Chapter Five

Day 2.

"Is it clear?"

I cautiously poke my head out the door.

"I think so?"

"How can you 'think so'? You either know or you don't. It's not that hard to miss an entire person."

"You just put all spies and ninjas out of a job with one sentence."

Hazel smacks my back. "It is too early in the morning for your sass, Collins. Just check the damn room."

I roll my eyes. "It's clear, Hazel. He's obviously still asleep."

"Well, that's not a surprise. It's almost seven am."

"Stop whining already. You're awake, you have been for almost an hour now, so get over it." I step to the side and wave them forward, furtively glancing around the corner. My heart freezes. "Oh crap crap crap!"

"What? What does that—hey!" I slam the door in Hazel and Ahmose's faces, leaning against it with a forced smile as my father rounds the corner.

"Hey Dad! Hi Dad. Hi Dad."

My father pauses, still in the process of lifting his coffee cup up to his mouth. He scrutinises me over the top of his glasses. "Good morning Kiara. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine! Great, even. Easy breezy beautiful." I reply brightly. "Why?"

"Because you're acting weird." He replies suspiciously. "And you're never alive before ten a.m."

"I'm not acting weird! I'm just not tired." I reply, just as a massive yawn rips through me. My father raises his eyebrows at me. I smile sheepishly. "Pre-morning yawn?"

"There's no such thing." He replies wryly, continuing on his lethargic trek to the kitchen. "You are acting weird. Why's that? Have you got a boy hiding in your room or something?"

"No!" I throw up my arm, replying so hastily that he pauses again and turns around to stare at me.

"Okay, I was joking, but now you're starting to worry me." He replies, narrowing his eyes. "What's going on Kiara? Why don't you want me going into your room?"

"Because... Hazel's naked!" I blurt out, and his eyes widen. There's a muffled groan from inside my room. "Yeah she got so hot last night that she just... decided to sleep in the nude."

"Naked?" He echoes, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline.

I swallow and nod, lurching on with my lie. "We have a really, really tight friendship."

He blinks at me for several seconds, before turning around with a sigh and opening the pantry. "This is all far too much at seven a.m."

"You're the one who asked." I shrug, forcing on an air of nonchalance.

"And the regret fills me even more every second." He replies, his voice muffled. When he turns around, he's got a bagel in his mouth. He takes a big bite, his eyes flickering between me and the door. "Will you... two be alright if I head to the museum early? There's still a few things I need to sort out before the grand opening on Monday."

"Yes!" I reply quickly, nodding with a reassuring smile at his disbelieving look. "We will be great! Splendid, even."

He eyes me warily, grabbing his keys off the end of the kitchen counter. "In the future, Kiara, I think it's important for the both of us that you never get up before ten ever again. Please."

I laugh, folding my arms with a small smile. "I swear on my lucky pencil."

"On your infamous writing pencil? You must be serious." He grins, grabbing the satchel-bag that's hanging up next to the door. "Let me know what you trouble you two decide to get yourselves in, alright? There's money on the counter if you need it. "

"Okay. Bye, Dad." I smile, waving goodbye as he leaves. The moment I hear the lock click, I step to the side and swing open the door. "Okay come on, he's gone!"

Hazel emerges with the most outraged expression on her face. "I'm naked? I'm naked? Seriously? You couldn't come up with anything better?"

"I'm sorry! I crack under pressure!" I exclaim, holding my hands up sheepishly. She stares bug-eyed at me.

"You want to be a journalist!"

I blink at her. "You really are grumpy in the morning."

She splutters incomprehensibly and flicks me in the forehead, muttering to herself as she stalks away. "I need coffee before I break my best friend's face."

Ahmose clears his throat behind me I turn to see him watching me expectantly.

"What?"

"Your friend was not lying before." He tells me. My face crumples in confusion. "I am not wearing anything underneath these bandages."

"What? Oh. Oh." I blush. "Wait here. I'll... go grab some of my father's clothes for you, I guess."

"Alright." He inclines his head, ardently avoiding my gaze. My cheeks burning, I dart into my father's room without another word.

A few minutes later, I return with a bundle of clothes, including a pair of my father's old sweats and one of his t-shirts. I throw them at Ahmose without making eye contact. "There. You can use those, he won't miss them. Bathroom's over there."

"Thank you." He replies graciously, following my extended arm and disappearing into the bathroom.

Making a face at my awkwardness, I swivel to see Hazel watching me, a spoon hanging out of her mouth and a tub of yoghurt on the bench in front of her. I give her a look. "What?"

"This is weird." She comments, dipping her spoon into the yoghurt. "Like, really weird."

"I know."

"Like, really really weird." She continues. "I mean, you just agreed to go on a pilgrimage with some random dude who stalked you from the museum, without even considering the consequences."

I blanch, my stomach flipping. "Oh god."

