The Mummy Trilogy: Iris Carnahan

Cairo Museum

Iris's POV

"I'm sorry I fell asleep during your story last night" I say sheepishly.

"Quiet alright, besides no doubt you would of had a nightmare if you heard the ending" Doctor Bey tells me.

"Nah ah" I say shaking my head and he chuckles. "How come you picked him up and not Evie or Jonathan?" I ask him confused. Evie had dropped me off at school this morning, but the Museum Curator Doctor Terence Bey picked me up. I call him Uncle Terence when we're not at the museum.

"Your sister is organizing the library, I do not know where your older brother is" he tells me. I frown and look out the window. Jonathan is always disappearing and I hate it. He and Evie are my only living relatives after our parents died a year ago. I don't want to lose either of them.

"Do you want to hear about my dream from last night?" I ask him excitedly.

"Sure" he says as we arrive at the museum.

"I was in ancient Egypt and was a princess" I tell him smiling.

"I'm sure you were a beautiful princess, lets go check on your sister shall we?" he asks. We enter the museum and he leads me towards the library. Before we arrive we hear loud crashes from the room.

"Evie!" I shout and run into the room. To see her surround by all the bookshelves that had fallen like dominoes. I run over to her and hug her tight around the waist. Just then Doctor Bey enters the library looking around in shock.

"Look at this! Sons of the Messiah! Give me frogs, flies, locusts, anything but this! Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!" he exclaims.

"I'm sure it was an accident" I tell him pouting.

"It was and I'm so sorry" Evie tells him.

"When Ramesses destroyed Syria, it was an accident" he tells me. "You are a catastrophe! Why do I put up with you?" he asks Evie.

"You put up with me, because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphs and hieratic. And I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library. That's why" she tells him as she held me close.

"I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why! Allah rest their souls. Now, I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes. Straighten up this meshiver!" he exclaims before leaving.

"I'll help you Evie" I tell her and she gives me a gentle smile. Just then we hear a news from the Mummy room as I call it. "What was that?" I ask her while grabbing her hand. We head over to the room.

"Hello" we call and no one answers. Evie grabs a lit torch from the wall and enters the room slowly. I follow behind her.

"Abdul? Mohammed?" she calls.

"Bob?" I call thinking about the cleaner. The room is filled with treasures and plunder from the Middle Kingdom.  It's very dark and quiet in here, the only light is from torches on the walls. We hear the noise again and approached an open sarcophagus.

"Wait here Iris, something isn't right" Evie tells me and I look up at her confused. "That sarcophagus wasn't open when I left last night" she states. I nod my head and stay by the pillar as she approached it.

Suddenly a hideous rotted mummy sits up and screeches at her. Evie and I scream while I hid behind the pillar. Just then I heard the familiar laugh of our older brother and pout. "Have you no respect for the dead?" Evie asks him annoyed as I watch them. Still hidden from Jonathan.

"Of course I do! But sometimes I'd rather like to join them" Jonathan tells her and I frown.

"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours" Evie tells him.

"Don't say that!" I exclaim running over to them. "I don't want to lose either of you" I state with tears in my eyes.

"I'm sorry Iris" Evie says hugging me wiping my tears away.

"Besides my dear, sweet, baby sisters. I'll have you know, that at this moment my career is on a high note" Jonathan states as he gets out of the sarcophagus.

"High note. Ha! Jonathan, please, I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a bit of a mess in the library" Evie tells him.

"It's not little" I tell her as I hug Jonathan.

"Anyway the Bembridge scholars have rejected my application form again. They say I don't have enough experience in the field" she adds. She sits down looking defeated and we get in front of her.

"You still have us big sister" I tell her smiling.

"Besides, I have just the thing to cheer you up" Jonathan states.

"Oh no, not another worthless trinket, Jonathan, if I bring one more piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you..." Evie starts to say. But stops when Jonathan hands her a octagonal shaped box.

"Where did you find it?" I ask him as I study the hieroglyphics on it. Evie had been touching me how to read them since I was four. Honestly I now how to read and write ancient Egyptian better then English.

"On a dig, down in Thebes" he states and I remember the story that Terence told me last night. At least the part before I fell asleep. It was the home of Pharaoh Seti the first, his priest Imhotep and Anck-su-namun. "My whole life I've never found anything, Evie. Tell me I've found something" Jonathan begs her.

Evie presses a button on the box and it opens up. To reveal an ancient looking map. "Jonathan, I think you found something" I state and Evie nods her head in agreement. Evie goes to date the map, while I play with the box. All three of us then bring it to Doctor Terence Bey.

A/N

Picture above of map and puzzle box (aka the key). Picture on the external link of the museum.