Evelyn found herself riding through the streets of London. She felt Rick's arms around her and realized he was riding the same camel. She smiled and looked over at Jonathan, who was arguing with his own camel about only God knows what. They stopped in front of a large stone building. This must have been where they were heading, because Rick slid off his camel and then helped Evelyn off. Jonathan sort of fell off of his, cursing his animal as it spat on him. Evelyn turned to the camel she and Rick had been riding and stroked its nose affectionately.
"Thank you, Addie, you're a doll."
"Anytime, Evelyn." said the camel with a smile as she and the other turned and walked back down in the other direction of the London streets.
"That Rick seems nice..." said the other camel as they walked down the street, "I had to get the cheeky British one..."
Evelyn turned to Jonathan and gave him a suddenly reproving look...
"Jonathan... you forgot to feed the belly dancers didn't you..."
"Yes... I did..." Jonathan said apologetically.
"Oh, darn it... I'll take care of it when I get back!" Evelyn said angrily. The three of them walked into the huge oak doors of the stone building together and found themselves back in the Fort Brydon. Even though the Fort was located in Cairo and they had just recently ridden down the London roads on the backs of camels just a few seconds ago... this did not seem to phaze them. In fact, they seemed to find it perfectly normal. Rick and Jonathan exchanged strange dialogue indeed. They spoke of self-sweeping floor tiles, irritable psychic horses, and a lizard who would do a dance for you if you gave it a few pounds. Then Jonathan announced that he was leaving...
"I need to have a word with the cat... I think she owes me money from that poker game last night..." said Jonathan as he swept up the stairs. Evelyn shook her with a faint smirk and then turned to look at Rick... only to find that he was not there anymore. He had just disappeared. And while Evelyn didn't find this unusual... she did wonder why. She turned to go back out the oak doors of Fort Brydon. When she reached the outside, everything was gone... no buildings, no people... nothing but miles and miles of endless sand. She turned back around and realized the Fort had disappeared as well.
"This must be the antics of those stupid llamas. Bloody pranksters!" Evelyn said, sounding most unlike herself, "They're not even native to here... think they can waltz in and...". But before she could have another thought of evil pranking llamas from other countries... she felt herself slipping through the sands. First her feet disappeared... then her shins... then her entire legs... then her torso... then her shoulders... then her head. She felt herself hit a hard stone floor... although it didn't hurt at all when she landed. She didn't feel anything except this great urgency to get out of this place... whatever it was. As she picked herself up and looked around... she realized she was in an extremely dark, circular room with hieroglyphs carved into the walls. Her normally inquisitive and curious nature was taking a backseat to a rising sense of fear and foreboding. She didn't want to be here... She felt the floor beneath her begin to spin slowly to the right... As the walls began to slowly spin to the left. She was twirling involuntarily as the floor carried her around, gathering speed with each rotation. She tried to read just a little bit of the ancient Egyptian writing on the wall, trying to find a way out of this nightmarish room. But it was no use.
The room kept spinning faster and faster without any hints of intention to slow down. She felt her fear rise to a brimming point inside of her... like some sort of poison liquid threatening to spill from her body. She was getting weak with dizziness. The room was spinning so fast that the walls were nothing but brownish gray blurs. She felt herself collapse on the swiftly rotating floor, the dizzy feeling worsening when she clenched her eyes shut. Her stomach threatened to turn itself inside out as her limbs threatened to rip themselves off of her body. She felt as if gravity would eventually tear her apart. Then suddenly... the spinning slowed to a halt.
She tried to lift her head and look around... but she couldn't move. Her body had somehow become three times as heavy as before. She heard a raspy, bone-chilling breathing coming from the shadows. The sound seemed to signify morbid feelings in Evelyn... about agony... pain... about death. A pungent smell reached her nose... the smell of rotting corpse. She couldn't lift her head to see what was producing this deathly smell... but she had a good idea what it might be. It came closer as the fear inside her brimmed to a breaking point. She couldn't contain the tears as they spilled silently down her checks... it kept coming closer... and closer until she could hear it's ragged breathing just above her. She unclenched her eyes and the most horrible site she had ever seen looked down upon her tear-soaked face. The hideous face that she had worked so hard to send back to the underworld... looking down at her with Mr. Burns' eyes...
Evelyn jerked awake... she found herself in her bed, covered in cold sweat. The room was dark and cold, she could hear a deep, nasal breathing somewhere off to her right. Common sense slowly crept back into her confused mind. The gash in her side smarted threateningly... a painful reminder that she was still alive. Her heart was beating fast... it wouldn't slow down. Her breathing mirrored her the hurried meter of her heart. She was panicking, she couldn't get herself to calm down. She needed light, some kind of indication that she wasn't alone in this dark room. Even though she knew Jonathan was there... his horrible snoring was no help at all. The uncertainty of what might lay in the shadows... the almost deafening silence only broken by Jonathan's snores... the suffocating darkness of the room...
