Title: Imhotep's Obsession (Chapter 19) Author: Darlene Evelyn Rated: PG-13 to R Feedback: Please let me know what you think but please don't be rude. Copyright: All Characters except for my own are sole property of Universal Pictures. No profit is being made with this story.

Chapter 19... Imhotep's Obsession *~~Hamunaptra~~* Ta-Meri slowly walked down the passgeways of the underground, torch in hand. Some were narrow and low ceilinged and even as new as they were, they were infested with spiderwebs. Crouching as she climbed ger way through, Ta- Meri headed towards the statue of Isis, until suddenly a chittering sound rumbled throughout the walls causing her to suddenly freeze in midstep.

"By the gods that sounded like...scarabs!" she thought frantically.

Running into a cavern to side of her, she struggled and finally managed to get the thick bronze door to close. Emerging cautiously, she looked around and realized she had made it to the exact place of her goals.

"Isis, watch over me, watch over us all here in Hamunaptra, most importantly watch over Angela and Jonathan. Their love must flourish and Lord Imhotep must resign himself to fate's decision....please goddess of rebirth, cross her name from your scrolls....I beg you please" she spoke softly to herself.

The chamber where she stood was silent in response to her prayer, but it seemed still to be pretty comfortable but then again this was in the City of the Dead and comfortable was hardly a good thing. It always meant that something bad was going to occur with a sudden, abrupt entrance.

"Isis, keep Lord Imhotep away from Angela, he will only cause her harm and pain....give her the strength to face him if they should ever encounter each other once more".

Isis could have heard her entreaty...if Imhotep had not bound the City of the Dead. He had bound it so that no magic could be commanded throughout the ruins unless it was his own. The high priest knew full well what the mortals could do to him and he wanted to beat them to the catch or beat them to the spells if that's what you could call it.

Since his arrival to Hamunaptra he had not quite been in the best of moods, judging by the indisputable facts that A) his good for nothing assistant had not yet brought the elixir of remembrance. B) he didn't have a sacrifice for the incantation of rebirth and C) his future mistress had escaped somehow into the depths of the city, oh yes, it just couldn't get any worse than this.

"Where is that pathetic ingrate?!" Imhotep shouted to himself.

"Who, Lord Imhotep?" Jantra asked curiously.

Imhotep glared back at the slave girl who though quite stunningly beautiful with long raven, black hair, a voluptuous body and full pouting lips just did not seem to register to his primal love instincts as much as Isiria had.

"Where is Ta-Meri?" he suddenly asked Jantra, trying to shove his frustration to the back of his mind. "And who else would I be speaking about?! that good for nothing ingrate, Beni".

"I do not know" Jantra said with a shrug, apparently showing him that his attitude did not hurt her in the least, instead she smirked and said stabbed at his jealously with her final words "Ta-Meri ran out of the chamber and I have not seen her since then....after all I do not think she would have wanted to be here after assisting in the girl's escape".

Imhotep looked at her for a moment, his eyes ablaze "If Ta-Meri assisted the girl in escaping...she will regret ever being born into this world....how could I have been such a fool! She would gladly aide her friend, no matter in what form she were, over everything else".

Jantra smiled wickedly "My lord...if I may ask...why are you so infatuated by Isiria, she is so plain, so utterly ordinary" taking a daring step towards him, she spoke seductively "I have always wanted you and yet, you have always wanted her....you could have had any woman in Thebes and yet Isiria was your choice" letting her jealously overflow suddenly, her venom seeped through "What is so special about the temple dancer? she always rejected your advances, when I would have gladly accepted them and cherished them more than anything in this world".

Suddenly Imhotep laughed arrogantly, taking her off guard. "I love Isiria, for one she is unlike any other woman I have ever know, she is pure, kind, and she cares for nothing more than the well being of others. Love to her is a sacred emotion that she took quite seriously. She would never accept my advances because she could see them as being wrong actions on my part....under all of that though she loved me as much as I loved and still love her....you, Jantra, will never be like her....no one will, except....Angela".

"The other woman?" Jantra hissed jealously.

"Yes, the other woman, she is my equal and we will be together....and you and Ta-Meri will be gone...I will make it so".

"Why do you say that, Lord Imhotep?"

"You were never one of my favorites, Jantra....your cold and uncaring heart do not belong with us".

"But I could help you get the girl back"

"If you can get her back I may just spare you, but don't try anything to put her in any danger...is that perfectly clear?".

"Yes, my lord, I understand, but the girl obviously does not want to be with you and Ta-Meri gladly helped her escape after you left with Beni and sent him to bring you back the elixir down in the deeper corridors....which only leaves one thing to be said"

"And what is that?"

She smiled seductively and caressed his broad, muscular chest before softly kissing him. "That only leaves us alone, here, you and I".

Imhotep sneered and looked at her indignantly "Keep away from me, Jantra, you already know full well that I do not love you and I never will, can you not understand that? Never kiss me again or I will forget that you are a woman" Abruptly he shoved her away and walked swiftly out of the chamber.

After what seemed eternities from when he had rejected her, Jantra screamed in anger and looked venomously at the sacrificial altar. "If I have to drag that wench down here, I will do so and she will rue the day Isiria possessed her body. I will tear her limb from limb until there is nothing left for Imhotep to cherish....in the end he will have to love me and forget about that miserable wench." she smirked and looked around her at the chamber indiganantly "Then the world, will be our realm and our realm alone....the mortals will all bow down to me as their queen" Glancing around curiously for a moment, she then smiled wickedly "Now....where is Ta- Meri?"

**Outside in the secretive sands of Hamunaptra's cover, the desert had somewhat shifted it's own scene, swirling softly as the silent breeze moved over the environment. All that the surrounding's needed was a mystical, hypnotic siren and a lone oud playing in the distant background. Something akin to "The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena McKennitt.

"Remember that one day on the boat when you came and found me with Angela?" Rick's voice suddenly broke the stillness.

"Yes Rick, I remember....why?" Evelyn replied curiously "What happened?"

"The night before that, Angela had been chanting an incantation from the Book of the Dead" he paused, afraid to continue and then decided otherwise "When Jonathan and I told her about it, she screamed at both of us to get out...it was definitely something to do with the past in my opinion".

"Is that your scholarly opinion, Rick?"

"Yes, it is, even though it's hard to believe, but it is and I don't think it could be any more obvious about what is going on in her head and who she was talking about"

"Rick, we shouldn't jump to any sort of conclusions, after all she has been under so much pressure lately that I wouldn't be at all surprised if she started singing the hymns of Orthodox church in her sleep.....do not be so conclusive"

"Who said I was jumping to any conclusions?"

"You are" Evelyn answered, slightly annoyed. After a moment of tense silence between them, she sighed "You're afraid" she then looked at Rick who looking into his eyes caused him to look away suddenly before he slowly looked back up at her "You're afraid for Angela"

Sighing, he stood and paced around the tent "Look Evelyn, it has crossed my mind for the past weeks, I just can't deny that and as each day passes this problem just gets worse. I knew somehow, deep inside of me that one day we were going to come back to Egypt...but I never wanted or even expected Angela to get involved in this!".

"What are you trying to say, Rick?" Evelyn faced him as he hesistated to answer, biting his lip and gently shaking his head.

"We ruined Imhotep's plans, and now he's bent on revenge. If he's smart, which by now we know that he his....then he knows our weaknesses and that the greatest thing to complete his revenge against me and even Jonathan...is to do something to Angela. To take the person we love away from us forever just like we did with what ever her name was" He looked at her with hurt eyes "That is the way, it's revenge on both of us, not just one person. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her".

Evelyn felt tears coming out of her eyes, she had never expected Rick to speak so solemnly eloquent and so stoicly. She couldn't even believe that he had take the time to think about it.

Rick however was now on the verge of collasping. "That is why I'm so scared to be back here now, to tell you the truth, this is the second time I've felt this scared in my life....first was the thought of losing you to Imhotep and now....it's the same thing only it's Angela who is in his mind" he paused to sort his thoughts out "Doesn't it worry you at all of what Jonathan may be capable of doing to himself if something happens to her? she's been his best friend.....why do you think I'm so overprotective of Angela? I would die if I lost her, she is my only relative" he choked on his words "my, my baby sister that I've loved like no other brother could...I don't want her getting killed because of our first mistake"

Evelyn smiled slightly as she withheld her tears, this was all too amazing to hear him speaking like that. It had been one of the most solemn things he had ever said. Dropping her head to look down, she looked away almost afraid of him seeing her own emotions flooding out in tears and the warm smile on her face.

"So what do you plan to do?" she suddenly asked as she looked up at him once more.

"Take certain precautions and keep Angela well away from the entrance to the underground chamber"

"Hello you two....what are you talking about?" Jonathan's voice suddenly cut into their conversation, causing them to jump slightly at the momentary seriousness.

Rick and Evelyn swiftly turned around, startled, as they starred at him in shock, finding him peeking into the tent.

"Nothing important" Rick replied.

Jonathan sighed and then came waltzing into tent and took a seat on the blankets that had been spread on the floor. "Are you sure you weren't talking about anything important?" he then asked inquisitively.

