Okay, so being the evil writer that I am, I actually was going to kill Evy temporarily, but then I thought I should do some research and found out that they didn't invent CPR until the 1950s. Interesting, huh? Also, it's occurred to me that perhaps I should clear something up. Evy was able to access Imhotep in her subconscious because of her past life, and, remember, she'd already been having those dreams. Just suddenly felt the need to explain that.
Anyway, on with the story...;)
Chapter 13
Screaming
She could feel the cold hardwood floor beneath her, hands on her arms, slapping her face, shaking her. An indigo fog crept slowly around her eyes, obscuring her vision. She blinked furiously, willing her eyes to focus...
-----
"EVY!!!" Jonathan screamed. "WAKE UP!!!"
With a great gasp, Evelyn's eyes flew open. She was immediately wracked by a coughing fit, sucking air in greedily as her brother hugged her gratefully.
-----
Imhotep looked around the room in puzzlement. Where had she gone? One moment he was strangling the princess, the next moment, she'd vanished. Oh, well...she was still going to die. They were all going to die. He closed his eyes and concentrated on controlling Dr. Miller's increasingly resistant body...
-----
Dr. Miller's body was obviously giving out. Despite the help of Imhotep's supernatural strength, he was clearly weakening with the beating he was taking. He seemed to be having trouble controlling his limbs.
"You will not win!" Dr. Miller screeched. He was becoming more distraught as the seconds passed. "I will kill you all!"
After this frightening proclamation, it was a bit of a letdown when Dr. Miller suddenly turned, stumbled over the dead body, and hightailed it down the hallway.
"Evelyn!" After Dr. Miller's anticlimactic exit Rick went immediately to his fiancé and helped her still shaking form to her feet. "Are you all right?"
"He was there... while I was unconscious," she mumbled, still recovering from the experience. "So was Dr. Miller...he was a wreck. He's not resisting Imhotep at all."
"His mind is not strong enough to defeat the Creature," said Ardeth. "We must retrieve the ring and destroy it, or there's no telling what he might do."
Evelyn caught sight of the body in the doorway and nearly fainted again. She clutched Rick's arm for support. "Who--" she stuttered, "who is that?"
Jonathan bravely crept toward the body. "It's the warden!" he cried. "The new warden! And look!" He rolled the body over cautiously and pried a rucksack from the man's dead fingers. "It's the treasure I traded him! Come to steal the rest from me, I reckon. Serves him right!"
The rest were too tired to scold Jonathan for this callous observation. "We must follow the Creature," Ardeth declared. "Where would he go?"
"He doesn't know the city," Evelyn offered. "He'll probably have to rely on Dr. Miller's mind to know where he's going."
It hit all of them at once. "The museum!" they shouted, and raced out the door.
Evelyn was silent on the car ride over. "Hey," Rick nudged her. "You okay?"
"No!" she cried, then fell silent again.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No! An immortal flesh-eater just tried to strangle me in my sleep, I am most certainly not okay!"
"Sorry!" Rick cried defensively. After a few more moments of hostile silence, Evelyn couldn't stand it anymore. "Rick, I'm sorry," she whispered, keeping her voice down so Ardeth and Jonathan in the front seat couldn't hear her. "I didn't mean to snap at you."
"I'm sorry, too, Evy. I've come so close to losing you so many times in the past week I've lost count. If anything happened to you--"
"We're going to be okay, Rick. Everything's going to be fine."
"What do you say, after this is all over, we skip the whole mummy thing for a while and settle down into a nice, boring life together?" Rick asked with a smile.
"Somehow I doubt life with you will ever be boring."
Seconds later...
"Hey!" Jonathan protested from the driver's seat. "Stop that, you two! I can hear the smacking!"
Evelyn suppressed a giggle, despite the dire situation. Rick silently mouthed, "I love you," and they clutched each other's hands for reassurance as the car raced toward the museum.
A little bald head peeked warily over the upturned chair. A pair of watchful eyes, surrounded by unruly tufts of white hair, saw four frantic pairs of hands pounding on the double doors that denied them admittance to the museum. Just as Bob was about to venture from his hiding place and see what the hands wanted, the earsplitting blast of a gunshot pierced the air. The doors flew open and the four pairs of hands were revealed to be Evelyn, her brother, another man Bob didn't recognize, and that scary man all in black who'd always visited Dr. Bey. "You-you shot the door!" Bob cried in shock. "You're not supposed to do that!"
"Bob!" Evelyn cried. "Where is Dr. Miller?"
"I, I, I don't know," the old man replied shakily. "He came through here a while ago, r-rambling about k-killing someone, and tore everything apart, and then he disappeared. He's gone crazy!"
"Told you so," Rick muttered. Then, louder, "Which direction did he go?"
"Ah, yah, I th-think he might be in his office."
As the group moved toward the stairs, Rick pulled Evy aside. "Take this," he said, pressing a shotgun into her hands. "And stay behind me."
"I'm not a child, Rick, I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, well, I shouldn't even be giving this to you considering your track record with firearms."
Evelyn gave him an irritated "ooh," and tried to move past him, but Rick had latched onto her arm. "Just be careful, okay?" he told her.
"Aren't I always?"
Rick rolled his eyes and pulled her back to the group, who had by now reached the top of the stairs. They came to the door of Dr. Miller's office, Ardeth and Rick on either side, Evy, Jonathan, and a terrified Bob significantly further down the hall. Rick nodded and Ardeth flung the door open, and they both leapt into the room, guns drawn...
Dr. Miller, however, was nowhere to be found. "He's not here," Rick announced to the others. They all stepped in the room cautiously and looked in every corner for the curator, just to be sure. "We'll have to search the entire museum."
"We'll need the keys," said Evelyn. "They'll be in the cabinet, I'll get them."
"Evy, it's not safe-"
"It's ten feet away, Rick, I'll be fine!"
Evy scurried down the hallway before Rick could stop her and opened the door to the closet. She'd just plucked the set of keys from the wall when she suddenly felt an icy hand grip her shoulder...
---
Famous last words, eh? Anyway, the next chapter will be the last in this particular plot line. Don't worry, there will be something new posted shortly as well:) I'm writing as fast as I can!!!:)