The Curse (closed)

Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was a Pharaoh during Egypt's Twenty-Second Dynasty, his reign lasting from 872-837 BC, when he died. He was the son of Takelot I, who preceded his son on the throne, and Queen Kapes, and ruled his kingdom from the city of Tanis, in the northeastern Nile delta.

Osorkon had three wives, Queen Karomama I, Isetemkheb G, and Djedmutesankh iv, and he fathered nine children between them, including his successor Sheshonk III, who assumed the throne upon Osorkon's death.

Or at least, what seemed like his death.

Whether it was through some magic worked by the high priests or simply by the grace of Amun himself, it turned out Osorkon was not actually dead. Oh sure, his heart was not beating, his lungs drew no breath, and he was not yet aware of his surroundings, but all it would take was one small disturbance, the simple opening of the door to his tomb, and life would return to the wrapped body of the former Pharaoh.

It had been centuries since he was buried here, and the world had moved on. Egypt was not the power it once was, the world had expanded, humanity had blossomed, and Osorkon remained blissfully unaware, an Egyptian Rip Van Winkle... although Osorkon's slumber would put that of Rip's to shame.

Eyes closed, hands folded, body still, he waited in his dreamless sleep. He waited to be discovered, to be unearthed and returned to the rest of humanity, to be awoken and discover wonders he'd never even dreamed about while ruling over the sand-swept land of his fathers. It was almost time for Osorkon's destiny to be realized.

Almost time...

Allison Gray took her time, running her slender fingers along the bricks of the wall she walked past. She turned her head up to see more bricks rising above her head, all the same dark sandy color as the ones she was touching at this very moment. She was deep in a pyramid that she, and the rest of the excavation crew, believed housed the tomb of Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II, an old Pharaoh of Egypt's Twenty-Second Dynasty. There was dirt all over her tight, khaki shorts and the green, cotton button-down sleeveless shirt she wore was soaked in her sweat. It was broiling in the middle of the desert, who would have known?

She was grateful for the cool air here inside the pyramid but it was so dusty. She coughed once, then twice, attempting to expel some of the dirt she knew she had been inhaling for the past hour that they had been exploring this area of the pyramid. It was the last section left, and she was becoming increasingly worried that this particular expedition had been for nothing. Stretching her toned, tanned arms above her head, Allison worked the ponytail holder out of her long, dark curls and let it all fall around her shoulders. She shook her head out, sighing and then working her hand behind her neck to squeeze out a bit of the tension that had nestled in there.

"Lemme get that for you...." It was Allison's partner, Josh. She turned toward the source of the voice and watched with a smile on her face as he eagerly jogged over to her. She had purposely lost the guy a few minutes back, taking a different turn, just so she could have a minute on her own. He was sweet, he was a few years older than her very young 22, and he knew infinitely more about all of this than Allison. He was an archaeology expert, and Allison knew that he meant well. But the crush he had developed on her was slowly becoming a problem. He was always there, and Allison had no interest in mixing work with pleasure. Besides, he was Josh... they were friends.

"It's all right, really..." Allison's words disappointed Josh, but the smile on her face brought out a small smirk in him too. She turned from him now to survey the area they had just stumbled upon. Another dead end, another empty room in front of them. She shook her head, chewing nervously on the side of her thumb as she tapped her foot in a slow rhythm. "I can't believe we've searched the entire pyramid and found nothing... no Osorkon anywhere...." Allison had made this her personal project when she began work in Egypt, doing all the research, talking to anyone she could find who might know something about the location of this particular mummy. She was sure that this was where he had to be... otherwise, he couldn't possibly exist anywhere at all.

"Don't sweat it, Ally Cat..." Even Josh's endearing pet name couldn't cheer her up now, though. He ignored the solemn look on her face and kept talking. "My first major expedition went to shit too... and I almost got lost. So you're already better off than I am..." He waited now, eyeing her to see if she would say something. But she didn't, merely staring at a spot on the wall, shaking her head slowly. After another few seconds she took a couple of steps toward the cluster of bricks that her gaze was on. Then she finally spoke up. "I'm fine. Just... go get those canteens we dropped a few windy corridors back, eh?" She gave him a reassuring, though entirely fake, smile and then watched him slowly clamber away from her. When he was out of sight and out of earshot, she brought her fingers against the wall and ran them along one deep crack.

"Where are you? Where could you be?" Allison rapped her knuckles delicately against the bricks she was touching, then froze in place. "What...?" She could definitely hear open space beyond here. It wasn't nearly as solid as the wall she had just walked past. She knocked gently again and placed one ear against the wall so she could hear better. The same strange, resonating hollow sound brought a smile to her lips. Stepping back to survey the situation, her eyes fell upon a collection of bricks that seemed distended, as if they didn't quite fit with the rest of the wall. Gently, heart in her throat, she pushed.

The wall gave way just a bit at first, then more as Allison mustered up all of her strength to lean against it. Finally, it pushed in, just enough for her to fit through the opening it made. She slipped past, careful that she didn't close the wall (or door?) and blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust. She had left her lantern right outside the door but it let in just enough light that she could make out shapes in here. Some sort of long, ornately adorned... sarcophagus?

Shrieking, Allison clenched her fist, nails digging into her palm as she took tentative steps toward the shape in front of her. When she reached it, she held out her hand, splaying her fingers across the lid of what she now knew was Osorkon's resting place. She knew that protocol suggested she wait, and she knew that she had to be careful, but she couldn't take the excitement. Josh would be coming to investigate the sounds he had heard soon anyway, and she wanted just a minute.... pushing on the heavy stone lid of the coffin, she slid it inch by inch until she was looking directly down at him. Her breath caught in her throat and she threw her hand to the lip of the sarcophagus to steady herself. Then she smiled, ever so slowly, mesmerized by the sight of him. "Look at you... thousands of years, and you're still.... beautiful...."

Awareness flooded into him like a dam had burst, the cool water of consciousness starting at the top of his head and flowing swiftly down his body until it reached his toes. Osorkon was... alive.

Realizations came to him slowly, one by one. He was wrapped tightly, his arms crossed against his chest. The sarcophagus he lay in, a rather small and cramped place to be, was still closed.

And he was not alone.

Slowly, gingerly, his eyes opened and he found nothing but darkness. Given the wrap and the sarcophagus it was probably to be expected. Oddly, claustrophobia did not well up inside him as he would've expected had he found himself like this, and instead of the desire to cry out, to let the person in the room with him know that he was alive in there, he remained quiet, still. Was he even breathing? He couldn't be sure, and didn't dare try to take a deep breath to find out.

The lid was moving.

Ancient eye lids fell, closing almost full, and the first photons to touch Osorkon in centuries spilled in through the crack that had been made by...

She was beautiful. He could see her somehow, through the mostly-closed lids, the linen wrap over his eyes, and the small crack she'd opened in his sarcophagus, he could see her. In the darkness of the room, and it was terribly dark, he could see her. If he'd had breath, she would've robbed it from him. She was dressed completely differently than he'd ever seen anyone dress before, and she carried no torch, which meant she'd either set it down in some kind of holder, or someone else was with her. Somehow, he knew she was alone. She wouldn't stay that way, he was certain, but for the moment...

Words. She spoke, her voice low and beautiful, and he had no idea what she said. The words ran together, to the point that he couldn't even decipher whether she'd spoken many or a few in the short second her voice seemed to fill his tomb. He was transfixed, watching her through this same magic that seemed to have brought him back to life as well, and he couldn't take his eyes from her.

