CHAPTER TWO

❝The moon stared at me through sprinkled nighttime stardust and I alone smile.❞

Jay Long

✦✧✦

Luna's never been inside a security office before. It's rather more bland than she thought it'd be. She absentmindedly braids a strand of her hair, watching Nicky play Angry Birds on his phone.

When she and Nicky showed up at the museum an hour and a half ago, they walked in on Larry getting yelled at by his new boss, which was a bit uncomfortable. Nicky was disappointed, because it's been somewhat of a trend the past few years: Larry gets an exciting new job, and then a few weeks later (sometimes days), he's fired. It's one of the main reasons his mom, Erica, left Larry.

So Luna bought Nicky a coffee down the block, and they sat there for a while, until Larry came and found them, apologizing profusely and begging Nicky to come to work with him that night, so that he could show him something. (Luna was invited, too, of course, reader; she'd have left if she wasn't.)

And so here they are: waiting in the security office for the museum to close, everyone else to leave, and Larry to retrieve them. Nicky growls at his phone, and Luna leans over to see. "What, is the great Nicholas Daley stuck on level ten?"

"Shut up." But Nicky smiles half-heartedly. "And for your information, it's level four-hundred-and-three."

"It's been a long time." Luna checks her watch; it's been forty minutes since they first walked into this sad little office. "Maybe we should go check on him?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure." Nicky leads the way out of the office, and when they reach the main hall, they hear Larry, his voice raised.

"No! Rebecca!"

"Good night, Larry." And then a beautiful woman in a red top strides past them, her heeled boots clicking on the marble floors, her dark curls bouncing angrily around her shoulders.

"No, I'm not making fun of you!" Larry calls after her, standing just in front of the Theodore Roosevelt display, a lost look on his face. "Rebecca!"

But the woman disappears through the revolving doors and is gone.

Larry sighs and drops his head into his hands. Aww. Luna feels bad for him, regardless of whatever just happened, and she pushes Nicky out into the open. "Go," she whispers.

"What? No!" He shakes his head vigorously, resisting her.

"Ugh, fine." Boys. Luna grabs his hand and drags him toward Larry with her, rolling her eyes the whole way.

At the sound of their footsteps, Larry looks up and smiles at them. "Oh, hey, you guys are here! Great! Perfect timing, actually."

"Who was that?" Luna asks, hopping up onto the front desk and grinning at Larry.

"Oh, we work together." Larry shrugs noncommittally, although Luna can tell from the tone of his voice that he thinks she's very pretty. "She's--she's a docent, and we've chatted a few times." He rubs his hands together, looking from Nicky to Luna. "All right. You guys ready?"

"What's going on, Dad?" Nicky asks, leaning against Luna's legs, crossing his arms the way he always does when he's skeptical.

"Well, if I told you, you'd think I'm crazy, so I'm gonna show you," Larry says, his eyes shining with excitement.

"What?"

"You'll see in about--" Larry checks his watch-- "twenty seconds. Okay, you like the tyrannosaurus rex?" He points at the massive dinosaur skeleton behind him.

"Maybe when I was ten." Nicky shrugs. "Why?"

"Well, I call him Rexy," Larry says, grinning. "And he's about to come to life, Nicholas, in--" He checks his watch again-- "five...four...three...two..." He inches toward the dinosaur, pointing dramatically like he's the ringmaster of a circus.

Nothing happens.

And I mean nothing, reader. The dinosaur skeleton is still a skeleton, and Larry's frozen in his game-show-host pose. Nicky's shoulders sag. "Dad," he says, and the disappointment in that one word is enough to make Luna's heart clench. She puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes gently.

Larry holds up a finger, still posing. "Hang on a sec. Say hello to Rexy!" He revamps his dramatic gesturing again, and again, nothing happens. Nicky's jaw clenches.

"Dad, what the hell?" He sighs. "I get that you're excited about your new job, but this is way too far."

Luna's not usually one to judge or even to question other people, but she's seriously concerned for Larry's sanity. He looks like he actually believes that dinosaur will come to life.

"This is weird," Larry mutters, standing up straight. He looks around, like there's some key to it all hidden in the ceiling. "Guys? Come on! It's sundown!"

