Capital of Egypt, Cairo
Cairo University
With her recovery, Carol had started attending one of the summer programs her school offered. And, at the moment, she was enjoying a fun and very bracing game of tennis. She and Maria were playing doubles against Jimmy and Harry.
"It's coming, Carol!" Maria said excitedly.
"Got it! Watch me, Maria," Carol said with a grin, returning the serve. "One more point, ya~!"
"Look! It's Carol!" another student who happened to be passing by said to her friends. "It's rumored that she lost her memory, and was found lying near the Nile River..."
"They say that she was kidnapped. The police were looking all over for her," one of her friends said.
"It's rumored that all of her memories from the incident have disappeared," said another.
"So there's no trace of clues from the kidnapping?" asked yet another.
"Shh! They say it's the royal family's curse!" said the first girl.
"Game over," the referee announced when the last point of the final match was scored.
"Wow! I haven't played tennis so passionately in a while; it feels so good!" Carol exclaimed happily with a smile as she exited the court with her friends.
"The color has returned to Carol's face! I'm so relieved," Maria said.
"This is great... Carol's spirits have finally returned," Ryan remarked with a smile while he watched them, leaning against the school's fence with Bonnie. They had decided to observe the game while they waited for Carol's class with Professor Brown to start. They were going on a field trip to the museum today.
"Yes, I'm glad she's having fun," Bonnie said warmly as they watched Carol laugh with her friends. It was a relief that she seemed to be returning to normal so easily after enduring such an ordeal. But there was something different about her, and Carol had confessed to her that she often felt a strange anxiety about something that she had trouble defining. Bonnie thought it might have something to do with her repressed memories, but didn't want to push her too hard. If just the ghost of them made her this anxious, it might be a good thing that she lost her memories... though Bonnie was still concerned that Isis or whoever else might have been responsible hadn't been caught yet.
"Phew! I'm so happy! That was so fun! Jimmy, teach me some chemistry today, okay?" Carol said with a smile as they walked.
"Ok! I'll hurry home and get my notes for you!" he said.
"Okay! I'll put back the balls and meet you later!" Carol said, heading for the shed the school stored the sports equipment in. Carol opened the door and stepped inside with the bag of tennis balls slung over her shoulder, leaving it open so she could see without having to turn on the light inside. 'Even though my memories of the time I was lost are all gone... at last, I'm glad that I was able to come back to Jimmy and my friends. I'm finally at peace,' she thought as she put the balls away.
SLAM!
"Eh?" Carol said, startled when the door suddenly slammed shut behind her, cutting off her light source. "That's weird. I'm still in here. Who closed the door? It's so dark!" she thought aloud.
"Carol!"
"Eh..." Carol said, uneasy when she thought she heard a voice calling to her in the darkness.
"Carol!"
"Who is calling me? There's nobody here..." she said nervously when it came again.
"Carol, where are you?" the mysterious voice cried anxiously as her head was suddenly filled with the image of a handsome young man with long black hair who was dressed like a pharaoh from ancient times.
"Aah—!" Carol screamed as another voice threatened her, falling to her knees and holding her head in fright in the darkness. What was this? What was happening?
"You can't run away anymore! You have been cursed by the royal family!"
BANG! BANG!
"Carol! Carol!" Jimmy shouted as he banged on the door from the outside, alarmed when he came back to meet her and heard her scream. Are you in there? What happened?" he asked, forcing the door open so he could get to her. Carol was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, pale and trembling. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. "What's wrong? Carol!" he said urgently as he swept into the room, kneeling down beside her.
"I don't know!" Carol cried anxiously. "Someone was calling out for me, but..." Jimmy quickly stood up to search the room for the culprit, but with just one look, he could it completely empty aside from the two of them.
"There's no one here," he told her. Carol gasped as she realized he was right.
"Then... I was just hearing things... right?" she asked nervously as a bead of cold sweat dripped down the side of her face. The threat of the curse echoed in her mind. "Am I really hearing things?" she wondered aloud anxiously. "No! My spirit will weaken at this rate! I must be strong!" Carol scolded herself, hitting her head in an attempt to knock some sense into herself. 'The doctor and Bonnie both told me not to think about this at all...' she thought, remembering their advice about trying to recover her missing memories.
"Are you all right, Carol?" Jimmy asked, concerned.
"Sorry! I guess I was just hearing things!" Carol said, putting on a smile so he wouldn't worry.
"Just hearing things? You were screaming quite loudly, are you sure there's nothing wrong?" he pressed, seriously worried about her.
