The Mummy: The Tomb Robbers' Secret

Awakenings

The heat was becoming unbearable. Even the thick walls of the villa could not keep the heat of the Egyptian sun from penetrating to the inside. The servants would set out bowls of water to increase the humidity to cool the room but with little effect. The Egyptian summer would have to be endured.

Even Carter could not continue his work in the summer heat, it was too hot for the workers, too hot for the photographers whose fragile film melted, and archaeologists who were working with him. He was forced to install an iron gate and employed guards day and night to make sure no one had access to Tutankhamen's tomb.

Any thought of exploration had been abandoned. Evelyn grudgingly agreed that perhaps it would be best to postpone any digging in the Valley until the weather cooled. Roma felt a sense of relief knowing that she had won a reprieve from making any decisions about re-visiting the tomb.

Because of the heat and close quarters, she and Ardeth would find themselves at odds with each other, arguing over nothing then apologizing as quickly as the argument began. When the hot weather ended, life would return to normal and tempers would cool.

But Ardeth kept one thing from her, he did not tell her that she had developed a pale look he did not like. Her skin was usually tanned from the effects of the Egyptian sun, but now she seemed wan and sickly.

There was one thing she took comfort in, the apparition from the tomb which followed her to Cairo seemed to have disappeared. Perhaps relinquishing the jewels to the museum caused it to vanish. If any curse had been attached to them, she was sure it was gone, but the horror of what she had experienced preyed on her mind. Let it forget about me, she thought, let it forget that I exist, let it go back to the desert from whence it came. And for a while, it seemed her prayers had been answered...until.

Every night felt hot, but this night seemed hotter than the others, and Roma was finding sleep impossible. She looked resentfully at Ardeth who had grown up sleeping in tents in the desert and could sleep anytime, anywhere. She turned over, kicking at the sheets they had discarded, then finally, exhaustion sent her into a restless sleep filled with uneasy dreams.

She found herself back in the desert, wandering barefoot in sand no longer hot but comfortably warm under her feet. The night was a jumbled canopy of stars but something felt wrong, Constellations seemed inverted and corrupted, their stars jumbled and out of place. This was not right, the Egyptians believed in order and consistency, not chaos.

An animal ran in front of her, something she had never seen before and hoped she would never see again. It possessed the long ears of a fennec fox, only the snout was long and curved, unlike anything that dwelt in the desert. Then the sand began to ripple, the tell-tale sign of a sandstorm; a wind she could not feel began churning up the sand and it swirled around, obliterating the night sky.

Through the clouds and the dust devils she could see something approaching, something that looked vaguely familiar, like a nightmare she had before but forgotten. It came closer and closer, a tall, thin, figure robed all in black, only this time she could see the face that had been hidden before. The curved snout, the tall rectangular ears, the 'was' sceptre that he held in one hand, the ankh in the other told her who stood in front of her.

It was Set himself, prideful and bragging, "I am lord of the Red Lands, the storms, strife, and the protector of warriors. You trespassed in my servant's tomb and now I will make you pay." He raised his sceptre, a ray of light, burning bright shot out and struck her and she felt like she was burning up.

In the morning, Ardeth could not rouse her. She was hot to the touch and helpless as a baby, unable to move or speak. Soon she was in the grip of a raging fever and became delirious, speaking to her absent father, often speaking in French to her long-dead mother.