When nothing else happens, he jogs over to the Theodore Roosevelt display and looks up at the wax figure, posed dramatically on a beautiful horse. "Hey, T.R., rise and shine, buddy." He pats the taxidermied horse's flank. "I need you to wake up. Come on, my kid and his friend are here! I need you to wake up."

"Mr. Daley, it's a wax figure," Luna says gently, her hand still on Nicky's shoulder. She's picturing the profilers from Criminal Minds, how they talk down unsubs who're experiencing extreme delusions, and she's secretly hoping Larry's not going through a psychotic break. Nicky's been through enough. "It can't talk to you."

"Yes. Yes, it can." Larry looks almost feverishly between Luna and the wax Teddy Roosevelt. "I told you, it all--it all comes to life." He smacks the horse's hollow flank again. "Texas, come on! Texas, come on! Get on, Texas! Whoo! Get on, Texas! Get up!"

Nicky's shoulders tense, and Luna can tell he's had enough. "Just stop, okay?" He pulls Luna down from the counter to stand beside him, partially shielding her from Larry. "This is ridiculous!"

Larry spins around, suddenly anxious. "No, Nicky, I'm telling you--there's this tablet, okay? It's called the Tablet of Ahkmenrah." He hurries over to them, and Nicky--unconsciously, Luna thinks--presses Luna into the counter, placing himself between her and Larry. (She could probably whoop Larry's ass better than Nicky could, reader, but we can all appreciate the thought, right?) "And every night at sundown--"

"Oh, come on, Dad." Nicky scoffs. "Now there's a tablet? Do you even hear yourself right now? Do you know how this sounds? You're screaming at a dinosaur statue and slapping the statue of a horse."

"Just--just hear me out, okay?" Larry reaches out and takes Nicky by the arm. "Come on."

"No, Dad." Nicky yanks his arm away, frowning. "Enough."

And then a peculiar thing happens. Luna blinks and then, like a tiny movie screen far, far away, images flash before her eyes. A golden tablet... Footsteps... Muffled yelling...

"Lu. Lu!" Nicky's shaking her arm, suddenly sounding scared. "Hey, are you okay?"

She blinks again. Her stomach feels strange, and her fingers are tingling, and then the words that come out of her mouth aren't her own. "I think we should go with him."

"What?"

"We need to go with him," Luna says again. Her legs don't seem to want to support her. She doesn't feel well. But this feeling is familiar, like she's been here before, felt this same strange glowing feeling between her ribs. It's pulsing, like an invisible ball of electricity inside of her.

"Um, okay..." Nicky doesn't look convinced, but Larry doesn't have to be told twice. He leads them down the halls, around corners, up a flight of stairs, and then they turn into an elaborate, gated room. It's dark, so Larry clicks on his flashlight, scanning the walls.

Then he frowns, sighs. "It's gone."

"What's gone?" Nicky asks, almost warily.

"The tablet." Larry strides down the hall, and by the light of his flashlight, Luna can see now that there's a sarcophagus at the back of the hall, just in front of a large golden wall covered in hieroglyphics. All along the walls are Ancient Egyptian statues, with the bodies of humans and heads of jackals. "I think somebody stole it."

Luna's brain is screaming that Larry's lost it, that he's gone crazy, and that she and Nicky should run as fast as they can, but it's that energy inside of her, pulsing, throbbing, like a glow, that's keeping her rooted to the floor. She can't place that feeling; it's like intense, physical déjà vu.

"Yeah, right." Nicky reaches for Luna's hand, gripping it tightly.

"I'm not kidding, Nicky," Larry calls back to them, still waving his flashlight around, scanning every inch of the back of the hall.

"Screw you," Nicky mutters, and keeping a tight hold on Luna's hand, he pulls her out of the hall. "Let's go."

"Nicky? Hey, Nicky!" Larry's footsteps echo behind them. "Nicky! Where are you going, huh?"

"Home," Nicky bites back. "Far away from here, I don't know."

Luna's ribs ache with the heat of whatever's inside of her; it feels like it's getting closer, in a strange way. She wobbles on her feet.