"Why'd you do that?" Hazel asks me, licking the yoghurt off the spoon. My eyes bug out of their sockets.

"You told me to!"

"I tell you to do a lot of things, Keeks. Last week I told you to run away from home and join a freak circus because I thought you'd fit in with your unusually large forehead. Doesn't mean you actually have to do it." She shrugs, hopping up on the counter and sitting cross-legged. "You do know that you literally did just agree to run away from home and join a freak circus, right?"

"Oh my god." I moan, burying my face in my hands. "What am I doing?"

"We just established what you're doing." She retorts dryly. I shoot daggers at her. She holds her hands up in the air, laughing. "Well, we did! But why did you join the freak circus?"

"Because you told me to stop being boring!"

"Nope, that's not it." She shakes her head, tapping her spoon against the back of her hand.

"I don't know!" I throw my hands up in the air, spluttering. "I just... I have this gut feeling that I should trust him! Like I know him, or something."

"That's weird." Hazel snickers, sobering up when she catches the look I'm giving her. "But totally plausible."

"Only because none of this is plausible." I retort. I laugh a little in disbelief. "I mean, we still don't even know if he's telling us the truth; he has no backing evidence or facts to support his claims. I...I need to do some more digging, to make sure that he's who he says he is, and then—"

"Spoken like a true journalist." Hazel sighs, interrupting me before I can completely spin out of control. She throws her spoon at me. "Stop that."

The spoon smacks me in the face. "Hey! What was that for?"

"I'm trying to beat the journalist out of you for once. Did it work?" She asks, squinting at me hopefully. I scowl at her.

"No."

"Damn. Come a little closer then. Maybe I'll be more successful if I punch you in the face." She replies, grinning when I lob the spoon back at her. She catches it mid-air. "I'm serious though Keeks. You are spiraling into a pool of stupidity, and some sense needs to be knocked into you before you drown yourself. I think we can both agree that you are not going to find any 'supporting evidence or facts' to support this. He's a talking mummy. The only supporting evidence you have for that is mythology." Her face lights up. "Ooh, mythology! We can look through the old Egyptian myths, see if there's anything—"

"Hazel."

"I'm sorry." She clears her throat, seriousness taking hold of her features again. "You said you trust the dude, right?"

"...Yes?"

"Then stop questioning everything and trust that he's telling the truth. And if you're still uncertain, ask him to prove it to you." She shrugs. "If he's a mummy, then he'll have some sort of voodoo magic. They all do in mythology, in one way or another."

"Okay. Okay. Fine." I let out a long breath, placing my hands on my hips as I pace. "I can do that."

"Good." Hazel nods, her attention returning back to her yoghurt. "Hey, do you have any hash browns? They taste glorious with yoghurt."

"Ew. No! That's weird. Like, really weird." I wrinkle up my nose. "And I'm not encouraging that. At all."

"Ha." She barks out a laugh, rolling her eyes at me as she hops off the counter. "I guess I'll have to look myself then."

"Please don't." I reply dryly. Behind me, the bathroom door clicks open, and I glance over my shoulder to see Ahmose emerge, this time in more modern clothing. I do a double take.

"Oh my god!"

"What?" Hazel twists around. She drops the yoghurt container. "What the crap?!"

Ahmose pauses, staring at us both. "What?"

"Since when have you had hair?" I gape, barely able to believe my own eyes. "You were bald like, two minutes ago!"

"The same way I was able to revive the dinosaur at the museum." He replies calmly. "I have the ability to reverse the order of life, from death back into being."

"Dude." Hazel whistles, mouthing when I look over at her, "Mummy voodoo!"

"So you just... grew hair." I say slowly. He nods. "In two minutes. Just like that."

"Yes." Ahmose runs a hand through his short dark brown hair, causing it to stick up like it's styled by invisible gel. He frowns slightly at me. "Do you prefer it if I were bald?"

"Hell no!" Hazel crows, smirking from ear to ear. "Keep the hair, please. In fact, grow even more. I think you'd look great with long hair. And a beard."

"Hazel!" I hiss. I can practically hear her rolling her eyes as she swings around to face me. "Please leave."

"What? Why?" She whines. "The dude is hot! I know you think so too, I can see it in your eyes."

I don't reply, but the blush burning my cheeks when Ahmose turns to me betrays my inner thoughts. Hazel grins and starts snickering. I screw my nose up at her.

"Just leave. Take your freaky frozen breakfast and go."

"No." Hazel shrugs, dipping a hash brown in the yoghurt and throwing it in her mouth. My face wrinkles up in disgust, and even Ahmose looks remotely green. "I'm not leaving for one second. I'm not having you solve Mummy-boy's life problems when I'm not in the room because you banished me for my eating habits."

"I'm not a mummy." Ahmose repeats for what feels like the fiftieth time. "And I don't have life problems."

