Chapter Four

"Wow, someone's jumpy." The figure replies haughtily. I continue to stare at them in disbelief. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is my face really that misshapen?"

I blink several times. "Hazel?"

"Yes, 'tis I. Hello Kiara." The figure jumps up off the bed and steps into the light, revealing the grinning face of my best friend. "Why are you still looking at me like I'm a serial killer?"

"Why are you sitting in my room? In the dark?" I ask, finally managing to find my voice.

"I'm here as a surprise. For you. From your father. For the holidays. Surprise!" She throws her hands up, wriggling her fingers around in the air.

I burst out laughing and throw my arms around her. "Don't lie to me Hayz. You're here for you."

"What? No! How could you possibly think that? I am offended and hurt. Hurt to the nth degree." She declares, holding her hands up in the air and refusing to return my hug. I pull back just so she can see the dry look I'm giving her. Hazel cracks a sheepish grin. "Okay, so it may have been my suggestion for me to join you here over summer, but that's beside the point!"

I chuckle, shaking my head as I switch on my bedroom light. "That still doesn't explain why you were sitting in my room in the dark."

"Because I'm creepy and the darkness is my friend." Hazel shrugs, pushing her round wire-frame glasses further up her nose. She falls back on my bed and leans back on her elbows. "Why were you so freaked out?"

"Because your face really is that misshapen." I shoot back, collapsing next to her with a sigh.

"Okay Keeks, I love you, I really do, but that was incredibly racist. How dare you call my face misshapen? You know, just because I'm Chinese does not mean you get to call my face misshapen. That is racism at it's most hurtful." She berates, smacking me in the face with one of my pillows. I roll away with a giggle as she continues her assault. "And laughing about it doesn't make me or my misshapen face feel any better!"

"You're a hypocrite, do you know that? A hypocrite." I tell her, kicking her off my bed. Hazel hits the floor with a thump and a loud yelp. After a few seconds her head pops up again, beaming at me contritely.

"I think we can both agree that you love my hypocrisy." She retorts. I shrug non-committedly. Hazel narrows her eyes and grabs my wrist, yanking me over the edge of the bed. She stares down at me, her short black hair tickling my face. "Why were you so freaked out?"

"Why are you so weird?" I shoot back, wincing at my twinging muscles as I push myself up to my feet. "Also, ow."

"Oh quit whining, you big baby. The floor is covered in shag carpet, it's as soft as a cloud." Hazel rolls her eyes, leaning back against the edge of my bed. "You're also trying to distract me from my questions, which is literally impossible, because questions are basically all I live on, and I can't be distracted from them. So why were you freaked?"

I wrinkle up my nose at her. She's unrelenting. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I'm an archaeologist in training, Keeks. I believe everything is possible unless materialistically proven otherwise." She responds dryly. "Hit me with your impossibility."

I sigh in defeat, avoiding eye contact as I mumble, "I woke up Dad's mummy."

"What?"

I huff and meet her gaze. "I woke up Dad's mummy."

Hazel bursts out laughing. "You what?"

"I—I woke him up!" I exclaim. She roars with laughter. "Stop laughing! I'm not kidding!"

How—how—how—" She splutters, so hysterical that she can't get a proper sentence out. "How did you manage to wake up a three-thousand year old Egyptian mummy, Kiara?"

"You don't believe me." I grumble, eying her in disgruntlement. "You can't even keep a straight face."

"You just told me you woke up a mummy, Keeks." She retorts, biting back a grin. "That kind of thing only happens in really bad anime, or... or... Disney movies."

"What the hell kind of Disney movies have you been watching?" I ask ruefully. She shrugs. "I'm not lying, I swear! That... thing chased me through the museum!"

"Okay. Fine." She crosses her legs, twisting around until she's facing me. "You have my full, albeit skeptical, attention. Convince me that you're not kidding. And you have, like, five minutes, because after that your Dad is going to to turn up with food and I'm going to leave you."

"Your obsession with my father grows creepier with every passing day."

"Four minutes and forty seconds. Tick tock, tall tale teller."

"Okay, fine." I roll my eyes and begrudgingly tell her. "I went back to the exhibit earlier to grab my bag, and I don't know, some strange urge came over me, and I picked up that armlet artifact thing that they found with the sarcophagus—"

"You touched the artifact?!" Hazel interrupts, her jaw dropping as horror washes over her expression. "Do you know what kind of damage that could cause, Kiara? The bacteria from the air alone could—"

"Hazel." I give her a hard look. "Priorities, please."

