Chapter Nine

Tally felt the earth shake and swore it split open, and after what felt like an eternity, the pain ceased, and she fell. It felt like she fell a lot farther than she should've, but she was incapable of screaming. Eventually, she stopped falling, so she turned around to see why, even though she could feel someone holding her. "What just happened?"

"Oh, nothing," Cecil replied. "That idiot just woke Anubis up, is all."

"That doesn't sound good." Tally peered up at the hole, where Brunden could no longer be seen, and silhouetted in the now light blue light was a jackal-headed man. "It doesn't look good, either."

Jedediah and Octavius clung to each other as the jackal-headed man rose out of the hole and turned on Brunden, who had fallen to the actual floor and was inching away. "Why are you here?" the jackal-headed man asked, his voice deep and a little more gravel-y than a normal human's.

"I...I dunno! I don't remember."

"Perhaps whatever has possessed him had abandoned him," Octavius whispered.

"Maybe," Jed replied.

The man appraoched Brunden and crouched so that he could properly growl, "You wake me from a nice rest, you disrupt the order of things, and you say you can't remember?" He raised a hand, and Brunden shrunk away, an arm shielding his face.

"Please, wait," Ahkmenrah said. "Our mortal consensus is that he's been possessed, though we can't say by whom or for what purpose."

"Possessed, you say?"

"Yes," Cecil and Kahmunrah said at the same time, causing them to look at each other. Cecil stood at the edge of the hole, supporting Tally.

"Possessed by one of our priests," Kahmunrah continued.

"So you do know."

"Not all of us, I assure you," Ahkmenrah added a little more hastily than he meant to.

"This guy wanted to take over the world," Cecil supplied. "Brunden was just a vessel."

"Is this true?" the jackal-guy asked Brunden, who shrugged, then nodded once. "No matter, I will know definitively when he is dead and I have weighed his heart."

"What're you gonna do to me?" Brunden whimpered.

"I haven't decided whether or not to kill you yet," the jackal-guy replied.

Tally pushed herself to her full height and staggered her weight some. "Look, if you wanna kill him, I won't stop you, but maybe you should wait awhile, and if you still wanna kill him, you can do it in his sleep. Sound good?"

"I like the way you think," Anubis said, turning his complete attention to Tally.

"Yeah, but I'm sure we're not thinking the same things."

"Oh?" He stood erect and stared down his nose at her.

"Look, I know you're a god and everything, but I'm not a huge 'worship' person, and I'm really sure you should watch your step right now."

"Oh, I'm watching my every move, along with everyone else's."

"Good."

Anubis looked around until he found Brunden, who'd found the front doors locked. "Shit," Brunden whispered. Anubis gestured with his hand, and he, the gaping hole, the light, and Brunden vanished. The museum was returned to light as if nothing had ever happened.

Tally turned to Cecil, who winked before he, too, vanished. "'Bout time," she whispered.

Tally met up with Ahkmenrah in the Egyptian room. "So this is how it ends," she said. "the vanishing of all the evidence."

"It seems Anubis is more forgiving than he lets on," Ahkmenrah replied.

"I just didn't expect it. I was expecting something more..."

"Epic?"

"Yeah."

"Well, looking back, it was fairly epic over all. I thought the museum would be destroyed within the space of twenty seconds."

"Yeah, that was kinda cool, and so was the light show, I'm sure."

"You were in pain for most of it, as I recall, but yes, the light show was a sight to behold."

"Yeah, the being-in-pain part I remember."

"So, what do you think's happened to your friend-slash-almost-cousin?"

"Dunno. Anubis took him, I think, so something having to do with him?"

"Perhaps, but I doubt they're coming back to tell us."

"Yeah, that's true, but it'd be cool to see what happened."

"Yes, it would. It would, indeed."