Bathed Silver in Mercury

XII. Nick and Elerie

He stumbled into the restroom, peering around corners. It couldn't really be Vail's ghost he kept seeing, could it? His friend back from the dead to haunt him?

But there he was, his skin colourless, his eyes lifeless.

"El looks good," he said.

Nick shook his head. "This can't be happening..."

"I mean really great."

"Okay, just stop-"

"Do you think I ever had a chance with her friend?"

"What?"

"I mean how did you ever manage to mess that up?"

"T-this is all in my head, it's all in my head..."

"No, it's not," Vail insisted. "I'm here, you're here. You shot me Nick. Four times!"

"You scared me and I panicked!"

"Four times!"

"You stabbed Colonel Greenway! Then you came after me! You even went after Ellie - you were strangling her!"

"You told her yet?"

"What?"

"That you're still crazy for her? Dude, it's so obvious."

Nick was still baffled. "Okay, I'm sorry, okay?"

"Not okay. I'm cursed Nick, and so are you."

"Cursed? W-what do you mean cursed?"

Meanwhile, Elerie still sat at their table, pondering, well, everything. 

A waitress came by. "Finished with those?" She nodded to the assortment of half-full, full, and empty drink glasses.

"Oh, they're not mine," she insisted. "But yes, I think you'd better take them away. Thank you."

A few minutes later Elerie herself headed to the washroom. "Gah!" She jumped and gave a startled cry as soon as she opened the door. "What are you doing in here?! This is the ladies' room!"

Nick scurried over. "Just a second, just give me a minute, thanks." He slammed the door closed.

"Oi!" She pounded on the door but he must have been holding it closed. "Nick! Go to your own bloody loo!"

A few moments later the door opened and he left, brushing right past her and out of the pub into the alley. He didn't look well.

She followed him outside into the night, jumping when he spun around to face her.

"You're right!" he cried, pointing at her. "You're right-"

"Nick, what-"

"We have angered the gods-"

"Nick, calm down-"

"I saw her, the chick, in the box-"

"Ahmanet."

"That one. He said-"

"Who said what?"

"Vail."

"Vail?"

"Yeah Vail. The coffin we found-"

"Sarcophagus," she corrected.

"Whatever. There was that writing on it-"

"Hieroglyphics-"

"Ellie, with all due respect, sexy as I may find it, I'm not interested in your archaeological jargon right now. The writing on the box that we took out of the hole-"

She just couldn't help herself. "You mean the hieroglyphs on the sarcophagus that we excavated from the tomb."

"Damn it Ellie! There was something about a curse, wasn't there? Wasn't there?" he pressed.

"Okay, Nick, you've got to calm down. You've had a concussion, and toxic exposure, and you just had a shit ton to drink. I say you need to rest-"

"But how does that explain that I know that 'Setepa-i' means 'my chosen'?"

She stared at him. "Setepa-i? That's Ancient Egyptian-"

"Ancient Egyptian." Their words overlapped. "So how do I know that?"

"Uh, you... You've been in the Middle East for years. Maybe you heard it and forgot. Or maybe you recalled it from my work..."

"Why are you backing off from this? You were just talking a few minutes ago about angering the gods. I am telling you, she is real."

"Nick, you're starting to scare me-" There was a pause.

"You know, I-I think you're right, I think this is all in my head. It's ridiculous." He gave a short laugh. "I think we should find the box-coffin thing, open it up, look inside, and when I see a three-thousand-year-old prune in there, no more curse."

"Nick, you don't need a sarcophagus, you need a doctor-"

"Oh come on Ellie, don't tell me you don't want to see it too. You're life's work. Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

(Happy Halloween everyone! 😊🎃🍫🍭🔮 In celebration, here's another chapter of my 'The Mummy' story! And thanks so much for the 500+ reads - you guys are awesome!)