Here you go! Chapter 7 of the story! As usual, huge thank yous go out to my faithful reviewers, lilylynn and Empathy Is Me (a.k.a DangerousMutantxXx004). And as always, you guys make me feel really good about what I am doing. Thanks for your support! And thanks to The eGyPtian Scribler for also reviewing, I am glad you like this fic, and I as I've told the others, as long as you guys like this story, I'll continue it!
Also, sorry about the formatting… I'm having a little trouble getting it to look right. It looks fine on my computer, but as soon as I upload it, it goes all screwy! I hope that when you are all reading this, it finally looks okay, but sorry if it doesn't, I'll keep working on it.
Chapter 7 Escape!
Leah was coming around slowly, and when she finally opened her eyes, she found herself in a room with just one small twin bed shoved into a corner, a small window above it. Moonlight streamed in, illuminating the otherwise dark room, and Leah saw four ugly men surrounding her.
"She's awake," one whispered to the other three.
Leah turned her head towards the voice and then jumped quickly as she felt a prick in her side. "Ouch!" she said, looking down at herself. She saw one of the ugly men quickly pulling a long dark brown stick from her flesh. "You idiot!" she cried, grabbing onto the end of the stick, wrenching it from the aggressor. She was about to stand up and give him a good whack when she realized that she couldn't move her arms, or any other part of her body. She was tied to the chair she was sitting in, thick rope wrapped around her thighs and upper body. "Hey! What's up with this?" she asked, moving her shoulders back and forth, trying to get out of the ropes.
The ugly men cackled at her.
"Hey! Get me out of here!" she screamed, pulling at the tightly knotted binds. "Let me go!"
The ugly people continued to laugh as Leah attempted to free herself. After about ten seconds, Leah burst into tears, frustrated. "Please," she sobbed. "Please, just let me go. Please!"
The ugly people stopped laughing suddenly as a shadow passed over them, the door to the tiny room banging open.
"Who did this?" a low voice asked sternly in Egyptian from behind Leah.
The ugly men cowered in fear.
"I asked, who did this?"
Leah turned her head slightly, and out of the corner of her eye, saw a tall, muscular man, his head completely shaved.
The men all pointed at each other.
"Ahhhh!" shrieked the bald guy, raising his hands and lifting the four men into the air.
Leah screamed, shocked. This must be Imhotep! He is fully regenerated now! she thought.
"You will pay for this!" Leah heard Imhotep say. "You will all pay for this!"
"No! Stop!" Leah screamed, twisting around in the chair as far as she could go. "Please! Don't hurt them!" she said, her ancient Egyptian impeccable as she spoke.
"And why not?" Imhotep said to Leah, coming to stand beside her.
"Because! You shouldn't go around hurting people just because you feel like it!" Leah said. "It's not right!"
Imhotep stared at Leah for a few seconds, and then abruptly his hands fell to his sides and the men hanging in the air tumbled to the ground with large thuds.
The men all stood, screaming in fright, and ran from the room as quickly as their legs could move them.
Leah sighed, shaking her head, trying to figure how exactly she had gotten into this room, and maybe how exactly she had gotten into this entire situation.
Imhotep stared angrily after the ugly men, then knelt in front of Leah, pulling at the knots that restrained her. "I am sorry, Samir-hi," he said. "My servants are not very competent."
What am I supposed to say to that? Leah thought to herself. Am I supposed to tell him that it's okay? Because it's not okay! She said nothing, not sure what to tell the man standing in front of her.
"You are just like Alshirem," Imhotep said as pulled at the rope, unwrapping the piece that had held Leah's abdomen in place. "You truly are your mother's daughter."
Leah still didn't reply as Imhotep worked at the knots around her thighs and legs, finally releasing her. Leah flexed her knees and elbows, testing out her joints.
Imhotep straightened and stood directly in front of Leah, where she was still sitting in the chair. "And you are my daughter, too."
Leah realized that her best bet would be to go along with whatever the regenerated mummy wanted for now, until she could think of a better plan. Still, she couldn't resist burning off a little of her resentment. "No, I'm not your daughter, you disgusting, ancient, ugly, lying, bald, two-timing, insane, unfaithful purple zebra!" Leah cried out in English, throwing every insulting word she could think of together.
Imhotep looked at Leah, not understanding the words she had said, but understanding the tone she had used. "You are angry, my daughter," said Imhotep. "Why?"
Leah took a breath, forcing herself to calm down, knowing that playing along with Imhotep's charade may be her only saving grace. She let out the air in her lungs slowly, then formed these words in the mummy's language. "I am sorry, Father," she said. "I am angry. Those horrible, awful men tied me up, and it made me angry."
Imhotep looked lovingly into Leah's eyes, and she almost felt sorry for toying with the creature's emotions, that is, if the undead could actually feel. "I will take care of them," he answered Leah. "Nobody hurts my Samir and gets away with it."
