See You On The Other Side (The Mummy, Evelyn, F)

[NoV]

See You On The Other Side (F)

Following my previous sneezefic - Egyptian Cotton - I realised just how much I actually wanted to write a Mummy fic  This story is dedicated to  @Chanel_no5  following our chat about how much we enjoy this movie  

 

Evie held a finger up to her nose, poised with eyes shimmering in the lamplight. Her mouth opened ever so slightly, her breath hitched once, twice, and then…

 

‘HUURIISSHHIII… iiissshhhiiii…  iissshhhiiii…  IISSHHHIIIIIII!!!’

 

…she sneezed repeatedly, her usual cascade of high-velocity sneezes erupting out into the dusty silence. The sound of each echoed through the catacombs, swallowed up into the darkened passages. Still she could feel the tantalising motes of dust swirling around inside her nose, disturbed by her recent gentle brushing of the hieroglyphics that spilled across the walls around her. The brush shook in her hand as she began another round of frantic hitching before…

 

‘HUUUTTTCCHHIIIIII….  Hhaaiisssshhiii… iisshhhhhhiii… IIITTCCHHIIIIIII!!!’

 

Her final sneeze always seemed to ring out all the louder, as if her body was trying to finally rid itself of the tickle and quell the fit. This one seemed to do the trick, and she tossed her dark tresses back over her shoulder, sniffing softly in the fear that more dust would be drawn into her ever waiting nose.

 

‘Drat this tickle,’ Evie muttered to herself. ‘And why does no one else seem to have to sneeze as much as me,’ she continued in mock self-chastisement. Rick and Jonathan had long since given up blessing her frequent outbursts, and had both in fact found better things to be doing whenever she pulled out her archeological brush. Well, better things that normally devolved into trouble. On the subject of trouble, Evie wondered where her brother had got to.

 

‘Jonathan?’ she called, holding aloft the lantern to push back the ever encroaching shadows. A distant sound of breaking glass and muffled curses confirmed her expectations - that he was out exploring the caverns with his best friend Glenfiddich again. Couldn’t he just stay sober for at least one afternoon, thought Evie as she headed towards the sound.

 

*

 

‘Evie!’ Jonathan’s eyes dropped to the floor where he was ineffectually trying to kick sand over the shards of the broken whiskey bottle at his feet. ‘I er, well it's damn hot and thirsty work down here, and so many, er, artifacts to catalog…’ He tailed off, noticing Evie’s gaze trace down to the pockets of his safari jacket, which bulged with purloined amulets and jewelry. 

 

‘I’m collecting them,’ he protested. ‘To keep them safe. You don’t want that oaf Rick to get his hands on them. The man wouldn’t know culture if he ran smack…

 

BANG!!

 

The gunshot echoed like a whip-crack through the halls, sending feather-tails of dust cascading from the ceiling. Both Evie and Jonathan span around, peering ineffectually through the gloom. 

 

‘Was that…?’ began Jonathan, before Evie cut him off with a sudden scream of a sneeze as the dust bloomed around them. It had come upon her so fast that she just couldn't help it.

 

‘HHUUUURRRRIIISSSSSSHHHIIIIIII!!!’

 

She bent double, almost dropping the lamp as the impulse to catch it in both hands, fought with the need to preserve their light. Furiously she rubbed her nostrils, determined to keep any further explosions in check. Jonathan’s mouth dropped open in shock. 

 

‘Goodness sis - I’m not sure what was worse. That there is someone firing a gun down here, or that my eardrums were nearly perforated by my own sister!’

 

A shape suddenly formed out of the blackness, and resolved into Rick, revolver in each hand and trademark smirk, shirt ripped enigmatically. Jonathan rolled his eyes. Behind Rick a sound was growing, a shambling groan that flowed creepily down the tunnel, filling all that heard it with a cold dread.

 

‘We’re about to get some new friends… and after three thousand years I think they’re really in need of some company!’ shouted Rick. He holstered his weapons, and took both Evie and Jonathan by the shoulder, drawing them onwards with him into the depths of the tomb. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

 

‘Mummies! A whole bunch of them. Must have woken up with someone’s meddling in their eternal resting place.’ Brother and sister exchanged glances, Jonathan subtly closing the pocket of his jacket to hide the glint of gold within. ‘We need a hiding place, just hold up until these stumbling beasts have calmed down.’ 

 

‘But down here it's only the…’ Evie paused as they burst out into an open room, lined with ancient wooden coffins carved in the likeness of their occupants. ‘...burial chamber!’

