A/N: Aaaand here's chapter 16!
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter: euphoenix, lunapeacock, XXXmeggie-loves-to-readXXX, raspberrysorbet, Missdagane, Reader, Sundance 1989, TheInnerMusingsOfMe, Cass, Rachel, tikinclocks, lilbuddie715 and silvermist76.
Cass- The scream was Jenna's actually! The same scream that Nate heard. And no, I'm not planning any story after this because I have to study for my end-of-school exams. (Which are really really super duper important! Like NEWT's, honestly.) They're in March but I have two sets of papers before that. But all the same, I'd love to hear your idea! I may even do it, you never know.
Thanks to all those who favourited/alerted: Vince from Shamwow, May May 15, colucss, ollie-wodge, lilbuddie715, Enna Thronlll and V.P.B. New readers, please do leave a review! It's a little disheartening when a lot of people alert but don't tell you what they actually think of the fic.
Chapter 16:
"So we just need to gouge out the sides and slip around it."
Natalie clutched her head in horror. "Are you insane? Gouge out the- Are you insane?"
Adam frowned at her. "No, I think it's perfectly plausible. How else are we going to get them out?"
Natalie breathed in deeply, concentrating on filling her lungs. She exhaled her anger. "We are not going to defile the inner walls of the biggest archaeological discovery of the past five decades."
"Well, lover boy defiled the floor pretty well." Adam pointed at the slashes in the ground where Scorpius had deprimo-ed it.
"That's different," she snapped. "That was in the interest of self-preservation."
"And this isn't?" Adam said pointedly. "You'd rather leave them in there with semi-rotting corpses and a thousand curses than make a few teensy meensy holes in the walls?"
Natalie looked thoughtful at this. "No," she said finally. "You're right. We can't leave them together in there! Lord knows what'll happen…
"Right, we're going to go around to the left tunnel," she said decisively. "It may connect to the right at some point, you never know. Blowing the walls around the rock up is a last resort. And we have to hurry before that redheaded little bitch gets her claws in my Scorpius."
She stalked off down the tunnel and Adam followed at a more sedate pace, somehow feeling that Natalie had missed the point entirely.
XXXXXXXX
"D'you hear that?"
"Yeah…can you tell where it's coming from?"
Rose whipped her head around, trying to locate the origin of the scream. She ran back the way they'd come in, faltering as she realized the scream seemed to grow more distant. Before she could make up her mind, it was silent again.
She turned to see Scorpius behind her. "It…wasn't coming from this side."
As one they turned to look at the burial chamber behind them. It seemed to have acquired a considerably more sinister aura now that they could hear screams seemingly emanating from it. Rose shivered involuntarily. "Do you think it's a curse?" she whispered.
"How would I know? You're the expert."
"Right," Rose said faintly. "I'm the expert."
She walked hesitantly back into the chamber, looking around cautiously. There were several gold sarcophagi lined up with baskets of rotted fruits and piles of jewelry at their feet. At the far end was a resplendent box lying horizontally on the ground with some nasty curses emblazoned across the front. That most likely contained the body of the pharaoh Djedefre who'd built this pyramid in anticipation of his own death.
A random thought flitted into her mind, something Uncle Harry had told her a long time ago. To a well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
Rose decided to leave the pharaoh alone. There was no way she tackling that on her own, Merlin only knew how many dark curses there were on it.
Standing in the centre of the room, she pivoted slowly, organizing her thoughts. She- they'd heard a scream. It wasn't coming from further back in the tunnel which meant it probably wasn't Natalie. And it definitely wasn't Adam, unless he'd mastered the art of screaming like a girl. So unless it was another trap, it was the other group. And the other group had gone left…But what if both paths led to the burial chamber? That would mean there was a way out! They could simply use the second door and go back via the left path.
She turned around excitedly. "Scorp, there's a way out, there has to be!"
He looked around warily. "…okay. Well can you find it then?"