It was magic, wasn't it? It seemed clear now, given her clothes, her speech, the feeling of the linen around his body, that a significant amount of time had passed since he last remembered anything. Closing his eyes, surrounded by his children, secure in the knowledge that Sheshonk would rule the land he, and his fathers before him, and their fathers before them had ruled. Then darkness. Nothing.

And now... her.

Somewhere distant, perhaps outside of the room he knew he must lay in, he heard footfalls on stone, and he knew someone else was approaching. She would close the lid again, he knew it. The desire to cry out now was intense, a fire like the sun that scored the sands of his kingdom burning in his chest to cry out to her, to tell her he was here, he was alive, Osorkon had come back through some miracle of Amun... but truly, he didn't want to lose sight of her. Praise be to Amun, but she had a beauty that seemed to rival that of even his Queen and true love, Karomama. He wanted to reach out to her, touch her face, her hair... fill his lungs with her scent.

But he was wrapped up. And she would be closing him again. He would lose sight of her.

Oh dear Amun, he prayed, eyes falling fully closed, waiting for the darkness to swallow him up again, As your faithful servant I beg of you, do not take this gift from me so quickly. Do not show me only a glimpse of her and steal it away. Please, merciful Lord, divine Ra, please...

Allison's hands trembled slightly as she stared down at the still form of Osorkon, wrapped up tightly in fraying cloth, his wrists crossed in front of his chest. She could feel her breath coming in short gasps now, her heart beating so loud she could hear it in her ears. She ran a finger down the side of the cool stone, eyes fixed on the carefully shrouded face of this ancient artifact. But no, he was more than just an artifact to her. He was a person. He was... a discovery that she had made, just now, by herself. No matter what happened in the minutes following this one, still moment... he was hers. Lips parting as she took a deep breath, Allison's ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching. Surely it was Josh, come to her rescue after hearing her scream like she had a few minutes ago. She knew that he would never scold her for opening the sarcophagus, but the others would. And so, she sighed, curling fingers around the heavy lid and pulling it slowly shut. Before she hid Osorkon completely out of view, she smiled down at him, words spilling out quietly. "I'll be seeing you.... very soon, darling..."

Before she had even closed the lid the last few centimeters, Josh was bursting through the opening she had found in the wall, panting, floppy brown locks askew. She turned to look at him, smile widespread across her face, unable to keep from beaming. "I.... I found him...." Her first sentence was tentative, but she knew that the excitement radiating from a place deep inside her chest couldn't be contained. In almost no time, a few seconds, Josh was upon her, his arms wrapping around her waist. He lifted her up and squeezed her, laughing, his happiness a direct result of her own joy. She steadied herself in his grasp by wrapping her arms around his neck, giggling herself. A raucous squeal escaped her throat, and she knew the others in their group would find them momentarily. Running her fingers down through the hair at the nape of Josh's neck, she could feel him slowly lowering her. When her feet were firmly planted on the ground again, she leaned up and kissed him hard on the lips. He tasted like coffee, being a caffeine addict. Allison hated coffee, but pushed those thoughts out of her head as she felt him return the kiss. She knew it was the joy she felt at finally completing her mission that drove her to such affection with Josh. She had no feelings for him, save for the love of a friend. But here she was, celebrating in such a bold way.

When she pulled back, still smiling, Josh was floored. The expression on his face was that of pure confusion, mixed with a hint of arousal and ecstasy. He reached out to her dazedly, trying to pull her in again, but she shook her head and pointed toward the door. "They're coming..." Then she turned and ran her hand down the edge of Osorkon's sarcophagus one last time before heading for the entrance to this room. She took a moment to observe the treasure trove that surrounded her, gold statues and jewels galore. She must have missed them upon seeing the very place she knew Osorkon lay. She didn't want any of it anyway. The money was of no importance at all to her. The discovery was what fueled her on. Leaning out to glance down the corridor, she caught sight of Libby and Michael, a lively couple who had been working closely with her and Josh for months. She knew that the other handful of archaeologists would be working their way to where she was soon. "I found him! I found him...."

______________________________________________________________

72 hours and a ton of work later, Allison found herself boarding a ship back to her home, New York City. It had been months since she had seen anything but great expanses of sand and huge, imposing pyramids. She hadn't eaten a slice of pizza in longer than that, having forgotten to treat herself to all New York had to offer before leaving for Egypt. But now she was headed back there, to the place she loved first and foremost; and wonderfully, she had a new guest in tow. Josh followed close behind her as they boarded and she could feel his eyes on her ass, the cool cotton sundress she wore clinging to it a bit as a breeze gently blew around them. He had been more attentive than ever these past few days, coming to see her in her hotel room every night, offering to buy her dinner, congratulating her on her find. He was trying hard, and she appreciated the effort, but Allison still wouldn't budge. The kiss she had shared with him had been an act of passion and excitement, nothing more.

Pushing through a heavy door with a porthole, Allison found herself in the middle of a large room, perhaps what would pass for a ballroom had this been a cruise ship. She immediately sought out the expedition's leader, an older gentleman who went by Smith and nothing else. He was kind to her, but did not possess any sort of redeeming character qualities otherwise. He was a greedy man, and Allison knew that he had stored a great number of the riches found in Osorkon's tomb in a private area of this ship. She tried to ignore that now, however, eager to find the most valuable treasure she had ever set eyes on. "Where is he? Down below?" Allison grinned up at Smith as her words rushed out in one breath, his 6 feet and 2 inches towering above her slight 5'2" figure. He shook his head at her but smiled warmly and when he spoke, his voice was kind. "You're something, hon, you know that? But yeah, he's in the hold. I don't know if they'll let you ride down there the whole way though.... Allison!"

She had already scurried off to find some stairs as soon as he uttered the words she had been longing to hear. She could hear Josh calling after her, but she ignored his cries, sure she would see him later on anyway. For now, she wanted to be with the true love of her life. She chuckled to herself, realizing how ridiculous she was being. He was an ancient Pharaoh, and he had been dead for thousands of years. He had no heartbeat, no blood running through his veins. Furthermore, he had probably been a total dick when he was alive. But it didn't matter. Allison couldn't stop thinking about him. She found a door labeled "Hold" in incredibly small letters, and pushed her way through. It was a relatively large room, and fairly dark. She found a smattering of small lanterns by her feet and flicked one on before grabbing it and beginning her search. It didn't take long, thankfully, before Allison stumbled upon the large stone case that held her king. He had been pushed unceremoniously against a back wall, but at least there were a few portholes lining it. She no longer needed the lantern, thanks to the daylight streaming in, and she turned it off and set it down as she made her way over to where he lay in peace.

"Just one more peek..." She turned toward the door to see if Josh had found her, and seeing that he hadn't, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she leaned forward, placed her hands on the lid again and pushed. She was able to move it a bit more easily this time, somehow, and after half a minute or so, she was looking down on him once more. She bit her lip in excitement, not a single ounce of her happiness having diminished since she first found him. The only difference about today was that she was much cleaner, dressed in something much prettier, her hair freshly washed and shiny as it hung past her shoulders. Without a second thought, Allison reached her hand forward and leaned over the large, stone coffin. She leaned down as far as she could while still being careful, breathing in the scent of the dust that surrounded Osorkon. Then she let her fingers graze along his wrappings, from his right shoulder down to where she knew his bicep must have been. He felt.. warm for some reason, and this surprised her. She furrowed her brow for a moment and pressed her fingers only slightly harder into the shrouds. Just her imagination, maybe.

