Rick's Kryptonite

Thebes 2,134 BC

Thebes. City of the Living. Crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti the First. Home of Imhotep  Pharaoh's High Priest of Osiris, Keeper of the Dead. Birthplace of Anck-su-namun. Pharaoh's Mistress. No other man was allowed to touch her.

Anck-su-namun walked through the beautifully adorned temple, a couple of Imhotep's priests watching her as she stalked through the drapes to only view her secret lover, Imhotep himself. Happy to see him she immediately went up to him and he kissed her passionately, rubbing some of the body paint on her shoulder. However, neither of them noticed nor cared in that particular moment.

But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself.

Just as the priests went to shut the doors to the temple the Pharaoh burst his way through them. Making a rather loud noise alerting Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun.

"What are you doing here??" Seti asked angrily. The priests backed away scared of what he could do to them with his power. He walked quickly down the hallway and through the curtain where he saw Anck-su-namun waiting, posing for him. He knew there was something wrong as she tapped her fingers against the cat statue. His eyes glanced down her body noticing that the art had been smeared...

"Who has touched you?!" He asked her feeling betrayed. Seti spun around hearing a noise. Imhotep stood there glaring at him holding a sword.

"Imhotep?! My priest!" He asked even more confused.

Suddenly, Anck-su-namun pulled out a dagger and made the first plunge into his back. I️t seemed fitting that the mistress would be the one to kill him. Imhotep raised his sword and slashed away at the Pharaohs body. The screams alerted the pharaohs bodyguards. And suddenly, both Imhotep and Anck-su-namun were pulled away from each other's arms. They knew their killing would not go unpunished.

***

Meanwhile, the pharaoh's daughters' were on an adjacent balcony chatting when they heard the screams. The older one screamed upon seeing the scene before them unravel, almost falling off the balcony from fear.

"Mejai!! My father needs you!!" Her sister alerted them as she caught her other sister from falling.

***

"You must go. Save yourself. Only you can resurrect me." Anck-su-namun told Imhotep. Imhotep's eyes widened realizing what she was about to do.

"NO!!" He yelled as he got dragged away by tinted blue men.

"My body is no longer his temple." Anck-su-namun stated looking down at the dagger coated in blood of her previous kill. Without a second thought she thrust the knife into her stomach. Her breathing stopped and her head fell to her shoulder, lifeless.

For murdering the Pharaoh, Anck-su-namun's body was to be cursed. Her body was mummified, her vital organs removed and placed in sacred canopic jars.

Imhotep was there to curse her body, after all he was the Pharohs high priest. Anck-Su-Namun was laid out with the jars near her. He held back his emotions and pulled himself together only after taking a longing look at her face. Looking back to the book in his hands he read from a book made out of pure gold. It was named, the book of the living.

The Book of The Living contained sacred incantations that would send the evil dead on a journey into the dark underworld.

As Imhotep read from the book you could tell there was anguish on his face. The priests quickly buried her body in the sand. As the ritual was completed the Medjai showed up and killed the slaves and nonessential priests so that no one would know Anck-su-namuns true burial place. She was moved quickly and easily.

The slaves were killed... and the soldiers who killed them were also slain, so that no unholy person should ever know the exact location of the burial site.

After the Medjai disappeared the holy slaves Imhotep had left began to dig up Anck-su-namuns body. They put her body on a chariot and quickly headed off into the darkness towards the city of Hamunaptra.

But there was another book, The Book Of The Dead, which was never to be opened, never to be read, for it contained the incantations that could bring a dead body back to life a most unholy thing. It was hidden at Hamunaptra, City of the Dead, inside the statue of Anubis, so that no such sacrilege might ever disgrace Egypt.

Anck-su-namuns body was laid on a stone deep within the city. And the canopic jars laid out with her once again. The Book of the Dead was given to Imhotep in order to do yet another ritual.

But for their love they were willing to defy the gods.

Imhotep began the ritual and his priests began to chant. It was almost complete, a black smoke settled upon Anuck-su-namuns body and her eyes snapped open.

Anck-su-namun's soul had come back from the dead! Now all that was needed, was to return her organs to their rightful place within her body.

However, before it could be complete the Medjai showed up and ripped Imhotep away from the book and away from his love once again.

Imhotep's priests were condemned to be mummified alive. As for Imhotep he was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai. The worst of all ancient curses. One so horrible, it had never before been bestowed.

Imhotep and his priests were led to a different temple and were mummified alive. Organs pulled from their bodies. The screams were so much, only the strongest remained. Tools were scattered about for the Medjai to use to complete the task that Seti's daughter had given them. Imhotep's tongue was cut out of his mouth and gauze wrapped around his body. He was thrown in a sarcophagus, but not before a bucket of scarabs were thrown on him only to slowly eat him alive. The coffins lid was shut and locked, never to be seen again.

He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, the undead for all of eternity. For if he would arise he would rise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh-eater, with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility.