AJ jerks herself awake, breathing hard as the feeling of panic seemed to burst. Instead of gauzy curtains, she saw the white fabric of her tent, but there was still a heavy arm about her waist. Afraid of what she might find, she turns slowly until her back is to the tent flaps, finding a familiar face that made her heart leap into her throat.

Iason.

"You wiggle too much," he murmurs, gray eyes flickering open. His brows draw together over his eyes as he takes in her fear, the man supporting himself on an arm so he could brush some of her hair off her face. "Hey, it's alright, I've got you." It was the tenderness in his eyes that reminded her that this man was her husband and not the man from her dreams, AJ letting out a shaky breath as she rests her head against his chest.

"I know, thank you," she says, thankful to have him.

"Nightmares again?" She nods, relaxing as Lawrence settles back down on their cot and rubs her back soothingly. "Maybe you'll feel better if you tell me about them." He'd been asking about them ever since their wedding night, concerned for how she always woke up exhausted and terrified, but AJ still didn't have the courage to talk about them.

"Lawrence—"

"Alexandria, I'm never leaving you and I'll never allow something to hurt you, you know that. Just get your fears off your chest and we'll go from there." She heaves a sigh, sitting up and bringing her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them.

"They've been happening since I was four," she starts, closing her eyes and remembering. "I mean, they're not even terrifying scenes, but there's a sense of upcoming doom that taints all of it. I know something bad is about to happen, but I don't know when it'll finally strike."

"What are they about?" He sits up too, pulling her onto his lap so he could wrap his arms around her protectively.

"This girl and her older brother from the time of Pharaohs, both of them just trying to survive a bad childhood. Their father was a merchant that didn't do very well in the bazaar and their mother died shortly after the girl's first birthday; the brother was sent to Thebes to train as a priest in order for him to survive, but the sister remained with their father to do the chores around the house."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"It's not except for that horrible feeling that everything is going to go wrong." She doesn't realize she's been trembling until Lawrence covers them with the blanket. "Her brother is made into the High Priest when she's fifteen and summons her to the palace to live with him. He was protective of her, you see, she was the reason he wanted to better himself. While there, he'd arranged a possible marriage between her and the Pharaoh's nephew, a snotty boy a year older than her that would rather pass his afternoons with his lover."

"What a little shit."

"Honey, his lover was his best friend and a male."

"Oh."

"Anyway, the sister and the nephew would have married each other if only to save themselves any trouble in the future, but there was one thing neither had planned."

"Love?"

"That's right. Her brother had assigned her a bodyguard, a Greek warrior that had come to Egypt to escape his overbearing family. He was beautiful and fierce and kind, he would give his life for the sister without questioning it. At first it was because he was being paid to keep potential enemies from assassinating her, but then they began to talk during her afternoon walks through the gardens, which led to them talking throughout the rest of the day. She would teach him ancient Egyptian and he would teach her Greek and Latin, she would help him dress like an Egyptian and he would tell her about the fashions in his homeland."

"Sounds kind of like us, huh?"

"A little, yes." That's one of the things that never failed to make her heart beat faster in fear. Would their relationship be doomed just like the people in her dreams? "They didn't even realize they'd fallen in love until she was seventeen and he kissed her out on her balcony. The sister had never been kissed before and she never wanted to kiss anyone else after that, neither did he because she fit so perfectly against him."

Like we do.

"Things progressed quickly after that: Stolen kisses when the brother wasn't looking, balmy nights spent wrapped in each other's arms, and caresses under the table during meals. They were so in love that you'd have to be blind to miss it. The sister still married the nephew as she was expected to and it was a happy union as the nephew didn't care that she kept her lover."

"But her brother knew about it, didn't he?"

"He was a clever man and capable of cruelty when it came to defending his little sister. He knew his little sister and the warrior were sneaking around behind the backs of everyone because he and the Pharaoh's mistress were playing at the same game. There was a difference, though."

"That was his little sister and he'd arranged the marriage to keep her untouched." AJ nods solemnly, able to picture the chaos of her dreams even with her eyes open. "What did he do to her?"