Several minutes passed like this, Allison leaning down to watch him, remarking on how he simply looked as if he was sleeping, not like he had been dead for centuries. She pulled her fingers back, finally, knowing she could get in serious trouble for touching him like this, even if he had been her personal discovery. Straightening up, she glanced around and spied a tall crate in the corner, perfect for her to perch herself on to guard Osorkon. She knew he didn't really need guarding, not on a ship with only 7 people on it, all of whom had helped find him.... but she felt responsible for his safekeeping, and besides: he was the most important to her... who better to make sure he remained in perfect condition? She dragged the wooden crate over and pulled herself up on it, grunting softly. She was short, and this box was very tall; tall enough, in fact, that from her place on top of it, she could see perfectly down into the sarcophagus and gaze at Osorkon as he lay there. She knew she was bordering on obsessive, but this was hers. This was something she had done, and she fully intended to embrace the confidence that came along with it.

"We're going to the city...." Her first phrase was tentative, quiet, as if she was testing out the way her voice would ring around the room. It didn't echo, but it sounded awfully lonely in there. She felt a pang of longing for someone's arms around her, but she quickly shook that off. It wasn't as if she had ever needed a man in her life to make her happy. That was part of the reason she had become such a (now) successful archaeologist. She worked hard. And she was terribly picky anyway, or she would have let Josh into her bed the first time he tried, months ago. But now, sitting here, talking to a dead man who couldn't even hear her, much less reply? This was a new low. Sighing, Allison glanced up to look out of the porthole. The sea was vast, and they weren't quite moving yet. She wasn't even sure if she would be seasick, having never ridden on a boat of this size before. She had flown over to Egypt, a plane being perfect transportation when you didn't have a mummy in tow. Now, however, there was this.

"New York City, that is." Allison's own voice surprised her, and for a moment she felt stupid again, talking to no one. But almost instantly, her feeling of stupidity was replaced by a feeling of comfort. It felt good to talk to someone who wouldn't bring up money or fame or power every other sentence, like Smith did. It felt good to talk to someone who wasn't distracting her by looking at her as if she was some sort of goddess, like Josh would have if he were there. This felt... good. So she continued. "The Museum of Natural History, most likely, although we haven't quite decided if that's the best place for you. They gave us a whole shit ton of money, though, to go find you and... well, it'd be kind of fucked up for us to just wrench you away to a different place..." Allison paused, realizing she was cursing an awful lot, her passion about the matter turning into vulgarity. "Sorry... I shouldn't say those things..."

She paused again, turning her eyes down to gaze upon Osorkon again. "I wish I could take you home with me, though... set you up in my crappy apartment to bring some opulence to the place. Some pride. I can't do that, I know. But not a day will go by that I don't see you, I'll make sure of it. They have to let me speak on behalf of the team, because I'm the one who found you. I'm also the one who did the research, and knew where to look... God, I'm sounding cocky now, aren't I?" Allison laughed to herself in the empty room, then stopped as she realized how sad and pathetic her gentle peals of ringing laughter sounded. She let her eyes run down the length of Osorkon's form, then back up to where his face was (or would be). "You are something, though.... you're exquisite...."

He is aware of being moved, the voices outside his container speaking in the same foreign tongue the girl had used when she unsealed his resting place. The odd thing was, Osorkon seemed to be able to understand a few words here and there. He was far from full sentences, and the words that seemed longer still evaded his understanding, but the fact that he could pick up on any was a strange thing already. There seemed to be no reason why he should realize that "ahned" was the sound they made when joining two thoughts together, yet he did. Whatever strange miracle Amun-Ra had produced for him here, it seemed it's limits still had not been discovered.

He was lifted into the air then, off the stone slab he'd rested on for untold years, and he was impressed with the way he was gently carried. Whatever slaves the woman had working for her, they seemed to be a well-trained bunch, and if he ever had the chance to communicate with her he would have to tell her so.

It was then that a frightening thought struck him. What if he never saw her again? There were a lot of other voices and footfalls around him now, a number of slaves to unearth and carry him, at least a few of the people there to watch the slaves and make sure they didn't try to steal anything... there was a very real possibility that he would never come across her again. He had no idea where he was being moved to, no idea what lands she, or any of these other people, were from, no real way to seek her out when he got there. Unfortunately, there was little he could do about it now. If he indicated in any way that he was actually alive in there, he'd be dropped for sure. Who wouldn't drop the sarcophagus of a person they thought long dead upon discovering he was alive? He would have to figure something out when they got him to wherever he was being taken.

After a time, he was set in something that seemed to have some bounce to it, metallic sounds surrounding the air around him shortly afterwards, and then a lot, strange rumble seemed to come from all around him, vibrating the very air he breathed. He was moving again, but this time it felt far more swift then when the slaves were carrying him, almost as if he'd been placed inside a carriage of some kind. But he'd never heard horses that made the sounds he heard now.

When he heard more voices, low but close by, the puzzle only seemed to grow more complex. Who could speak so calmly when riding in a carriage such as this? And how did they control the horses with such low voices?

Where on earth was the beating of their hooves on the ground?





It seemed he'd drifted off at some point. The fact that he'd slept and still woken up seemed to show that this was real. He didn't know how long he had, didn't know what brought him back or why, but the fact that he was really and truly alive seemed to be certain now. It was not until he was being moved that Osorkon realized there were new sounds around him, men yelling in a language he was somehow understanding more and more, strange creaking of wood and metal, the call of birds and... water? It wasn't the life-giving Nile, the body of water sounded much too large. Had they brought him to the Mediterranean? For what purpose? Surely the sounds he heard then were ships and sailors. He was leaving his country, bound no doubt for the land where these fair-skinned, foreign-tongued people came from, but the language was so unlike any other he'd heard that he was at a complete loss to even guess what their destination might be.

Locked in the darkness as he was, it was hard to truly judge the passage of time, and he had no idea if it had been hours or says since his awakening. It was some time that he sat on the docks before being moved again, this much he could tell simply by the change in the sound of the birds, but eventually he was lifted and carried again, the slaves still slow and gentle in their approach with him. They treated him nearly like a precious treasure. His apprehension at his eventual destination was, at least a little, settled by this fact. If they meant to simply rob him of the treasures he'd been buried with, they could've easily done so without taking such care with him.

He was moved for some time before being settled once again, and after a bit more speaking by a couple new voices he didn't recognize, though he did pick up on the words "he" and "careful" as they were snapped out sharply by someone that appeared to be in charge, he was alone. He waited still, pondering his situation, uncertain of what his next (well... first, actually) move should be. He couldn't just get out and start walking around the ship or he'd be cast overboard as a demon, and he somehow doubted the miracle that allowed him to escape the cold clutches of death would also allow him to breathe water. He could start calling out for someone, but there was the problem of the different languages, and still the very real possibility that they would lift him out and throw him overboard. He could-

Someone was in the room with him. So lost in his own thoughts, he hadn't even heard them enter. He felt the slight vibration as hands were laid upon the lid above him, and he prepared to be confronted with a slave that had decided to sneak in and see if there were any jewels to steal. The idea of scaring the poor fool to death and then returning to his dead-like state when others came to investigate actually amused him, and for the first time he felt his lips move, curling into a slight, small smile.

