AJ awoke due to a violent coughing fit, falling over onto her side and squeezing her eyes closed as she tried to breathe through it all. Gasping and sick to her stomach, she blinks the tears away and looks around her, unable to hold in her scream when she notices the mummies kneeling in front of her.
"Evy," she cries out, wiggling away from them only to hit something hard. Looking over her shoulder at the obstacle, she's met with the leg of the altar, able to see even more mummies kneeling on the other sides. They were forming a wide circle, bowing again and again as they started to chant. "Evy!"
"I'm up here," Evy calls from above. It's only then AJ notices the scrap of silk hanging over the edge of the altar, part of Evelyn's nightgown. "I'm chained to the altar. Can you help?"
"Not unless I can get my hands on something sharp." Her hands were bound behind her back with the remains of her shawl, the cotton tight enough to have her hands almost numb. AJ manages to sit up again, leaning against the altar with her knees drawn against her chest to avoid touching one of the priests.
Lawrence, where are you?
The fear begins to creep up on her; fear of what would happen to her friend, to her, and what might have happened to her husband. She was going to die here, she was sure of it, and she couldn't even tell her son how much she loved him, how he was the one person in her life she knew would do extraordinary things.
Tucker, my little monkey, I love you so much.
She does nothing to stop the tears that slide down her cheeks, staring ahead of her at the creatures. She would have her chin up when death came and then she would meet her family again on the Last Day; she would be able to hug her parents and tell them of their grandson.
Beyond the mummies, a large shape begins to rise from the enormous pool of tar, shaping itself into the silhouette of a woman as it soars overhead. She stares at it in amazement and horror, almost certain that it was the soul of Anck-su-namun that would fill a vacant body.
"Allah, protect us," she whispers in dread, wincing at a piercing scream that came soon after the form disappeared over AJ's head. It was a scream that could send a cat into fits, high and croaking after centuries of disuse. Imhotep quickly walks to AJ's side of the altar, a sacrificial knife in hand. "No!" She falls on her side again as she kicks out at him, her bare feet making contact with his knee. "Leave her alone!"
He snaps at her, the words spoken in ancient Egyptian, and then jerks her upright by the front of her blouse. This close to his face, she could make out the small parts of his flesh that were still decayed, gray against gold. AJ doesn't falter in her attack, kicking out again and making contact with an area that apparently hurts mummies, too.
"Thank Allah for basic anatomy," she grunts as she hits the floor, rising up on her knees and using the knife to cut through her shawl as Imhotep doubles over in pain.
"You girls had better be alive down there because I found the damn book," a familiar voice calls out as AJ gets to her feet. Jonathan was standing at the top of the steps, waving the golden book proudly above his head.
"You didn't find it all by yourself, you little toad," another voice snapped, its owner appearing a few seconds later. "Baby, we're never comin' back to Egypt!" At least we agree on that much. "Look out!" AJ hisses in pain as she's grabbed by her hair, Imhotep roughly shoving her out of his way as he starts for the two men.
"Open the book, you idiots," Evy shouts," it's the only way to kill him! You have to open the book and read the inscription." With a grumbled curse, AJ gets to her feet again for what seems like the thousandth time, yanking on one of the heavy manacles that has Evy bound to the table.
"How do I open these things," she asks, trying to pry the metal open with no success.
"I'm not sure, I was unconscious when he put me here." AJ grabs her fallen headpiece and pulls off one of the bobby pins she'd used to secure it, suddenly happy for all the times Jonathan's boredom had led them all to picking locks around the museum. She wasn't sure if the process was the same since the locks were completely different, but she was holding out hope.
"It's locked," Jonathan calls down to the women, frantically trying to force the cover open. "Where's the key?"
"Inside his robes!" She slips the tips of the pin into the lock, trying to manipulate it and failing. The anatomy of the ancient lock was entirely different and her shaking hands certainly didn't help her any. She was still trying when a cry sounded behind her seconds before a sword cut cleanly through the chain on one manacle. "O'Connell!"
"Ladies," O'Connell grins smugly even as the other mummies start to attack at Imhotep's command," glad to see me?"
"I'll be glad to see you when we're out of this damned city," AJ snaps, pushing one of the mummies away from her. In one fluid motion, O'Connell cuts through a mummy and the chains around Evy's feet.
"Oh come on, you know you missed my smiling face." Only Rick O'Connell could find humor in a situation like this. She draws her fist back to punch another of the mummies when a sword decapitates it, a familiar cowboy boot kicking the flailing torso away.
"Lawrence!"
"Hello, beautiful," he replies with a cocky grin.
"You're alive!"
"Last I checked." She wanted to hug him, to throw herself into his arms and never let him go again, but the mummies trying to murder them all were doing a good job of ruining the moment. "We need to talk about how we want to set up Dot's nursery," he says as he starts cutting through the priests. AJ rolls her eyes, picking up the knife and pressing her back against her husband's, using it to defend him from behind.
"Could we talk about this at another time, dearest?" She shoves the knife through a mummy's eyes socket, yanking it back out and kicking the creature away from her. "Perhaps when we're on a boat back to America?"
"You see, I was thinkin' we could paint the nursery a real pretty yellow color and then have the trim be that pastel pink Millie's always going on about."
"Now is really not the time, Lawrence!" They moved together, defending each other in synched motions that only came after spending years together. They didn't have to stop and think about what the other would do, knowing when was the best time to duck or strike. "Besides, the nursery is already yellow."
"No it's not, remember? We painted it green before Tuck was born to go with a forest theme." AJ grunts as she cuts through another of the priests, her thoughts circling a familiar room from childhood. It was pale yellow with pink trim, the ceiling the color of the sky in the evening; the floor was made up of dark wood that was smooth underfoot, the crib rested in the middle of the room, the color of cream with a canopy to keep out bugs and a handcrafted mobile above it.
"About that, I got to thinking when…. Well, when I thought I was going to be strangled to death by my dead ancestor."
"About what?"
"About home, my home that's not in Egypt or in Texas."
"Baby, we don't have houses anywhere else." But she did, tucked away in the countryside where the rest of her family lived. A large house, the only real testament to the wealth the Jibade family had, white with dark blue shutters, and the stained glass windows in the attic.
"Lawrence, I want to move back to Yorkshire so I can see my cousins again."
"Do what now?!" AJ turns, waiting for Lawrence to spear through the mummy he was dealing with. "Honey, that's a big decision to make right now. Way bigger than deciding what color to paint a nursery."
"I need this, though, I need to go home and properly grieve for my parents. I was so young when they died that I didn't know how to deal with it all, and then I allowed it to turn into anger and resentment. I don't want that anymore." Lawrence opens his mouth, but a cry of pain cuts him off and they both turn to find the last of the mummies crushed under a heavy tombstone.
"Oh no," O'Connell says sarcastically as he sits up," you two finish your discussion."
