✘ 'The Journey.' The Mummy, Ardeth Bay x OC Soulmate!

Chapter 1

"Oh, it's alright.  There was nothing you could've said or done to help me.  It's all my fault."  She sniffed a little.  I quickly ran over to her side to hug her, but before I could, we both heard a 'bang' come from the room just behind the Library.  We turned to each other and then back at the door, and then back at each other.  We slowly walked into the room and Evie called out some of our co-workers' names; as if they'd be pranking us or something.  "Abdul?  Mohammad?  Bob?"  I giggled when she called out the obvious foreigner's name, so she hit the back of my head a little to make me start.

Yes, she and I are British, but our mother was Egyptian.  We noticed, among all the sarcophaguses, one was open.  So we slowly walked over there and my hand went to my dagger, hidden in my pants.  I pulled it out and when we reached the sarcophagus, a mummy suddenly sat up super quickly, making us jump, shriek, and fall backwards onto our butts.  Familiar laughter erupted from the sarcophagus, and Evie's and my faces quickly turned from fear, to a scowl.

"Jonathan!  Have you no respect for the dead!?"  I scowled, standing up and brushing my self off as he sat up and continued to laugh.  I then helped Evie stand and then pulled my mask down.  My siblings were the only people who have seen my tattoos, because I ran to them crying when they first appeared.  Dad didn't like tattoos, so they helped me hide them.  Besides, black stands out on only medium coloured skin.  Jonathan has dark brown hair and blue eyes, like my hair and eyes.

"Of course I do!  But sometimes, I'd much rather join them!"  He joked weirdly.

"Well sometimes we rather you did it sooner than later."  I growled.  "Before you ruin our careers like you did yours!"

"Now get out, Jonathan!"  Evie scowled.  I pulled him out, smelling the slightly alcohol on his breath.  Evie lay the mummy back down.  I smacked the back of Jonathan's head once he was out of the sarcophagus.

"Oh, my dear, sweet, baby sisters."  He cooed.  "I'll have you know, that at this exact moment, my career is at a high note."

"Ha!  High note..."  Evie repeated in disbelief.  "Jonathan, please, I'm not in the mood for your chaos.  In case you haven't realized, I've made a bit of a mess in the Library; and the Bembridge scholars rejected my application form again...they say I don't have enough field experience."  She sobbed, sitting on a nearby stone bench.  I felt bad again, so we walked up to her, to comfort her.

"You'll always have Mel and I, Old Mum."  He joked, using her nickname for when she acted like our mother.  "Besides, I have just the thing to cheer you up!"

"Oh no, not another one of your worthless trinkets to try to sell to the Curator, Jonathan."  I whined.

"Jonathan, if Mel and I have to take one more piece of junk..."  Jonathan pulled out a special looking, octagonal box.  It looked old and had hieroglyphs.  "To sell...for...you..."  Evie trailed off and my jaw dropped in shock.  Evelyn carefully took the box.  "Jonathan...where did you find this...?"

"I found it in a dig down at, uhh, Thebes."  He hesitated, "All my life, I haven't found anything.  Evie, Mel, please tell me I found something."  He practically begged.  Evie pressed a button on the side of the box and it opened to reveal a map.

"Jonathan..."  She began, standing up and carefully taking the map out.  I rushed to right beside her so I could see it clearly.  "I think you've found something!"  He excitedly cheered and we all raced to the Curator's office where Dr. Bey would be.  The Library was still a disaster, and even Jonathan gaped at it in surprise and shock.  I pulled at his hand, quickly remembered to pull my mask back up, because it was still hanging around my neck and we finally reached the Curator's office door.

When he said we could come in, because we knocked, Evie went straight to explaining the situation and then excitedly going on about the map and how she traced it back to "The official royal seal of Seti the First."

"Perhaps."  The Dr. merely spoke, looking closely at the map with glasses, like Evie would wear when doing any form of reading.  I don't really get it, because I don't need glasses.

"Two questions, who was Seti the First and was he rich?"  Jonathan questioned, clasping his hands together and then rubbing them.

"He was the second Pharaoh of the nineteenth Dynasty, and said to be the wealthiest of them all."  I explained, smiling at the money and fame greedy brother of mine.  I still love him to pieces.

"Good, I like this guy very much!"  He clasped his hands together again and again, he rubbed them together which made me chuckle.

"I've dated the map back to almost 3,000 years and, well..."  She hesitated.

"Spit it out, Evie!"  I was excited to know.

"Well, the hierarchic here...it's Hamunaptra."  She finshed, pointing at the marking on the map so the Curator would be on the same train of thought as her.

The Dr. gasped.  "Dear, God.  Don't be ridiculous!  We're scholars, not treasure hunters!"  He declared, a little outraged by the foolishness of what she said.  "Hamunaptra is a myth told by Ancient Arab storytellers to amuse Greek and Roman tourists."  He scoffed.

Evie began waving her hands about, because the Curator was holding the map so her hands were free.  "Oh yes I know all about that wish-wash, that the city is protected by a mummy and all that;  but my research has led me to believe that the city may have actually existed!"

Jonathan walked closer to us.  "Are we talking about, the Hamunaptra?"

"Yes.  The City of the Dead, where the earliest pharaohs are said to have buried the treasure of Egypt."  I answered through my face mask.  I'm surprised they can still hear me.

"Y-Yes--Yes, i-i-i-in the big, underground treasure chamber!"  He gleefully exclaimed.

"Hah."  The Dr. scofffed.  Jonathan looked a little offended, if I didn't know any better, and I do, I'd say he looked almost hurt.

"Oh come on, everybody knows the story!  The entire Necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand on Pharaoh's command!  The place would disappear beneath the sand dunes, taking the treasure with it!"

"As the Americans would say:  It's all fairy tales and hokum--Oh, my goodness look at that!!!"  The Curator had 'accidentally' set fire to a part of the map.  Evie and Jonathan were the first to leap to the rescue, tear it from the Dr's hands and put the fire out immediately.

"You've burnt it!! You've burnt the part with the lost city!"  Jonathan exclaimed in disbelief.

"It's for the best, I'm sure.  Lots of men have lost their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra.  No one's ever found it.  Most have never returned."  And so, discouraged, Jonathan and Evie led the way out the door and I followed behind.  But once outside, Jonathan suddenly had an idea.

"Alright, so you're not going to like me...but..."  Jonathan began a little scared, but not very.