"What?" Larry sounds surprised, like he hasn't been spouting nonsense for the past half hour. "Wait a minute!" They pause on the landing; there's a large casement window with a view of the alley. Snow is piling up on the sill outside. Luna can see tiny, individual snowflakes clinging to the glass.

Then the door to the alley opens, and there are shadows of people flickering onto the snow-covered ground outside. Her stomach tingles uncomfortably.

All argument forgotten, Larry grabs both Luna and Nicky by the arms and leads them down the stairs. "Come on." His voice is low and serious; in one hand, he's wielding his flashlight like a katana.

They go down another flight of stairs into the storage room, Larry leading the way. Nicky grips Luna's hand tightly, which is a good thing, because she feels like she's either going to throw up or explode, what with the nauseating warmth in her sternum.

There are baskets and baskets of metal objects, books, and clay pots; shelves of files and ornate-looking wooden chests; and stacked haphazardly on the floor, statues, paintings, and even what looks like a collection of tiny Buddhas. This is a history nerd's playground, and Luna revels in it. She could spend hours in here.

A glint of gold catches her eye, and she turns to see a small, golden tablet poking out of the corner of one of the bins. The glowing thing in her stomach tugs at her, and Luna knows somehow that she should go pick it up. She drops Nicky's hand and walks over to the bin. The tablet is old, at least a few thousand years old, and it looks Egyptian, what with the hieroglyphics and all.

With trembling hands, Luna reaches out and picks it up. She expects the metal to be cold, but instead, it's pleasantly warm beneath her fingertips. And then it hits her. The déjà vu, like a slap to the face. And a memory, faded with time...

She is five years old. It's four days before she will meet Nicky for the first time, four days before the first day of kindergarten. It's her mother's birthday. They visit the American Museum of Natural History for the first time.

Luna is tired by the time they make it up to the Ancient Egypt exhibit. She whines and asks to go home. Her books are at home, she says, and she wants nothing more than to sit on her bed and read. Five more minutes, says her father, and her mother hands her a stick of Juicy Fruit gum and hushes her.

But then she sees the tablet. It's like an old friend, like she's seen it before. It feels familiar. She feels a strange urge to touch it, to hold it. It calls to her, she thinks.

And something awakens inside her, a glowing warmth between her ribs.

Luna doesn't remember the walk home; it's like they teleported back to their apartment or something.

But she does remember scraping her knee badly on the way up the stairs, and the next morning, her knee looks brand new.

Little kids, her father says, shaking his head, and her mother wishes aloud that quick healing stayed with you longer.

But there's a tug in Luna's stomach, a warm nudge, like an 'I told you so' or 'Look at me', that makes her question what really happened at that museum.

"You guys shouldn't be here."

Luna blinks and instinctively clutches the tablet to her chest. Three older men step into the room and all of them look strangely sinister. Nicky and Larry are on the opposite side of the room, and Nicky cuts his eyes at her, looking worried.

"Give us the tablet, sweetheart," says an older black man, holding out his hand. He has kind eyes, but they're narrowed and sly, directed at Luna.

"Wait a minute." Larry takes a few cautious steps between the men and Luna, holding his hands out placatingly. "What are you guys doing?"

"We're not gonna hurt you," says the shortest of the three. He could be cute, in his leather jacket and newsboy cap, but the look on his face says I could take out your shins and I'd enjoy doing it. "Give us the tablet."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, son," the tallest man, a handsome guy with pure white hair, says to Nicky, "but your dad doesn't work here anymore. Got fired this afternoon. Couldn't hack it."

"Wait, Dad, I thought you said you weren't fired." Nicky's doubting, which Luna knows is exactly what the older men want. Regardless of whether or not it's true, their plan is working.

"I did, Nicky. They're lying." Larry's tone of voice is calm, even. "They're trying to steal that thing." Then he turns to Luna, points to the tablet. "Luna, turn that middle piece. You'll see what I was talking about."

"That is museum property, girl," says the white-haired man, and Luna thinks without reason that he has a very nice voice. He kind of looks like Dick Van Dyke, too. Just a little. "Now give it back."

Luna clutches the tablet tighter to her chest. The glowing warmth hums in agreement.