"Priorities? Priorities? You might have destroyed one of the only three things your father and countless other—" Hazel catches herself when my look grows even more withering and holds her hands up. "Okay fine. Keep telling me how you woke up a mummy."

"That's the thing! I didn't wake the mummy up! The snake did! It did this... wriggling thing in the air, like," I try to demonstrate, and Hazel bites her lip, her face growing bright red. "And then the coffin lid moved, and he rose up like something out of a cheap horror movie, and I just..."

"You just?" She prompts after I trail off, leaning forward with an expectant expression. I grimace slightly.

"I screamed and ran."

"Aw." She holds her hand to her chest, a simpering look on her face. "Just like every white girl in a budget horror movie should! I'm proud, I honestly am."

I roll my eyes and smack her in the face with my pillow. "You're not taking me seriously."

"No, no, I am, I swear!" She nods, plastering a serious look on her face. "What happened after he creepily rose from the sarcophagus?"

I stare at her for a few moments longer and huff, getting too my feet. "Forget I mentioned it."

"No Keeks, please." She laughs, lunging after me. "I want to hear the story of Kiara and the mummy!"

"No. You don't believe me, so you don't deserve to hear the story." I reply haughtily, sticking my nose up in the air. The muffled sound of the front door slamming reverberates through the house, and Hazel's eyes light up.

"Food!" She cheers, leaping to her feet and dashing to the door.

"Oh, sure. You definitely want to hear the story." I drawl saedonically. Hazel pauses at the door, glancing at me over her shoulder and grinning.

"Oh, I definitely want to hear the story. But first, we eat." She declares. "Maybe then you'll have had enough time to develop your story into something remotely more interesting than a botched up horror movie."

The pillow I throw barely misses knocking her over.

— — —

Despite her insistences to hear me out, Hazel immediately forgets about my 'story', instead attaching herself to my father like a limpet and bombarding him with so many questions that I'm surprised he doesn't drown under the tide of them all. That doesn't surprise me at all though — she's done it ever since we were six years old, and she first discovered what my father did for a living. To entertain myself, I spend the rest of the evening obsessively scrolling through the internet archives on the potential importance of Egyptian armlets, a very particular snake armlet still slithering through my mind. Even though I was ninety-nine percent convinced by now that what happened in the museum really was a trick of the mind, I still couldn't get that damn bracelet out of my head, or the feeling that for some reason it was familiar to me. I also couldn't shake that the feeling that there was still that one, measly little one percent chance that what happened in the museum was real. That the mummy was telling the truth, that he really was cursed, and that I really was the only one that could happen. Replaying it back in my head, it really does sound utterly phantasmagorical... yet the look of utter desperation and urgency in his eyes felt real. Even my vivid imagination couldn't make up something like that. That thought haunts me all night, to the point where it even rips apart my dreams and causes sleep to allude me completely.

Kasiya. Help me.

I gasp and bolt upright in bed. Clutching the sheets to my chest tightly, I glance around my room wildly. A sliver of moonlight shines through the gap in my curtains, casting a silver shadow across Hazel's slumbering form at the end of my bed, but that's the only person I see. I let out a long sigh, running a shaky hand through my short curls as my racing heart starts to stutter back to a normal rhythm.

There's nobody there. You were just dreaming. You had a scare, and now your imagination is loaded with shells of ridiculously wild scenarios it can easily shoot you down with. But none of it is real.

It's not real.

I slowly lie back down in bed, pulling the covers up so high that they almost encompass me completely. Once I've succeeded in wrapping myself in my comforter safety, I nestle my head back on my pillow and roll over.

A face stares back at me.

I let out an ear-piercing scream, flailing back in such a fright that I tumble off the edge of the bed.

"Kiara?" Hazel sits up, looking around blearily. She throws her arm out, feeling around blindly, and smacks me in the face.

"Ow!"

"Keeks?" She squints at me. "What the hell are you doing in my bed?"

"Because there's a face next to mine!" I hiss, my eyes the size of saucers. "A face!"

"A face?" She yawns, rubbing her eyes with the base of her hand. "You woke me up to tell me you had a dream? Dude, you're so lucky I'm half asleep right now, or I'd be breaking your neck right about now."

"I'm not dreaming!" I whisper-yell, staring at her wildly. "There is a person outside my window!"