When the lid opened and he saw her again, the smile vanished. She had come to find him. All the fears he had that he'd never see her again had never allowed him to consider the possibility that she would be the one seeking him out. He had no idea who she was, where she was from, why she had found him and somehow woken him from his (assumed) eternal slumber, but seeing her now, as surely as his heart was beating in his chest, he knew he loved her.

A shudder, ever so slight, perhaps even lost in the swaying of the boat under them, ran through his body when she reached in and touched him, and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to sigh. He nearly cried out when she left his sight after a few moments, but upon hearing her moving things around in the room and then returning to his view, perched up on top of a cube of some sort, he relaxed again. Wrapped as he was, it was easy not to move as he watched her watch him, and when she spoke her words were a quiet music in his ears.

New York City. She said it as if it was a place, perhaps what they called the capital of her kingdom. She said yew more than once, and he came to realize it was the word she used when referring to him. Was it his name in their language? No... it seemed to be devoid of sexual connotation, he'd heard others using it when it seemed they weren't speaking about him, and may've even caught it when someone had been speaking to her.

Somehow, the meaning of her last word, exquisite, was instantly clear to him. It was as if he'd said it all his life. Exquisite. He imagined the way it would feel on his tongue. Exquisite. The way it would roll of his lips. Exquisite. The way she might react at hearing him tell her she was the exquisite one here, the one who looked clean and perfect, who had not spent years, decades perhaps, in a dusty tomb under miles of stone.

Exquisite...

Exquisite...

"Exquisite..."

He heart froze when he heard his voice, and he realized he'd spoken it aloud. It felt exactly as he imagined it rolling off his tongue, washing over his lips, but it was not how he'd planned to reveal himself to her. Eyes on her, intently watching her reaction, he waited and prayed anew. If this lapse in judgment caused her to flea from him now, he might have to throw himself overboard. Was it worth living life again when you chased away the most exquisite woman you'd seen at the first opportunity you had to do so? He doubted it...

Allison had been lowering her hand down again as she spoke her last few words, ready to stroke gentle fingertips along Osorkon's covered body for another moment or so. She was halfway there, only a few inches above where his shoulder was, when she heard the soft sound of someone else echoing her chosen word. "Exquisite..." With a jolt, she pulled her hand back, breathing in sharply and feeling her heart drop into her stomach. There was no one in there with her, she was sure of that. She glanced over to the door she had come in through. It was heavy, and when she pushed it open earlier, it had creaked loudly. Surely she would have heard that same obnoxious noise if Josh or Smith had followed her in here.

Her eyes still on the door, Allison slid herself off of the crate and pressed her back against the sarcophagus, wanting to keep her eyes on all open areas of the room. "Hello....?" She had really done it now. Sitting here, going on and on about Osorkon and how beautiful he was and how she just wanted to take him home... You sound like a fucking crazy person, Ally.... In her head she was working through the list of people on this ship, trying to determine the individual risk involved with each one of them if they had heard her half-plotting to keep Osorkon for herself. It was all just a thing she had said, really, nothing to speak up about...

Then Allison froze, back still against the stone base of Osorkon's tomb, swallowing hard as she came to a realization. There was no one else in there with her, there couldn't have been. She, Smith and Josh had been the first ones on the boat, if you didn't count the mover guys who had placed Osorkon down here. The odds that one of them had hidden out in the hold were slim to none, seeing as there was no logical reason for it. Josh or Smith would have had to come in after her, and she knew that hadn't happened. So it must have been... Allison turned, whip-fast, eyes suddenly on Osorkon's form. Once again, he had the same look of someone in a deep sleep, rather than someone who was dead. She chewed on her lower lip nervously, knuckles white as she gripped the side of the stone hard. She felt a bit shaky, but she used her strong grip to steady herself, then reached up to tuck her hair behind her right ear. Carefully, and painstakingly slowly, Allison leaned down into the coffin, not blinking for a moment as she tried to bore her gaze through the layers of dressing that covered Osorkon's eyes.

This had to be some sort of crazy prank, a young Egyptian guy hiding out in a mummy's tomb or something. That was almost believable... but it had been crazy enough even finding the damn thing... how could someone have hid out down there, no food, no water, no air? It had to be him. Osorkon was wrapped in linens, laying here in this box, dead for thousands of years. It couldn't have been anything other than her mind playing tricks on her. Perhaps too much time spent alone in the stowage of a ship would do that to you. Allison pulled back but left her hands gripping the thick slab of stone. She knew it was insane, she knew that none of it made sense, but what was the harm in.. investigating a little further?

"Yes... exquisite...." She decided to continue the way she was going, talking to Osorkon as if he was able to understand her. If all was right and logical with the world, there would be no more strange replies to her sentences. She was aware now of the state of her mind, and it could no longer play tricks on her if she knew it was going to happen. If, however, she did hear something again... well, then, Allison was prepared to either throw herself overboard or.... or, well, get to know him. This thought startled her, and she shook her head slowly. No no no, you're not going crazy now... there'll be talk of Egyptian curses if you show up in New York like a madwoman, raving about an undead mummy...

Allison took a deep breath and then settled herself back down onto her crate, biting her lip hard for some sort of sensation, to be sure she wasn't dreaming. It hurt. She was conscious. Her next words came out quietly, but she knew that if the person who spoke was the same man who lay directly in front of her, he would hear them. "Do you... do you know what that means? Exquisite? It's... well, flawless.. perfect... unblemished and well, even otherworldly...." One thumb flew instinctively to Allison's lips now, and she gnawed on the side of it as she felt her stomach churn at her. She knew it wasn't hunger, though she hadn't had anything to eat in hours. It was nerves. She was actually terrified now, but that fear was tinged with so much... excitement. This was one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to her, second only to discovering the beautiful creature she looked down upon. And if those moments were so intertwined... well.... what had she stumbled upon? "Come on... speak up..." It was more a gentle request than a command, Allison's tone sounding soft and unassuming. The way she spoke was reminiscent of the days of her youth, when her older brothers would pick on her and she would plead with them to just stop, give her all of her dolls back, let her have the last cookie, knock before they came into her room.... Allison was that little girl again, if only for a moment, lacking confidence.

Osorkon knew the moment she froze in place that he'd heard her, and he had no idea how to react. If he remained silent, still, there was the possibility that she'd think she'd simply heard something, an echo or someone above deck or anything else except a mummy come back to life. He could barely wrap his head about the concept, and he was the very mummy that had come to life. How could he possibly expect anyone else to comprehend it?

With dark eyes hidden by wrapped linen he watched her clearly struggling to comprehend what was going on much as he had been upon first waking. She continued talking to him, though this time it was evident she was clearly talking to him and not at him as she'd previously done, and he realized that she actually hoped he would speak again. Maybe it was so she would know she was not losing her sanity, maybe it was because she was fascinated by the discovery.. and who wouldn't be?.. but for him, it was all about her. She wanted him to speak again, and he wanted with every fiber of his newly living being to give her what she desired.

But still, he hesitated. If she freaked out, as you'd expect anyone to do, his secret would be given away easily by anyone who decided to check if he had a heartbeat. He could feel it thumping in his chest, and had no doubt they'd be able to feel it easily just by laying a hand on his chest. The risks were great, the benefits perhaps even more so, and he knew he was going to have to take a leap of faith here. The way she bit her thumb, the tone in her voice as she spoke again - though he only understood a couple words of it - told him that she was all but pleading with him, and he knew in the end he was powerless to resist her.

