Chapter Ten: Almost Paradise
Nerissa had never felt so happy to have a drink in her hand as she did at this moment. The ferry ride had seemed like a never-ending one, at least this time it wasn't portentously life threatening. She couldn't help but yawn as she placed her drink on the bar the past few days had been rather stressful. Henderson had told her that Burns was finally starting to calm down bit but was still getting used to having no tongue or eyes, not that she blamed the man. She just wished that the ship taking them back to America would hurry the hell up. She was so done with Egypt and that damn city of the dead.
"Hey, how about that drink I owe you?" Nerissa looked up at Henderson and gave him a tired smile. She waved her hand to the seat beside her; he called the bartender over and looked at her drink.
"Two more Bourbons please." He said with a tired smile of his own. She looked over at him as she rested her head on her hand that she had propped up on the bar.
"Don't forget you owe me dinner too. So how's Daniels doing? Considering he is on some dead…umm…some not so dead anymore mummy's hit list. And his friend is now without a tongue and his eyes." She asked Henderson, he turned to look at her as he took a sip of his drink, waving the bartender to bring the bottle after a moment.
"Honestly? Not so good, but can you blame him?" He said as he poured himself another drink from the bottle the bartender left for the two. "To a quick trip back to the states yeah?" He said with a lopsided grin, that didn't quite reach his eyes. As he took a sip his eye grew wide and he spit it out, Nerissa jumped a bit and looked around confused as everyone else began to spit out their drinks.
"What the hell?" She asked raising her glass before Henderson knocked her drink out of her hand.
"Sweet Jesus! Believe me you don't want to drink that. It tasted just like—" Before he finished his sentence Rick finished it for him dropping his glass to the floor where it shattered.
"Blood." Nerissa looked over at her friend with furrowed eyebrows whispering the word what.
"And the rivers and water of Egypt ran red…and were as blood." Jonathan said as he watched Rick who was staring at the water fountain which had turned to blood as well. Nerissa gagged at the sight and scrunched her nose in disgust.
"What the hell is going on?!" She cried out as she stood, she never did like the sight of blood this was not helping. She walked towards Rick and reached out for him hesitantly.
"He's here." Was all he said which made her look at Henderson who was just looking at Daniels gauging his reaction, the other man was staring blankly at the fountain, watching the blood bubble out of it. Before she could grab Rick he ran out of the bar leaving her confused, she turned and looked at Henderson again and then Jonathan.
"Should we go after him? I feel like we should seriously go after him before he does something stupid." The three of them and Daniels ran out after Rick, Nerissa let out a surprised shriek as Beni came running past her shoving her into a wall to get away, she normally would have chased after him but she heard an animal like growl up the stairs to her left followed by gun shots. She ran up the stairs and let out a scream as she saw the mummy from earlier walking towards Rick before throwing him into her, Henderson, Jonathan and Daniels who came up behind her. She let out a groan as Rick's elbow met the side of her head. She heard a groan under her as she landed someone, turning she saw it was Henderson so she gave him a sympathetic look before shoving Rick off of her.
"EVY!" She screamed as the mummy approached the other woman. The mummy looked at her and saw behind her was Henderson and narrowed its eyes.
"Amun…" It snarled glaring at the man who was still holding Nerissa, the mummy only turned back to Evy when she let out a whimper of fear as she bumped into the bookcase behind her, speaking in ancient Egyptian to her.
"You saved me from the undead. I thank you." The mummy then leaned forward as if to kiss Evy which made her gag and silently thank whatever god was listening, that it wasn't her about to be kissed by a reanimated corpse. She turned quickly when she heard Evy's cat Cleo meow and step on the piano playing discordant notes. The mummy jerked its head towards the noise and let out a near ear-piercing screech as it turned into a mini sand storm with a face and flew out the window.
"We are in very serious trouble." Rick said as he sat up and looked at Evy, who was in shock from her encounter.
"Is this a bad time to say that his escape was the bee's knees?" She looked around at everyone and was about to shrug when she saw what looked like another mummy but this one looked slightly familiar and was in modern clothes. She gasped when she saw that it was in fact Burns. "Is t-that really? Shit, Daniels I'm sorry…" She whispered as she looked at the man who was close to tears for the loss of his friend. Henderson just looked like he was in shock.
Nerissa held Jonathan's hand as he dragged her behind him following Rick and Evy, Henderson and Daniels were right behind her. And close at her heels was Indy who she let out of the room before they headed towards the museum. There was a fat chance in hell she'd leave her dog behind with a pissed off mummy running around.
"He does seem to like Evy." Jonathan said somewhat off handily as he looked at Nerissa she simply shrugged at her oldest friend. She couldn't help but wonder what it meant that the mummy had called her Layla before and then called Henderson, Amun. Surely there had to be reasoning in him calling the two of them by those names.
