Mummy? Mummy!

The first excerpt of the NaNo 2012 goes to....Mummy?

That's right! After three years of writing about Egyptology, why haven't I written about a mummy yet? All the info and material has been there, but it wasn't until le jour premier that I deemed it time to write about one.

And hell, I made sure I made it super creepy! No heartbroken Romeo here! 

What's happening: Daphne is avoiding Eric at night in the Met reading through some work files when something comes scraping out of the darkness down the hallway.

Enjoy, oh, and please feel free to comment!

May the muses be ever with you,

Mara

I sat in the armchair in Eric’s office reading through the folder Inna had given me that afternoon regarding the acquisition of a collection of Egyptian brooches and jewellery uncovered in the 2008 excavations, licking my thumb as I turned each page.

                Admittedly, I figured his own office was probably the last place Eric would look to find me before giving up for the night and he’d assume I buggered off into the City on my own.

                The man was going to tear down my defences in no time with his romantic evenings in the city if I didn’t. As much as I loved him, I couldn’t let him be killed because I was the Earth Walker Ye Vanck Amun had made me.

                A low moan reverberated down the hallway that startled me from my file, and a cold chill slithered down my spine.

                “What..?”

                Instantly terrified, despite my trademark false bravado, I stood up and deposited the file onto the chair to tiptoe to the door and creak it open.

                Apparently while I’d been reading everyone within a hundred foot radius had left and the hallway was drenched in darkness. I shivered again as another moan came from within the dark.

                “Hello?” I called tentatively, hoping that it was nothing.

                Another moan.

                “Are you hurt?”

                I took a step outside the office and suddenly the lights flickered. I shot a glance to the reading lamp I’d been using only to see it sputter and click off. The desk lamp was next, and then the overhead light until the only light left on was the hall light directly over my head.

                I looked up and it began to flicker, and I began to sweat in panic. This wasn’t something normal.

                A groan sounded, much closer this time and I dived for the switch to try bring back the office’s overhead light but nothing happened.

                “Oh shit, shit shit!”

                I spun back again with the intention of running for it, leaving my satchel behind, when I saw it.

                About ten feet ahead of me was the most grotesque sight I had ever seen, and by now I’d seen a few. The decomposed and shrunken mummified corpse of one of the pharaoh’s was hunched over on all fours, back at odd angles like it had broken, and knees twisted back to fold its legs backwards. It shuffled towards me a step and groaned again, back cracking loudly accompanied by a squishing as it moved its legs.

                As I let out a scream of terror and ducked into the office to grab my phone, I barely registered that the amulet around my neck began to vibrate and heat up against my chest. I palmed the phone and leapt back to the opening and almost bumped into the mummy, dropping my phone and watching in dismay as it skidded across the floor in the direction the mummy had come from.

                Now all but nose to nose with the creature before me, phoneless and with one option left I did the only thing else to do: ran for it.

                I made ten paces before another mummy lurched out of the darkness towards me. I screamed again and looked back to see that the other mummy was closing in on me.

                I was trapped, and as Roy would say, ‘bloody not about to keep calm and carry on’.

                The temperature of the amulet doubled as my heart pounded at ninety miles an hour until it began to scald me and my vision flashed to red.

                All of a sudden I could feel my hair lengthening, the curls straightening to hang to my waist. My nails extended and sharpening, fading to an onyx colour and golden bangles began to appear criss-crossed up my arms to my biceps. My clothes melted away to become loose white cloth, belted with a girdle of heavy gold.

                I felt powerful and the fear I’d that had all but paralysed me fizzled into something else as the adrenalin coursed through my veins. My arms that at reached for the amulet at my throat to stop it burning its way into my flesh swung out, palms out facing the mummy on either side of me.

                That’s when my mind grew fuzzy and it felt like someone else had taken over my body. Powerful. Terrifying in her own way.  

                The first mummy was hit straight on with a blast of energy and hurled backwards down the hallway and out of sight.

                Hair whipping from side to side, power crackled from my hands as I shot my gaze towards the second mummy as it bent backwards and crawled towards me like a demon, clawed nails scraping along the floor as it did.

                “Stay back,” I hissed, barely recognising my own voice. “Why have you woken from your slumber?”

                The creature hissed at me, teeth crunching as it tried to form words.                                           

                “Who are you?” I demanded. “Why have you woken?”

                It finally found its voice and rasped in a thick, oily Ancient Egyptian. But I understood it.

                “You are why we come, Priestess. We have woken to take you to the Underworld where you belong.”

                I shot a blast at it, hitting it in the shoulder. But this mummy was stronger than the first and it chuffed, a horrible undead laugh.

                “You will come with us.”

                I returned a laugh without humour. “You will have to make me.”

                Another blast bolted its way, which it dodged in time for the first mummy to regain itself and attack from behind.