"I-"
She was cut off by another shriek, this one louder and drawn-out as if it was a scream of pain not fear.
Her insides seemed to liquefy with the horrid sensation.
"Right," Scorpius said firmly. "Okay, we're getting out of here. Use your brain, Weasley. Where would they conceal a second entrance?"
"How would I know?" Rose snapped. "This is my first real pyramid! Okay, wait, wait. Let me think… Nothing on the walls; floor- unlikely, we're already underground; ceiling's too high; not looking in the creepy pharaoh's tomb…" she snapped her fingers quickly. "Got it. It may even work."
Scorpius followed her bemusedly as she stalked towards the nearest Sarcophagus. "What are you doing?" he asked, picking his way through the piles of artifacts in the way.
"Should be this one…maybe not…okay, not…"
"Rose?"
"Shut up Scorpius! Trying to work here!"
She pointed her wand at a golden coffin and the door sprang open. Rose frowned in disappointment, seeing it occupied. The body inside was wrapped in stained bandages and quite decayed. She shut the lid as Scorpius gagged behind her.
"That is disgusting. What is that stench?"
Rose smirked at him, trying not to look too smug. "Aww is it too disgusting for ickle Malfoy? Didn't know you were squeamish."
He glared at her. "I'm not. Excuse me if I'm not particularly fond of 3000 year old dead bodies. Now why are you pillaging the poor chap's grave? Isn't that against your principles or something?"
Rose ignored him and proceeded to the next sarcophagus. "Okay this should be it. Stand back."
Scorpius hastily stood back.
The lid burst outwards with a bang, springing open. Rose smiled in relief at what she saw.
Scorpius walked forward hesitantly. "Why is there a great big gaping hole in the back of this one? Did this one get mummy-napped?"
Rose turned to him, eyes gleaming. "It's a dummy sarcophagus."
"Er….what?"
She sighed exasperatedly. "That means it's a door, you idiot. It's the way out."
XXXXXXXXX
"What have you done?" he said quietly.
She laughed softly. "What I was sent to do. The blood is my reward. Waste not." She sang the last part, a mocking child's tune.
Nate's knees refused to hold him up any longer. With a gasp of pain, he collapsed against the wall, sliding down, eyes fixed on the red liquid spreading in front of him.
That was what fresh blood looked like, a detached part of his mind noted. He'd never actually seen so much of it before.
It was disturbingly beautiful.
The dizziness rocked him again, black spots swimming in his vision. Millie's face seemed to warp as he looked at it, her features blurring and mixing. He blinked away the haze in his mind and focused on her face.
He wished he hadn't.
She looked like Millie…only not. Eyes burning with hate and contempt, mouth twisted into a feral grimace of enjoyment, blood everywhere, clots of it in her hair, running down her neck and soaking into her clothes. She looked…evil. Possessed. Insane.
She crawled towards him, his back pressing sharply into the rock wall as she came nearer. Her words registered in his mind, his brain only now receiving the message.
"What do you mean 'sent'?"
Millie licked her lips, her tongue coming away unnaturally red. Her eyes widened dramatically as she answered. "Sent….by her."
Nate inched to his left, spying a heavy looking relic from his peripheral vision.
"Her who?"
Millie giggled childishly. "My Goddess, of course."
Nate was so baffled by this, he paused in his leftward shift and turned to look at her. "Your what?"
Millie leaned closer, so close that he had to crane his neck as far as it would go to escape the rancid stench of blood from her mouth. Her eyes held a manic gleam as she gripped his hand, fingernails digging in harshly.
"Sekhmet," she whispered reverently.
"Umm, okay."
His fingers brushed the gold statue, scrabbling for purchase.
Nate watched horrified as Millie raised his bitten hand, examining it with a curious glee. She leant down and locked her lips around the wound, biting down. He let out a strangled yell, and fingers closing around the statue, he swung it around with all his force.