"Yeah what is that about?" Rick asked making Nerissa snap out of her inner thoughts. Daniels who was walking behind her spoke up next, making her look around at everyone trying to make it seem like she hadn't zoned out.
"What's this guy want?" He asked, making his thick southern accent more clear since he was still nervous from the encounter with the mummy. Not that Nerissa would blame anyone as crazy as it was that there was a reanimated mummy running around it was still terrifying.
"There is only one person I know who can give us answers." Evy said as she walked into the room of her to find her boss Dr. Bey. She suddenly gasped at the sight of the man from the desert. "YOU!" She called out making everyone with guns pull them out, Nerissa however just started at the man in confusion. For once she wanted answers first then decide if she wanted to shoot him after.
"Look, don't shoot them. I want some damn answers, and I want them now. Now where the hell can a girl sit around here? After what I've just seen I need both a drink, preferably one that isn't blood and a damn seat." She said shoving in front of everyone and placing her hands on her hips looking at the man from the desert. "First question, who the hell are you exactly?" The man looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.
"My name is Ardeth Bay." He said in what she could only guess was a voice with an Arabic accent.
"Any rela—you know what I don't care I'm gonna take a seat there and have a breather." She sat down on what looked like a golden throne and sat sideways propping her legs over the arm of the throne. The curator was about to tell her to not sit that way but she gave him a sharp look and crossed her arms, he simply sighed. The two men then began to tell them about how they were part of a secret society that had sworn to keep the mummy from awakening making Nerissa snicker.
"Didn't do a very good job did you?" She muttered under her breath making the men glare at her, she simply waved her had as if to tell them to continue.
"Question, why is he afraid of cats?" Rick asked as he held his hand up, Nerissa looked over at him and smirked.
"Uhh...because he is a wimp?" She said with a laugh, making Jonathan snicker a little himself. Dr. Bey looked at the two and rolled his eyes before speaking up in explanation.
"Cats are guardians of the underworld. He will fear them until he is fully regenerated and then he will fear nothing." Nerissa blew out a large breath of air as she stretched and arched her back on the arm rest she was resting on until she cracked her sore back.
"And do you know how he gets himself fully regenerated? By sucking everyone who opened that damn chest dry!" Daniels cried out he was standing next to Henderson. Nerissa couldn't help but think how Burns had looked like beef jerky afterwards, she knew it was horrible to say but it was true. Evy hesitantly mentioned how the mummy had called her Anck-Su-Namun and tried to kiss her making Nerissa wonder if she should mention what he called her and Henderson.
"Okay so we know who she is. But who is Layla and Amun? He seemed pretty convinced I was Layla and he called Henderson Amun, and plus I'm pretty sure he wants me dead." She said as she slid forward and sat normal in the throne resting her elbows on her knees. Ardeth turned towards her with wide eyes and looked at Dr. Bey with a slightly opened mouth.
"Layla was the High Priestess of Isis, and Amun was her personal Medjai guard and lover. When Imhotep killed her lover Amun, she swore to prevent him from raising Anck-Su-Namun. Imhotep tried to convince her to let him bring her back, by offering to bring her lover back. But she refused and ordered that he be condemned to the Hom Dai. She herself saw to it that he be cursed, as revenge for killing her lover and being the cause for the death of the Pharaoh and inadvertently being the cause of Princess Nefertiri's death." Nerissa sat a moment in shock before muttering to herself, oh shit. Henderson just looked at her in shock for a moment slowly trying to register what was going on; he however did remember her saying those names back in Hamunaptra when she read the ancient story. Before he could say anything the room grew dark and everyone stood up and looked up at the sky, the moon was creating an eclipse.
"And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens…and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt." Jonathan said once again, Nerissa couldn't help but hate his knowledge of the plagues, it made things much more eerie to hear them said aloud as they occurred one by one, signaling Imhotep's regaining of his powers.
"We are soo fucked now aren't we?" Nerissa said with a groan as she plumped down onto the step behind her. Indy let out a whimper, the first sound he made since she let him out of the room before coming to the museum.
I hope this makes up for the shitty chapter before this one! I had to re-watch these scenes repeatedly to get quotes. Some are exact others are slightly altered. I obviously want to point out I DO NOT OWN THE MUMMY, I only own the slightly altered plot line of this story, Nerissa and Indy. So please don't try to sue me...I have literally only $2.75 to my name.
And also remember REVIEW! I NEED REVIEWS! And thank you to those that have not only reviewed, but favortied this story, watched it and Favorited ME. I love you guys so much you are making my crappy college life so much better!
Now I have to go work on updating my Avengers story to show I love those readers too! Thank you so much again!