Sucking in a slow, deep breath, the air like a sweet nectar filling his lungs, he spoke again, his words coming out quietly and hesitantly as he continued to adjust to a new language and the return of his voice, "You... are... exquisite...."

Allison was sure now that she must have hit her head on the way down into that dark, dusty tomb. She was sure that somewhere along the line, her brain must have been damaged just enough to produce aural hallucinations. But it didn't make any sense... she was feeling utterly and completely fine up until now. She hadn't had any other symptoms, hadn't felt faint or lightheaded, hadn't been speaking to the voices before this very moment. So it must be...

She gripped the side of the crate hard, feeling the rough wood under her fingertips to be sure she was even awake. She peered over the side of the sarcophagus at the barely moving shape wrapped in linens. Wait.. barely moving? Allison hopped down and got closer so she could lean in. It appeared that Osorkon's body was moving, shifting, rising and falling with... breath? Was he breathing? She couldn't believe any of this was happening, right before her eyes, but Allison quickly gained the composure to be able to speak once more. She felt increasingly silly and pathetic, standing here talking to a mummy. But he had just responded and... well, it had sounded like a compliment.

"Are you... are you alive?" Her question was simple, and she knew that Osorkon may not even know the answer himself. She had a ton of questions for him, if she was being honest, questions that were threatening to all bubble forward and rush to the surface. But first, she needed to determine whether all of this was real. She leaned into the coffin, this time not even hesitating for a moment to run her hand across his chest. She let her fingers press down a bit when she reached the left side of it, then jerked her hand back when she felt a distinct beat beneath her skin. His heart was beating, pumping... blood? She swallowed hard, but could not keep a sly smile from spreading across her lips. What exactly had she come upon?

"Me... you think I'm exquisite? You can't even see me, can you? Should I... should I remove the dressings?" She was getting ahead of herself, perhaps. If Osorkon was, in fact, alive, then she was making the assumption that he could move. That this was more than just a fluke in the spiritual world, that he wasn't going to fall dead once more as soon as she asked him if he was alive or not. She brought her head farther down to bring her face close to his. She was trying to see past the tightly wrapped linen, trying to see his eyes through the shrouded cloth. She wanted to see them, know that they were open, know their hue and their shape. Her long, brown hair hung down on the inside of the coffin, dragging gently along the area where his collarbone would be. She brushed it back behind her ear, annoyed by it, but it simply fell forward once more.

Osorkon's eyes, covered still by linen, fell closed as she laid her hand on his chest. He knew she'd be able to feel his heartbeat, that any chance he'd have to escape from this without being discovered by at least her was gone with that touch... and yet he still couldn't hold back the sign that passed over his lips.

His eyes popped open at her second question, the first one clearly already answered by the touch of her fingertips, and he smiled slightly as he looked up at her through the strips of cloth. She seemed to question if he could see her - his understanding of her strange language appeared to grow better with each word she spoke - and he was about to attempt an answer when she asked him another question, one he'd not even considered until he heard it from her lips.

Unwrap him? What would happen? He could move from this tomb, touch her, breathe free air...

Or this whole strange spell could be broken, and he could fade back into time, his body returning to the mummified shell it once was, this whole experience lost to a distant, forgotten memory.

It was a risk, there was no question. But what kind of life would it be in this box, wrapped in cloth and unable to move, a secret or a freak show? None, really. The fact that he'd already woken when she entered his tomb was miracle enough, but if keeping it meant that he had to spend the rest of time in this box, in this linen, unable to move, to touch, to really see...

"Please," he whispered, moving his fingers as best he could under the tight wrapping, "Please.. remove..." They were the only words that he could conjure up, in her language, that expressed what he wanted. He just hoped it would be enough for her to understand. He was ready to be set free, whether it was from this cloth or from this second life, he couldn't lay there a moment longer.

Allison gasped when she heard Osorkon's pleas, still weary about whether or not she could believe what was happening right now. If her mind was playing tricks on her, she would look like an absolute lunatic once she cut open the bandages that Osorkon was wrapped in. But she had been the only one to get a good look at him. Maybe she could remove most of them. Enough so he could move (if that was even possible) but not too many as to raise suspicions that someone had been tampering with the 1000-year-old mummy.

Giving in to her intense desire to know what would happen, Allison nodded her head and leaned in close to Osorkon's body. "Hold on... One moment, I have to find scissors or something..." Turning, Allison ran a hand through her hair, glancing around the stowage room that she was in. There were boxes and crates everywhere, but she was looking for something nice and sharp. Heading for a random corner of the room, Allison searched in vain for a knife or a dagger or even scissors, if she could be so lucky. But alas, there was nothing to be found. She moved on now to the area at the foot of Osorkon's coffin, taking notice of a small metal container that looked to be some sort of toolbox. She took a chance, kneeling to undo the latch of it and then rummaging through nuts, bolts and screws before she spotted something with a sheath. Pulling it out, a grin spread across her face. Looks like someone had stashed their knife in here.

Allison straightened up, unsheathing the knife while she did, then turning it back and forth in the now fading sunlight. She glanced up toward a porthole, curious about the time of day. The sky had turned a rosy hue, orange at the horizon. Could it already be sunset? She had no sense of time at the moment, no way of knowing how long she had spent down here, talking to a dead guy. She knew that Josh would come looking eventually; hell, she was surprised he hadn't found her by now, he had always been very good at sneaking up on her at the worst times. If it had really been as many hours as she now assumed, she needed to work fast.

Practically sprinting to the sarcophagus, Allison leaned in and whispered again. "All right.. I have a knife... should I just... start cutting?" She felt silly, asking Osorkon questions like this when she knew he couldn't even see the state he was in. She answered it herself and lowered the knife to his chest, intending to work away some of the cloth there. But then she stopped. He had been talking, muffled by the linen, but now she wanted to see for sure that he was there. Alive. So she moved the knife up toward his face, bringing it to his right temple. "I'm... I'm going to start at your head. I want to see your eyes..." She trailed off here, biting her lip hard before taking the plunge and running the knife under one side of the cloth that covered his eyes. She pulled up hard, fraying the linen just barely. A couple more pulls broke it and she smirked, proud of herself.

But all of this was still strange, and Allison found herself listening hard to make sure no one was about to walk in the door. Hearing nothing, she set down the knife on the crate she had previously occupied and then reached in delicately to pick up the end of the cloth that she had released. The best way to go about this, she figured, was to just.... pull. And pull she did, but ever so slowly. She pulled and lifted his head just a teeny bit, afraid he would crumble beneath her touch. But he didn't, although she was sure she heard a sigh escape from his lips. She had to circle his head several times to get down to skin, and she was surprised to feel that after she pushed up on his head a few times, he came to do it on its own: lifting up every time she needed to unwrap from underneath him. More surprising was the way his skin looked. It was dark, tanned... but so smooth. So... young looking. For someone who had supposedly been dead, he looked great.

One final tug of the wrappings revealed his eyes, finally. Curiously enough, they were closed. Allison waited just a moment, a bit unsure now. Had she really been imagining things this whole time? She really had to be entirely nuts if this had all been in her head. Biting her lip, frustrated, she touched one hand to his cheek. His skin was cool but not ice cold. It was soft, too. But why... why were his eyes closed?

