[DISCONTINUED UFN] BENEATH SANDS OF BLOOD ⟶ THE MUMMY 1999/2017

𝐱𝐢 ⟶ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

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"And the rivers and waters of
Egypt ran red like blood."

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FORT BRYDON, CAIRO
1926

║ AHMANET ║

THE STORM CLOUDS ROLLED IN dark and heavy over the fort, and for once, the desert felt cold during broad daylight. Hostile, even. The sands shifted with the winds, and the very atmosphere seemed angry. Lightning lit up the sky periodically, causing dock workers to peer nervously at the sky.

Something bad is here, they whispered in their native tongue.

Ahmanet's sandeled feet padded against concrete with a soft whisper. She stopped before the old inn, peering up at a second story window. The people in this building were players on a world stage they could not escape from. They could fight their roles all they wanted, but the gods had spoken and so it was to be. Ahmanet would receive her power, her love, her family, and the Americans' blood would be spilt as one of the many prices of those things. She almost wanted to pity Rick and Evie - they had had no say in this matter.

But pity did not matter, and beyond it, Ahmanet felt nothing for these people. These foreigners on her homeland.

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║ RICK ║

"I thought you said you didn't believe in that fairy tales and hokum stuff." Rick was moving across Evie's room, carrying her beige and tan suits.

"Having an encounter with a 3,000 year old walking, talking corpse does tend to convert one," she retorted. As soon as Rick had thrown her clothes into her suitcase, she was pulling them out and laying them back on her bed. Rick didn't take much notice, his mind still processing what he had encountered in that tomb. Setepai, is what the strange woman had called him. "And, well, so does finding out that the woman you thought was your sister is, in fact, an ancient evil priestess intent on resurrecting other walking, talking corpses."

And there was that.

Rick had thought her strangely familiar, but had dismissed it before. Now, with whatever she had done to them lifted, he remembered why he knew her. She had been the mirage he had seen in Hamunaptra, wearing a creepy smile and ancient clothing. It was no mirage now, he thought, but an omen.

Perhaps a death omen.

After they had gotten back, Evie had concluded two things: one, they were dealing with a living mummy. And two, that the woman they had led straight to the mummy's tomb was the very woman that shouldn't have been led there. Everyone believes that Queen Ahmanet, Evie had explained, isn't a real historical figure, but I think we may have been traveling with her. She's the sister of the only person in Egypt to have been subjected to the Hom-Dai, you know.

"Forget it," he scoffed. He wanted the hell out of Egypt and now. "We're out the door, down the hall, and we're gone." He carried some of Evie's night clothes to her suitcase, dumping them unceremoniously. "Oh, and your sister?" He only paused to raise an eyebrow at Evie. "She's creepy."

"Not my sister, and no, we're not gone." Evie scrambled to pull her clothes out of the suitcase again, but the empty space was filled with her books and then her typewriter, and then her notes, by Rick. She was just as quick to pull it all out and set it back in its original spot.