was the smart one." Uncle Mark chuckled.

"Yeah, sounds like Beni." Rick rolled his eyes.

"Well, we must find the Egyptologist and bring him back to safety before the Creature can get to him." Evelyn said. I was glad she thought of him, and I felt bad, because I hadn't paid him any never mind since we got to Hamunaptra. I knew that he was annoying, but I still didn't want him to die. I knew, from hearing him talk on the barge, that he had a wife at home. We couldn't just let him fend for himself, it wasn't right.

Dad stood up suddenly, I figured his legs must've fallen asleep, even though I wasn't real heavy. Sure enough, he walked around a little bit.

"If I'm too heavy you can put me down." I mumbled.

"Thanks sweetheart." He said, gently setting me down.

"They stay here." Rick pointed at me and Evelyn. "You three come with me."

Dad and Uncle Mark started to protest, and I didn't blame them, but they were drowned out by Evelyn's protests. I would have spoken up too, but I didn't want to go, I was a little concerned for Dad and Uncle Mark.

I almost laughed when Rick rolled his eyes, and picked up Evelyn, swinging her over his shoulder, and carrying her into her bedroom, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. I knew that Rick was just really concerned, and was just getting his point across.

I almost did open my mouth, though, when he grabbed Dad by his shirt. "This door doesn't open, she doesn't come out, and no one goes in. Got it?" He growled.

"Yeah." Dad replied quickly.

Rick turned his head to Uncle Mark, who nodded. "Yeah."

He turned to me. "Promise, Sarah?"

"Yeah." I nodded. Rick turned, and handed the key to Dad, and walked to the door.

"Let's go, Jonathan." He said without looking back. When Jonathan gave a feeble start of protest he yelled "Now!"

"Uh, right, we're just gonna go and rescue the Egyptologist." Jonathan squeaked as he followed Rick out the door, closing it behind him.

"Right, we're honestly gonna go somewhere." Uncle Mark rolled his eyes. Dad straightened his shirt, and sat down, Uncle Mark sitting too. I walked in the other room, where our luggage was, and rummaged through my tiny suitcase, grateful I hadn't taken my pencil and paper on the boat. I finally found them, and, after grabbing a hardback book off a shelf, walked back in the den, sitting on the floor next to dad's chair.

"Which one's that?" Dad asked, leaning over the arm of his chair, looking down at my drawing of one of our horses.

"Cecil." I replied, finishing the shading. Cecil had been mom's horse, and now I rode him most of the time. He was a beautiful draft/quarter horse cross, milky brown, with a large star on his forehead, the top of which was nearly hidden by his long black mane. He was huge, but gentle, and I loved him.

"And the one at the top is Cody?" Uncle Mark asked, leaning over his armrest to see.

"Yup." I replied as I finished Cecil's legs. "How'd you guess?"

"The masses of mud on his legs gave it away." Uncle Mark grinned. Cody was his horse, and usually went splashing in the creek when it was hot, which was everyday, and when we wanted to take him somewhere, it took nearly an hour to clean him up. Normally Cody was a beautiful chestnut, with a narrow stripe down his nose. He and Uncle Mark went together perfectly, and Cody would, usually, behave for him, but almost no one else.

"I drew him before we fed them dinner the night before we left." I replied. Cody's legs had been caked with mud then.

"You could've drawn him in the middle of the day for all anyone else knows." Dad smiled. "Of course, if you drew him in the middle of the day, you would've had to draw him clean, and Henderson covered in mud!" He laughed.

Uncle Mark laughed too, and grabbed a pillow from the chair, flinging it at him. It was heavier than expected, and dropped mid-flight, hitting me.

"Hey!" I laughed, abandoning my drawings and pencil, flinging it back at him, hitting him in the face, but nearly toppled over as I got hit in the back of the head at the same time.

"Got ya." Dad laughed, and I grabbed the pillow and flung it at him. Pretty soon a pillow war was going full-fledged. I was a little worried that we'd wake up Evelyn, who'd surely gone to sleep by now, but I figured that we'd know it if we did.

But we all stopped, mid-throw, when we heard a blood-curling scream from the window.

"Dr. Chamberlain." I breathed, and we ran to the window. But there was no one there, the scream must've carried from a block or so over.

Knowing there was absolutely nothing we could do, and it would be pointless to try, we walked back to our chairs and sat down, saying nothing.