Rick stared at him for a moment, a bit shaken and suddenly asked "Where's Angela?"

"Now honestly Rick, you can't watch her every where she goes to" Evelyn protested.

Rick swiftly turned back to face her. "Listen Evelyn, if we don't watch Angela's every move something will be bound to happen to her and eventually to us!" he shot back defensively.

"Am I missing something?" Jonathan asked, suddenly a bit confsued at the defensive arguement unfolding before him.

Evelyn sighed heavily in response and sat herself beside him "Rick believes that all of us need to take precautions when it comes to Angela's whereabouts and her safety as well as dealing with the certain event of Imhotep showing up and taking us all by surprise".

"Oh....yes, well that is a bloody good idea, I say!" Jonathan nodded repeatedly and smiled confidently "Well, I better leave then and get a bit of sleep as well.....oh! speaking of which, Angela is in my tent with Kaila, if you wanted to know that is....now if you'll excuse me I really have to get going" standing up quicker than he had sat down, he swiftly moved towards the tent entrance.

"Wait a second!" Rick suddenly stepped in his way. "Let me get this straight...she's in your tent! she's in...your...tent" he realized that Jonathan had been completely trying to avoid the matter altogether.

"Um, yes, she's in my tent" Jonathan replied nervously, as he swiftly slipped passed Rick and out of the tent in a hurry. After a moment however, he poked his head back inside and sighed resignedly "Don't worry, O'Connell, if it makes you feel any better I won't be going any where near the tent, in fact I'll be staying outside, I promise I won't be in there".

"You better not"

*~~The Sahara~~* The heated, tan world of the Sahara had turned cool and an enigmatic ivory blue underneath the blanket of stars hovering above, shrouding the world beneath it. Beni led the way as his caravan followed closely behind. Thanks to the powers of being of the undead, the trip had gone a lot quicker than expected. He reigned his camel to a stop and the expedition drew closer behind him like a calvary waiting to be given the orders to attack the enemy up ahead.

Victor had been, for the most part, complaining the entire ride and finally asked "Hey David we're still on for the wager right?"

"Of course we do" David replied as he stared out into vastness of the desert and the horizon far ahead.

"What the hell are we doing?" Lewis suddenly asked frustratingly.

"Patience, Lewis, Patience" Beni sneered.

"Patience is something I have little of desert guide, so where the hell are we?"

Beni grinned "About six miles away from Hamunaptra to be exact".

*~~Hamunaptra~~* Angela awoke just before Eleven and after shaking herself from pointless debating, she aroused Jonathan who complained about the necessity of sleep and the disadvantages of not having enough. Finally after much persuading, however, he reluctantly crawled out of the tent.

"The moon is at it's peak...we should get going" Angela said with a bright smile that was wasted on the tired being in front of her.

"So where to?" Jonathan asked, as he packed up a few things and mounted his horse.

"The entrance near the statue of Anubis" Angela replied matter-of-factly as she mounted her own steed "and from there to the underground".

Excitement began to pump through her veins as she juggled the equipment she held and rode unsteadily forward into the dark, dimly lit city.

After a moment of riding in silence, the stillness was torn apart. "There" Angela pointed towards the statue as she dismounted from her horse, watching as Jonathan did the same.

"So then that must be where the entrance to the underground corridors is" Jonathan gulped.

"Yes, and here" she ran to the statue "is the button and the lever that should activate like a switch to open the entrance. I think it have been set up to look like a keyhole of some sort, but in reality all it needed was a good push" she explained as they moved closer to the entry way.

"It's open" Jonathan said in dismay "Oh wellm the sooner we get in there, the sooner we can leave".

Lighting their torches, they entered the darkness of the silent city where a pindrop would be enough to send them into cardiac arrest. The silence strangely enough hurt their ears, it was getting to the point that it was annoying to be so heavily quiet and yet any sort of noise would be the cause of further chaos no matter how low it was.

The floor beneath their feet was leveled sand that occasionally rippled across in sand dunes of miniature goldenrod waves. Where the only surfers were often the incredibly deadly scarabs beetles. They continued to cautiously walk down the close confines of the labyrinth like hallways that suddenly opened up into an immense antechamber.

"Oh my god" Angela suddenly gasped.

"What?!" Jonathan hissed as he jumped slightly in alarm.

"Look at all of the hieroglyphs! These are all depicting how they raise the city and all the ceremonies that they celebrated, my god, Jonathan I just want to get a few copies of these...they're beautiful!"

"Indeed, look at the detail in them, they depict everything!" he replied giddily.

Hurriedly, Angela pulled out a folded leather case of digging, archaelogical tools from under her arm and removed a soft bristled brush. As she did, the air grew tense with excitement as she gently brushed it against the surface, letting fall the dust and sand of thousands of years. Jonathan gently pulled her back where she let out the breath she hardly noticed that she had been holding all that time.

"Go back to the horses while I dust off more of this. In Evelyn's saddlebag you'll find some paper and charcoal. I can get a few rubbings if we're careful"

"Alright, I'll be right back then" Jonathan replied softly "and be careful"

Angela paused at the warning "No wait...I'm coming with you".

Jonathan smiled and took her hand into his and they walked into the nearest tunnel. His torch showing the way. They were soon in the embalming chamber, where they climbed up a few crumbling stairs and stumbled out into the dim moonlight, sucking in the cold, fresh night air.

"Come on we need to hurry up before dawn, maybe Rick and Evelyn might decide to check on us...so let's hurry and get the rubbings" Angela said urgently, as she looked around.

They remained quiet for a moment as the wind rustled through the city and then glanced at one another, shaking their heads, amused a bit by their own mutual uneasiness over something so trivial. But the full extent of this triviality came in the form of a distant rumbling, distant that only Angela managed to hear it and caused her to raise a hand in a gesture of silence.

"What's wrong?" Jonathan whispered, as he watched her with alert interest.

Angela knelt down and placed her ear to the sand, listening, concentrating her sense to the solid goal of finding out that answer."Something is coming, it's heading this way....it's big from the sound of it, and it's coming fast". she replied softly, feeling her heart beating rapidly.

"And it's a really big cloud" Jonathan said uneasily, as he looked out into the desert.

As he helped her up, they squinted at the large dustcloud which was slowly, but smoothly coming over the dunes like a large wave surging towards France's Mont.St. Michel at high tide, ready to cover everything in it's deadly path.

"Oh god" Jonathan gasped, insulting and mixing the name with association to the all powerful being. This one was anything but messianic....Lewis.

He was riding faster than the very horses of the Apocalypse, followed by Victor, Vinnie, and David who were bringing up the rear. The four riders of the apocalypse: death, plague, famine, and beast. The ultimate quartet of evil, that spared nothing and no one. They spelled doom to whomever happened to be in their way, in this case: the world. But these human associates were as deeply prophetic and spelled out their goals as clear as a sharp diamond blade: glory, lust, death, and destruction. In the Sahara, these are hardly things that ever arrive, but in the middle of the desert where diversion is so very uncommon, human suffering is just a colloseum and betting booth away from being an actual, gladiator sport.

"He's not suppose to be here! How the bloody hell did he find Hamunaptra?" Jonathan turned with fear spelled upon every part of his face, to see Angela gravely silent.

Finding no comfort in her extrinsic expression, stern and quite tense as a leopard with eyes full of foreign blazes. "Angela?.....darling?"

The sound of his voice broke the silence, she turned quickly and kissed him and without word, she hastily mounted her horse and using the heel of her boots, some very unmentionable words and a glare mean enough to scare even the most bravest of beasts, she urged the unwilling animal to get ready to fly.

"Jonathan get on your horse and go warn my brother and Evelyn...hurry! go!"

Jonathan nodded and mounted his horse before he suddenly realized "Wait one moment, Angela. Where the bloody hell are you going?".

"To get the books and the rest of the artifacts...I'm not ketting those bastards get one measly finger on them!"

Without another thought, she kicked the horse and raced into the city towards the entrance to the underground once again. Jonathan shouting desperately to her as she did.

"Wait! no! Angela, you can't be serious! those things are too dangerous! get back here!"

Looking back, she smiled but didn't slow the pace of the horse as she continued on and she shouted the phrase that made Jonathan want to die. "For crying out loud Jonathan, what's the worse that can happen?".

With that left hanging in the air, her horse disappeared into the dark, eerie shadows of the pillars and temples of the city.

Jonathan couldn't believe the remarkable sight and his own voice seemed to refuse to return as he nudged his horse and sent it galloping out to the tents. All decision making chemicals were surging to an all time low as he felt himself go faster, not only that, but he stood on a balance of uneven proportions, he couldn't let Angela go alone, but she'd be killed. And as for Evelyn and Rick, they would be in danger as well. They had no idea of how far Lewis was capable of going to keep Angela, he was so mentally unbalanced that anything could trigger a chaotic meltdown in his mind, with disastrous consequences as the result.

"I have to get Evie and Rick....I have to" he thought anxiously "Calm down you bloody animal, come on!"