"I'm fine!" she insisted, trying to ease the tense situation. "Sorry I made you worry."
"Jimmy! Carol! You guys are so slow!" Maria called when they finally finished changing back into their school uniforms and came running to join the rest of their class.
"Wah! Maria, sorry, sorry!" Carol exclaimed cheerfully, rushing over to her friend.
'Carol's suddenly changed a lot...' Jimmy thought with a concerned frown as he followed her. 'She appears to be a lot more energetic now; she looks as if she has completely recovered, but... It seems like there's something wrong... She feels so far away,' he thought, feeling a little lonely, even though he was walking right beside Carol and watching her chat happily with their friends and classmates. 'She looks anxious, though. I hope we can soon return to where we were before, Carol!' He put on a smile so she wouldn't worry. "Next week, we're going to trace treasure during the history class, and we might also be visiting the Abu Simbel temples."
"We're going to Aswan in Upper Egypt?" Carol asked excitedly.
"Yep!" Maria answered brightly.
"Perhaps Jimmy's grandpa, Professor Brown, will say, 'Ah! Everyone! You're all so lucky! Egypt is ancient history's warehouse,'" Carol said, mimicking the professor with her voice while copying his posture.
"Wah! That sounds so real!" their friends and classmates laughed. It sounded just like him!
"There's no need to worry!" Jimmy said, embarrassed.
"Haha... What a copycat!" Professor Brown remarked as he suddenly appeared just in time to catch Carol's little act.
"Professor Brown!" she gasped, startled. Carol quickly turned on her heels and started slowly walking away, doing her best to look innocent. "Egypt is so amazing! It... Jimmy!" she cried, ducking behind her boyfriend, the professor's grandson, for cover. Jimmy smiled and blushed in amusement at her antics, while the rest of the class laughed.
"Carol! Are you being naughty again?" Ryan asked as he and Bonnie walked up to join the group.
"Brother Ryan! Bonnie!" Carol said, surprised to see them both there.
"Sometimes I think you like getting in trouble!" Bonnie teased with a smile, while Ryan ruffled his little sister's hair affectionately. Carol stuck her tongue out and made an adorably impish face at them in response.
'Hmm... Ryan is the judge of everything,' Jimmy thought, a little jealous of all the attention the older man was getting from Carol, even though he was just her brother. The appearance of both Ryan and Bonnie had begun to cause quite a commotion.
"Wow! It's Carol's brother!" Maria and many of the other girls gushed excitedly.
"He is in charge as the CEO of the Rido Company even though he's so young," another girl said.
"Hey! Carol's cousin is back!" the boys said, excited to see her again, even though Bonnie had already given a lot of them the brush off when they tried to flirt with her.
"I heard she's already in college, even though she's not much older than us."
"I heard she's single now!"
The corner of Bonnie's mouth twitched slightly when she overheard that. Her recent break-up was still a sore spot for her, but she decided to just ignore them for now. Bonnie had decided she was done with boys for a while.
"Anyway, Carol! Ryan has a surprise for you," she told her cousin.
"Oh! What is it?" Carol asked excitedly.
"You'll see when we get to the museum!" Bonnie said with a Cheshire cat grin.
"Whoa!" Professor Brown exclaimed in amazement when they reached the museum and saw the surprise. In his own style, Ryan had presented Carol and her class with their most recent acquisition, a large papyrus scroll.
"Professor Brown, there was a man who sold this Ancient Egyptian literature to me," Ryan said.
"Great, Mr. Ryan!" the professor said excitedly. "This is it! This is a real Ancient Egyptian manuscript!" Ryan took a drag on his cigarette and smiled proudly as he exhaled the smoke.
"Hey, Ryan, you shouldn't smoke so close to an ancient artifact! You could damage it," Bonnie scolded him quietly behind the back of her hand.
"Oh, is that so? I guess I'd better put it out, then," Ryan said with the hint of a wry smile as he extinguished his cigarette. That would be a shame after how much he paid for it.
"Let me see the ancient manuscript..." Carol said excitedly as she and her classmates crowded around to get a better look.
"Oh!" Jimmy said, intrigued.
"Here you can see the crest of the royal family," said Professor Brown.
"It's true," said one of the boys standing close to Bonnie.
"Ah... Once upon a time, I..." Carol said as she began reading from the manuscript aloud, translating the parts that were still legible into English. "The scenery stood before my eyes, the hot southern wind that was blowing, was sweeping away the northern wind, and the sky had already..."