It impacted loudly against her head and Millie crumpled instantly, landing on top of him. Nate pushed her off disgustedly, rising on shaky legs.
He held up the golden statuette to eye level, forcing his blurry vision to focus on it.
It was an idol. Sekhmet, Eye of Ra. Of course.
He laughed harshly and chucked it as far as he could. It hit the adjacent wall, the head snapping off with sheer force.
Nate stepped over the body at his feet and took three stumbling steps forward, falling to his knees at Jenna's side.
For a second, he could have sworn he'd heard footsteps. Two seconds later, he was out cold and beyond caring.
XXXXXXXXX
"Shit, did you hear them screaming?"
"Yes, Dyer, I heard. Now if you'd move your poncy ass just a bit quicker-"
"In case you haven't noticed, Natalie, I'm ahead of you."
"Well, you know what they say; Ladies first."
"Are you being homophobic?"
"No, you prick. I'm being courteous."
"Well you can be courteous when you're the one leading. Until then, zip it, you bimbo."
"ARGH, just keep moving!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rose walked ahead of Scorpius as they ducked through the low tunnel, moving fast.
It was just a few inches taller than she was and Scorpius had to bend and walk.
"We should almost be there," she whispered back at him.
"How can you tell?"
"The series of hieroglyphs at the beginning of the tunnel are appearing again. This must be the other end of it."
The tunnel was shaped like a U and they'd crossed the bend about two minutes back though it felt longer in the cramped, dark space. As she took another step forward, Scorpius' hand closed around her shirt, gripping it from the back. "Wait."
"What?" she hissed, annoyed.
"Let me go first."
Rose craned her neck to look at him incredulously. "How on earth am I supposed to do that?"
"Just let me get ahead of you, Weasley."
"No! There's no space! Let me do my job, Malfoy!"
"And you let me do mine!" he shot back.
They glared at each other until Rose finally gave in.
"Fine," she said, throat dry. The tunnel was so narrow she had to press herself flat against the rock and signal for him to do the same against the opposite wall.
He complied and with gritted teeth, Rose tried to squeeze past him. She was acutely aware of their bodies pressing up incredibly close, hips and chests aligned. It was as if they were being pushed together by the walls. But five seconds and a rustle later, she was safely on the other side, smoothing down her clothes and hoping her red cheeks would be back to normal by the time they got out of the dark.
"Sorry," she muttered, not sure what she was apologizing for. The fact that she'd enjoyed the experience in a weird twisted way?
"What for? It was most enjoyable."
She thwacked him on the arm and with a muffled chuckle he took the lead, walking ahead.
XXXXXXX
Nate had drifted back into consciousness by the time the cavalry arrived. The two separate groups arrived a mere five seconds apart, one bursting in from behind a portrait and the other hurrying along through the normal entrance.
Both groups and all four members simultaneously yelled loud variations of the word 'Shit'.
He was vaguely aware of being lifted gently to his feet, and then the queer sensation of drifting in mid-air. Through his slightly parted lids he saw Jenna and Millie receiving the same treatment, though there were a few exclamations of disgust when they saw the latter.
"..get them out of here…"
"…blood in her mouth...fucking hell, that's messed…"
"What's this?"
Someone yanked at Nate's fist and it fell open, the forgotten necklace slithering from his grasp.
"Watch out," someone, a girl, said. "I think that's cursed. Let's just get out of here before someone really dies…I-"
Nate's mind shut down and everything went mercifully black.
A/N: Well, that's it for the pyramid. Next chapter is SPECIAL. Okay? Okay. Because it's loooong, and hopefully more interesting than this one. All the chapters after this one will be much longer than any of the others.
I've reached that horrible period all writers eventually get into(I think)- when you start doubting your story/plot majorly and basically get into a depressed funk over it. But don't worry, no matter what, I WILL finish this story- it's not getting abandoned. Anyway, i'll see you all in chapter 17!