As his horse galloped onward, he realized he felt empty without Angela by his side, he needed her for guidance and her strength, but most of all he needed to tell Rick everything, he'd know exactly what to do. There was no doubt whatsoever that shooting him point blank would be the first thing on his to do list, but that didn't matter at the moment. Nothing mattered at the moment...nothing except staying alive for enough time to help out. In the desert help is just a gun, strength, and good aim. Unfortunately being out numbered wasn't and things weren't looking at all good for the former Three Musketeers of Hamunaptra, help was far from being good.

**As Angela walked into the dark corridors, and into a tunnel, one of a labyrinth of such passageways, was narrow, low ceilinged and infested with cobwebs. Crouching, she clawed her way thru, until a chittering sound caused her to freeze, unfortunately not being in a tranquil state of mind, she nervously lowered her torch to the floor and glanced down with nervous eyes.

"What the hell are-" she stopped in mid sentence and in her tracks, as she realized she was one making the noise.

As the flame danced wildly with her trembling, the ground beneath her glistened into a carpet of black, obsidian like pebbles, sparkling as if an ocean with the moon shining high above it's waters, twinkling eerily in a dance of silver and azure...all pointing to one solid and horrific answer "Scarab beetles".

Letting out a nerve piercing scream she realized that at least 3 minutes and a half was a record for her in that frame of art and she quickly calmed herself down, hyperventilating as she walked swiftly ahead. With much relief she came out into a large chamber, shivering as she wished deep inside that there at least be a waltz playing or a violin so that she wouldn't have to hear her own footsteps echoing around her like soft drum beats in a death march, namely her own.

"Okay, be calm, don't scream, everything is okay, nothing horrible is going to happen" she repeated uneasily to herself. "Just go on and don't worry about the sounds that are coming from your feet, don't look....just keep going"

Angela took another step forward and suddenly felt and much to her dismay heard a slimy, grinding noise.

"Oh....god" she thought "I just stepped into something else". Her mind suddenly rephrased her in a dreadul correction "Not into something". Frowning, she lowered her torch once more "Onto something".

The head of a mummy to be precise, the pulverized skull becoming a dust cloud that seemed to swirl around her feet like a spirit being released from it's confines, but unwilling to leave. She screamed again and ran without a single thought in mind of looking back, and into another room.

"I really hate this" she said out loud "I really, really hate this".

**Outside Jonathan jumped off his horse and ran for the tents "Evie! Rick! Lewis, Lewis is coming! get out!"

Rick and Evelyn stumbled out of their tents as he ran to them.

"What's going on, Jonathan?" Evelyn asked groggily.

"That!" Jonathan pointed to the desert. "Lewis!!"

They all turned towards the desert quickly and their eyes widened, as they perceived the growing rumble and the immense dust cloud racing towards them. They could only watch confused, helpless, and wondering...what the hell they could do....where the hell could they run to and....how the hell they would survive.

And from the darkness, through the stirring sand, emerged Ardeth Bey, who stepped forward and looked out into the desert, the wind tugging at his black robes like Kaila who was suddenly seeking his attention after having had been away from her father for the entire day.

"Who are they? Who are those men?" he asked sternly, taking everybody else by surprise, who completely had forgot to ask him where he had been all day.

Jonathan sighed as he grimaced. "It's Lewis Calabar and his men"

"Calabar" the Med Jai leader said, as if tasting the word and finding it's taste suprisingly bitter. "I know that man".

Rick stepped up beside Jonathan and looked at Ardeth. "From where exactly?" he demanded.

"The museum". The Med Jai leader's eyes narrowed as he looked at Rick "How do you know this man?".

Jonathan started to speak, but Rick beat him to it and replied. "We're friends, very close friends you might say".

Ardeth Bey sighed dramatically

"Um, not to interrupt you two in such a cheery conversation, but we have an ambush on our hands!" Jonathan said frantically.

"What?!!" Rick suddenly looked over at him.

"Never mind" Jonathan groaned, as he watched the riders come galloping in.

By the looks of the situation, some arguing was about to begin. Evelyn and Ardeth swiftly held back a red faced Rick from pulling out his gun and shooting Lewis, who had just jumped off of his horse and treated Jonathan to a calculating look which seemed to say, at least in his own mind "Look who we have here....we're right on time".

"Hello Evelyn, Rick, what a pleasant surprise....now why don't we all chat for a moment and explain to one another all these events and material's that we need to know. I believe it is best that we all answer these questions truthfully" Lewis said, with a boyish smile that seemed to speak silently on it's own accord "I'm more innocent than you think, now just test me and you'll see what a true angel I can really be".

**Down below in the chambers, Angela seemed to be losing her mind. Every room looked much like the other and every hallway led to at least five different directions. A part of her deeply wanted to run out and the other seemed to pull her to the deeper recesses of the city like the magnetic poles of the Earth and she the prime meridian, ready to snap in half and run to it's own side. Continuing on her desperate walk, she stumbled into an amphitheater and it seemed she had walked into a Macy's store that had announced "75% off on all dessicated arms, legs, and other body parts, sale ends in 5 minutes....first come, first serve". There was a large enough variety of body parts that one could have imagined Victor Frankenstein rummaging through, looking for the perfect body part to complete his creation. Unexpectedly, the mummy of Anck-Su-Namun seemed to stand out quite vividly, as a mutilated hand held on tightly to a dagger, her own key to immortality and power held there, that never opened the door to the world of the living.

"Immortality just wasn't yours to begin with" Angela whispered sternly. "You can't always have everything you desire"

Then her mother's voice suddenly echoed in her head "Whenevre you stumble upon another person's grave...and you feel chills upon your back...it means that they are still suffering the consequences of their acts that the committed in the world of the living". As if in response to the thought, she felt a cold chill and she quickly walked away from the spot where she had been standing. "Her body was no longer his temple" she thought sadly. "And my body will no longer be my own...".

**Pulling Jonathan aside into the darkness of a temple, Lewis suddenly asked "So Jonathan, where's the goddess? I'm dying to see her, and judging by the fact that you two are so close to one another, I'm guessing you know where she is".

Jonathan stared coldly at him for a moment and Lewis laughed. "Come on Jonathan, tell me, where is Angela?"

In a motion that even he had never expected to happen, Jonathan spit into Lewis' face and glared angrily. "Go to hell".

Lewis turned around and wiped his face off, shrugging it off, before turning and punching Jonathan twice, sending him toppling to the sand, where he landed with a thud and writhed in pain.

"Strav, keep a close eye on him, see that he doesn't go anywhere and as for you" he suddenly addressed Victor. "Come with me, I believe his partner is already down there. I'm going to need some help in the....conversation. A person, to make sure.....we're not disturbed".

Then, whistling a sing-song tune and deeply ignoring the obvious irony that there were very little men on the Earth so extremely disturbed as he was, Lewis laughed and headed for his rendevous.....a very intimate rendevous, where choices were none and suffering would be plenty.

"Angela....no, he can't.....I won't let him" Jonathan struggled weakly, as he tried to drag himself across the sand only to be butted in the head by a gun, knocking him out cold.

"Where's Jonathan?" Rick asked softly, as he looked around at the armed henchmen.

"Lewis took him" Evelyn sobbed. "He took Jonathan".

"And Angela?"

"I--don't--know--maybe--she's--hiding"

***Prying open the side pocket of a secret compartment beneath the staircase of the alter chamber, Angela could only hope that no acid would come out and kill her in a pressurized spray of death. She jumped back however, as slowly a heavy stone lid thunked loudly onto the floor, cracking in half in the process. A cloud of dust was then sent into the air as she coughed slightly.

"Sorry" she thought, as she realized that this was considered sacred ground. "I just need to borrow something".

Getting on her knees, she dragged out a small wooden chest, exquisitely engraved with hieroglyphs and hieratic in gold and silver. All in all it was like a beautifully wrapped surprise box, ready to be release what ever it held within, no matter how dark it was of an object. Nestled on one of the sides of the chest, however, was a thirteen inch dagger. Its blade and all was made of solid gold, featuring a blood groove. The handle was accented in intricate details, with engravings and symbols, including a notched papyrus leaf pattern and a scorpion resting as the pommel, two figures of the scorpion-goddess Selket, shown as a beautiful woman with a scorpion poised on her head were along the hilt with the sapphire inlay. Her creature was very well known to strike death to the wicked and cruel. She was depicted as binding up demons that would otherwise threaten Ra or the innocent, and she had sent seven of her scorpions to protect the goddess Isis from Set. The dagger and the goddess herself, were easily able to strike down all those who foolishly dared to challenge the two. It wasn't a matter of how.....but when.

Angela, still kneeling, looked around sharply at the chamber watching the torches flicker and danced with the only oxygen left for herself only and picked it up. With that, she watched as the flames danced wickedly on the dark waters of the dark channels, hiding their depths and the deaths of many blasphemers who dared to anger the gods of Egypt, but whom in the end paid dearly for their insult. In Egypt where the land is lethal and unforgiving, the gods spared no one and as long as there were mortals daring to face the gods, the gods were more than willing to smite them down...no one escaped unscaved....no one escaped at all.

Angela slipped the dagger into the side of her skirt, safely fastening it to her side with the hilt. Then carried the chest over to the sacrificial altar where she placed it down, it's weight finally overcoming her only strength that was left in her. "Now let's see what's inside, shall we?"she thought.