Bonnie's eyes widened in surprise, and she stared at her cousin in amazement. Carol could sometimes translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but this was the first time she had ever heard her translate directly from hieratic script so fluently.
"Carol can read ancient texts, too!?" Professor Brown exclaimed, equally shocked. "Impossible! Only Isis, who has gone missing, can read ancient texts like that."
"I... How did I read it...?" Carol said, surprised at herself. How could she suddenly read this ancient text like it was nothing? It was unnerving. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. 'And Isis... Isis...' she thought, gasping in alarm. "That's right, where is Isis?" she asked nervously. Before Bonnie and Ryan could answer, a strong gust of wind burst through the open doors, knocking everyone off of their feet. "Ah!"
They heard someone shout, "Wah! Quick! Someone come over here!"
"Wah! What happened?" cried the professor as the pages of the ancient manuscript were practically ripped from his hands. "How come the wind suddenly started to blow in an underground area?"
"Is everyone okay?" Bonnie asked, brushing her hair from her face, looking around. "Carol? Ryan?"
"Ah! The clay tablet is broken again," Carol gasped in dismay, getting a close enough look when she leaned against the display to notice that a small fragment had come loose.
"Wah!!" the voice from before yelled again. "Someone has been murdered in the underground area!" That got everyone's attention.
"What?" Bonnie and Carol said together, startled. There were cries of alarm from the next room. One of the forensic experts who worked with the museum and the school came rushing over to them.
"Professor Brown! This is strange!" he cried with a face as white as a sheet. "The killing method was the same as the one used for making mummies!"
"What? It's the same method as making ancient mummies!" the professor exclaimed.
'Eh? The same method...' Carol thought with wide eyes, disturbed. She felt her heart throb and her chest tighten with alarm. Bonnie frowned and her brow creased with worry as everyone followed the forensic expert into the next room to see the body. It was a truly gruesome sight.
"Ah! The side's been sliced open, the organs were removed, the brain was drawn out through the nostrils!" the professor observed with alarm.
"Eh..." Carol gasped, paling as all the blood drained from her face, as she clung anxiously to Bonnie, who put a reassuring and protective arm around her. It really was the same method...!
"Wah! So cruel!" Jimmy cried.
"Ah... He's the man who sold me the ancient manuscript," said Ryan, surprised.
"Eh?" Bonnie said, concerned by the connection.
"Wah!" she and Carol exclaimed when he suddenly grabbed them and held them close as he covered their eyes, though his attempt to shield them from the gory scene came too late.
"Don't look, Carol! Bonnie!" he said urgently, hoping they hadn't seen too much. Carol was frighteningly pale and obviously in shock. Bonnie was tough, but she shouldn't have to see something like this, either.
"Carol!" Jimmy said, worried when he saw the state she was in.
"Brother! Bonnie! Even though I can't remember it clearly, I've seen the process of mummification..." Carol whimpered anxiously, trembling as cold sweat dripped down the side of her face. "I even saw the Morgue family, was I dreaming? Was I just dreaming...?"
"It's all right, Carol! You're safe. We won't let anything happen to you," Bonnie promised urgently, squeezing her younger cousin's hands to reassure her. "Understand?"
A soft sob escaped Carol's lips as she nodded her head.
"Carol! Bonnie!" Ryan said, holding them tighter in his embrace.
Bad news never takes long to spread. Soon the streets were buzzing with stories and questions about the strange and terrible murder. What were the police doing?
"Mom, you must send Carol and Bonnie back to America!" Ryan said firmly while they were having tea the following afternoon, concerned for their safety.
"Eh?" the girls said, startled by the abrupt order.
"Ryan, I was just thinking about that, too," Mrs. Lido said.
"No! I don't want to go back to America!" Carol yelled.
"You want us to leave while you stay here? I can't agree to that, either..." Bonnie said with a frown. Isis was still on the loose. She had already tried to kill Ryan once, so if she was behind this latest attack, he could be in danger, too.
"Go back to America!" he insisted sternly. Why did his little sister and cousin have to be so stubborn? "If this continues on, Carol won't be able to take it anymore!" That gave Bonnie pause. It was true that it had been especially hard for Carol lately.
"No! I don't want to!" Carol shouted.
"Carol," her mother said gently, "I know I let you come here to study abroad so that you could study your beloved archaeology, but..."
