Merci to all :)

~*~*~*~

I had never been more embarrassed in my life.

And then I woke up a mummy.

No, not my best day. Or night. Week, really. I was definitely on a roll. I fell for a beautiful woman who would never in a million years like me, nearly kissed her, then vomited instead.

But it gets better.

She didn't say a word about it.

I still can't decide why. At first I thought perhaps she was pretending I didn't remember what had happened. Then I was sure she thought I was trying to avoid embarrassment by not mentioning it. In any case, she was extremely kind not to bring it up. We went about the day's business (our only find the rather gooey mummy in the sarcophagus) barely saying a word to each other, though I caught something like disappointment in her face whenever I did speak to her. Maybe I was just imagining that part.

Night had fallen again, and our attackers had not yet returned. I wasn't sure exactly what we were planning to do if they did, but Evelyn had just hushed me when I'd asked, so I assumed she had some sort of plan. Whatever it was, I wasn't about to put her in any danger--her reckless side was rather rampant, and although I trusted her completely with my life, I wasn't too confident in her planning abilities. What was she going to do, saunter out into the fighting, shake her hips and ask sweetly if the men would restrain from killing us?

No, who was I kidding? The woman had enough ammunition to supply a small army, and clearly was a better shot than I would ever, ever be. She was going to defend the camp. What else was there to do? Evelyn was different than any other girl on the planet, I was sure. She had somehow put herself at the head of our entire party, because she was the most competent, but also because she had that spark in her that people listened to, followed blindly. I was no exception, but somehow I knew my admiration was different. It wasn't simple lust, either--and I took care to make sure none of the men from Gabor's gang so much as looked at her sideways--I knew somehow it had to be deeper, didn't it? That somehow I knew I wouldn't mind waking up next to her everyday, spending my days missing her presence, my nights worshipping her existence.

If I'd said any of this to her, I was horribly sure she'd laugh in my face. And now she knew anyway, the result of a drunken decision and a physiological reflex. Night had not relieved our hindered conversation attempts, but I had other things to worry about. Dr. Chamberlain (how I resented his title) had found the Book of the Dead, and I was planning to....err.....borrow it. Yes, borrow it. I just wanted to take a quick peek, that's all.

The Carnahan siblings were asleep, as was most of Gabor's people. Beni Gabor was another issue that irked me to no end, but I didn't have time for that either. It was incredibly easy to take the Book from Dr. Chamberlain's weak grasp, and I carried it quietly back to our little campsite. I took the key from my pocket and set it into the star, preparing to--

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," I heard from behind me. Evelyn apparently had not been asleep after all. "Mr. Professor resorts a life of crime."

"You're one to talk. Just be quiet, I'm going to give it back. Eventually."

I felt her come up behind me and kneel. She placed her hand lightly on my back for balance as she looked over my shoulder at the 3,000 year old words. "What is this thing, anyway?"

"It's the Book of the Dead." I turned the key, and the locks snapped open. Easy.

"Err...Dead? I don't think this is the best place to be playing around with stuff like that."

"Don't you trust me?" The letters on the heavy pages gleamed in the light of the campfire, beckoning to be read, begging to be spoken. "It's not like it really means anything. They're just words."

"All right then, Mr. Scholar, what do they mean?"

I began to read, eyes drawn to a random passage rather forcefully. I couldn't hear myself speaking the words, but I knew I was, I could see my fingers tracing the line below them to keep my place, could feel the pressure from Evelyn's hand on my back grow as the wind got louder and the air got colder. I knew I was speaking the words and I couldn't stop.

Suddenly we heard a piercing scream from deep within the caverns of Hamunaptra, accompanied by the shrieking of the doctor. I couldn't make out his words in the howling wind, but the screams from within the place chilled my entire body, save for the tiny handprint which connected me to Evelyn. Her hand linked to mine is really the only thing I remember of the next few minutes--locusts, scarabs, screaming, out of all of it I have plucked only her. She pulled me across the sand and into Hamunaptra, eventually pushing me to a relatively safe location as ravenous bugs flooded past us, though we were separated by the tide. We locked eyes as we caught our breath, the bugs still going past us in waves. As I fell backward--of all the times for a hidden trap door!--what I remember most is breaking eye contact as I went into darkness.

I tumbled to the ground who knows how far below my starting point. My knee hurt terribly, probably jammed, which hindered my progress as I attempted to stand. My eyes adjusted slowly, catching the slight movement of something in my peripheral vision, was it--a woman? She stared at the wall in front of her as if reading it.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" I tried as I staggered toward her, reaching out a hand. She did not react. As my fingers touched her shoulder I realized she was not wearing a brown cloak or anything of the sort, the juicy squish of spotted, decaying flesh was what met me instead. She whirled around, mismatched eyes glaring out of rotting sockets. I was frozen to the spot, my limbs taking on that dreamy heaviness that usually only afflicts one in nightmares.

"Prince Imhotep?" she murmured, speaking faintly in ancient Egyptian. Who uses ancient Egyptian as their language of choice? I thought, my thoughts strangely logical as I looked a walking, talking corpse in the eye. "Thank you for awakening me. Now we can be together...for all eternity..."

I still do not know exactly what a woman expects the reply to be when she starts spouting things like this, but luckily I didn't have to respond. The corpse's ear suddenly exploded with the impact of a whizzing bullet, sending her reeling backwards. "Come on!" I heard Evelyn yell, a split second before she grabbed hold of my arm and began to run. She dragged us out into the night again and face-first into the imposing stare of a dozen guns.

~*~*~*~