Her eyes slowly scanned over the top of the chest and a deep wave of mental mist flooded over her, blinding her own thoughts as her lips moved on their own accord, she read softly. "Cometh to thee thy true soul, which among the gods must be forgiven. Pure is thy soul amongst the gods. I placeth thy soul this amongst the great and lesser gods in the form of the urai which is in--"

"Angela, what the hell do you think you're doing?" a voice cut in, suddenly pulling her out of the platform of deepening concentration and swiftly pulling her down to the floor, where she fell with a hard thud behind the altar.

"Ugh, what happened? what the heck am I doing?" she thought dazedly, as she struggled to pull herself up causing a wave of nausea to come on. Gathering her thoughts, she stood up tall, using her hands as a balance on the surface of the altar, and turned to look in the direction of the voice only to be pitched back into horrid shock. "Lewis".

In the past four weeks, Angela had gone through so much, that she felt like a pile of autumn maple leaves swirling back and forth, rustled by the winds of Indian summer and pushed through an endless song of holy choirs and disembodied sirens from the oceans of her mind. She had been chanting along with them a song of love, hate, misunderstanding, and forgiveness. Everything within her soul was a chaotic whirlpool of nightmarish dreams and hallucinations crying out for a savior to lend her a hand. She was now so much more vulnerable, tired, and much more distraught than she had ever been and her fear of many years passed was at an all time peak. Unfortunately, Lewis was very keen about that, as being the predator who preyed on the emotionally weak, she was his perfect prey. Of course, he'd first have to catch her and with her feline grace and agility this presented one very hard catch, but a very good chase nonetheless.

***Outside, the ground beneath the quartet and the little girl began to shake, while the sand in front of them slowly began to gather into a small mound...rising like a platform in front of their eyes, as if a small pyramid was materializing. But it wasn't a platform nor was it a a pyramid either. No, out of the mound, by the hundreds....scarab beetles came chittering out, boiling, bubbling from the desert floor to form a swift crawling army that swarmed towards them in an obsidian azure wave.

Evelyn and Kaila screamed in horror at the sight and even Ardeth, but Rick however was actually forming the phrase "Come on! run for it!".

Upon reaching Jonathan only a few yards ahead of the parade of death, Rick managed to grab a rope and throw it to Ardeth Bay who ran swiftly up ahead.

"Climb that ledge! come on....faster!" Rick shouted desperately.

As Ardeth quickly climbed the ledges of a wall, swift as a dark phantom, Rick grabbed Jonathan who was dragging himself along in a state of delerium and pulled him upright.

"Hello O'Connell, if you're here to kill me or beat me to a pulp then I'm terribly afraid that Lewis beat you to the punch....literally...I'm terribly sorry" he said dazedly, but focusing suddenly on the incoming brigade he suddenly snapped out of it in a horrible remembrance. "Oh bloody hell, O'Connell....I know I'm a coward but I don't think I deserve to be the scarab's next entree!"

"Jonathan, shut up and run" O'Connell replied sternly, as he drapped Jonathan's arm over his neck and ran, stumbling until they had made it to the Med Jai warrior.

"O'Connell, I need to tell you--"

"It can wait"

"No, but I--"

Evelyn watched in horror as they ran towards her, the scarabs right at their heels and screamed anxiously. "Hurry you two! come on now....they're catching up!".

Rick gathered all his strength and quickly looked up towards Ardeth and the others, hoping deep within that the warrior had a keen sense of target and aim. "Ardeth, throw us the rope and pull....come on, pull us up!"

Ardeth nodded and threw down the rope and as Rick grabbed on, he pulled it up with Evelyn's help, sending Rick and Jonathan up into the air just a couple inches off of the sandy terrain and a bit above the little insects of fatality.

"Come on just a little more!" Rick called as he held onto Jonathan and looked back at the chittering creatures that had turned the floor into a carpet of black glass.

Ardeth struggled and with more helpf rom Evie, gave it one hard pull causing them to swing in an arc in mid air, about four feet off the ground. Carefully and quite fearfully, Rick absorbed the impact with his leather boots as he felt Jonathan's body slipping. Quickly he grabbed him and held him tighter, struggling with his own weight as he then grabbed onto the ledge. There he placed Jonathan onto the wide threshold beside him which he gratefully held onto like a koala to a Eucalyptus tree. Below after having had vacated the desert floor the little herd of insects clambered through moving like a malicious black blanket. Everyone then watched in tense silence as the insects disappeared out of view leaving a soft murmur then absolutely no sound.

Trembling, Jonathan sighed in relief. "They're gone".

"Yeah, thank god" Rick sighed exhaustedly. "Thank god".

Slowly and cautiously, Ardeth and Rick helped everyone down to the ground where Evelyn hugged her brother and fiancee tightly, crying as she did.

Kaila and Ardeth were doing the same as she hugged him tightly and cried, gabbing and talking and gesturing frantically as Ardeth held her close to him. His only true treasure that was worth more than anything in the world. "Thank allah, you are safe" he whispered, "Thank allah".

Suddenly however, Rick pulled himself away from the embrace which Evelyn had given him, realizing with terror. "Where the hell is Angela?".

"Rick, I'm sure she took off running with everyone else and is hiding in a temple waiting for the danger to go by" Evelyn said reassuringly. "It's alright, she'll be here soon or she's probably within a corridor waiting for us".

"She isn't".

Everyone glanced over uneasily at Jonathan, the bruises and paleness in his expression not helping in the serious, prophetic tone of his voice. "Angela's down in the deeper corridors, O'Connell...she went to get the artifacts....and the books".

"What?!" Rick gasped.

"That's not all" Jonathan said gravely "Lewis is down there too".

***Descending deeper into the abysmal darkness, emerging in the amphitheater. Lewis stood across from Angela looking her up and down, his own emotions going haywire at the sight of her very revealing cutaway skirt and choli blouse. Every inch of him itched to feel her, to caress her slowly, to have her...and then ultimately...to kill her.

"Angela, I don't want anyone, especially you, to get hurt...come on...let's talk" he said innocently, as he took a few cautious steps torwards her.

"No Lewis, you mean you're the one who doesn't want to get hurt...and I'd have to be crazy to walk over there to you" she backed up her stance, tensing as much as a feline of any sort would tense as they were being cornered by another predator.

"Sweetheart, it's okay...just come here and we'll talk things through. I'm willing not to do anything against Jonathan or anyone else for that matter, come on....you don't have to act like this. All this can be solved and we can all be happy".Lewis said as reasonably as he could, as his reptilian green eyes glittered in the torch light...silently speaking to Victor to act as he slowly stalked up behind her.

Angela smiled mockingly. "Lewis, if you expect me to trust you, you're wasting your time. I honestly wouldn't trust you if you told me the ocean was blue and that there were fish living in it...or even that at night the sky has stars. It's sad, but you love to hurt people. It gives you a sick thrill. You sadistic, son of a--"

The rest of her compliment was cut off as Victor grabbed her from behind, taking her completely off guard, as she struggled and squirmed in his grasp "Let go of me you moron!" she screamed angrily, with a slight hint of desperation. "Let go!"

"Sorry Angela, no can do, but for being such a good sport all this time...you get a consolation prize". Victor said as he smirked, wrestling against her unrestraining form.

"So do you"she hissed, before turning swiftly and viciously slashing his face leaving deep, bloody fingernail gashes.

Instantly he let her go where she landed with a dull thud onto the cold, stone floor. As he nursed his cheek, he winced at the stinging sensation and his deepening rancor in that instant seemed to be bubbling over. He looked over at her and glared, consoling his pain with the thought of what was in store for her and he smiled...hers was going to be much worse.

"Well, nice work. You can go now, Victor, and take the chest....and please, stand guard and don't let anyone come in. My fiancee and I will be along in a few minutes".

Angela looked up at him and dragged herself as far as she could, trying to stand up and reach for her dagger, before suddenly being shoved back abruptly into her internal dungeon, watching as other victims suffered endless torture. Watching the terror of a story, as it went by: frame by frame and word by word. She waited for the worse to come and as Lewis kissed her neck, she screamed.

"Lewis, let go of me! let me go! please....please stop" she cried desperately "Let me go!".

"Oh come on now, Angela.....aren't you enjoying this moment...I really am" Lewis mocked her, as he pinned her to floor. "Angela, just let me do everything and I'll show that even if I haven't done this before....I'm really good at it" he kissed her softly before caressing her face. "You're just afraid you're going to like it as much as I am, that's all".

"Lewis, please I beg you...don't do this. I beg you please, for the love of god, let me go...please...let me go" she sobbed and choked on her words.

"Angela, come on, I've been wanting to feel what your lips would feel like against mine" he said tenderly, as he softly but ardently, kissed her. Her eyes filled with tears as she wepted resignedly. Her mind kept repeating itself over and over with a solid, determined message.

She wanted to die.

**Elsewhere in the underground tunnels, Victor walked, chest in his hands as he cursed Angela and the pain in his left cheek. He did his best to navigate in the corridors, only the lights of the torches being his guides.

"Enjoy your night, Angela" he thought maliciously. "It's one of many that await you".