"Luna, trust me," Larry says. "Just turn it."

"Give us the tablet!" growls the shortest man.

"Luna." Larry's voice softens. "Trust me."

And it's less about Larry and more about the humming in her sternum, but either way, Luna knows what she has to do. She pushes the middle piece of the tablet into place.

A magical glow spreads from the center piece, illuminating the hieroglyphics and running into Luna's veins. She closes her eyes, feeling the tickle of the glowing warmth as it expands, running down her legs, into her fingertips, her stomach. She doesn't understand what's going on, but it doesn't seem to be killing her, which is good.

Roaring and trumpeting echoes from upstairs, accompanied by the thundering of heavy footsteps. Nicky's mouth is wide open and he's staring at Luna.

But all is not well; the three older men are stretching, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, and Luna can sense that this isn't good.

Larry doesn't move, but mutters out of the corner of his mouth: "Nick, Luna, run. Now."

So they do. Luna tucks the tablet under her arm and grabs Nicky's hand with the other, and together, they sprint up the stairs and down the long hallway toward Ahkmenrah's tomb. Luna's heart is racing, the glow inside her hums in time, and blood is pounding in her ears as she races to keep up with Nicky.

He drags her into the tomb and pulls her behind one of the jackal-human statues, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her into the wall, the tablet between them. And then the tablet isn't between them. Luna pushes Nicky off of her to see where the tablet went--

"Thank you very much, lovebirds," says the man with the nice voice, tucking the tablet under his arm. "We'll take it from here."

"Nicky! Luna!" Footsteps pound against the floor and then Larry skids to a stop at the entrance of the tomb. Before he can do anything else, the man with the nice voice grabs his arm and flips him in the air. Larry lands hard on his back and curls his legs into his chest, groaning in pain.

"Just in time, Larry," says the man holding the tablet, jangling a ring of keys in his hand. "We were just locking up."

The glow presses hard against Luna's ribs, raging with a suddenly burning heat, and she winces, leaning against Nicky for support. They watch, helpless, as the three men close the gates and lock them inside the tomb.

"Sleep tight, hot shot," says the shortest man, cackling at Larry, who's still on the ground trying to catch his breath. With one last glance at Nicky, Luna, and Larry, the three men walk away, chatting amiably to themselves, and Luna sighs as their voices fade away into nothing.

Larry clambers to his feet with some difficulty and slams his body against the metal gate, shaking them as hard as he can. "Teddy!" he shouts, almost desperately. "Teddy, if you're out there, I need you, pal!"

Right on cue, a horse neighs and clip-clops right up to the gate--with the wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt on its back. Luna's jaw drops. The wax figure is holding the reins. Blinking. Smiling. She suddenly realizes what the tablet actually did. Her mouth goes dry.

"Someone call my name?" asks the wax Teddy.

"Whoa," Nicky breathes in Luna's ear. Whoa is damn right, she thinks.

Wax Teddy makes eye contact with Luna, smiles, and salutes her. "Theodore Roosevelt, at your service."

"Teddy, can you get us out of here?" Larry asks, still gripping the bars of the gate.

"Can't do it, man." Wax Teddy shakes his head. "This is your moment."

Larry sighs exasperatedly. "Will you save the lectures, please? I'm not you, okay? I didn't build the Panama Canal. I wasn't President of the United States. I need some help! Come on!"

"Actually..." Wax Teddy suddenly looks somber. He takes off his round spectacles and looks down, almost ashamedly. "I never did any of those things. Teddy Roosevelt did. I was made in a mannequin factory in Poughkeepsie. I never shot a wild beast. I'm not even brave enough to tell that beautiful woman I love her."

Luna's heart clenches. Despite the weirdness of tonight, the strange warm glow in her chest, the kung-fu-fighting old men, an Ancient Egyptian iPad, and mock-Teddy Roosevelt sitting on a horse chatting with her best friend's dad, she feels for him. She understands not having the courage to say something you should.

"But you..." Wax Teddy says now, smiling softly. "You gotta finish the job this time. You can't quit." He pauses for a moment, then says, "I'm made of wax, Larry. What are you made of?"

And then he rides off.