"What?" Hazel blinks at me several times. I nod frantically, my heart beating so fast that it feels like it's going to rip through my ribcage. She sits up straighter and gasps loudly. "Holy crap!"

"What?!"

She picks up her pillow and smacks me in the face with it. "There's nobody there Kiara! Now get out of my bed before I actually kill you!"

"What?" I tentatively peek up over the edge of my bed. A few straggling stars are still twinkling in the sky as the first glimpses of the rising sun peek over the edge of my balcony's railing, but there's no face. I frown. "There was someone there, I swear."

Hazel kicks me until she successfully pushes the mattress. She buries her face in her pillow. "And I swear if you keep me up any longer, I will murder you dead. Go to sleep."

"I'm not kidding, Hazel."

"Well then go check." She groans, lifting her head up off the pillow to glare at me. "And please do it now, so we can both sleep."

"I don't want to go out there! I could die!"

"If you don't go you will die!" She hisses, her eyes snapping furiously. I hesitate, and she narrows her eyes into slits. "I'm serious Kiara!"

"Okay, okay, fine, I'm going!" I scramble to my feet, casting her a surreptitious look over my shoulder as I scurry over to the door. "Yeesh. Someone's not a morning person."

"It's six am!"

"Still. You're never this murderous." I mutter, cautiously drawing back the curtain and slowly opening the door. A cool night wind lightly caresses my skin, and I shiver, crossing my arms over my chest tightly as I peer around my balcony. For several long moments, there's absolutely nothing, save for the breeze that dances all over the small balcony, and for a second I start to think that maybe I did imagine it.

But then a figure melts out of the shadows and moves into the moonlight. I gasp loudly.

"You!"

The mummy steps forward, completely dismissing my shock. "Where is it?"

"How are you here? We're on the fourth story!" I gape. "Actually no, scratch that, how do you know where I live?"

"Where is it?" He repeats, his eyes blazing. I stare at him in bewilderment.

"Where is what? Logicality? Reality? Sanity? Because in all honesty, I'm struggling to find it too right now."

A loud groan tears through the air, and a grumpy Hazel appears at my shoulder.

"Kiara, how long are you going to stand out here? It's six a.m., it is cold, and you—" The sentence dies down in her throat when she realises I'm not alone. She glances over at me with eyes the size of saucers. "Uh, Keeks? I don't want to be that person, but I think there's a mummy on your balcony."

"I am not a mummy." He replies shortly, his tone clipped. Hazel eyes me out of her peripheral vision. I give her a smug look.

"Told you I woke the mummy."

"Yeah, I think I believe you now." She replies slowly. Her gaze travels up and down the mummy. A small smirk twists up the corners of her mouth. "He's hot for someone who's been dead for three thousand years."

I shove her. "Hazel!"

"What?" She raises her eyebrows at me. "You disagree?"

I don't respond, folding my arms over my chest and avoiding eye contact.

Hazel cackles, glancing back at the mummy. The laughter dies in her throat when we notice the mummy staring at both of us in abject confusion. Hazel clears her throat and looks over to me.

"Why is there a hot mummy standing on your balcony at six a.m.?"

"I don't know. I still wasn't even sure he was real until you saw him too!"

"Well, unless we're both having the same nightmare, I'm fairly sure he's real. And naked under all those bandages." She states in her matter-o-fact way. The mummy stiffens. I round on her with wide eyes, gobsmacked. "So why are you standing on Kiara's balcony, mummy who is hot but naked?"

He doesn't respond.

Hazel leans over to me and whispers, "He is on the balcony, right? Because I don't have my glasses on and I'm blind as hell, so for all I know he could be floating on a magic carpet or something."

I elbow her hard. "Hazel."

"I am not a mummy." He finally repeats, shifting uncomfortably away from Hazel. "Please stop calling me that."

"Well, what are we supposed to call you? Fido?" Hazel challenges, raising an eyebrow at him. "Grant? McMummified?"

"My name is Ahmose."

"Okay. Ahmose. What are you doing on Kiara's balcony?" Hazel questions, crossing her arms over her chest and eyeballing him. Ahmose's gaze shifts to me.

"I'm here for Kiara."

I freeze, staring at him. "Wait, you were serious?"

Hazel turns her questioning gaze to me. "You talked to the mummy? You told me you woke him up; you didn't tell me you had an actual conversation with him!"