"Mom, I don't want to! I want to make archaeology my life's work, my career, that's the reason why I came to Egypt!" Carol said anxiously, desperate to stay. "I won't go back just because my spirit is weak!"
"No! Listen to your brother, Carol. If you like archaeology that much, you can still study in America," her mother said. "And you can study medicine anywhere, Bonnie," she added. "There are excellent medical schools in America, too."
"That's right, Carol, Bonnie, this is for your own good," said Ryan, exhaling the smoke from his cigarette.
Bonnie was silent. She could tell they had already made up their minds, and she was also worried about Carol. Maybe it would be better for her to go to America for a while. They needed to protect her. However, Carol was not so ready to give in.
"But..." Carol said.
"No!" Ryan countered immediately. "How can I let my only sister stay in this place? Whether you want to or not, I'm still taking you and Bonnie to America next week, regardless of what you say," he declared with a sense of finality as he stalked out of the room in a huff.
"Wait! Brother Ryan! Brother!" Carol shouted after him. "He's ignoring me! This is going overboard!"
"Carol! Just listen to you brother," her mother said.
"Brother is the worst! He always ignores my feelings!" Carol cried, frustrated. "Bonnie, you say something, too!"
"Carol... I think maybe we should listen to Ryan for now. We can always come back once things have calmed down," Bonnie said reasonably.
"Not you, too!" Carol exclaimed, feeling betrayed.
"Ah, Carol!" Bonnie and Mrs. Lido cried when she suddenly turned and ran from the room.
'I understand how everyone feels, but I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back to America!' Carol thought anxiously as she ran outside, making her way toward the river. 'I like Egypt! I like the desert! I like the Nile River! And there's this strong force that keeps attracting me...'
Bonnie, who chased after Carol, was about to call out to her, when someone beat her to it.
"Hey! Carol!" Jimmy called out from where he was perched up in the tree that Carol had just passed.
"Ah! Jimmy!" Carol said, surprised. She stopped to look up at him. Bonnie stopped, too. "What are you doing up there?" she asked.
"I'm here, waiting for you, Carol," he replied with a smile, as if it should have been obvious.
"Oh!" she said. 'My boyfriend is a monkey?' she wondered, a little amused by how at home he looked lounging in the tree branches.
Bonnie decided she could probably leave Carol to Jimmy, since she might not want to talk to her after she sided with Ryan, and quietly slipped away, returning to the house unnoticed. She waited up until Carol returned later that night and was relieved to see that she seemed to be in a much better mood. It looked like Jimmy had managed to cheer her up, after all.
A few days passed, and Carol eventually forgave her family for their over-protectiveness. She knew they were just worried about her, and after drinking from the Nile with Jimmy, she knew that she would be destined to come back to Egypt. It has been told since ancient times that those who drink from the river must one day return to river's bank once more. She was sad that she would be leaving for America soon, but excited because today her class was going on a tour of some famous ancient monuments, and Ryan had agreed to let her go with them because Bonnie volunteered to be her chaperone.
"Carol, your friends are here!" Nanny Marie called when Jimmy came to the door with Harry and Maria to fetch her.
"I'm coming!" Carol called back, rushing down the stairs with Bonnie.
"Carol, Bonnie, we have to catch the bus, or we're going to miss it!" Jimmy called.
"Carol! Bonnie!" Ryan said, stopping them on their way out. "After you come back from the Temple of Abu Simbel, we'll return to America! I'll go ahead and get the paper work done." He pulled playfully on one of Carol's curls.
"Brother Ryan is so forceful," Carol said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"You didn't forget anything, did you?" Mrs. Lido asked the girls.
"Nope! We're leaving now," Bonnie said with a smile and a wave, giving her aunt a hug.
"Bye, Mom!" Carol said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Miss Carol! Miss Bonnie! Hurry up!" Nanny said urgently. The bus looked like it was about to leave.
"Yeah, hurry up!" Maria called.
Bonnie and Carol made it to the bus just in time. Everyone had fun on the way over, singing along to the songs on the radio and chatting about what they were looking forward to about the trip.
"Wow... The Abu Simbel temple..." Carol said dreamily. She was really looking forward to it. 'Even though, after this trip is over, Bonnie and I will have to leave for America this weekend...' she thought. 'But I must immediately come back to Egypt!'
Bonnie smiled wryly. She could easily tell what Carol was thinking from the look on her face. She was glad Carol had decided to enjoy her last trip with her friends while she still could. Hopefully the danger here in Egypt would be resolved soon, and they would be able to return before the end of the summer.