Some Things Just Can't Be Changed

Selene and I went to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, on a dig. She is the most beautiful person I have ever seen.

Or at least she was.

We had been digging around the edges of the city, trying to find more about the legend.

"Rick! Rick, I found something!" I hurried over to her. We had been searching for days, with no success. We had found some small buildings near the gates, and Selene had thought it would be a good idea to explore them.

"What did you find?" The sunlight glinted of her engagement ring. I had given it to her before we left Cairo.

"I found some inscriptions. It tells about 'He That Shall Not be Named'." She began to read the hieroglyphs

" 'There is one, the un-dead, who, if brought back to life, shall kill all who open the chest.' What chest? Oh-the chest with the books, maybe-'He shall consummate their organs and fluids, and no longer be the un-dead, but a plague upon this earth.' Goodness, this sounds like a curse."

She looked a little frightened. I kissed her, wondering if there really was an un-dead-thing.

After discovering this, we went back to our tents. It was getting late, and we wanted to wrap it up and continue the next day.

In the middle of the night, Selene and I were still up and talking. All of a sudden, I heard horses' hooves. And then all hell broke loose.

Warriors flooded our camp, swarming like ants. Ants with guns. Before I realized it, they were burning our tents and papers. Selene shrieked and ran to save some of the ancient papyrus-but she was stopped by a warrior on a particularly fine horse.

He brutally cut her down and she fell, bleeding from the huge gash in her chest. I screamed her name, but no sound came out of my mouth.

Another of the warriors shot her. The one who had cut her shouted something in Arabic, then they all left.

"Oh my God, Selene, Selene-" I cradled her in my arms. She was dying; the blood was flowing too fast to be stopped.

"Rick-don't-let-them-don't-Rick-" She shuddered, shaking madly. "I-love- you." her head rolled back on her neck and she was dead.

I went back to Cairo the next day, numb. I had buried Selene by the building with the inscription. Close to it, I found a small black box with a map that led to Hamunaptra. I spit on the ground but took the box with me.

I only remember getting drunk at the kasbah. Then I must have passed out. When I awoke, I knew the box was gone.

Before I had passed out, I had been talking to one Jonathan Carnahan, a forty-ish Britisher who had one hell of a capacity for drink. I didn't even wonder if he had anything to do with the box's disappearance.

I was furious at the box being gone and roared like a lion. I attacked the person nearest to me, finally letting out my anger and fury at Selene's death.

The next thing I knew, I was arrested.

A week or so later, I was pushed out into the visiting pen to see the most beautiful woman I had seen in days. She was even more beautiful than my darling Sellie.

And all I could say was, "Hey, who's the broad?"

She looked highly offended. "Broad?" Her brother-I could only assume that was who the man was; they didn't look much alike but I had a feeling he wasn't her lover or husband-introduced her as his sister, Evy.

The man looked awfully familiar.suddenly I realized who he was and punched him square in the jaw.

His sister stepped over his prone body, coming right up to me, eyes shining with the information I had just given her.

"You were actually at Hamunaptra," she said.

I grinned at her; my first smile in days. "Yeah, I was there."

"You swear," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Every damn day," I said flippantly. She blushed slightly.

"That's not what I meant-"

"I know what you meant. I was there. Seti's place, City of the Dead." I waved my hands around to indicate ghosts.

Her face lit up. "Could you-could you show me how to get there?" I raised my eyebrows. Was this woman mad? "I mean, the exact location."

"You wanna know?" She nodded. "C'mere." She came closer and I kissed her full on the lips. "Then get me the hell out of here!"

And that's how I ended up going with Evelyn Carnahan, her brother, and the prison warden to the City of the Dead.again.

I guess some things just can't be changed.