As he continued to stagger with the chest, he suddenly heard a sound behind him, a walking, footsteps of some sort.

"Vinnie?" he asked suddenly. No answer.

"David is that you?". No answer.

As he took another step foward he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, turning swiftly around, he found the desert guide standing behind him.

"I'm sorry, that doesn't belong to you" Beni said.

"For your information desert guide, it does, so get out of my way or help me out...if you plan on doing neither then we'll have to settle this one like men" Victor said angrily.

"Yes, well, unfortunately for you....I'm not a live man....in fact I'm not a man at all. I'm a demon, you're worst possible enemy". Beni replied coldly as he pulled away his shirt, revealing rotten flesh from a putrid chest cavity and as Victor started to scream, a hand clamped over his mouth, muffling the sound.

The only scream he had managed to release suddenly, caught Lewis and Angela's attention as they heard someone struggling.

"Now what is that imbecile doing?" snapped Lewis, angry at the interruption. "It's not hard to carry a stupid chest".

"But it is hard to have children when you have no pride to create them" Angela sneered.

"What?" Lewis suddenly looked down at her, but as he turned his face was met with Angela's fist and his manhood was met with her knee which slammed hard into him, knocking him to the floor beside her in nerve wracking pain. The motion may have been a hoax, but Lewis still hadn't gotten what he had wanted, she had put up a good fight in the end.

"I've always wanted to do that" she said tearfully with a playful smile, as she then ran away swiftly.

Emerging into the corridor, she ran down the hall towards the screams, following them down into a chamber where she froze in horror at the sight of Victor rooted to the floor in shock. The chest laying on the opposite end of the chamber.

"Victor run!" she screamed "Don't just stand there! Run!"

He was frozen to the ground as Beni's attention drew to him. Then snatching up a rather large, golden sword from a nearby statue, he did what neither Angela nor Victor ever expected, he suddenly thrust it into him. The incredible force of the hit, lifting him off of the floor before Beni yanked it out swiftly, causing his victim to fall to the floor in a crumpled heap of blood that seeped out of the gape and gurgled out of his mouth ashe looked over at Angela in terror as if saying. "Get out, get out before he sees you!".

Angela screamed as his life oozed slowly out of him, his body fell to the floor face first, limp and lifeless and from her point of view Beni began to regenerate more, a skin grew, forming over tendons, over the hole in his ribcage, renewing itself fully.

"Oh my god....we have...a serious problem" her mind thought before suddenly realzing Victor had taken Anton's place as "sacrifice hor'dorves". Anton had been killed by Beni, there was no doubt now and her heart suddenly felt weak.

"I have to get out of here" she thought, as she kneeled down and stretched her arm out, pulling the chest towards her. "Gods, please don't see me, please don't see me".

"Why hello there Angela, where have you been hiding?". Beni asked evilly. "Since my powers are growing, I'm going to give them a try on you and everyone in that caravan first".

He began to steadily walk towards her and even being Beni he normally wouldn't be a figure to fear, but judging by his killing methods and supernatural strength not to mention the very large, sharp, and bloodied sword that he carried, someone would be afraid pretty damn easily. "I'm sorry Angela, but you know the rules of revenge. You hit the one thing that is dearest to the person you hate...in your brother's case you're his weak link...tough luck".

She stumbled back quickly, her heart racing a mile a minute as he was nearly upon her to finish her off. But he was suddenly distracted by a noise from the corridor. It was Vinnie, he had heard Victor's screaming from up above at the entrance as had come to look for him. Beni smiled sadistically to himself.

"Don't move" he said, as he turned towards Angela who was almost in full cardiac arrest at the moment, before turning and walking away. In the proess he took Victor's body as he went.

"If Beni has powers and he can regenerate and only regenerate by killing people....then he must have been eaten by scarabs as well, which means that....the book" she realized, an idea sprung as something showed up in the back if her memory bank. "It's worth a shot, it's risky, but I have to do it".

"Beni!" she shouted.

He turned around, just as he ahd gotten to the corridor where he stepped out and threw Victor's body down the hallway.

"Come and get me! it's me you want! so come on!" she dared him as she stood up and raced for the far side of the chamber to the chest, where their eyes met and suddenly she knew he had guessed what was on her mind.

"Imhotep". she screamed anxiously in Ancient Egyptian. "My love, your servant wishes to kill me! save me I beg you!"

Though Beni couldn't understand, he froze in his steps as he saw Imhotep step through the second entrance to the chamber, princely in his dark flowing robes, the Book of the Dead in one hand as he reached a hand towards Angela. But his obsidian eyes bore into Beni fiercely, who without another thought ran out of the chamber, cursing her vehemently as he did. Angela smiled only to come to a horrible realization as she turned to face Imhotep.

"Now my love, come...it is time for your rebirth" he spoke lovingly, as he looked into her confused eyes "And then you shall be mine...forever". And with that said, they disappeared into a mist of swirling sand.

*~~Corridors within Hamunaptra~~* Everyone ran swiftly into the corridors, Jonathan taking the lead as he looked around for the next way to go, he had explained the entire situation about Lewis and confesssed everything Angela had told him about him, which still was not all of it.

"Come on faster" he insisted, as he elbowed past Ardeth and Kaila who had gone up ahead.

"Jonathan don't walk so fast" Rick warned. "You have to be careful with everything here in this goddamn city".

In answer, Jonathan suddenly reared back frantically. "Oh bloody hell!". He then quickly ran back to the rear of the line as if being promised to be given something far better than the people in front of the line at a Virgin Record's store. "What are those?!"

"Scarab beetles, what else?" Ardeth replied coldly. "Do not worry they are all dead and no longer pose a a danger to us......they have been dead since you last set foot in Hamunaptra".

"What about all the live ones we just ran into outside?" Rick asked. "I mean, they all seemed pretty alive to me".

Ardeth turned to face the trio, frustrated at the events."If any of you should happen to find some live scarabs, I am very sure that you will let me and the others know, isn't that correct, Jonathan?". He said, as he placed a hand on Jonathan's shoulder ominously as the other looked at him in shock, before he turned to walk away. "Now we shall have no more set backs, keep alert and watch out for anything that maybe along the way".

Much to everyone's surprise including his own, Kaila suddenly stumbled over a mummy's abdomen, only to be caught by swiftly her father who held her hand tightly along the rest of the way. Rick however had blanched at the sight and turned away.

"Rick, it can't be your sister" Evelyn assured him. "It's alright....it's not her".

"I just can't believe this happening again....I can't believe this, this is too much" Rick murmured as he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Way too much".

"Poor guy, looks like he didn't even get a chance to run before the blighters ate him" Jonathan said, only to notice that it wasn't bloody, it was dry and withered, gulping, he said. "I wonder if any of the others made it through".

Everyone sighed and looked down at Kaila, who suddenly skipped away a few steps back and stood, eyes wide as she whimpered and pointed behind them, but they all seemed too worried about the scarabs and the dried corspe to pay attention to her ecstatic warnings as a stone piece slowly slid to one side on the wall behind Evelyn. Or even the hand that reached out, no one noticed until the hand grabbed her arm causing her to scream which in turn caused everyone else to scream and Ardeth to back away and get into fighting stance. Unfortunately, he realized much to his own embarassment that the person that the hand belonged to was frantically saying. "Calm down!....please!....calm down!".

"Vinnie!" Rick and Jonathan said in shocked unison, as he stumbled out of the hole in the wall and fell to the floor.

"What happened?" Jonathan asked suddenly.

"Where the hell is my sister?" Rick demanded sternly.

"Have you seen her?" Evelyn inquired anxiously.

"Whose the dead guy over there?" Jonathan then asked inquisitively, as he pointed to the corspe.

"Where's Angela, damnit?!! tell me now!" Rick demanded furiously, as he suddenly grabbed a shocked Vinnie off of the floor.

"Rick, calm down! let him go!" Evelyn pleaded, Rick immediatly dropped him.

She kneeled beside him as he trembled and his pulse beated rapidly.Vinnie was struck with the immense pressure of fear that he was unable to breathe normaly and he was becoming weaker by the moment. "Oh dear....I think he may be having a cardiac arrest of some sort" Evelyn said softly. "We have got to keep him calm".

Everyone else nodded in agreement, even Rick who reluctantly nodded and looked away.

Evelyn sighed, as she released her own tension. "Vinnie, listen to me, relax and breathe slowly. Now calm down and relax....don't worry we're not here to harm in anyway, just tell us what we want to know".

Vinnie looked at her nervously, his skin pale and cold as he breathed shallowly in an odd pattern akin to suffocation, but as if something had told him to stop he finally stuttered. "Lewis was with Jonathan....came down....Angela here...desert guide...Victor screaming... the wall....ledge....couldn't shut....finally......quiet".

Rick and everyone else looked down at him questioningly as they then looked at one another and shrugged, neither one knowing what to say or to make of it all.

"Oh, I do believe I know what he said!" Jonathan said suddenly, as he snapped his fingers and then put all the words together in his head again.

"What?" Rick asked insistently. "What did he say?"

