AJ has seen a lot of disturbing things in her lifetime—Lawrence's mother in a bathing suit, Wingtip shoes, and baggy pants for example—but none of them held a candle to the sight now burned into her retinas. It was Imhotep, his muscles on display with only two garments to keep him somewhat modest. Now, she could handle his gauzy, black robe that dragged behind him on the cold stone of the Necropolis, but it was the other one that really made her want to gouge her eyes out.
He was wearing a damn speedo.
"Keep moving!" AJ looks over her shoulder at Beni, a sneer making itself known when he meets her gaze after shoving her friend with his gun. He seems to be in a worse mood than usual, obviously as pleased as the two women were to be back in Hamunaptra. Then again, it may have something to do with the fact that AJ and Evy both and slapped him silly for landing on them when they were all tossed out of the fasset el 'afreet.
"You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance," Evy informs him with a hateful look. Beni gives a mocking laugh, then turns serious as her words really sunk in. After all he's done in his life, he's going to get one massive punishment when his time comes and AJ hopes he suffers.
"They do?"
"I've always been told that your punishment is ten times worse than your sins," AJ adds with a nod, facing forward again and continuing down the stairs after Imhotep. Further into the darkness we go, following the bringer of death. Boy, could this day get any worse?
Henderson
"Take those bigger stones from the top," Jonathan instructs from behind the other three, content to be a bystander as they worked on digging out a collapsed doorway. "No, the bigger ones, Henderson! I said from the top or it'll collapse even further." Henderson grits his teeth and does his best to ignore the man, sweat stinging his eyes as he worked.
AJ thinks of him as a brother, so you can't kill him.
"Come on now, put your backs into it." In unison, the three men all stopped what they were doing and straightened up to look at the Brit. Not only were all of them taller, but they were stronger and Jonathan quickly realized his mistake. "I'm sure you're doing it this way because you know more than I do." He laughs nervously as O'Connell and Ardeth go back to work, but Henderson just narrows his eyes. "Oh please, you can't hurt me because your wife will hit you with her shoe."
"If that weren't true, I'd punch you right now," Henderson promises, pointing at him in the way only parents can make look threatening. "And I still might if you keep yammering." With that, Henderson returns to pulling the heavy rocks out of the doorway Ardeth had led them to, cursing under his breath as he scratches his hand against the jagged stone. He wasn't sure why AJ only ever used her shoe to smack the misbehaving people around her, but he knew those things hurt worse than the switch his father used.
"Gents, you should come and have a look at this."
"Just ignore him," O'Connell grunts when Henderson goes tense," he's not worth the shoe imprint AJ would leave on your ass."
"She got you, too, huh," Henderson asks, both of them working on one of the larger stones together.
"Oh yeah, I learned never to make fun of her prayer schedule." Henderson had learned that too during the first week of their relationship; nine years later and he's still afraid to even talk about the Godawful earliness that she's required to get up. They had just gotten the stone moved when Jonathan lets out a panicked squeal behind them, all three of them turning to look at him.
"What?!"
"It's my arm," Jonathan screams, holding his left arm away from him like it was contaminated," it's in my arm!" The three men move to Jonathan's side, Ardeth and Henderson getting a good hold on the squirming man to hold him still while O'Connell rips Jonathan's shirt sleeve open. "Do something!"
"Whoa!" Just beneath the skin close to his shoulder, there was a small bulge moving upwards at a fast speed. Henderson wasn't entirely sure what that thing was, but he knew he'd be screaming like a little girl if it was under his skin. "Hold him tighter!" He and Ardeth do their best, O'Connell flicking his butterfly knife open.
"No, not that! I can live with the bug, make him pay rent, or— Ahh!" The sharp steel bites into the flesh of Jon's arm, wrenching a scream from his throat as O'Connell twists it in deeper, then flicks it outward. A small, black beetle is flung out of the wound, landing a few feet away and scrambling to its feet right as O'Connell pulled out his pistol and blew the bug to Kingdom Come.
