CHAPTER NINE

Travelling in a sandstorm that was actually a 3,000 year old mummy was not a delightful experience that Lillian wanted to repeat, nor did she want to repeat her awkward landing. When Imhotep let Lillian and Beni drop out of his hold, Beni landed on top of Lillian and did not move quick enough for her likening.

"I still have two of my guns. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do not get off me right now, you little vermin." Lillian hissed at him, before she kicked him and hit him until he moved off her, cursing under his breath as he did so.

Lillian turned over so she was on all fours, and watched as the sandstorm transformed into Imhotep. He walked right by her and his servant, and stared at something in the distance. Lillian followed his gaze, and groaned at the sight.

"Why did the ritual have to be performed here? I just managed to get the sand out of my boots." Lillian lamented, because that was really the only tragedy she could bear to focus on.

And just when her thoughts were about to turn to the demise of her family and possible romantic interest, a plane flew overhead. Lillian rose to her feet with hope bubbling in her stomach, and just knew that there was only a couple of people who could be in that plane.

"O'Connell." She smiled, as she watched the plane fly towards them.

Yet her hope was short lived, as her captor seemed to anger at the sight of the plane, and practically roared, spreading his arms wide.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake beneath their feet, and Lillian fought hard to keep her balance, as she watched Imhotep create a fifty foot tall, at least, wall of sand and bit back her horror as he sent it towards the plane.

A huge sand face stalked the plane, and Lillian noticed that Imhotep's facial reactions seemed to control it. When the plane was swallowed by the sand face, Lillian decided to intercede.

"Stop it! You're killing them!" Lillian shouted at the creature.

"That's the idea!" Beni replied, and Lillian glared at him, before she rushed forward, shoving the weasel of a man to the ground. Then with complete reluctance and a heavy heart, she grabbed Imhotep's face and crushed her mouth to his, much to his surprise.

She turned him round, so she could see what was happening with the plane. The wall of sand disappeared with Imhotep's concentration broken and Lillian felt giddy with hope, but then smoke began to drift from the plane and it crashed into a sand dune out of sight. Her heart crashed into her stomach. Well, there was no hope for her now. Lillian would be turned into a 3,000 year old mummy and there was no one to save her.

"I loved the whole sand-wall trick. It was beautiful." Beni said, and Lillian felt her rage towards him bubble to the surface again.

"Would you shut up? I don't want to hear your voice anymore, and if I do, you'll find yourself without a tongue, do you understand?" Lillian growled at him, before she followed Imhotep into Hamunaptra, preparing herself for her own demise.

Rick groaned as he clicked his neck to relieve some of the tension that the plane crash had created. He threw his and Lillian's weapons bags out of the plane, and watched as they landed in the sand a few yards away from the crash site. He climbed out of his seat, and tumbled to the ground, rather ungracefully. He saw that the Mejai leader, whose name he still didn't know, was up and walking…towards Evelyn to help her out of the seat that usually a co-pilot would reside in. That was a definite plot twist, Rick thought, as he lifted himself up and dusted himself off.

There had only been three seats available in the plane, and of course, one was for Winston, the only one who could fly the damn thing, and then Rick would have to sit in the gunman's seat, which left a seat for the only woman of their party. Jonathon and the Mejai leader had clung for dear life to the wings, which were now in two separate places among with the rest of the plane.

"Excuse me?" Jonathon said, before he got rather agitated about being stuck, still clinging to the severed wing of plane. "A little help would be useful…IF IT'S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE!"

Rick pulled off the hat he had worn for the flight off his head, messing his hair into a wild mane, and headed over to help the Carnahan man down.

"Yeah, yeah. Alright," He said, as he pulled Jonathon down, and helped him to his feet. He looked round and did a quick head count. Jonathon was on his feet, the Mejai leader was having his shoulders dusted of sand by Evelyn, which only left their pilot unaccounted for. Rick spotted him still sat in his seat, and moved over to him. "Winston! Hey, Winston!"

He crouched by the old man, and saw that he was too still. He pressed a couple of fingers to his throat, checking for a pulse, but couldn't find one. He looked round at Jonathon, exchanging a sad look, before the ground suddenly shifted and the plane started to sink. Jonathon pulled the American backwards, though Rick paused to grab his and Lillian's bag, as Evy explained to them that the plane was stuck in quicksand. All four of the survivors walked backwards until they were a safe distance away, and watched as the old man went down with his plane, exactly the way he had wanted to die.

Rick saluted the fallen pilot, and then nudged Jonathon, nodding to Evy and the Mejai leader to follow, and began the short trek to Hamunaptra, and to Lillian.

Beni had taken one of Lillian's pistols from her when they had entered the temple of Hamunaptra, and used it to force her forward. Imhotep walked in front, and didn't seem bothered by Beni's poor treatment of his chosen sacrifice for the love of his life.