She said something to him, something that seemed a reply to his words, and then disappeared from his view, and he assumed she was looking for something to start unwrapping him with. The ball was really and truly rolling now, and if the unwrapping meant the end of his life, then there were but a few grains left in the top of that hourglass, and they were falling fast. A nervous energy was dumped into his veins, and he forced himself to take slow, deep breaths to try to calm himself lest he shake and she accidentally cut him.

He could hear her moving about the room, though he had no idea the size or shape of it or how far she'd have to go before she could find whatever she might need. With nothing to look at and a growing need to calm himself before she started, he closed his eyes and began to murmur a silent prayer to Ra for the continued flow of lifeblood through his veins. He couldn't believe that Ra would bring this miracle to him only to take it away before the sun had even set on this day, but fear still lurked in the shadows of his mind. He was, after all, only human.

Wasn't he?

It was something he had not truly considered until the moments when he lay in this dark and heavy box, waiting for her to return and show him what his fate was for the chance he was taking. He spoke in a whisper, his prayer in his own tongue which was still more comfortable to him than the foreign one she spoke, despite the fact that he was somehow understanding it and able to speak it more and more. How that was even possible, he had no-

He heard her return, quick and heavy footsteps that made him think she was running back, and the nervousness returned with a vengeance. Running probably meant people were coming, which meant she would close the lid and return him to the darkness to hope she could attempt to release him again once the others left. Or she'd tell them...

He heard her voice whispering to him then, her tone indicating a question though he wasn't sure he understood any of the words she used when asking it. He kept his eyes closed, still in his silent prayer when he felt the pressure against his temple from the blade in her hand, her voice interrupting his prayer for a moment before he felt movement, his body tensing out of reflex. It was only a second or two, at most, before he felt the fabric give way and the tension of the wrapped cloth lessened some. He sensed that she was gone again then and his brow furrowed in confusion, but he remained steadfastly in prayer, feeling that the danger of all of this evaporating was still very real.

Allison returned to him then, and he felt her hands on the wrap around his head, her touch the most delicate thing he could remember ever experiencing as she lifted him slowly, the first time he'd had any real movement since waking. He couldn't help but to exhale, his breath nearly a sigh as it left his lungs, and then he felt her hand working, unwrapping him slowly. The air was cool when his dark skin was finally revealed to her for the first time, and it was only a moment later that he could sense light through closed lids. The last bit of fabric was gone from his eyes, and he waited for a moment, bracing for the nothingness to swallow him up again, his experience in this future land, with this strange and beautiful light-skinned girl that spoke the odd foreign tongue ending as abruptly as it had begun.

Her touch against his cheek, the first time her skin touches his, and she is warm and smooth and his scent fills her lungs as he pulls in a long, deep breath. Flowers and sand and sweat mingle together on her, making his head spin. Osorkon opened his eyes and found himself looking up at her, unobstructed by the ancient linen he'd been buried in, her teeth dimpling her full, red bottom lip. She was pale, with long hair that framed her face and hung down into his sarcophagus, and he couldn't help the smile that formed on his lips as he looked up at her. His eyes, a bright amber that was nearly golden, moved slowly over her face, studying each curve and line before settling back on her eyes. His lips parted slowly, his gaze intent and unwavering on her eyes, and all thoughts of prayers to Ra and fears that this strange spell would be broken were dashed from his head, replaced with the only word in her language that he was now utterly certain he knew the meaning of. He spoke it in a whisper, his voice clear and quiet, piercing the veil of time and escaping the cold hand of death.

"Exquisite..."

When his eyes opened, it was slowly, and Allison was completely unafraid. She did gasp a bit at the shock of it, however, enthralled with his amber eyes and the way he gazed up at her. She couldn't speak at all, fingertips against his cheek, rubbing in slow lines across his skin. She watched his gaze move over her, self-consciously releasing her grip on her lower lip when his eyes moved down to catch the way she was biting it. She licked her lower lip now, sucking in a shallow breath as his eyes moved slowly back up to hers. She opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it. "Exquisite..."

Allison gasped again, this time accompanying it with a smile that spread across her lips slowly. He had spoken that same word once more, surely just mimicking her own speech. It had been the first thing he said to her, probably the first thing he could understand. He didn't really know what it meant though, and that was fine. The important thing was that.... well, the fact that any of this was even happening, really. For a fleeting moment, Allison thought of how world renowned she would become if she told people about this. If she told them that she had found a real live (literally) mummy... that he woke from the dead the moment she found his tomb. Well then.. she could have everything. But Allison felt sick moments after she imagined telling people of her discovery. It was hers. Hers entirely. She didn't want to share this with anyone, she realized, with a jolt.

"Yes... exquisite. You... do you want me to remove the rest of them?" Her hands went instinctively to the next layer, just beneath his face. She was already pulling now, wanting to unwrap and reveal his chest and arms. She wanted to touch him right now, to know that he was really here, heart beating, flesh warming. Her eyes went back up to his, focusing in. He was... very attractive. She had seen pictures of what people had assumed Osorkon looked like, but... None of it did him justice. He was so much more than what everyone had thought. His skin was the color of rich caramel, his eyes golden and glowing. And his lips... full... a deep pinkish brown. But.. he was a mummy. She was... an American. She knew she was thinking crazy the second a little voice inside her head whispered, "Kiss him." But still... so tempting.

Osorkon was transfixed by her when she was finally revealed to him. He could deduce a few things upon his first look at her, among them the fact that she was not from his continent - probably European of some kind - and that wherever she was from did not get much sun. Her skin was quite fair, certainly in comparison to his, and it made her look like a precious figurine carved from ivory or alabaster, delicate and radiant. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

He didn't even try.

At her question, he only nodded in silence, pleased to see that she wanted him free from his cloth binds as much as he wanted free. He watched her work silently, catching her eyes whenever they'd lift from her working fingers to meet his own, and a smile touched upon his lips every time he did. Somehow, it seemed her foreign look, so much lighter in so many ways, her body clearly not embraced by the sun as his was, only drew him to her more, like a secret he'd found and wanted to guard jealously from the prying eyes of the rest of his people.

If he even still had people. He'd been asleep - he'd already stopped thinking of it as death, the though simply far too grim to carry in his mind as he looked into the deep pools of her eyes - for a long time, and the fact that she was the one to wake him and not one of his own people was probably not a good sign for the state of his kingdom. But those... those were thoughts that could wait for later. Questions he could ask her about the events he'd missed, after...

After this.

Once the wrap had been loosened it seemed to grow considerably easier to work from around him, and in only a few moments she'd finally freed his crossed arms. He bent his fingers first, the feeling slowly returning to them as he made light fists once, twice, three times. His eyes remained on her face as he did this, never wavering for a moment in his steady, quiet gaze, but slowly, ever so slowly, his arms began to move. Uncrossing them, he reached up slowly, a bit unsteadily, and his fingers found the soft strands of hair that hung down into his tomb. His fingers and thumb came together, delicately grasping a few of the silken strands between them as he did, and he stroked them lightly, amazed at how smooth her hair felt against his skin.

His other hand moved up further, a warm and living palm cupping her cheek lightly. The contact with her skin, a moment that had felt like it would never arrive, opened up something inside him and a smile spread fully and rapidly across his full, dark lips, throwing golden light into his eyes. His thumb stroked against the curve of her cheek softly, and his lips parted as he lay there looking up at her, a voice that was barely above a whisper passing over them.