Jonathan took a seat beside Vinnie and looked up at the others, as if a divine oracle, then replied. "He said that Lewis was with me and when he knocked me out he came down here to find Angela, which he did. And then a desert guide was here too and Vinnie heard Victor screaming and when he came down to look he only saw the silhouette of a man being killed, then he ran to escape and found this hole in the wall where he couldn't really shut it, but finally did. Hiding away here he waited until everything was quiet and he heard us talking....that's pretty much it, isn't it?" he said matter- of factly.

Vinnie nodded repeatedly and they both looked up at the rest of the group who was looking at them both in utter shock.

"How did you know?....I didn't understand.... how did you?" was all Evelyn could say in bewilderment.

"Well Evie, when you drink a lot like I use to do, that's basically everyday speech for you...a second language one might say"

"We are having great setback, this man has no valuable information that we need, let us go" Ardeth said coldly, as he walked a few steps farther up ahead. "We have no time to waste".

"Wait, where's my boss?" Vinnie asked frantically.

"Vinnie, we have no idea, but trust me when I say that if we do find him I'm going to kill him with my bare hands and feed him to the vulture" Rick growled. "So you better goddamn pray that he's dead because I'm not planning on showing any mercy to that son of a bitch".

"Rick, please....relax" Evelyn said softly, as she and Jonathan helped Vinnie to his feet, adjusting his arms around their shoulders. "This is not the time nor place to be threatening people".

"Rick, I'm sorry for whatever my boss did to Angela, trust me this time when I say...that...I was the lackey who took care of the hounds" Vinnie said uneasily, as they struggled with him down the corridor. "I swear I never did anything to harm her, Lewis is--" he paused for a moment. "Lewis, well, isn't the most balanced minded person and all those things he did to her are unforgivable and malicious".

Rick suddenly froze in his steps as the words sunk in. "What do you mean he tortured her? and what do you mean by unforgivable and malicious things?" Suddenly he felt as if he'd been slapped by the world's largest rubber band, twice. "In what ways did he torture my sister?".

Suddenly, Vinnie's eyes grew wide. "Uh...I...I heard from the others that he'd lock her in the basement of his manor and leave her down there for days without any nourishment, Lewis has always had this strange obsession with her and when they'd get into arguements he'd always threaten her...a few times he, he would hit her...but that was rare...stuff like that basically".

Rick was frozen to his spot, afraid to ask, but pushing himself to do so. "Is that all? or is there more?".

"He tried countless numbers of times to kiss her or have some form or another of intimacy with her and she'd always scream at him or slap him. Lewis seems to have some odd control over people, he could mentally bend her to his will but never physically...if doesn't get what he wants, he'll beat it out of the person or psychologically get into their minds. He always preyed on Angela's weakness of having no one to turn to, again she never gave him what he wanted and to this day he hates the world for it" Vinnie sighed, feeling as if he'd released a great load that he had been carrying on him for a long time. "At Twenty four, he is one very disturbed person".

Evelyn and Rick suddenly eyed one another uneasily and sighed guiltily, before Rick looked at Jonathan regretfully and said "Jonathan, I.....I'm really sorry for not giving you a chance to talk and give us the full story, I'm really sorry".

"It's truly alright, O'Connell. This is still my fault. It's just not in the delinquent sort of way that you thought earlier. Now, you won't have to worry about killing me if anything happens to Angela, I'll take care of it myself".

"Lewis is going to regret the day he met my sister, he better be dead" Rick said, as he looked down the corridor darkly.

"Yes, he better I'll personally help you kill him.That bloody moron is going pay for everything he did to Angela.....now all we have to do is find him". The thought was easier said than done, as Jonathan then curiously said. "But I say ol'chap, where can he be?".

*~~Deeper chambers of Hamunaptra~~* Laying in the dark, a darkness deeper than any black hole swirling out in the middle of the dark and mysterious universe of ours, as silent as any uninhabited planet, and as deadly as any gaseous substance emanating from its core. A figure sat up with straining effort, clothes dusty with sand and powder as it groaned in pain. Aside from the pain in the lower portion of it's body, it had awaken from an unconscious state of peace...it's mind though was another story. Lewis Calabar had always been the one lone, sociopathic romeo much like Casanova but with a double twist of Jack the Ripper, who loved to play with obsession and sadism whenever he got the chances to do so. Somehow his mind had developed into something much more self revelating, now his mind had completely began to a full winner takes all game of Cat and Mouse, where everything was fair and no one complained. His secret and full fledged love affair with insanity was about to be revealed to the world and heaven help any who stepped in the way.

Getting to his feet, he stumbled out of the chamber room and disappeared into the darker corridors where the rest of the snakes resided and passed on....slithering their way towards a victim who had no idea the reptile was only a strike away.

*~~Further Down~~* "Silence, I think we may have found something" Ardeth Bay's voice broke the still silence, causing everyone to jump and freeze, no one daring to interrupt his command.

Concentrating, he sighed in frustration as he let go of Kaila's hand, who then immediately took hold of Rick's.

"Listen, do you hear that sound? do you feel that vibration all around us?" Ardeth looked around suspiciously, looking for the source of the mystery noise. "Do you hear it? it's everywhere and it's growing louder".

"We don't hear anything" Rick replied questioningly. "What are we suppose to hear aside from the silence?".

Evelyn suddenly gasped and stumbled forward causing Jonathan to quickly hold on tighter to Vinnie, before both fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Oh dear....my head, it's buzzing...oh my god". Evelyn groaned agonizingly, as she put her hands on her head and clutched it in pain.

"Evelyn, what is it? what's wrong?" Rick asked anxiously.

"You don't hear anything?" Evelyn gasped, her eyes tearing up from the torturous noise.

"No, all I see is you and Ardeth complaining about their being some kind of sound and something in the air"

"Rick, stop!!" Evelyn screamed, as she desperately reached out to him.

"What? what is it?" Rick asked, as he unknowingly began to walk towards the sound as he spoke to her.

Somehow the noise was a magnet of some sort that pulled at every inch of the body to follow it, like a rope would lure a child if it had a bag full of sweet treats and the promise of more if he or she followed it straight to the end.

Jonathan suddenly put Vinnie against the wall and stoof up, clutching his head as well."What is that bloody god awful noise? I can't stand it!" he suddenly struggled to retain his mental balance as he felt himself being sucked into a mental vaccum. "It's attacking my nerves....I can't control it, it's so strong, god, make it stop!"

The chanting was suddenly becoming quite apparent to everyone as it subtlely seeped into their minds, as if a chemical seeping into a city's water system where it has nothing but a pure, clean substance. A substance, not at all ready to take the poison that was about to contaminate it and take full charge of all if it wasn't stopped on time. It fused itself to every neuron in the brain and nervous system and swirled it around vigorously in an endless whirlpool of forbidden hymns and incantations that weighed themselves upon one's soul. A set of incantaions that was destined and quite willing to pull the soul down to the abyss of the damned.

Evelyn blinked and took deep breaths of air, as she shook her head frantically, "The chant is an incantation on bringing back a soul from the land of the dead, something to remember the past and forget the present....ugh....why doesn't that blasted feeling go away?!"

Jonathan fell to the floor. "Not only...that...it's ordering the first soul...to leave to the Fields of Peace" he groaned in pain, as his head hummed."We have to....get to....Angela".

"Kaila!" Ardeth shouted fearfully, as he watched his daughter running to the sound like a baby chipmunk, seeking acorns for its winter food supply. "Stop!!"

Rick ran up ahead swiftly and grabbed the little girl who only whined as he brought her back to her father, who embraced her tightly, rebuking her as he did but nonetheless holding her tightly. Much to his own surprise, Ardeth suddenly realized that he had forgotten all about being the fearless, indifferent Med Jai and he had for an instant become much like the trio behind him who couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight before them.

"Welcome to the real world" Rick said reassuringly. "Glad to have you along for the ride".

Ardeth nodded slightly and stood up, holding tightly to Kaila's hand, it suddenly hit him however that the sound wasn't as penetrating any longer. "The sound....it-".

"It stopped right about the time you shouted" Rick acknowledged. "Thanks, we owe you a big one".

"We must get to Angela before Imhotep completes the spell and orders the final consummation of the world. The chanting is an obvious sign that your sister is very much alive"

Rick smiled slightly, only to have Ardeth solemnly say. "But if we do not hurry she won't be for long unless we somehow, by other means, get an object of the salvation. We're going to have to somehow try and find the object, which is somewhere down there in the sacrificial chambers".

"And what about Angela?" Jonathan asked worryingly.

"We cannot help her immediately, doing so would ensure all of our deaths if we even alert the creature in the slightest way. We must get an object of the Salvation, before we take action, do you all understand?"

Everyone nodded, even Vinnie who was just able to get to his feet steadily.

"So who's going to do what?" Jonathan then asked.

"O'Connell and I will try and retrieve the object, which is somewhere in the channels and Evelyn here will be with us so she can read the inscription if necessary and as soon as we have it" Ardeth instructed sternly.

"And what about me? I just can't stand around and watch"

"You Jonathan, you will keep Vinnie with you and keep watch out for Imhotep...so you can warn us if he becomes aware of our presence and if it goes to a certain point, you two then must distract him somehow".