"Easy there," Henderson cautions, ripping off the ruined sleeve of Jonathan's shirt and tying it over the wound. "We'll have AJ stitch you up as soon as we get back to Cairo. Hell, if you're nice she might even make it look like a lightning bolt."
AJ
"I never had but one true love and in a cold grave he was laid," she sings quietly, trying to steady the mixed emotions roiling inside of her," I'll do as much for my true love as any young girl may." AJ makes quick work crossing the bridge, trying her best not to look down at the stagnant water below, and letting out a sigh of relief when her feet hit the floor on the other side. Her temper was doing a good job of covering her fear, the fact that her husband might be dead was enough to keep her in a place of nerves and rage.
Noticing she was lagging behind, Imhotep nudges her ahead of him, rougher than needed. She scowls at him over her shoulder, but continues down the next set of stairs and into a chamber that was just as derelict as the others they'd passed through. Imhotep pushes past her and over to an altar, setting the canopic jars on the top along with the Book of the Dead, spreading them out meticulously.
"…. I'll sit and mourn out on his grave," she continued, sticking close to Evy," for twelve months and a day." The echoing of a gunshot shuts her up, all of them glancing around and trying to figure out which direction it came from.
"O'Connell," Evy breathes, sharing an eager smile with AJ.
"They're alive." Imhotep barely pauses in his work, tipping the contents of a jar into his hand and then blowing the dust onto a nearby wall. Hieroglyphics made up most of the dark slab of stone, but there was a man on either side, their hands outstretched like they were both reaching for something precious. A low groaning sound rises and falls in the chamber and then the sound of crumbling stone as two decaying mummies broke out of the wall. "Oh shit."
"Bembridge scholars never wrote about this." Beni, Evy, and AJ moved as one as they backed away from the wall, Evy having to beat at the rat to make him release her arm while AJ just grabbed onto the silk sleeve of Evy's robe. "Get off of me! This is all your fault!" She couldn't look away from the scene, taking in the black pits where eyes should have been and the way she could see straight through their ribcages to their spines.
The two creatures bow to Imhotep despite the way they were struggling not to fall to pieces, the obedience leading AJ to believe they must have been priests once. They were loyal to their master, willing to break all the sacred laws for his approval, and he would order them about for as long as it pleased him. The corpses straighten from the bow, still hunched over after centuries of being locked inside the wall, and start down the passageway to kill the rescuers.
"Honey," AJ murmurs, touching her gold wedding ring," kick their undead asses." Knowing she could at least create a distraction to keep Evy alive longer, AJ swallows her nerves and what's left of her dignity before jumping up onto Imhotep's back. She wraps her arms and legs around him tightly, holding on for dear life when he struggles underneath her.
"What on earth are you doing," Evy shouts, just staring in shock at the scene.
"My best!" Beneath her, Imhotep snarls something in Hebrew and twists violently to the side, jarring AJ enough that her grasp loosens. Before she had the chance to tighten it again, he's thrown her off him and has her pinned against what she's dubbed 'Mummy Wall.' "Run, Evy!"
"I'm not leaving you here alone!" Imhotep tightens his hold on AJ's throat, cutting off her air supply. So much for him keeping that promise to Ibi. She claws at his wrist, instinctively gasping for breath and unable to get any. "Let her go!" AJ couldn't see, but she was almost certain Evy had begun slapping Imhotep's back. "Let her go now!" AJ lets out a desperate squeak, her head aching and her heart beating faster to compensate for the lack of oxygen.
"Sat," Imhotep growls down at her, like it was the worst of all curses. Black spots swam in front of her and her struggles became sluggish, a ringing sound starting up that drowned out whatever else he growls down at her.
Her arms fell limply to her sides, her eyes closed, and then she knew nothing as she collapsed on the ground.
Fasset el 'afreet = "Ghost wind", it's what the Egyptians call a dust devil.
Sorry I didn't post this sooner, y'all, I went on a trip to Stillwater so I could buy up a crap load of books and movies from Hastings before they went out of business! Got me a nice Ghostbusters (1984 version) cup, too :)