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Larry shakes the bars of the gate, his mouth wide open. "That's all you got for me?"

"That's it!" Wax Teddy calls back over his shoulder, disappearing around the corner.

But none of them have time to dwell on Teddy's words, because the jackal-humans have just realized that there are three intruders into their master's tomb, and they don't like it very much. Luna presses her back to the gate, between Nicky and Larry, her breath coming hard and fast. It feels like the walls are closing in on her, the darkness overwhelming her--

But between the jackal-humans, she spots the sarcophagus, way at the back of the hall. There's...screaming coming from it? Yeah, definitely muffled screaming. It's rattling, too.

Nicky makes eye contact with Luna, looks over at the tomb, and his eyes widen. "Um, hell no." He shakes his head vigorously. "That's an actual corpse, Lu. I'm not waking that shit up."

Larry's too focused on the jackal-humans' spears to say anything. Luna rolls her eyes. Boys. "Fine. I'll do it myself."

And she marches between the jackal-humans, down the hall toward the rattling sarcophagus. They don't even acknowledge her, just keep their eyes trained on Larry and Nicky.

Luna musters all of her strength, putting her back into it, and pushes the heavy stone that's weighing on the sarcophagus aside. Her biceps scream with the effort, but she keeps pushing until the stone topples off onto the other side.

As quickly as she can, ignoring the tickle of fear in her heart and her brain asking what the hell is inside the body cage, she undoes the pins holding the sarcophagus lid shut and steps back, pressing herself against the nearest pillar, awaiting the worst.

Two heavily bandaged arms spring up from the coffin and throw the lid aside, and then slowly, a heavily bandaged head and torso sit up and look directly at Luna.

At this moment, Luna's wondering if this is how she dies, but she has to roll with it, otherwise Nicky and Larry might become Ancient Egyptian kebabs. "Um, hi." She waves at the mummy. (If you're asking how the mummy can see her through the bandages, reader, we're going to call it magic and leave it at that. The tablet can do anything it wants to.) "I really don't mean to bother you, but your jackal-guard guys are kind of bugging my friends." And by bugging, Luna means threatening with spears, but it's best to be polite. "Do you think you could maybe call them off?"

Nicky and Larry are staring at her with wide eyes, which could either mean Oh my god what are you doing or If these things kill us, we're going to kill you. Luna can't tell which, and honestly, she doesn't care.

The mummy turns its head toward the jackal-humans and shouts something in an ancient, throaty language. Immediately, they step back and sheath their spears, bowing in obedience.

Oh, thank God. Luna takes a deep breath, feeling her heartbeat return to normal, and nods in relief. "Thank you. Really, thank you so much."

But then the mummy looks back at her. It reaches one hand out to grip the side of the sarcophagus, pull itself up, and step out onto the floor next to her. Luna presses herself as far as she can into the pillar, bracing herself for the absolute worst--

Panting, the mummy reaches up and grabs the bandage around its head. It begins to unwind it, and Luna's mind races to all of the horrible things that could be beneath that mask of bandages--

But nothing could have prepared her for what was actually underneath that mask.

A boy.

A beautiful Egyptian boy. Dark curly hair, stunning gray eyes, and perfect clear skin. (How he kept that up for four thousand years, reader, I'd love to know, because I'm seriously jealous.)

He coughs up a mouthful of dust, swallows, and then looks up at her again with a wry smile. "You would not believe how stuffy it is in there."

✦✧✦

ooh hoo hoo we met ahk!! how exciting. what a plot twist from the writers, though; when i first watched this movie, i was SHOOK.

two things:

#1 - yes, i've changed a few things about the storyline. because nicky's 18, not 10, in this alternate universe of mine, it just makes more sense to change some of his and larry's lines to fit this. also, luna does steal people's lines occasionally because sometimes i'm just too lazy or too dumb to come up with something else.

#2 - i came up with this plot at 1 am. this is not edited. i post these almost immediately after i write them. you've been warned.

q: favorite one-liner from the natm franchise (not counting the animated movie; we don't speak of that here)?

a: the part where george custer can't get sacagawea's name right. "sacajamea?" "no." "sac, sac-in-a-box?" "no." "cinco de mayo."