Vinnie and Jonathan looked at one another and gulped nervously as they assumed that both were good for nothing else. The absolute worse was that neither of them could find a good, logical excuse to deny that assumption made by the warrior.

"We'll work together alright?" Jonathan tried to calmly addressVinnie, who only nodded and swallowed hard. "Don't worry, if we do die then at least we died trying to save someone, agreed?".

Vinnie smiled weakly. "Right, I agree".

"Come now, it is time to face him once more" Ardeth commanded. "Let us hope that this works".

In the cycle of life and death, everything comes and everything goes. In the cycle of magic, everything comes and everything stays, it is not everchanging as life and nature often are, it doesn't swirl and then dissipate. Instead, it swirls in an endless whirlwind of souls, each desperately trying to escape the neverending spin and cycle of their torture and...their lust. Humans at times are in their own tornado, each seeking to destroy whatever comes into their path and willing to pull whomever they can along with them. To pull them in, to show them their suffering and their pain, but what should happen when the whirlwinds of the undead and the whirlwinds of the living clash? what should happen when pain crashes with anger and past crashes with present?

As Rick and gang ran down a passage way, then another, and another, trying deep in their minds to figure out the right way to go. They ran to an archway, but Rick having just heard a striking, almost hypnotic sound, a sort of muffled, murmured chanting emanating from the archway, braced himself against the wall and stopped all of the others from going through.

Cautiously, he peered around the archway and suddenly took in a sight so appalling that his own mind could barely grasp what his own eyes were showing him.....Down at the bottom of the staircase in the amphitheater below, Angela lay on the altar. Her eyes were closed as if she were in a deep, dark sleep and approaching her, the Book of the Dead in one hand was Imhotep.

Jonathan suddenly peered out from behind Rick and gasped, his own heart wrenching at the scene. "No, Angela." he uttered, as he felt himself about to collapse onto his knees.

Eyes serenely closed, Imhotep chanted, the rhythm of the spell almost erotically, sexual in it's alluring effect that it had on the senses as he caressed her body, starting from her face to her abdomen. The one thing, however, that spoiled the moment was the way in which he leaned down and kissed her softly. As he stood tall, his free hand once more caressed her features and he chanted the invocation of the return of the soul.

Even as he heard Jonathan gasp, Rick's mind kept refusing to accept that his sister was laying there on the sacrificial altar, not bound, but rather serenely asleep again as if in a peaceful dream, her being locked in a far away land where she couldn't grasp what was going to occur.

"Stiff upper lip, Jonathan" he said as he choked on his own words, as he then followed the trail that took down a steep way, throwing all caution aside. "One of us has to announce ourselves. We have to attract attention and I'm going to do it".

"O'Connell....you can't! the plan doesn't say so!".

"Forget the plan Jonathan, if we don't hurry he's going to ram a dagger thru her" Rick said heedlessly, as he realized that once again at merciless hands of that damn priest laid the life of his sister, an echoing ridicule to his lack of ability to protect the people he most cared about in his life. "This isn't happening......it isn't real".

"O'Connell would you stop saying that?!" Jonathan urged anxiously. "You damn well know this is happening so do something bloody fast before the mummy realizes that we're here!".

But suddenly, however, Imhotep stopped chanting the incantation and opened his abysmal, ebony eyes, looking straight into Rick's own and he then smiled malignantly. There was absolutely no doubt what that very smile was saying to Rick. He had seen it all before in the bazaar back in Cairo when Imhotep had taken Evelyn. That very smile that held all the arrogance of ages and all the sadistic, vindictive thoughts laying beneath the surface, the way it started at the eyes and ended at the lips, showing that underneath there was by far, far worse problems than any thing else imaginable.

"Oh god...no" Rick thought, as he heard his very own voice crash straight into his mind with a sickening slam. "I'll be seeing you again", had that come back forcefully hard.

"Bloody hell!" Jonathan suddenly shouted, "High priest, let her go! Angela! wake up! come on!".

Imhotep looked up at them and glared furiously causing Jonathan to stumble back a few steps. There was no doubt whatsoever that fate had suddenly switched teams and Imhotep knew quiet well of it as well. Taking Angela's body, he picked her up and stood her delicately in front of the sacrificial altar and in motions that lengthen both the ecstasy and the pain of himself and them, he put his arms around her waist and softly kissed her neck before he withdrew himself and with arm gently slid his fingers along the curve of her hip before he whispered something and kissed her lovingly again.

By that moment, Jonathan and Rick were actually holding onto one another as Ardeth, Evelyn, and Kaila looked on in frozen horror.

"My god....he cannot be doing this" Evelyn murmured, as she hugged Kaila tightly. "He cannot".

As if that wasn't enough, Imhotep's smirk broadened as he pulled out a lapis lazuli dagger and said scornfully. "I told you all once that death was only the beginning. And now...here before you....is where it all begins".

His eyes suddenly bore into Jonathan and Rick who instinctively took a few steps back and looked around for weapons of some sort.

"Do you have any sort of ideas ol' chap? we could use them right about now" Jonathan whispered, as he kept his nervous eyes on the priest. "Come on, O'Connell, think of something".

"I'm thinking, just give me a sec"

"May I remind you that we don't have much time to live and you need to come up with something fast!".

Looking at Evelyn, Imhotep said coldly. "Tell them that I have chosen them to offer up their lives in order to ressurect Isiria. If they are both man enough, they will come tranquily and die with honor....which is little than they actually deserve. If do not accept, however, I will more than gladly drag them both here myself".

"Oh dear" Evelyn gasped fearfully, as she grimaced. "Our options are limited, aren't they?".

"What did he just say?" Rick asked her nervously, as he looked back to see her.

"Um, well, he said that he would like you two to sacrifice your lives in order to bring back Isiria to life. He says that you will die with honor and if you don't accept that he will kill you anyway".

Jonathan looked at Rick. "He doesn't give much choices, does he?"

"Yeah, well, Jonathan. Mummies are never fair" Rick replied. "You should know that by now".

"Okay, I know that we don't have much time but I have to tell you something now that is crucial for you to know".

"Well say it fast, Jon, we don't have time for chatting".

"The mummy of Isiria is here in Hamunaptra and is somewhere within these walls, but I'm not sure where exactly....but she is inside here".

"So what's your point?"

"He can't use Angela unless he plans on brainwashing her into forgetting who she is. He might be planning on convincing her that she's Isiria".

"No" Ardeth suddenly cut in. "Imhotep would never settle for a mere substitute, he's one who always wants the original not a mere copy".

"Over my dead body" Rick growled, as he took another step back, trying to find another way to move.

"Sorry to say O'Connell, but I don't think Imhotep sees that as much of a threat" Jonathan hissed.

"Get back, both of you just get back!" Ardeth commanded, as he swiftly pulled his scimitar out. "As soon as I get a chance to distract him, you can act". His sword suddenly seemed like the only weapon that the world had within its defense as he brandished it more for the utter challenge of a motion than for any other thing.

"Med Jai, I have no time to deal with you now" Imhotep growled. "But if you wish to be the one to perish first, so be it. Otherwise you will get out of my way and let me complete what has already begun".

Ardeth didn't move from his stance and watched intently as Imhotep leaned Angela against the altar so she had a support of some kind. Much to his surprise and deep offense, the priest walked nonchalantly right passed him with an obvious, cold thought of unworthiness for his challenge.

Seeing this in horror, Jonathan suddenly scurried back, tripping over himself in an effort to run backwards as he kept a steady uneasy eye on the dagger that gleamed wickedly in the torchlight, as Rick ran in the opposite direction to the side.

"Are you afraid High Priest? are you afraid of what the Med Jai could do to you?" Ardeth goaded, as he sprinted and stopped in front of Imhotep again. As he did, his scimitar clashed against the dagger in a sickening screeh of metal that would be enough to drive anyone mad, if they had even considered concentrating on listening.

"I do not fear you Med Jai....I do not fear anything" Imhotep said angrily, as he swiftly backhanded Ardeth Bay, the force of the hit sending him to the floor with a crash.

He looked up dazedly and said "O'Connell, take Evelyn and Kaila and get the Book of the Dead on the altar!". But realizing, as he saw the opposite. "No! leave Angela! you will only get his attention! wait!....stop!"

Suddenly a blinding light exploded around her, as Angela slowly opened her eyes...her name, she had heard it clearly and her head, oh how it ached like crazy as she felt her world spinning. A series of whirlpools and crashing waves of memories began pouring into her mind rapidly and looking up at the chaos in front of her with confusion, she suddenly saw Rick running swiftly for the altar where she stood. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, she felt him grab her dazed body and partially carry it with absolutely no resistance on her own part as her mind flashed on and off like a crazy light switch.

With a fierce growl of pure anger, Imhotep turned around and using the dark powers that had been bestowed upon him three millenia earlier, suddenly pulled Angela's limp body abruptly away from Rick who stumbled back only to be caught himself by Imhotep's invisible grasp which took his arm and violently twisted it behind the adventurer's back until the final outcome of the nerve wrenching pain caused Rick to scream which was suddenly followed by a grotesque, sickening sound of a shoulder being brutally dislocated and another scream following that as the world before Rick's very eyes blew up in a series of explosions of sheer mind blowing pain. As Rick gasped, fighting his own mind to not faint, he could only watch for an instant as Imhotep whirled him around in an easy motion and the flash of the dagger as it was being raised and swinging down in a slow, terrifying motion. The target being his fear filled heart as his eyes grew wide with terror and his body gave up slowly in resignation.