She pushed herself up on her arms and got out of the bed as quickly as she could. She stumbled as soon as her feet hit the floor. She picked herself up, still breathing rapidly, clutching her chest. She hobbled through the darkness painfully, narrowly missing walls and pieces of furniture. She wasn't sure what she was doing, she just wanted to get out of this blackness. The dark face of the resurrected Imhotep still loomed over her open eyes. The tears began welling up, threatening to spill down her cheeks. She ran into something hard... and stumbled backwards slightly. She felt a doorknob and turned it quickly, practically throwing herself out of the dark room. She hit the opposite wall very hard and slid down onto the ground, her long dark hair falling like a curtain over her face. She couldn't contain the emotion anymore... she was now in much physical grief on top of being so shaken by a simple nightmare. But it wasn't just a simple nightmare... it was a mixture of her oldest and newest worst fears. The tears she was fighting so desperately to hold back came marching down her face... and they did not come silently. She heard a door open... "Evelyn?"
Rick had heard a crash outside in the hallway and had swiftly gotten out of bed to investigate. When he had opened the door he saw Evelyn, the curves of her small body spilled out onto the floor. He heard sobs and her shoulders were shaking violently.She was crying.Without hesitation, he hurriedly approached Evelyn's crying form and knelt beside her. He ran a hand along her forehead to slide the hair out of her face. He surveyed her, a curious unease reflected in his eyes. Evelyn felt his hand move her hair off her face to reveal a shirtless Rick, looking tousled with sleep.
"Evelyn... what happened... what's wrong?" He said, still surveying with concerned eyes. Evelyn looked up at him, glad to see a face over her that was not decaying and smelling of death. She took a deep breath and felt her heart slow down significantly.
"I... I had... a... a dream," she managed to whimper.
"Oh..." Rick sounded a bit surprised... "Was it that bad?"
Evelyn nodded, feeling the tears threatening to charge again. Rick looked at her sympathetically. He grabbed the back of her arms gently and began to help her up. She grabbed his supporting forearms gratefully. After she was on her feet, Rick looked at her and smiled his lopsided smile, it radiated comfort and reassuring. He wiped away her few remaining tears with his thumb and wrapped her in his muscular arms. She brought her hands around the back of his neck and rested her arms on his bare shoulders, her chin catching the curve in his neck. She felt her heart beat begin to rise again... but this time for different reasons. She could feel his bare skin with her hands for the first time. She had suddenly realized that the only thing between the two of them were the few thin layers of bandaging around her injured torso. He held her tightly, she could feel every single muscle in his abdomen and chest pressing against her... every muscle lining his arms and shoulders around her, giving an electric quality against her skin. She could feel his hands around her waist... suddenly not believing that they were this close. He gave off a comforting scent of clean linens. She could hear the natural noises his body made... she could feel his chest move up and down when he breathed and she could feel his heart beating... strong and steady. The moment was almost surreal. Her breath was caught in her throat. Rick pulled away slightly and looked at her, meaning to ask if she was going to be alright. But then he caught sight of her bright green eyes that always seemed to catch him off guard. Now that wasn't really fair. Without much warning, they're lips were together, locked in an intense kiss. Evelyn felt Rick's fingers press slightly into her lower back as she did the same on his shoulders... the passion progressing between them growing with each passing second. She returned his kiss earnestly as he pulled her a bit closer, making it to where there wasn't even an inch of space between them. When the kiss finally ended, their lips pulled apart slowly. She rested her forehead against his... frozen in a moment of intense passion, wanting to stay there and never leave his arms.
They stood there for a few minutes, both breathing a bit harder than they had before. Evelyn wondered if she was still dreaming... still in the presence of his awe-inspiring muscular build. Rick forearms rested at the base of her back and his hands stood un-movingly on her hips.
"You going to be alright?" he said softly, looking down at her. Evelyn nodded. "Then let's get you back to bed..." he said, beginning to lead her back to her room, still keeping a hand on her hip for support. She kept a hand on his muscular shoulder as they walked. Rick opened the door and led her in. He pulled back the covers as he had earlier that night and helped her into bed. Once she was in, he pulled the covers back over her and then leaned over her, resting on arms placed on either side of her body.
"'Night,"
"Good night..." Evelyn said, returning his smile. Even in the dark, his amazing blue eyes shown through the shadows to look down at her. His lips found hers again. She was surprised at how wonderfully strange it felt. They hadn't really been this physically close since she was attacked outside of the fort. Maybe strange wasn't the word for it... it definitely wasn't bad. His lips were just welcoming more... she returned the kiss again, her hands fell sensually on his face, her thumbs caressing his jaw line. She hadn't realized how impossible it seemed to love someone this much. He pulled up slowly, breaking the kiss gently.
"'Night..." he whispered once more.
"I love you..." Evelyn said, somewhat unexpectedly. But she had to say it. It was one emotion that was literally pulling her heart in twelve different directions. Rick looked at her intently for a few moments before that smile reappeared on his face... just visible in the dark.
"I love you, too..." he said, the words sounding a bit awkward... but at least he meant them. "Get some sleep... alright?"
Evelyn nodded and watched his bare back disappear into the shadows as he left. She heard him close the door behind him and turned over and fell asleep... they'd be going to London later that morning...