"You didn't believe me when I told you I woke him up!" I retort. "I'm sorry if I neglected to tell you about the conversation we had when you were mocking me just for telling you I woke him up!"

"Okay yeah, that sounds like me." Hazel snickers. "What exactly does he want you for then?"

"I uh—" I glance over at Ahmose, who watches me expressionlessly. "To break his curse?"

"His curse?" Hazel echoes, looking like she's about to burst out laughing again. Then she catches sight of Ahmose's unchanging expression, and her mirth dies down. "The curse that... made you a mummy?"

"Yes." He replies sincerely, not even blinking.

"And Kiara's supposed to help you with that?" She raises her eyebrows. He nods. "How?"

"By helping me complete a series of tasks."

"Well, colour me shocked. I never saw that coming." Hazel mutters. I roll my eyes, shoving her to the side as I finally step forward. Ahmose watches me silently, his expression unreadable as I walk up to him.

"Why me, Ahmose?" I ask him quietly, looking up at him. "Why do I have to help you with the tasks? I'm nothing special. I'm just a normal eighteen year old girl, barely out of high school. So why am I supposed to be the one breaking your curse? What's so special about me?"

Something flashes through his eyes, so quickly that I barely catch it. "Nefretiri would not have woken for anyone else. She knew you were the only one in this universe who would be able to help me. She chose you, and that means you are the most special person in the entire universe."

My breath catches in my throat. For a moment, the entire night seems to still around the two of us. He doesn't look away from me, holding me in his electric gaze.

"So will you?" He asks. "Will you help me Kiara?"

I swallow, my mouth suddenly incredibly dry. "I—"

"Of course she will!" Hazel butts in, her head suddenly popping up beside us. She nods earnestly. "You betcha betcha."

"I will?" I stare at her. She nods even more, her eyes lighting up.

"C'mon Keeks! It'll be our last adventure before your mother rips us apart with law school!"

"Our?"

"Well, duh." She scoffs. She gestures to Ahmose, who's staring at her in perplexity. "There is a literal living breathing mummy standing on your balcony and asking you to help him break a three-thousand year old curse! Of course I'm coming with you; this is literally one of my dreams come true! Besides, you're going to need someone with all the know-how about ancient Egypt to help you. You're terrible at history."

"I know all about Egypt." Ahmose replies, offence colouring his tones. "I am sure my knowledge would suffice."

"Yes, but you're a boy. Boys are useless, even ones who have been mummified." Hazel retorts. Her expression turns pleading as she returns her attention back to me, not even giving him a chance to defend himself. "C'mon Kiara! The guy is standing on your balcony, telling you that you're the most special girl in the universe! How is that not convincing enough for you to immediately say yes?!"

I can't help but laugh a little, my gaze flittering back to Ahmose for a second. "Well... it is."

"Exactly!" She exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air. "So why are you hesitating?"

"Because he's a mummy, standing on my balcony asking me to break a curse, Hazel." I deadpan. "There are so many things that could go wrong! We don't know him, or who he is, or what these tasks are that he wants us to help him with. Hell, for all we know, he could be a serial killer looking for his next victim!"

"I'm not a serial killer." Ahmose speaks up, looking a little troubled. "I would never hurt you."

"Thanks dude, super helpful." Hazel snorts. "Kiara, isn't that the whole point of an adventure? To try something new? There are a billion things that could go wrong every day. This balcony could fall out from underneath us and splatter us all over the pavement. A plane could drop out of the sky and turn us into humancakes. Your dad could decide he wants to continue sleeping at 6am and shoot us to quieten us down."

"How is that helpful?" Ahmose asks incredulously. Hazel holds her hand up in his face, silencing him as she continues to talk to me.

"My point is, there are a million unknowns in the universe everyday Kiara, and we can never control them." She tells me, her voice softening. "I know you like to fit everything into neat little photos, but the world doesn't work like that. 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. Why not this one?"

"Because it defies the laws of nature?" I reply dryly. "It's literally impossible? We have no literal idea of what these tasks are that he's needing our help with?"

"That makes it even more exciting!" She exclaims, gripping my shoulders and looking me deep in the eye. "C'mon, Kiara. What do you say? Shall we throw our lives aside and help this mummy break an ancient Egyptian curse?"

I look over at Ahmose. He smiles at me, the rising sun illuminating him from behind and shedding him in a holy glow. I take a deep breath, squashing my better reason and hesitantly returning his smile.

"Okay. Let's do it. Let's break the curse."