"No! Imhotep! stop!".

Imhotep suddenly froze as he heard the pleading voice that halted the progress of the dagger and felt the weak hand that had been placed upon his arm by a delicate being. The being that caused him to swiftly let go of Rick, who fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Do not dare try to harm him" Angela said defiantly, as she stood in front of Rick. "Do not dare place another hand on him".

Rick dazed and weak with the unimaginable pain, slowly looked up at the two and through his mind consumming pain he clearly realized that perhaps the screams of his had somehow pulled her out of her state of deep, mental sleep that she had been drifting in and brought her rushing back swiftly into the reality of the world that she truly belonged to.

Peering drearily at Imhotep, Angela suddenly felt her head spin again and a second flash came into her mind once more. What was he doing with that dagger? Hadn't she been just standing at the gates of Thebes? yes, she had, of course. She had just been with him and had left Thebes the day after and then....Rick had screamed...and she had left...Rick was hurt....and she was gone. The swirl of remembrances was all too much as Angela started to lose her balance and her mind began to mix once again in a tide of swirling agony.

"You could not have possibly emerged from the trance" Imhotep gasped in horror. "The ritual was not yet complete". He lowered the dagger in alarm as he reached out for her.

However, she suddenly crashed back into reality at the sound of his voice, as a series of feelings flew into her where a touch from anyone could trigger a chaos in her blood and affect the delicate balance of her sanity.

"You must get away from these people before they harm you. You must believe in me, I must complete the incantation or Isiria will--".

"Curse you, Imhotep! I am not Isiria!". Angela screamed fiercely, before she suddenly slapped him twice, dealting the slaps across his face harshly. The slaps were hard enough that they echoed loudly throughout the entire chamber, turning into an angry choir of accusation. "You want me....you want me to believe in you? I would sooner believe demon from the underworld!" she scornfully cried. "You are the one who tries to switch my soul with another, you are the one who attacks the ones that I care for, and you....you ask me to believe in you?! you Imhotep, oh high priest of Osiris, you are the last person on the face of the world that I would ever believe in" she paused for moment and then glared tearfully. "Let me be!".

The expression on Imhotep's face suddenly grew less arrogant, more impassive, and expressionless until the only thing that was left was a stoic image of nothing. His dark, deep eyes, holding no reflection or other feelings other than a deepening pain. It was not physical pain, but it was more the emotions that were suddenly, but gradually emerging and blooming like a blossoming confusion inside of him as he recalled Isiria screaming at him one day. //:"Trust you, Imhotep? believe in you? How can you ask me to do such a thing!":// He closed his eyes tightly at the remembrance, hearing Isiria's disappointed voice echoing inside of him. //:"When you are with another!://

Angela squeezed her eyes shut as a vicious attack of pain came crashing into her head, she left him in shock as he confronted the angry reprimand that spread across her beautiful face embittering it with one question, a question that drove a deeper, sharper dagger of rancor into his already torn soul. "What have you done to me? how could you have done this? what have you done?".

"Please, listen to me. Unless the incantation is completed you are in grave danger. There must be a sacrifice, the elixir must be taken, and an incantation read for you to--".

"No, you will not harm my friends, do you understand? You will not hurt my brother or anyone else" she hissed angrily, as she backed up slowly into her circle of friends. Evelyn and even Kaila pulled her close, as Evelyn still tried to make her mind believe that Angela had just twice slapped and had even lectured Imhotep and actually lived to tell it all, while Jonathan in the meantime had helped Rick to his feet and were both now standing in front of them along with Ardeth Bay. While they all aimed useless but temporarily defensive weapons at the priest.

"Your brother? your....your friends?". The shock to Imhotep was all too unreal, as he fought his sudden shock. "It cannot be true".

He walked towards her slowly, cautious of what her reaction could be to him. Deep in his mind something told him that if he touched her again she would actually remember him and forgive him for all of the actions of the past, but she suddenly turned that thought and ripped it in two as she stepped in front of everyone and without thinking, pulled out the dagger she had found earlier and turned its glittering blade against her heart.

"You take one more step forward and I will not hesitate to ram this thru myself" she said in Ancient Egyptian, as she glared tearfully at him. "Or would you like to test me out?"

Jonathan suddenly stepped forward, taking everyone by surprise. "Imhotep, please do not hurt her. I beg of you do not cause her to harm herself...all of us here love her more than anything else in the world".

Imhotep listened, awestruck at hearing Jonathan's Egyptian plea, watching in silence as Rick held Angela close to him with his free hand as he told himself that his little sister was okay and that she was safe and in his protection. Feeling Angela relax slightly in his hold, he then slowly pulled away the dagger from her grasp and handed it over to Jonathan, who took it and slipped it into his coat.

Bipolarities, are the opposites of one another. They are repellent forces that never meet and are completely different from one another. Once again, should they crash and intermingle, chaos and extremes would be a sure thing. In this world where bipolarities are a common ground of life, one can never be sure what will repelll away from us or what we'll repel away from. In this world of chaos and contemporary findings of different laterals, one is always the one who finds themselves repelled away from our loves and our triumphs...fate and destiny decide these for us and we are their chess pawns, not fair?....well, it never is.

Imhotep could hardly believe that what he had thought was a dream come true was actually the dark side-effect of it all. He had awaken a nemesis far greater than anything or anyone and he closed his eyes as he swallowed his deep emotional torture. Somehow his pride and arrogance had taken a plummeting descent into the well of oblivion with no chance of returning anytime soon. All this was a tormenting coup de grace, as he realized that she did not love him, but rather his own enemies. The darker beings of this almost literal spiritual war.

Backing away, his arms were outstretched in a motion that no one could decipher exactly as a sign of peace or a sign of loss. He sighed, the worse reminder of his failure was that his hands were empty and longing to hold her against him and he then spoke resignedly, breaking the ever burdening silence between the two separate entities. "I will leave then, I would not do anything that would harm you, for the world".

Reaching out, he traced the sculpture of her body and her face in the ethereal space separating them, wishing somehow that he could touch her through the ever growing chasm that expanded between them. A chasm large enough, to be precise, that spread over more than three thousand years. Imhotep's eyes suddenly glance down though, attracted by the sheen of something, jewelry, where their gaze rested upon the ring of gold and emerald that was gracing her right ring finger. The shine of it and the crystal almost seemed to once again light up his eyes with the flmaes of their usual fierce, hypnotic blaze and he smiled slightly.

"But now, Angela, listen well to what I have to say...the ring that you now wear was a gift from me to you. Do you not remember that? It is a symbol of our love. I taught you how to love and cherish another and I taught you how to do so many other things and no matter how much you deny it or who you claim to love and care for you will always be Isiria, my Isiria." His eyes glittered sadistically."I lost you once, but I will not lose you again...and although you have forgetten everything else, I ask you to remember that...and remember that well".

Dropping his hands, he smirked, a treachery of the darkness that evolved in the shadows of the underworld, hiding many demons and lost, forgotten souls, that were never to be released into the light of the living...nor the peaceful realm of the sacred dead.

"I am after all, Angela, a very...persevering man".

The words he spoke resonated threateningly in Angela's head as she turned and looked away, cradling her face into Rick's chest as Jonathan moved closer and stroked her hair softly as he looked on coldly at the priest.

Having said that, Imhotep swiftly took the Book of the Dead in one hand and turned into a dissolving tempest of sand, that blasted through the thick granite wall in thunderous uproar. Once the echoes of the explosion and winds had died down and the dust had settled, the group all got to their feet and brushed themselves off. The blast itself was a final farewell, a sort of going out with a bang in the literal sense of style...but it was also a warning...a very volatile warning.

Cautiously, Ardeth and Rick walked up to the gap at the top of the stairs and marveled in awe at the damage, both afraid to look through it for fear of getting their necks broken by an awaiting, invisible surprise lurking on the other side. As they looked over it darkly, Jonathan took the moment to embrace Angela tightly in his arms and caressed her back lightly as she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, hot streaming tears slowly were sliding down her face as she wept, lightly staining his shirt. Neither one cared though, their was no reason to...they both felt torn at their own actions and words were not the best solution, actions after all always did speak louder.

Ardeth Bay, however, didn't have that thought in mind as he turned and looked down at both of them. His calculating, piercing eyes bore into them suspiciously. "I think both you and I need to talk...Angela".

Angela parted from Jonathan's embrace and slowly turned, looking up at Ardeth with distraught eyes and she finally spoke, her voice cold and emotionless. "Where shall we begin?".



Okay now for catching up on reviews: Fan of the Mummy : Okay I'm back!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! This is Chapter 19 on some sites but here it is seen as chapter 7! I hope you like!!!! I'm back I'm finallly alive!!! ^_^ Thanks for insisting so much to me!!! Angel Ruse: Thanks for the review! I'm really glad you like my fic! please I hope you come back!!