"Do not hurt them," Leah said. "Please, do not hurt them."
"For you, I will not hurt them physically. But they will hurt in other ways," said Imhotep. He extended his hand to Leah. "Come, my daughter."
Leah looked at his hand, debating on if she should accept his offer, and then took it, noting that it felt just like a normal human hand. He pulled her to her feet.
Leah had forgotten about the injury to her ankle. When she put her weight on her left foot, it flew out from under her, leaving her in a heap on the floor of the room.
"Samir-hi," Imhotep said worriedly, "are you hurt? Did they hurt you?"
Leah shook her head quickly. "Uh, no, no, they did not hurt me, I hurt myself," she said, sitting up and rubbing her sore ankle, remembering that Ardeth had not yet gotten around to wrapping it up for her. "Uh, Father, I believe I must see a doctor."
Imhotep shook his head. "You cannot," he said. "We must leave for Rathshad at day break for the ceremony. You must rest now. I will carry you to your bed." The human-like creature knelt and lifted Leah, carrying her across the room to the bed. He laid her on it with great care and pulled the blankets up to her chin. "Sleep tight, my daughter," he said. He attempted to kiss her cheek, but Leah turned her head quickly so that all he got was a mouthful of hair.
"Good night, Father," Leah said stiffly.
"Good night, Samir-hi," Imhotep said, and he walked the ten feet to the other side of the room where the door was.
My name is Leah, not Samir-hi! Leah felt like screaming at Imhotep as he shut the door behind him. She heard a lock sliding into place, barring the exit. You stupid mummy jackass! she added in her head. Lying flat on the bed, she raised her hands to her cheeks and began to think. I have to get out of here. I don't even know where I am, if I'm still in Thebes or if I'm in Russia or Japan! But getting out of this room is the only way I'm going to survive, because obviously, this Empty guy won't let me go, since he thinks I'm his daughter and wants to perform some ritual on me. So, the question is, how do I do it? How do I free myself? I can't use the door… Leah looked up above the head of the bed and saw the tiny two feet by two feet window. I'll have to use the window, she decided. She sat up in the bed and tossed the sheets off her body, putting her legs over the side. She stood on her good foot and looked out the window into the night, then flopped miserably back onto the bed. Okay, bad idea, she thought. There is no way that I can climb from a fourth story window to the ground with my bad foot. New plan.
Leah situated herself so that she was lying on the bed again, her mind running a hundred miles a minute. She thought back over the events of the last day, until she got to the part of being tied to the chair in this room and being poked with a stick. That's it! she thought happily. She tumbled quickly out of the bed, putting a bump on her shin in the process. She began to crawl to the center of the small room until she felt the hard wood of the chair in her hands. Feeling around in the darkness, she located the long strands of rope and the thick four feet long stick that the ugly man had poked her with and that Imhotep had left just lying in the middle of the room.
Now armed with the objects that she hoped would free her, she gingerly crawled back towards the bed, her left foot beginning to throb. This has to work, she thought as she dragged herself onto the bed, depositing her prizes. It has to.
A few minutes later, Leah sat admiring her handiwork. "Thanks a lot, Rick," she said out loud. "I thought you were just being stupid when you taught me how to tie a slipknot, but I guess it really does come in handy." She couldn't help but smile as she fingered the tight knots holding the pieces of rope together, reminiscing back to when she was five and Rick was seventeen and they were still together at the orphanage in Cairo.
She moved quickly, tying one of the free ends to one of the brass bedposts and the other end around her waist. Never been bungee jumping before, but now's as good a time as any to learn , she thought as she waded across the bed to the window. She looked over her shoulder at the room behind her, making sure that she was still alone. Then she rose up on her knees, wincing as her bad ankle twisted a little. "Grin and bear it, Leah," she said through clenched teeth as she lifted the window open. "Grin and bear it."
She grabbed the stick and hauled it to the window, tossing it out the opening. She cringed when she heard the distant thump as it made contact with the ground four stories down.
There was a crash outside the door to the room she was trapped in as men began moving about in the hall, having heard the disturbance.
"Not a good sign," she mumbled to herself. She heard the lock moving. "Definitely not a good sign." She hoisted herself to the head of the bed and reached up to the windowsill above it, pulling herself up so that her upper body was hanging outside. She heard the knob of the door turning, and sending a prayer heavenward, she pushed as hard as she could against the bed with her good foot, sending herself sailing head first to the cold, hard ground below.
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Ardeth Bay had been wandering around the city of Thebes for hours. He stopped outside a woodshop to catch his breath, noticing that the sky was lightening up and that dawn would be upon the city within the hour.
I must go on, he thought. I must find Leah. It is my fault the creature found her, and so I must be the one to recover her.