"Thank... you..."

Allison removed the rest of the wrapping on Osorkon's upper body with great care and delicacy. She was afraid that he would turn to dust or disappear beneath her fingertips if she moved in the wrong way. This was not a risk she could afford to take. Slipping cloth from his body, slowly revealing his arms and bare chest, Allison's eyes were drawn to the muscles that rippled underneath his flesh. His entire body was caramel, rich... the skin tone of someone who spent his life living in the sun. She could sense that his eyes were on her face. She knew he was mesmerized in some way, as if drawn magnetically to sweep his gaze across her facial features. She was nervous though. In fact, Allison could barely look Osorkon in the eye as she finished with the last few lengths of cloth. She swallowed hard and then drew her eyes up to meet his. Instantly, her face flushed, her skin reddening under his watchful gaze. Suddenly, his hand was moving slowly toward her. First instinct told her to flinch, back away... but for some reason, she was unable to move.

She stood there, motionless, frozen in time, while Osorkon ran his fingers gently through the strands of her hair. She silently reveled in the fact that she had actually brushed her long locks this morning, glad that he had something soft to touch rather than the mess that had been her head while she was down in the tomb. His other hand was moving now, though, and Allison was distracted by it, watching as his fingers drifted up toward her face. When his palm made contact with her cheek, Allison's eyes closed, almost involuntarily. She steadied herself on the edge of the sarcophagus, feeling weak almost instantaneously.

It was actually a strange sensation.. something she hadn't expected. She didn't know how to interpret the fluttering in her belly, the weakening in her knees, the way she felt lightheaded. She breathed in slowly, catching the scent of musk and oil in the air. So this was what an Egyptian mummy smelled like... or rather.. no... an Egyptian man. Was it the way it felt to fall in love? Allison had only been in love once before... with a guy twice her age, a man who had promised everything and given nothing. She felt a pang of guilt as she remembered the fact that he had been married... that he had children.... many times she credited her own swift departure from the states with this harrowing guilt that was now pulsing through her chest.

Was it something deeper? Some horrible fate that would befall her now that she had disturbed the final resting place of one of Egypt's most notable pharaohs? Allison didn't really believe in curses, or the supernatural, or any of that bullshit that her mother had warned her against when she revealed the news that she was traveling to the desert to dig up mummies. But this draining of energy and power... almost as soon as Osorkon's flesh had come into contact with hers... Or maybe...

Was it just the shock of it all? The fact that a thousand year old mummy had just awakened under her touch and was now administering his own gentle caresses... well, that was something that would make anyone feel faint. But it had to be more than that... Allison hadn't felt this way at any point during her time here in stowage with Osorkon. And while she would have loved to just turn around and accept this as another part of her day... she needed answers. Opening her eyes slowly, the color of them a bright green, Allison focused her gaze on his. When she spoke, her voice was much shakier than she had imagined. She cleared her throat and started again, not wanting to appear weak to this man that she was so fond of already.

"So... Are... are you cursed?"

Cursed?

It was a possibility he'd not considered from the moment he (woke up? revived? was reborn?) had become once more aware, but not it roared through his head like a chariot on fire. He had thought this a gift from Ra to his loyal servant, but what if it was just the opposite? What if this was all a cruel trick that would never let him reach his eternal reward in the afterlife?

But... searching his mind, he realized he had no memory of anything after it all faded to black. No afterlife. No family. There was nothingness. It was as if he'd gone from then to now in the blink of an eye, with naught a memory created in between. Perhaps that was the curse, and she had saved him from it. He was doomed to an eternity of nothingness until she found him, opened the room, opened the sarcophagus, and opened his eyes. He was...

"I think I'm cured," he whispered in reply.

Muscles that had not worked in hundreds of years, that perhaps had no longer even existed for hundreds of years, contracted, and he lifted his head as he pulled her closer. Amber eyes watched her as she came closer, keeping her in sight until the last breath of time before their lips touched.

They were soft against his sun-drenched skin, perfect little pillows of sensual delight, and he found himself quickly consumed by the kiss. The fingers that fondled her loose strands of hair moved, splayed fingers diving eagerly into her hair, silken strands weaving their way through long digits. He sighed quietly, warm breath from a living body, and thought perhaps he'd found paradise here afterall. Maybe it didn't wait in the afterlife. Maybe it simply waited in the arms of the right woman.

Osorkon pulled back from her then, just enough for the kiss to slip off their lips, and he leaned his smooth, warm forehead against her own, his hands holding her close. His voice was a whisper, a quiet sound that would've been inaudible to anyone but her, as his thumb stroked lightly across the smooth, fine surface of her skin.

"I don't know where we're going... where you're taking me. But... please tell me you'll be there, wherever it is."

Allison could see that her question had not been something Osorkon had really considered before now. He seemed to be deep in thought, perhaps not truly knowing the answer himself. And she shouldn't have expected him to, really. How insane would it be if she had been dead, and suddenly had just risen like he had? She knew she'd have a lot of questions herself if she were in his shoes, but he didn't seem to want to ask many. Before she knew it, he was focused on her again, his lips parting to answer.

Cured? Did he think that he had been cured now, of some horrible fate? Did he see her as the cure? Before Allison could think about that for too long, Osorkon was lifting his head toward hers. He pulled her close with the warm hand that cupped her cheek, bringing their faces within inches of each other. And time moved slowly, Allison had what seemed like a lifetime to contemplate what was about to happen to her. She focused on the deep amber of his eyes just before their lips touched, seeing genuine.... what was it, love? .... deep within them. Then he was kissing her, and it was as if she had never known anything before that very moment.

His lips were far more lush than what she would have expected. Mummies were supposed to be dry and cracked and falling apart. Osorkon was nothing like that. All at once, Allison could taste musk, and something sweet like honey, and something smoky like firewood. All that existed for her was the sensation of his lips against hers and his fingers tangled in her hair. He pulled her even closer with those fingers, sighing against her lips. She was barely even conscious of that noise, honestly, only able to feel the changes happening within her body. Allison's heartbeat felt fast and erratic, skipping over a few steady rhythms that it should have hit. She couldn't breathe anymore, but it didn't matter... any pain that she had felt was instantly gone. In fact, her whole body might have been numb except for her mouth just about now, that was how consumed she was by the meeting of hers and Osorkon's lips....

And then he pulled back. Allison's lips slipped from his, and she let out an involuntary sigh of frustration, eager to keep kissing him like that. But he was leaning his forehead against hers, still holding her body close to his. He was practically out of the sarcophagus by now with the way his body was craned up over the side. She wanted to tell him to just get out and run away with her. He spoke first though. At his words, Allison opened her eyes, slowly. His thumb stroked across her cheek and sent a warm shudder along the path it traveled. She bit her lip now, looking at him from such a close distance.

"It's New York... I'll make sure you go to the Natural History Museum... I only live a block away, and... well, I can come every day. I'll see you every night... but Osorkon?"

It was the first time Allison had spoken his name to him like this. In fact, she wasn't even sure he knew her name at this point. They hadn't shared them with each other, which seemed strange to her, despite the fact that she practically knew his whole life story at this point. Was this normal? Hell, was there even a protocol for what you should do upon awakening a mummy and then making out with him? Breathing in his scent once more before she spoke up again, Allison could feel the smallest smile spreading across her lips.

