Visionary Kiss I & II & III

Visionary Kiss II Part 2

CAIRO MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES - DAY (1925)

In the middle of Cairo, the strange and mysterious, wonderful city, so old the stars have actually changed their position in the sky since its birth, lies the Museum. Deep in the bowels of this building, lay the Stacks.

Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves, filled with literature on the Antiquities. The air filled with history and the smell of old paper, a little musty and damp, here two women worked.

Standing at the top of a tall ladder between two of the many rows and leaning against one row was at first glance a rather uninteresting British woman, hair in a bun, eye glasses, long boring dress, nothing special.

The only difference between her and the other woman was the hair and eye color and the glasses. Both looked like they had been in this part of the museum for far too long. But this was something, the witch liked, she had started working here a few weeks ago and because she was a woman, it had been clear that she had to work with Evelyn Carnarvon.

But that was not the only thing both women had done. They had become friends over the interest in Egypt and the Pharaohs. Spending as much time possible with each
other talking or sorting the books, just like they did now.

Willow walked between the stacks, arms full of books, only half listening to Evelyn. The woman was the second key to Imhotep that was something the witch knew and so she had decided to stay at her side until it was time.

Pulling a book out, from a stack under her arm, Evey blew the dust off it, then she placed it onto the shelf right in front of her face grabbing the next one, reading the title.

"Tuthmosis? .... Now how did you get up here?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he likes O more than T." Willow answered smiling from the other side of the room.

Carefully trying not to lose balance, Evelyn looked over her should to the bookshelf behind her, were the books she still was holding in her hand should have been. After she had gently set down the other books on top of the shelf, she turned and started to reach across the aisle with the book in her hand.

Stretching, reaching, holding onto the ladder with her fingertips she almost made it and that was when the ladder pulled away from the shelf. She let out a small yelp, but not loud enough, that Willow would have been able to hear it and being able to help. Now Evelyn was holding onto the ladder, which was now standing straight up precariously between the two rows.

Holding her breath, she could see her friend or better a short gleam of her red hair, as Willow walked though the room, still not seeing what had happened and then
Evelyn lost her balance, the ladder swung around and she started to stilt walking down the aisle.

"OHEIUGM! ! AHHHHHH!"

This time the other woman heard it, setting the books she had still in her arms aside, Willow walked over to see what was going on and her first instinct was to giggle.

In the meantime the ladder crossed the aisle, did an about face and headed back the way it came. Evelyn still clinging to the top and struggling for balance.

The next things happened so fast that Willow was not able to interfere without the use of magic and so she could only watch as Evelyn screamed, as the ladder
made a 180, spun into another aisle and finally crashed into the top of a bookshelf.

"Wow" she said as she walked over to the ladder looking up to her friend that was still holding her breath, not being able to stop herself, she then sighed heavily.

But this was something she should have not done, Evelyn lost the hold and slid down the ladder just as the first bookshelf was falling away, plopping onto Willow.

Both looked up just as the domino effect kicked in. Each bookshelf crashed into the next. Not stopping. Bookshelf after Bookshelf. Thousands of columns flung
off the shelves and scattered across the floor, to finally find an end as the last shelf crashed into a wall.

Evelyn had scrunched her eyes shut at the beginning and now that there was no longer a sound she opened them again to look into Willow's wide eyes that stared
at the mess.

"Oops."

This precise moment is when the Egyptian Curator decided to storm into the room, and started screaming as soon as he had seen what had caused the noise.

"Look at this! Sons of the Messiah! Give me frogs, flies, locusts, Anything but this! Compared to the two you, the other plagues were a joy!"

Willow helped first herself and then Evelyn up, it took her everything possible to not shudder at the thought of frogs. In moments like this she felt more like the five-year-old self that screamed like mad after Xander and Jesse had put a frog into her bag.

"I'm sorry. It was an accident." The dark-haired woman started only to be stopped by the angry curator who looked like a man that any second would have a heart
attack.

"When Ramses destroyed Syria, it was an accident. You are a catastrophe! Why do I put up with you?"

"Who said it was Evelyn, I could be the one to blame." Willow tried to interfere.

"You put up with me, because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphs and hieratic, and I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library." Was Evelyn's answer to his question, which caused Willow to smile. She liked the woman more and more but the next words from the curator made her unable to hold the smile.

