A/N: Incase you're not sure, the Daut is the Egyptian word for the Land of the Dead, the underworld. Just a little something I've picked up from reading The Kane Chronicals (by Rick Riordan). Anyway, this is the last chapter. Hope you liked the story. All the best, -A

Chapter 13

My head killed. That's the first thing I was aware of. Actually, my entire body ached, but not as bad as the migrain. I heard whispered voices around me and kind of wanted to tell them to shut up, but I couldn't figure out how. Slowly, I peeled my eyes open. The white light hurt for a moment, but I adjusted. Then realized I wasn't at Anubis House.

"Were'm I?" I managed to choke out. Faces turned to me. First of all, I noticed my dad, his face a mask of worry. Then Patricia. Then... my mom? That didn't make sense...

"It's okay, honey," Mom told me. "You're fine." I was struggling to make sense of all this.

"Where am I?" I repeated, more comprehisivly. She smiled sadly.

"In a hospital... don't you remember what happened?" I shook my head.

"You got rather ill," Dad told me. Suddenly, I remembered coughing up blood. In the tunnels... The mask! They got it! "You've been unconsious for a little over three days." Now that one was hard to take in.

"You're lucky you have such good friends," Mom said, smiling at Patricia. "Had they not found you..." She pursed her lips. I didn't say anything. I really wanted to talk to Patricia. Appearently, they saw that because they both stood.

"Come along, Melissa," Dad said, "we should find a nurse to come and check on him."

"Right," Mom agreed. "And tell his friends the good news while we're at it." With that lame excuse, they left. We sat a moment in silence.

"What's up, Yacker?" I asked with my best attempt at a smile. "You're being awfully quiet." She sighed.

"Just thinking..." I realized what was bothering her.

"What happened down there?" I asked in a whisper. After looking over her shoulder, she leaned in.

"You didn't almost die," she told me. "You did die." I couldn't hide my shock.

"But... I'm kind of alive..." There were footsteps.

"I'll explain it to you later." I nodded, intending to hold her to that. A nurse walked in, smiling sweetly.

"How do you feel, dear?" she asked softly. I wasn't quite sure how to answer. "Painkillers?" I nodded. She injected the medicine into one of the bag thingies that you see in hospital shows and stuff. Almost instantly, I felt drowsy.

"Sleep," Patricia muttered soothingly. "I'll be right here when you wake up." With those words hanging in my mind, I closed my eyes and drifted off.

~OoO~

It's a funny feeling, knowing you died and came back. I was released from the hospitala few days later because the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me. Go figure. So, I was finally able to go back to Anubis House.

When I got back, I was surprised to learn that something eventful happened the day after I was taken to the hospital. Vera was arrested. It was a bit confusing to follow. Appearently, Jerome discovered that she'd helped some guy (I didn't know who) kidnap Trudy while looking for Frobisher-Smyth artifacts to steal. Trudy was returned and was back to being house mother. Everything worked out.

I was also told something different about Vera. She'd been after the mask too, helping Victor to try to get it. And she'd been blackmailing Jasper into helping her get the artifacts to give them to a person they called the Collector. Mara was completely right about Vera and was allowed to resume her spot as editor on the school website. Needless to say, Joy wasn't a very happy camper.

True to her word, Patricia told me everything that had happened in the tunnels. Some of it, I remembered like anything else, but others... it was like trying to look through gauze. Not impossible, but not easy. And knowing I'd died and the god Anubis himself allowed me to come back? Completely undiscribable.

My mom stayed for a while, contiually trying to convince me to come home. I kept telling her I wanted to stay. A week later, she had to go home. Before she left, she tried one more time.

"Are you sure you want to stay, honey?" I sighed.

"Positive. I like it here." She smiled sadly, patting my cheek.

"As much as you hate to admit it, you remind me a lot of your father." I rolled my eyes. "Try not to kill him." This made me laugh.

"That, I can do." She kissed me on the cheek like when I left, but this time I didn't protest. Let her have her motherly moment.

"Stay out of trouble," she told me as she headed for the door.

"No promises." With that, she was gone.

All in all, things worked out okay. We were safe, the mask was gone, Patricia and I haven't killed each other, and the world didn't explode. I realized just how true what I said to my mom was. I liked it there. I really, really liked it there.