Lillian paused before following the creature down a staircase, and Beni quickly prodded her with the barrel of the gun.

"Keep moving!" He ordered her, and she turned on him, with dark, narrowed eyes and firm set mouth.

"You know, nasty, traitorous men like yourself always get their comeuppance." Lillian said.

Beni seemed to laugh at her words, but seeing the serious look on the woman's face, he seemed to change his mind.

"They do?" He questioned, a little frightened at the thought. He wasn't exactly a brave man, and even he would admit it.

"Yes. Always. I just pray that I get to watch as you fall." Lillian said, her tone laced with as much venom as there was in her eyes. The deadly looks that the woman gave him made Beni swallow with nervousness. He had seen her during the gun-fight with those black-robed men, and he knew that she could kill him herself. If she didn't do it, O'Connell surely would…if the American was even still alive.

Satisfied that she had scared him, even if it were just a little, Lillian carried on down the staircase, with Beni just behind her. They were heading towards the ritual chamber, but Imhotep stopped them in the Sah-Netjer. And just like she had when she was last here, Lillian got the strange feeling that she had been in this room before. Like she had overseen something as it had happened in this very room, but she shrugged it off as unease and tiredness. She hadn't truly slept since the night before Evy had woken Imhotep up.

Lillian didn't understand what Imhotep was doing here, but they had stopped for whatever reason. Evy would understand in a heartbeat what they were doing, but Lillian was too preoccupied trying to find all the exits to really pay much attention to what the undead man was doing.

A single gunshot rang out, and all three of their heads turned to the sound of it.

"O'Connell." Lillian breathed, knowing that he was on his way to rescue her. She only hoped that they had left Evy somewhere safe, because she didn't want her little sister in any more danger than she had already been in. Maybe she was with Jonathon holed up in their hotel room. No one would be after them, because Imhotep would have thought they were dead.

But yet she knew that she only had a fool's hope that that was the case. Evy and Jonathon were just enough like her that she knew that they wouldn't be left behind. If it had been Evy in her place, she wouldn't let anything stop her from going after her baby sister. Not one damn thing.

Imhotep emptied one of the canopic jars into his hand, and blew the dust that used to be Anck-su-namun's heart towards one of the chambers' walls. Lillian and Beni huddled closer together, but not too close, as the wall began to shake slightly…and two groaning, screeching members of the undead freed themselves from their stone prison. They shakily moved towards Imhotep, and bowed their heads in respect to their leader.

"The Bembridge scholars never wrote about this," Lillian murmured, and slapped Beni's hands away as he grabbed hold of her out of fright. "Let go of me!"

"Kill them…" Imhotep instructed in Ancient Egyptian that Lillian just about managed to translate. "…and wake the others."

When her hand moved towards the gun still in her holsters, Beni punched Lillian in the jaw and she cradled her face instead of attacking him. She knew it would be useless anyway. Imhotep would stop her from escaping. She was just a little surprised that Beni had even the courage to hit her in the first place. He was a simple, conniving coward, nothing more.

"First shot was free, next time it will cost you your arm," Lillian hissed at him, and watched with satisfaction as he gulped in fear. "I bet you don't even understand what you have gotten yourself in to. Once he has what he wants, and your usefulness has come to its end, what do you think will happen to you? He will kill you as soon as it suits him, because he is a monster and you are just an accomplice."

Beni's eyes widened at Lillian's words, knowing them to be true, but he was still too afraid of the living corpse to actually do anything to save his own skin. If Imhotep succeeded today, and even if he let him go, he would eventually find him again, and that time nothing would save him.

Lillian watched Beni contemplate her words, seeing them sink in and make him think about what he was doing, and heard Imhotep begin to speak again. Beni translated, even though Lillian already knew what Imhotep was saying. She turned her head, and watched Imhotep preparing the altar. The same altar that would be where her life would be ended by a sacrificial knife.

"Prince Imhotep wants your heart." Beni translated, and Lillian rolled her eyes.

"I'm flattered, but my heart belongs to someone else." Lillian snapped, but Imhotep kept speaking, so Beni continued to translate, though his pasty olive skin paled.

"He wants your heart and your brain, your liver, your kidneys and how do you say? Those slimy things, near your stomach?" Beni questioned, confused at the last part of Imhotep's speech.

"Intestines." Lillian replied, exasperated, turning back to face Beni. It was like talking to a child.

"Yes! Them."

"I should be more offended. A three thousand year old mummy kidnaps me, and it's only for my organs." Lillian remarked dryly, sighing, before wincing at the sharp pressure between her shoulder and neck. She tumbled to the ground, her world turning black once more.