"Who needs smart women? I put up with you because your mother and father were our finest patrons, Allah rest their souls. Now straighten up this mess!" And with
this he stormed out, leaving two steaming women standing in the room that had only a few minutes before been a library.

Willow again looked at all the books, some of them would never be again useful, she knew this would break Giles heart, but he hadn't been born yet, what meant
there was no heart to break. This thought was soon gone as they heard a noise.

"Hello?" Evelyn called.

But there was no answer. Everything was quite and then they heard it again, it sounded like feet, slowly shuffling across the floor, coming from a nearby gallery.

"Abdul? Mohammed? Bob?"

INT. THE RAMSES MUSEUM

The Rooms filled with treasures and plunders from the middle Kingdom, it was very dark and quiet, all sounds swallowed by the quantity of objects. The only light
came from flickering torches at each end of the gallery.

And again both women heard the noise. From far inside he room. Feet. Slowly shuffling plodding across the floor.

Willow reached over which made the other woman jump a little, and shoot her a bad look as she grabbed a torch. Looking around they decided to search separately.

Evelyn looks up at statues from Anubis and Horus and they look down onto her, making her feel a little scared. So she decided to follow the redhead no longer
in the mood to search alone, along the closed sarcophagus, cases full of ancient artifacts.

Only to walk into Willow, who was standing beside another sarcophagus that was strangely open when it should have been closed. Evelyn slowly leaned forward
with the torch to take a closer look, holding onto the other woman's hand that seemed too calm.

She leaned in closer when without warning the rotten mummy sat up and screeched at her causing her to scream, drop the torch and back away, scared out of her wits, and almost breaking Willow's hand in the process. The witch knew that there was no magic because this was the only thing that could make a mummy come back to life, so it could only be the work of a human.

And so she was not surprised as they heard a man's laugh coming out from the inside of the sarcophagus. Evelyn however narrowed her eyes as a foppish cad crawled out from behind the mummy, laughing his ass off, more than a little drunk.

"You... ! YOU... !"

"Drunkard? Fool? Rat-bastard? Please call me something original."

Willow watched this display of family meeting. She had already had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan Carnarvon. So she watched as he crawled out, while she pulling a cigarette out of the mummy's mouth, before his sister had a chance to see it.

"Have you no respect for the dead?" Evey started.

"Right now, I only wish to join them." He grinned drunk, just to get punched hard in the chest.

"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours."

"My dear, sweet, baby sister, I'll have you know, that at this moment my career is on a high note."

"High note? Ha! For five years you've been scrounging around Egypt, and what have you to show for it? Nothing."

"Evelyn, please? How about we get some coffee and you two talk about this when he is sober?" Willow tried to calm things a little as Jonathan started scrounging around in his jacket.

"Oh yes I do! I have something right here!"

"Oh no, not another worthless trinket, Jonathan, if I bring one more piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you."

Jonathan still not listening to his sister pulled out a small, ancient Box.

After one short look Willow knew what it was, she had seen this little box before, it was the collapsed Key to Imhotep's sarcophagus and coffin. Reaching out to
touch it she had to watch a curious Evelyn as grabbed the box first out of his hand.

"Where did you get this?" Willow asked, like the brother knowing Evelyn's weakness, giving him a smile.

"On a dig, down in Theban."

Evelyn rolled the box around in her open hands, mumbling to herself as she translated the hieratics and hieroglyphs that covered it.

"My whole life I've never found anything. Evey tell me I've found something."

Willow could no longer watch all this, her finger itched and so she grabbed the box out of Evelyn's hands, ignoring her protest.

"I just want to see something." She murmured. Her fingers played with the various little slats on the box, shifting them this way and that way, like a puzzle.

This was the key to Imhotep, the key to free him. And then suddenly, it unfolded itself, mechanically, turning itself into the Key. Sitting inside the open key/box was a folded piece of golden papyrus. An ancient map.

Evelyn reached out and Willow laid it back into her hand with an excusing smile. Knowing that the other woman had already forgotten that she had been so impatient.

"Jonathan?"

"Yes?"

"I think you found something." Willow smiled at him with a hundred watt smile as she said this.


End Visionary Kiss II Part 2