"Yes you do, Mummy-boy." Hazel replies nochalantly. "You're three thousand years old, you have a curse, and up until twenty-four hours ago, you were dead in a coffin. Ergo, you have life problems."

Something flashes through Ahmose's eyes, and his expression abruptly closes off. I clear my throat, giving Hazel a look.

"Look, now you've pissed him off." I tell her. Guilt flickers through her brown eyes. "Can you just..."

"Yeah, I know." Hazel rolls off the counter, holding the yoghurt up in the air. "Self-banishment."

I clear my throat, shooting Ahmose an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about her. If I didn't know her parents, I would say she was dropped on her head as a baby. She has no semblance of a filter."

He doesn't reply. I glance down at the floor, crossing my arms in an attempt to ward off the awkwardness settling around us like a thick fog.

I'm standing alone in my dad's apartment with a stranger. In my pajamas.

This is weird. Really, really weird.

"So, um..." I clear my throat several times. "This is all real, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I laugh nervously. "This is really weird."

"I understand your hesitation to trust me. I know this must be incredibly confusing for you." He says quietly. "If there was anything else I could do that—"

"No, no, it's fine." I shake my head, finally meeting his gaze. "I do. I mean... I trust you."

"You do?" He blinks, taken aback. I nod. "That didn't..." He cuts himself off, his jaw clenching almost imperceptibly. "Thank you."

"It's okay." I attempt a hesitant smile, letting out a long breath. "So uh... how exactly am I supposed to help? Break the curse, I mean."

"We must complete a series of trials. Three of them, in total."

"Okay. Three trials." I nod slowly. "That doesn't sound so bad. I can help with that. What are the trials?"

"I do not know. I have only ever encountered the first two trials. After that..." He stops himself, something flashing through his eyes. "I have only encountered the first two."

I peer up at him through my lashes, curiosity stealing through me at his hesitancy. Has he been through these trials more than once? "What are they?"

Ahmose replies in a language so old I don't even recognise it. The confusion I feel must reflect on my face, because he sighs, switching to English again.

"The first trial, it is... what do you call it? A sphinx."

"A... a sphinx?" I echo, not sure I heard him properly. "A sphinx? Are you serious? You expect me to help you fight a sphinx?"

"Yes."

"An actual sphinx? As in riddle me to death, big lady-faced cat, sphinx?" I ask, laughing a little in pure incredulity. He smiles minutely, his eyes sparkling with mirth. My heart skips a beat.

Oh lord. That's not fair. He's wearing quite possibly the most unattractive outfit in the world, and he still has me swooning like a fangirl.

"Yes." He replies amusedly. "Are there any other types?"

"I don't know. You're the resident monster expert!" I exclaim. Ahmose chuckles. "So where is this supposed sphinx hiding out? Egypt?"

"It's exact location remains a mystery. It shifts throughout time." He explains. "But yes, it will be somewhere in Egypt."

"Egypt? You expect me to just run off to Egypt with you? I—I can't do that! I'm still trying to sort out what university I'm going to, and I want to spend time with my father and Hazel before my Mom succeeds in shipping me off to the end of my life as I know it, and...and..." I splutter, making inconceivable squeaking noises as I gesture at him. "And I have no time to run off to Egypt with some random stranger, no matter how gorgeous he is!"

The corners of Ahmose's lips quirk up into a smirk. "I can be very persuasive."

"No!" I shout, pointing at him. He cocks an eyebrow at me, questioning my protest silently. "This is really weird!"

"That isn't a very persuasive counter-argument."

"Yeah? Well, your face isn't a very... persuasive counter-argument." I retort lamely. The arrogant smirk on his face triples in size. I glare at him. "Don't give me that look! I'm not good under pressure!"

"I'm sorry." He says, the smirk dropping off his face as his expression sobers up. "I understand this weird, and inconceivable, and hard to grasp, and I know what I am requesting of you. But you must believe me when I say that you are the only one in the entire universe who is able to help me. I would not have asked if I did not think you would be capable in breaking my curse. My fate rests solely in your hands, Kiara."

I bite my lip, indecision rocking through me. He steps forward, his caramel eyes earnest. "But time is an exceedingly precious jawahra that slips further away the more you hesitate, and I cannot explain anything further until we begin the trials. So even if you do not believe me, I implore you to trust me."

I sigh, watching silently as he stretches out his hand. As it dangles in the between us, the promise of something completely uncertain and dangerous, Hazel's words from earlier echo through my mind. Life is going to just pass you by if you watch it through the lens of a camera. At some point, you have to stop hiding and indulge in a real adventure yourself.

I slowly raise my eyes, and the moment I meet his electric gaze, something sparks inside of me. Without another thought, I reach out and grab his hand, sealing the deal without a single spoken word.