Disclaimer: Of the characters I can claim only very few of them as my own - namely Rebecca. I do not make any claim on the characters featuring in "The Mummy".
Chapter 3 - Life in the Past
In the past:
The tall, broad-shouldered man strode through the doorway of his house, drew a deep breath and summoned his brother with a single shout. "ANDREW".
The roar echoed throughout the house, disturbing servants and owners alike, as they had not expected the return of the ultimate owner of the house for several hours yet. The roar reached the top floor of the house, where Andrew lazed on the bed, reading a book. At the sound he jumped off the bed, and dropping the book on a cabinet as he went, he swiftly jogged downstairs to answer his brother's call.
The noise also reached a young girl, lying on a couch in a ground-floor room, and also reading a book. She frowned, tilting her head slightly, and as there was no more information forthcoming than the repeated bellow of "ANDREW", she slipped off the couch and crept silently to the door.
"Richard" Andrew met his brother cheerfully as he reached the bottom of the stairs. His brother smiled back in what was, for this aristocratic and somewhat grim man, an uncharacteristic and unheard of gesture.
"We," Richard said, clapping his arm on his brother's shoulder, "are going to Hamunaptra. I have found the way."
That night, the young girl crept silently through the house. Shadows twisted the familiar surroundings, making her journey a somewhat nervous one. The cool of the night air penetrated even through the thick housecoat she had thrown on. Successfully negotiating her way through the maze of artefacts and objects which adorned the hallways and, at night, turned it into something of an obstacle course, Rebecca reached the door of her father's study, and stopped, looking carefully around. Reassuring herself that she was alone and undisturbed, she opened the study door, and slipped noiselessly through it. It wasn't locked - either because her father had enough arrogance to assume that no one would dare to steal from his house, his study, or simply because he hid anything valuable or interesting in the study safe before leaving. Either way, it meant her task was a lot easier.
Moving through the study - which was painfully neat - she headed towards a painting on the wall, carefully took hold of one edge and tugged. The picture swung outwards, to reveal behind it the study safe. Rebecca reached out and took hold of the dial on the safe, twisting it to several numbers in turn, and finally pulling on the handle. The safe slipped silently open, and Rebecca stared inside.
There were several things in the safe, indistinguishable in the pale moonlight, but the one she was interested in - the one she had seen in her father's hand - was lying just on top. She grasped it, pulled it out, and walking to the desk, sat down and placed the object on the table. It looked black, although that might just have been the effect of the darkness of the night. It seemed to be made of metal, with Egyptian markings and hieroglyphics on the sides and top. This would lead the way to Hamunaptra?
She turned it round and round, reading the markings upon it, but they seemed to give no clue. Finally, as her fingers ran curiously over the object, the top of it snapped open, fanning outwards. Inside, neatly folded, was a piece of parchment. Very carefully, holding her breath as her fingers felt the fragility of it, Rebecca eased it from inside the object and, unfolding it, smoothed it out onto the table.
There, only dimly perceivable in the light of the moon, lay a map - a beautifully drawn, well detailed map, with the location of Hamuaptra clearly marked. Rebecca stared at it for a long moment, then, as the floor creaked above her head, she pulled in her breath, holding it as she waited for a further sound, one signalling that someone besides herself was awake. However, no more sounds followed, and letting her breath out in a rush, Rebecca began to copy the map onto a piece of paper. Finishing it some time later, she returned the original map to the metal object, the object to the safe, shut the safe and crept upstairs.
Once safely in her room she began to study the map. She didn't feel guilty for what she had done. After all, her father - cold, loveless man that he was - would never have let her see the map, and while she had managed to convince herself that her father's love wasn't necessary, her substitute in life for parental care was the acquisition of knowledge. She leant over the map, squinting in the dim lamplight, carefully plaited hair falling over one shoulder, and through the night she studied, while around her the house slept in peaceful silence.