"He claimed the warrior was forcing himself on women around the palace, paid off the women to back up the accusations, and had the warrior executed while his little sister as on an outing with her husband. She was informed of what had happened when she returned and collapsed in her husband's arms, overwhelmed from the sudden grief and the secret growing in her belly."

"Oh God, she was pregnant."

"A healthy baby boy that was born eight months later with his father's beautiful gray eyes." She pauses and looks up at Lawrence, noting the way he was completely enthralled by the tale. "Thankfully, he had his mother's dark hair and so the populace believed the child to be a pure Egyptian, the Pharaoh happily claiming the child as his great nephew. Little Ibi was protected because of the lie and the sister knew he would be well looked after in the palace, so she could finally grieve."

"What happened?"

"The grief was too much for her, she was still fragile after giving birth and it was just enough to push her to her limit. She committed suicide just two days before Seti I was murdered, her body broken like her spirit had been. Because of her status, she was mummified and buried in a small tomb that was filled with gold and her favorite bed; sent to the afterlife with enough things to keep her comfortable."

"I wonder if she ever found her lover."

"No one knows."

"Hold up, what do you mean no one knows? I thought this was just a dream."

"It is, and I can't understand it, but it's my family history, too." She looks up at her husband again, cupping his face in her hands. "It's why my uncle was so obsessed with this city, it had ties to our aunt Nefertari and her lover, Iason. My mom said that the dreams skip generations, but it's like we're being told the story first-hand."

"There's still something you're not telling me."

"I've been getting so scared of them since I met you because…. Because you look just like the warrior in my dreams, Lawrence. I'm so afraid that we're going to suffer like my ancestors did that it's all I can think of sometimes."

"That's never happening," he promises, hugging her tightly against him," I'm never leaving your side, no matter what. I'll kill anyone that tries to take you away from me."


It was late afternoon that same day when they reentered the Anubis Chamber, AJ making sure to stay far from the spot where the diggers had been melted the previous day. Four diggers surrounded the hole in the statue's base that the previous diggers had exposed with their crowbars before they were melted by salt acid, the newer ones slowly pulling out a chest.

It was ornate and the size of a phonograph, made of dark wood with hieroglyphics carved into the sides and two figures painted on either side of the front panel. The group of diggers standing behind her were mumbling to themselves, speaking of curses and stupid Americans. She might have snapped at them for calling her husband stupid, but she couldn't help but agree in that moment.

The chest was covered in dust and cobwebs, Chamberlain and her family kneeling around it as it's dusted off. On the lid of it were more hieroglyphics, running along the edges and down the center to cut the square in half. "There is a curse upon this chest," Chamberlain declares, grabbing Daniels' wrist before the other man could touch the chest.

"Who cares," Lawrence says arrogantly, wincing when AJ's shoe connects with his ass.

"Have care, Mister Henderson. I'm sure that even your wife, as unsuperstitious as she is, would advise caution here." AJ nods in agreement, years of careful consideration making her weary of anything she couldn't explain. "In these hallowed grounds, that which was set forth in ancient times is as strong today as it was then."

"That's all well and good, but what's the damn thing say?" AJ kicks him a little harder this time, crossing her arms over her chest and silently daring him to say anything else. It was bad enough that he dragged her all the way across the country, but now he just couldn't stop ignoring obvious warnings to turn back.

Stubborn little bastard.

Chamberlain begins to read the hieroglyphics aloud, the ancient Egyptian familiar to AJ even if she didn't understand it. The people in her dreams spoke it, but she's never heard it while she was awake and it only sunk in further that her dreams were visions of her ancestor.

"'Death will come on swift wings to whomsoever opens this chest'," the Egyptologist translates, voice loud in the quiet chamber. A sudden wind picks up, blowing Lawrence's hat right off his head, sounding like the hissing of steam or angry whispers of a man long since dead.

The diggers wasted no time in running back the way they'd came, shouting in Arabic as they went that the curse would claim us all.

"We should not be here," Beni warns, drawing his gun and looking around for anything that might jump out to kill them. Is the mummy truly wandering these halls? AJ grips her torch even tighter, the light not reaching as far as it should and shadows seeming to thicken.

"It says 'There is one, the undead, who, if brought back to life, is bound by sacred law to consummate this curse.'"