 

‘Any other way out?’ Rick growled. Evie shook her head. ‘Then we’re gonna have to improvise!’

 

He grasped the nearest coffin and hauled off the lid. Empty. ‘Looks like these mummies have already gone for a stroll,’ he muttered, looking pointedly at Jonathan. ‘Now get in!’

 

‘Wha… what?’ Without waiting for the tirade of protest, Rick bundled the drunkard into the wooden box, and firmly secured the lid. Muffled thumps resounded from within, which soon died as fear of the approaching menace brought forth a sudden burst of common sense. Evie was already opening the next coffin. 

 

‘You will let me out Rick, this is not the way I wanted to go.’ Her eyes were wide with fear, her face pale in the weak light from the lamp. ‘I promise.’ He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’ll see you on the other side of this’. He laid her back into the dusty box and slid the lid over her.

 

*

 

She had never been claustrophobic, but even Evie felt her breath quickening at the closeness of the lid above her, her inability to lift her arms from her side. Her clothes suddenly felt tight, restricting and uncomfortable. Although she strained to, she could hear nothing from outside.

 

All at once, she sensed the dreaded feeling of dust being inhaled into her twitching nose. She held her breath, fearful that breathing would only add more fuel to the growing sneeze that was unmistakably gaining force within her; tiny pinprick tickles spreading outwards with each passing second. 

 

‘Hhhiiiiiii… hhhiiiiiiiiiii….’

 

Evie began building up softly, allowing small hitches and gasps to escape her. She had never felt such an intense itch pervade her nose, never felt so in need of throwing back her head and releasing the growing barrage of sneezes full-force. She needed so desperately to cover her nose, to violently rub her twitching nostrils, but much as she wriggled, she could not free her arms from where they were pinned against the coffin walls.

 

‘HHHIIIIIIIII…   aaaaHHHIIIIIII….’

 

The build-up was becoming more urgent, her mouth opening wider as she prepared to release the truly colossal sneeze. Evie had visions of the force of it blowing off the lid, as her head and shoulders were contorted forward with the violence of release. She clenched her jaw, tried monumentally to establish some kind of mental block that would magically spirit away what was now utterly all-consuming. And then…

 

‘HHIIISSSSSSHHHIIIIII….. IIISSHHHIIIIIIIIII…. IIIISSSSSSHHIIIIIII….’

 

Evie released a cacophony of sneezes, each as powerful as the one before; the feeling taking over her entire body in one long rolling series of shrieked eruptions. And that was not all, as no sooner had she ran out of breath and gasped desperately, another round came rapidly upon her, if anything more unstoppable and high-pitched than before. In the confined space, Evie’s ears rang with the sheer volume of them.

 

‘HHIIIIISSHHHIIIIII…   HIIIIIIISSSHHHIIIIIII….   AAAHHIIIIIISSSSHHHIIIIIIII!!!’

 

With each one, Evie’s head collided with a light thump against the painted wooden lid above her, painfully but quite unavoidable in her predicament. With a final gasp, the dust burning like fire in her nose, she opened her mouth wide and screamed a final sneeze into the paneling above her head, misting it in her inability to cover. She felt the urge back away; that final colossal blast seeming to have cleared some of the teasing grains.

 

Had there been gunshots while she sneezed? Evie tried to remember, her head woozy. Had her sneezes been audible from inside the coffin? She found it hard to believe that they had not. The answer to both questions became obvious with terrifying suddenness, when the lid was suddenly whipped back to reveal…

 

The End

[Chanel_no5]

Okay, wow, this fic reads like something that could have been in the movie/s!  Too bad the screenplay writers didn't come up with this idea, but at least it became an awesome fic! They're all perfectly in character and I loved the little sibling banter between Jonathan and Evie. And of course poor Evie would have such a bothersome nose, and in all the dusty environments she spends time in too, poor girl.  

Lovely fic as always, and thank you so much for the dedication!  

ETA: WTF one sentence disappeared when I posted, come on! I WAS SAYING ALSO, that hello there, you can't cliffhang me and then END the story, come on!  

 

Edited February 17 by Chanel_no5

[solitaire-au]

Wow. I remember when The Mummy was released in 1999.

Around the year 2000, so before this incarnation of the forum, some incredible person, (I forget who it was,) wrote a Mummy sneezefic featuring Rick beginning to come down with a cold. It was one which I really loved, even though it was unfinished. And I kicked myself for not thinking ahead to save it.

I never thought I’d see someone else do a Mummy sneezefic again! This made my day!

Thank you!

[lurkernomore]

Fucking love the Mummy