Harriet Potter in: The Mummy

Chapter 8

Once we got camp set up (Luna and I had our magical tent that was warded against anyone entering but us), we headed over to a narrow crevice that weaved its way through the ruins.

O'Connell ties a rope around a pillar and throws the rest of the coils into the crevice, about to rappel down. As Jonathan bends over to have a look, his ass hits something. He yelps and backs away. It's the decrepit face of Anubis.

He looked at it for a moment and said, "That thing gives me the creeps."

O'Connell snickers and said, "Be nice. That thing saved my life."

As Evelyn was situating the mirrors, she said, "That 'thing' gets me excited."

O'Connell snorts and says sarcastically, "That thing gets you excited."

Eve, either not hearing the sarcasm or deciding to ignore it, nods, "According to Bembridge Scholars, inside the statue of Anubis was a secret compartment, perhaps containing The Book Of The Living."

I snorted and Luna says with genuine confusion, "I thought it was Horus."

Eve stops to look at her a moment, then goes back to the mirrors.

O'Connell watches her and asks, "What are the mirrors for?"

Evelyn looks sly and said, "Ancient Egyptian trick, you'll see."

O'Connell shrugs then rappels down the crevice, each of us going in after him.

Once we're all down there Eve says, "Do you realize, we are standing inside a room that no one has entered in over four thousand years."

The warden looks disgusted and said, "Who cares. No treasure."

O'Connell looks at the warden and said, "You're welcome to my share of the spider webs."

Jonathan groaned, "It stinks to high heaven in here." He then looks at the warden, realizes that it's coming from him, and stops sniffing.

Evelyn brushes cobwebs away from a metal disk in the room and repositions it, aiming it at the ray of light shining from the outside mirrors. This causes the whole chamber to light up,

O'Connell looks impressed and said, "That is a neat trick."

Evelyn, Luna and I take a good look around and I say, "It's a preparation room!"

O'Connell looks at us and says in confusion, "Preparation for what?"

Luna dreamily states, "For the afterlife."

O'Connell looks around in slight fear, pulling out his gun, while Jonathan nudges him, "Mummies, my good son, they're talking about this is where they made the mummies."

Evelyn walked toward a corridor and we all followed. O'Connell, Evelyn, Jonathan, and I crouch as we make our way through a narrow, cobweb infested labyrinth. The short, squat warden can stand straight up, as well as Luna. Then they hear something and freeze. It sounds like somebody is clawing inside the walls.

We all share looks, then slowly move forward. It's getting darker and darker as we move forward, and the strange sound is getting louder and louder. And then it stops. Evelyn holds her breath. Jonathan licks his lips. O'Connell cocks his pistol. The warden farts.

Everyone turns and glares at him. With the tension melted we slowly creep out of the labyrinth and up to the foot of an enormous half-buried statue. The lower half of Anubis.

Then, we all hear the sound again, coming closer now, from the other side of the statue. And closer. O'Connell pulls Evelyn behind him and closer, raises his gun, the leaps out. Everyone Screams—

Three sweaty, horrible faces lunge at us. O'Connell reacts first, cocking his gun ready to fire, but doesn't pull the trigger. I sigh, thankful it's just the Americans; even though their guns are up, cocked, and aimed.

One of them sighs and says, "Ya scared the bejeezus out of us, O'Connell."

O'Connell is still tense, "Likewise."

Everyone lowers their guns slowly, and the one of the Americans steps forward and says to Evelyn, "Hey! That's my tool kit!"

Evelyn looks upset and backs away, and soon all of the guns are up again.

No one move for several minutes and no one has lowered their guns, and another American grins and says, "This here is our statue... friend."

O'Connell grits out, "Don't see your name on it... pal."

Then, Beni arrives with all their workers and another guy with a weird fez hat.

Beni smiles slyly and said, "Well hello there. It's ten to one, O'Connell, your odds are not so good."

O'Connell shrugs and says, "I've had worse."

Luna and I just stay quiet, and I was thankful that the warden seemed to have the same sense as well. Jonathan, however, piped up, "Yeah. Me too."

Everyone looked at him incredulously. No one lowered their weapons. I noticed Eve look down and see something. She slowly stepped forward and put her hand gently on O'Connell's arm and looked him in the eye and said, "Let's be nice, children, if we're going to play together, we must learn to share. There are other places to dig."

O'Connell just looks at her, nods, and lowers his weapon. We all turn to leave, and Luna said dreamily, "Careful you don't all melt. It's hot here."

They all gave her weirded out glances, but my glare stopped anyone from talking. I hurried to catch up the everyone else.

***

We were in another chamber that Evy led us to. As O'Connell and Jonathan were chiseling away at the ceiling, she said, "According to my calculations, we should be right under the statue. We'll come up right between his legs." She looks at me and I wriggle my eyebrows. She blushes and laughs then whispers, "Oh my."

Jonathan grunts and says, "And when those dirty Yanks go to sleep –" he looks at O'Connell, "No offense."

O'Connell snorts and says, "None taken."

Jonathan continues, "We'll sneak up and steal that book right out from under them."

O'Connell, still chiseling away, asks, "You sure you can find the secret compartment?"

Evelyn nods and says, "Yes. If their Egyptologist hasn't already found it."

I sigh, "Well there's always that possibility."

Luna sighed and said, "Its sad."

I walked over to her and said soothingly, "What's sad?"

She looked up and whispered, "His screams."