The House of Life

Chapter 2

Fate has a funny way of placing you to where you need to be. For some it could be towards a certain career, relationship, or lifestyle. But for me, well, let's just say, fate is working backwards for me. Of course it started when I was just getting my career started, but fate had other plans. Took me to Egypt, where I experienced love and loss all in the span of a couple of weeks. The funny thing about fate is that you never know where it will lead you next, not until it's too late.

But here I am, sitting in the middle of Evelyn's kitchen as she was trying to clean my bullet wound that I got earlier that night when I was ambushed by a group of men wearing red robes. If it wasn't for the Medjai stopping them, I certainly would have died in that courtyard. I wince in pain as Evelyn was just about done cleaning the wound when she said, "I told you not to move." To which I rebuttal and said, "It's kind of hard not to when you keep pushing into it Evie..... *wince*...." Evelyn's face looked tired, with dark circles under her eyes signifying the lack of sleep that she has been experiencing since Hamunaptra. But it wasn't just Evelyn, it was everyone who had survived Imhotep's wrath. Of course it doesn't help with Ardeth waking everyone up in a frantic panic as my shoulder bleeds on the kitchen floor. 

"There that should do it, you're lucky Ardeth was there to save you." Evelyn commented, but her comment felt like a back slap to the face. I mean, wasn't she the one who tried to talk me out of going tonight? I guess if I had listened to her then I wouldn't have been shot. But of course, my sour attitude started to show as I replied, "Weren't you the one who said 'what if he doesn't show up, then what?'" Evelyn shot me an annoyed look as she was eating her own words. "I'm just saying." I said under my breath, and I left it at that.

As Evelyn was wrapping my right shoulder with a bandage, I could hear Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth arguing in the other room. "What do you think they're talking about?" I asked Evelyn. Evelyn sighed loudly as she explained, "Probably saying that they don't want to be dragged into another Medjai issue. It's probably for the best if we just keep to ourselves Anna." I can't keep to myself, Ardeth just saved me. Not only that, I was finally starting to put all the pieces together for my friend's funerals, only to have it snuffed out by a crazy woman with her posse of red robe wearing narcissists. Who knows what she wanted from me, but it seems as though I've been involved in a much bigger scheme.

Rick bursts through the doors from the other room, which startled me to grab my shirt to cover myself. Rick yelled at Ardeth in a frustrating manner, "If you think that you can bring this mess into our lives again, you're wrong. Now we helped in cleaning up our mess over Imhotep, but this has nothing to do with us. So if there's nothing else, I'm going to ask you to leave." I looked at Ardeth who was waiting by the doorway with Jonathan, "I'm sorry to have asked." he said as he exited through the front door.  

After he shut the door, I quickly placed my shirt over me as I intended to follow him. "Anna, wait!" yelled Evelyn, but I ignored her and made my way through the front door, quickly shutting it as I tried to catch up with Ardeth. I saw Ardeth further down the road when I yelled, "Wait!" Ardeth stopped in his tracks and turned to see me. As I caught up to him, I asked, "Where are you going?" His eyebrows furrowed as if he was in deep thought over that question. "I need to meet up with my soldiers to try and see what Meela has planned." 

I grabbed my wound as I was reminded of the woman who tried to kill me. What her intentions are, I don't know, but all I know is that she made an attempt on my life, which is pushing me to leave sooner rather than later. "That woman from earlier, right? You told me she was Dr. Bey's niece, what did she want with me then?"

Ardeth sighed and said, "That we do not know. This woman just appeared out of nowhere. The only information that we have on her was her relation with Terrence." For someone to just appear out of the blue with little to no information shows me that she covers her tracks. Which means, it's only a matter of time before she strikes again. But nothing could have prepared me for what Ardeth's next proposal was for me. "There's no telling what she will do next, but she made an attempt on your life, so I need to make sure she doesn't do that again." I dreaded what Ardeth meant by that comment as I asked, "What do you mean?"