"Let's all make sure not to summon dead guys," Daniels remarks, mouth snapping closed again when he meets AJ's glare. This was nothing to joke about, not when she knew how devastating curses could be. Her uncle had been with Lord Carnarvon when Tut was discovered and now both were dead not long after his tomb was disturbed.

"'He will kill all who open this chest and assimilate their organs and fluids, and in so doing, he will regenerate and no longer be the undead, but a plague upon this earth.'" The whispers start up again, AJ moving closer to the group as her heart beats faster in fear. It could be hiding in the shadows, just waiting for us to separate.

"We didn't come all this way for nothin', did we," Lawrence asks sarcastically. "Let's crack this thing open and see what we've won." As AJ had moved closer, Beni had moved further away towards the entrance, looking just as panicked as she did.

"It's the curse," he mumbles, then louder," the curse of the mummy. Beware of the curse!" And then he was high-tailing it after the diggers, AJ wanting nothing more than to chase after him.

"Stupid, superstitious bastard."

"No, he's right," AJ says in his defense. "Put that thing back where it came from and let's get out of here before you idiots unleash something you have no control over!"

"Calm down, AJ, ain't nothing here that can hurt us beyond some snakes or scorpions."

"Lawrence Charles Henderson, I will drag you out of here by your nose if you don't listen to me! This isn't something you can ignore to make it go away, this thing will kill everyone on this planet until it's the only thing left!" She couldn't catch her breath, taking two unsteady steps backwards. "We need to get out of here!" Lawrence stands and wraps an arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"It's alright, honey." But it wasn't alright and she didn't want to watch what was about to happen. She just wanted to be back in Texas with her son snuggled up in her arms, to read to him like she used to and take him out for walks around the city. It was safe in Houston, there were no homicidal mummies or ancient curses to cloud their happiness.

While Lawrence was consoling AJ, Burns and Daniels force the heavy lid off the chest, a cloud of dust shooting into the air and making AJ let out a shriek of fear. "If I die because of this curse, I'm haunting all of you."

"That's great, sweetie, haunt away." They move back over to the others, now standing, and all of them peer into the chest. It was hollower than it appeared on the outside, filled with a thick object wrapped in a dirty cloth. The four men kneel down again to get a better look, but AJ remains standing. I just had to fall in love with a headstrong cowboy.

Chamberlain unwraps the cloth gingerly, revealing a book made of what appeared to be pure onyx; on the front, scarab beetles were carved near the top and bottom, a few lines of hieroglyphics carved on the left, and a strange, star-like marking carved on the right. She knew what it was, any Egyptian would after middle school history, and her breath caught in her throat.

"That's not where that was supposed to be," is all she can manage, staring down at the book with wide eyes. Chamberlain meets her gaze and dips his head in a nod, actually recognizing the fact that she knew what she was talking about. Everyone had always said that the Book of Amun-Ra would be inside the Anubis statue, but how could they get it so wrong?

"You're quite right, Mrs. Henderson," Chamberlain admits as he lifts the book from the chest," but this is still a fantastic discovery. Alexander would have been proud that you were here at this moment."

"My uncle wouldn't have opened the chest because of the curse." It was the Book of the Dead, the book supposed to give life to the dead, and she would smack anyone that tried to read from it.

"Who cares about some stupid book," Daniels complains. "I came here for treasure, so where is it?"

"That book is worth more than Henderson Oil in its entirety, Daniels." The three Americans looks at her in shock, Lawrence's mouth opening slightly as he tries to remember exactly how much the family company is worth.

"It's not even made outta gold like you said it was!"

"Wrong book, you twit." She slaps the back of his head for not paying attention when she'd tried to teach them about Egypt on their way here. Frankly, it's a miracle this one graduated high school.

"I wouldn't trade it for a bras spi—" Lawrence cuts himself off after kicking the side of the chest, the front panel falling open to reveal four canopic jars cushioned by straw. All of the group kneel down to get a better look, even AJ was curious; the canopic jars were carefully made from white stone, hieroglyphics etched into the front and the lids each a different animal—falcon, human, baboon, and Jackal.

"Now we've got something," Burns grins.

"Yeah," AJ remarks sarcastically as each of the men reach out and take one," some dead guy's internal organs. Congratulations on your prizes."