Though the Medjai leader was tired, having not had any decent sleep in almost two days, he left the shop, walking on, trying to find any signs of Rick's sister. Rick and Evelyn were also searching, as were Jonathan and Alex, leaving Ardeth on his own, just the way he liked it.
Ardeth knew that once Imhotep had Leah, the mummy's next stop would be the city of Rathshad, where he would try to resurrect Samir-hi, putting her body with the soul that Leah carried within hers. From there, who knew what Imhotep's objective would be, but the main reason that the creature needed to be stopped was to keep the communicable disease that was within Samir-hi's tomb from being unleashed into a susceptible, unimmune population. And saving Leah's life was an added bonus to keeping Imhotep from raising the princess of Ikata. If that disaster could be averted, then the last step was to put the mummy back into his grave, where he would hopefully remain, dead, for all time.
Which is why I must find Leah, Ardeth thought as he walked, so that we can concentrate on stopping him. The creature will not leave Thebes with her since I have posted some of my men on the lookout by the city gates, but they cannot remain on guard after daybreak, for fear of being too conspicuous. I must Must MUST find Leah before dawn.
Ardeth walked along the main street of Thebes. As he did, he saw Leah's pretty freckled face in his mind's eye, her lips in a wide smile. He thought of her laugh, how it tinkled through the air like bells, and of her long curls. I love her hair, he thought absently to himself. I love everything about her. I love her.
Ardeth stopped walking suddenly. I cannot love her. I hardly know her! he thought to himself, shaking his head. My purpose with her is to protect her and keep her safe from the creature. I do not love her.
Still, as he walked he couldn't help but continue to think about her, her face painted in every corner of his brain. He strolled slowly down the street, his hand on the large gun by his side. He examined every face that came towards him, hoping that one of them would be Leah's. And every time, he was disappointed as he realized that none of them were.
He searched with no luck until the sky was filled with light, announcing the beginning of a new day. Ardeth found a small tavern and ducked inside.
"We're closed now," a bartender told Ardeth in Arabic from behind the counter as he wiped down the marble surface. "We'll be open tonight."
Ardeth stopped just inside the door. "I am not here to drink. May I rest for a few minutes?"
The bartender stopped moving the rag across the counter and looked Ardeth over, taking in the stranger's peculiar clothing and odd tattoos. He finally nodded. "Go ahead. But don't be long."
Ardeth nodded. "Thank you, my good man."
The bartender waved his hand carelessly at Ardeth and went back to his cleaning.
Ardeth settled into a chair by the large window near the door. He stared out through the glass, looking over Thebes, watching as the city came alive and a new day started. He watched a storekeeper sweeping the sidewalk outside his shop. He saw a young woman buying some fruit at a stand just a few feet from where Ardeth sat. He observed several carriages moving through the street, the horses trotting daintily. A couple of automobiles were also in sight.
Ardeth rested, wondering where Leah was, what she was doing, if she was okay. Why do I care so much about her? he asked himself. I just met her yesterday; I cannot have any feelings for her! Can I? Ardeth shook his head, wishing that he had told the bartender he had come for a drink. What do I tell Rick when I go back to the hotel without Leah? She was my responsibility last night; it is my fault she is missing now. Rick will never forgive me for this. Leah will never forgive me for this. Ardeth turned from the window and faced the table in front of him. He stared absentmindedly at it, memorizing every groove in its wooden surface. He did that for about five minutes, his mind wandering over Leah, praying that she was okay.
The bell over the door tinkled as it opened.
"We're closed, ma'am," the bartender called across the room to the intruder.
Ardeth looked up quickly, his mood lifting for a split second, then falling.
The dark-haired young woman from the fruit stand next door dipped her head in acknowledgement and turned away, going back out the door.
Ardeth sighed, and as he looked back to the table, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the bartender, shooting him an evil look. The Medjai knew that he had over-stayed his welcome, and so he stood, walking to the counter. He put his hand palm down on the countertop. "Thank you, friend," Ardeth said to the bartender, moving his hand from the tabletop to reveal the silver coin he had left. He moved out the door and stood under the overhang outside, still scanning the city. Then he shuffled his feet, heading towards the hotel.
As Ardeth reached his destination, he heard a voice behind him saying his name.
"Ardeth," the soft bell-like voice said.
Ardeth turned, and his heart leaped with joy. "Leah!" he said, darting the few yards to where she was standing. "Leah, are you okay?" he asked as he reached her.
Leah nodded, leaning heavily on her big brown walking stick.
Ardeth reached his hand out to her, his heart swelling as he came in contact with her skin. He wondered what had happened to her, how she had escaped from the creature, but knew that this was not the time for these questions. "Are you sure you are okay?" he asked urgently.
"That part doesn't matter," Leah told Ardeth, still leaning on her stick. "None of us will be okay if we don't stop him. He is going to destroy the world if we don't."
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