"You'll have to pretend you're dead. It's the only way...." Allison realized that all of this was crazy. She realized that now that he was alive, she was asking a lot of him. Could he even survive in a sarcophagus now that he wasn't dead? But if she was going to keep him... keep him a sweet little secret... she needed him to do as she said. "We're.. on a ship right now. We're sailing to New York. When we get there, you're gonna be taken to the museum, probably cleaned up a little bit... I can see if that task can get relegated to me, that way no one else will find out about you... about this..."

At that, Allison leaned in close again. Her hand went up to wrap around one side of his neck. His flesh was so warm against her skin, so unlike what she had expected. Then again, nothing had really gone as she expected today. She pressed her lips to the corner of Osorkon's, then moved them up along his jawline. She stopped when she reached his ear, whispering to him. "I'm Allison....."

Osorkon had no idea if New York was a kingdom or a city, or perhaps even the name of a building, but the thing he was most worried about - that she would be there with him - relieved one of his fears. There were many that still crept in his mind, monsters lurking in the shadows that he knew he'd have to deal with one by one, but a large one was killed off with her answer. Maybe it was the simple fact that she was the one that had woken him, maybe there was even some destiny being fulfilled across the centuries and she was meant to wake him, but he felt like he could handle leaving behind his land if she was there.

His brow furrowed slightly when she heard his name on her lips next, the sound of it sweet and perfect, but the tone gave him pause. Bad news was coming. He remembered that sound in the voices of servants who could not deliver what he requested, and he did not like it coming from her.

He'd have to play dead...

The thought had never occurred to him. Was he to be on display, like some bit of pottery? Was he really woken from the peaceful nothingness to be put on display in a land he'd never heard of for a people he'd never before seen? Perhaps her questioning whether or not he was cursed was more spot on than he'd fully realized at the time. To be given a second life, and then made to lay still for the length of the day while he was gawked at by people that should be kneeling before a great Pharaoh such as he? It was practically an insult to even suggest such a thing.

The touch of her lips at the corner of his quieted the protest that was rising inside him, her hand curved along his neck sending a small shiver down his spine. His amber eyes fell closed as her cool moved against his, the pad of his thumb still stroking across her other cheek. He was confused for a moment, the time it took his eyelids to slip open and lips to part in order to ask her what she meant, and then he realized... her name.

Allison.

Allison...

He let it roll around in his mind for a time, growing anxious to taste it on his tongue. It was not one he'd heard before, no doubt a name from this New York land she was taking him to, but he liked it. More and more with each passing heart beat, he liked it.

"Allison," he whispered in reply, and dark lips broadened into a smile near her soft cheek. "Allison," he whispered again, enjoying the way it sounded in his voice, seasoned with his accent.

"Since you found me, and spoke my name once, I believe you already know it, but... I will tell you all the same, Allison. I am Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon, the Second. But, as you have... please call me Osorkon."

Golden eyes were hidden once more as his lids closed, and a lungs that did not even truly exist only a day before expanded as he took in a deep draw of her scent, holding it inside him, letting it flow through him, before exhaling it into a quiet, content sigh.

"How long do we have, Allison? Before we arrive at your New York?" he asked in the same quiet whisper. He was not ready, not nearly ready to stop touching her, to lay back in his box and begin pretending he was not the miracle he actually was. He was not at all ready to stop smelling her.

Allison felt a pang of guilt and pain at Osorkon's question, realizing that their time together might come to an end before she even truly felt that it had begun. Was it her fault? Had she brought this upon them? Had she set off a time bomb of unfortunate events by merely discovering his place of final rest? She pushed those thoughts aside quickly, wanting to focus all of her attention on him for the short amount of time they still had together.

"We have at least a few more days on the boat... I'm supposed to sleep upstairs, in my quarters, but... I could stay down here with you at night, and no one would really know..." She smiled at the thought, visions of talking to Osorkon late into the night filling her head. They could snuggle up (if he could get out of the sarcophagus), share more of those mind-blowing kisses... Allison couldn't remember the last time she was really excited about spending time with a member of the opposite sex. Well... actually... she could remember. But those weren't memories she was fond of.

Leaning in close to Osorkon, perched on just the very edge of her crate seat, Allison breathed in his scent and then pressed her lips to his jawline, moving up along it until she kissed his cheekbone. "Right now? As long as no one comes down here, we should be fine..." At that, she smirked, pulling back to look into his amber-colored eyes. She saw something genuine there, a sort of aura that Osorkon emanated that made her feel calm and collected. She wasn't frightened of him even a bit, despite the fact that this situation had horror movie written all over it. Instead, she was intrigued by him... excited... maybe even a little turned on. Just as she had this thought, Allison heard what sounded like footsteps on the heavy wooden stairs leading down to this very room. Heart freezing, she motioned to Osorkon to lay back down. He obeyed, understanding instantly, even with the language barrier.

Hopping off of the crate, Allison walked toward the door, heart beating hard in her chest. The handle was turning, the door was being pushed open... and there was Josh. Swallowing hard, Allison took a few more steps toward him before stopping in the middle of the room. "Hey, Josh..."

He eyed her warily, a strange smirk on his face, but he didn't seem to notice that the lid had been pushed halfway off the sarcophagus. His attention was focused on Allison right now, something that was completely typical for their interactions. "Oh... hey... I thought you might still be down here. Listen, I was gonna have a guy on the crew make me some dinner... he's a great cook... and, I thought maybe you'd want to join me in my room...." At this, Josh stepped closer to her, bridging the gap between them by a few feet. Allison was used to his advances, but she had never been harboring a mummy while Josh was hitting on her. With an almost imperceptible glance to the side to make sure everything behind her looked good, Allison turned and leaned her back up against a wooden post. At this angle, she knew Josh would have to turn and face her again, effectively keeping him from seeing the corner that Osorkon was tucked away in at all.

"Uhm... well, I'm not terribly hungry, Josh... I guess we could do something later... maybe..." She was throwing him a bone, trying to give him something to hope for so that he would leave her alone for a little while. He wasn't taking it, though.

"Allison, you always say that... when are you going to let yourself live again...?" At these words, he closed the space between their bodies entirely, placing one hand right above Allison's head, against the wooden post that she was leaning on. He leaned down toward her, his breath hot against her forehead, eyes searching hers. "I just want to make you happy...." He was going to do it... lean in for that kiss, the one that he had been desperate for in the last few weeks. Allison bit her lip and squirmed to the side, swallowing.

"Josh.... not now... just give me a chance to find myself again..." Her words were soft, sweet... she was using a tone that he couldn't resist most days. Even so, Josh looked at her with a newfound passion now. It was as if the discovery of Osorkon's tomb had made him cocky or something, and for a moment, Allison wasn't sure if he was going to give in or not. His gaze was steady on hers for a moment, and his lips parted. Then he sighed, pulling back but giving her a sly smile. "All right, Ally Cat... just know that I'm up there, if you need me..." With that, he brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead and kissed the spot that he had just uncovered, delicately. Unlike the moment when Osorkon's lips had touched her, Allison felt nothing but uneasiness when Josh kissed her. He was a good guy... a great guy. But she just wasn't interested. Nodding slightly, she turned to watch him walk out the door again, then listened for his footsteps heading back up.

Phew... that was close...