Avoiding Death

She ran as fast as she could out of the tunnel and never looked back. I looked back to Nick as he pulled me through a door and shut it behind us. I looked back at the zombies of death as they tried to use their boney fingers to get through the chicken wire on the fence, not succeeding. Nick pulled me away from the door with the Book of the Living clutched in my other hand he led me further into the maze underground. As we were walking, Nick was clutching my arm for dear life. A stray mummy popped out of nowhere and pushed us through a no crossing barricade and through the bricks that made up the wall. It ended up pushing us into some water. As I sunk I slowly realized where I was and tried to swim towards the surface, the Book of the Living holding a significant portion of the weight on my other arm. I watched as Nick took the Book from my hands and pulled me upwards towards the air. A mummy grabbed my ankle attempting to pull me back down, Nick noticed this and hit the guy with the Book of the Living. We breached the surface, the first words out of my mouth being;

"NICK! That's the Book of the Living!" I yelled at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked me clearly concerned about me and not about the precious artifact.

"Where are we?" I asked him confused about where we had fallen into.

"I don't know." Nick replied not too sure of himself. "Are you okay?" He repeated, grabbing my face pushing my hair away from my eyes.

"I'm scared." I told him truthfully, still gasping for air.

"Just look at me. We are gonna figure this out. Just, I need you to just stay with me, please. We are gonna figure this out.. I need you to just stay with me. Just stay with me. We'll think of something." He told me rapidly, repeating himself to make me feel better.

"Nick, I'm sorry... I know it's not the right time, but I might not get another chance to say it... " I told him as he shushed me looking past my shoulder at something behind me. "Nick." I whispered out. Just when I was pulled out of his grasp and back below the surface I reached out for him but he just slipped through my fingers. As Ahmanet dragged me towards blackness. I tried to fight her off but to no avail. Her grip on me was unbreakable. The need for air overwhelmed me and I let go. I can't explain the pain I felt losing my last bit of oxygen. It was like my lungs had collapsed and the crushing pressure that was on my shoulders was gone. I was gone. My surroundings changed almost dramatically.

I was in my childhood home. My deceased family were there in chairs surrounding me.

"Hi love." Jonathan Carnahan smiled at me.

"Jonathan, let the girl breathe first." Evelyn told him as I looked around at where I was. The wallpaper was the same as I remembered it as a little girl. I took a deep breath of air and slowly just took it in. Ardeth Bay smiled from beside her caressing her hand as she talked to me.

"What happened? Where's Nick?" I asked them as I tried to get a hold of my shaky hands. I knew what this was. Josephine had explained her death experience to me once before. It was something she wishes she would get back for just a minute.

"Nothing. Honey, this is just a visit. Nothing permanent, yet." She told me.

"Oh Evy don't scare our great grand niece. She's only just got here and by god if you ruin another one of these for someone else." Jonathan all but burst out of his chair with annoyance.

"Okay..." I breathed out trying not to panic.

"Sweetheart. I'm going to teach you a thing or two." He smiled at me as he knelt down in front of me.

"Oh Jonathan, not another one of your 'money is the key to life' stories. The girl might as well just be here by herself." Evelyn burst, dropping her husband's hand and walking over to me. "Listen to me. You have done an eloquent job keeping our family name out of the rubbish. I'm so glad you found Josephines and I's journal that we co-wrote together. It was one of my prized possessions, I'm so glad you put it to good use." Evelyn told me. I nodded at her not believing she was really here.

"So I guess my question is now what?" I asked them all.

"As I said previously in my life, Ms. Elizabeth, only the journey is written not the destination." Ardeth told me as I watched Jonathan roll his eyes at the man.

"Yes, yes we know we've heard it all before. Blah blah blah." Jonathan muttered back in his chair.

"So can I ask you guys how exactly you guys defeated the same mummy not once but twice?" I asked them the question just falling out of my mouth as if I had no filter.

"Well, yes of course sweetheart, but get comfortable it's a long story." Evelyn told me smiling at both her brother and husband.

***JOSEPHINE'S POV***

I watched paralyzed from the corner behind a tomb where Rick and I were perched. I watched as Nick pulled my great granddaughter from the water, lifeless. I saw the pain and regret flash through his eyes as he mourned internally.

"So any bright ideas Joe?" Rick whispered to me as I watched Ahmanet's minions disappear into sand before my eyes.

"I'm thinking..." I told him as I didn't want to make our presence known just yet.

"Don't blame yourself. She was always doomed. There are worse fates than death. Come to me." Ahmanet whispered to Nick, her hand holding the dagger with the stone in place. I was pissed we had to leave it behind as to not be seen or followed, we were waiting for the opportune moment to make ourselves known and get it back. I noticed a book in Nick's hand, one I hadn't seen in centuries. I nudged my husband making the presence of the book known to him.

"Joe... That's... We could save Elizabeth and kill Ahmanet. You memorized those spells. Can we just do it again?" Rick asked me as he moved closer to the tomb where we were spying from.

"Let's just wait a minute. I need the books to do the spells without them it'll do nothing. We don't even have the key Rick." I told him as he grumbled at the inconvenience. I watched as Nick slowly rose from the ground and started running at Ahmanet she caught him immediately and threw him to the ground grabbing his neck. While her attention was away from him on the otherside I ducked around the corner keeping close to the ground to not draw attention to us. No one seemed to notice as I grabbed the book and made my way back to Rick.

"It hurts. I know. Let me take pain away." She told him from below. I looked at Rick, not hopeful for our situation. He smiled, as he reached into his rucksack and brought forth the key I needed to open the book. I watched slowly as I grabbed the key from Rick. I smiled at him but we shared an unneeded conversation. Ahmanet threw Nick away from her across the room towards the wall we were near. Nick looked at us, I put a finger to my lips as he got up and ran towards Ahmanet again.

"When did you get this?" I asked Rick with my eyes.

"I asked Victoria and Alex for it before we left, I figured we may need it." He smirked at me. I smiled back at him falling into those ocean blue eyes.

"Once we open this we reveal our position." I told him silently.

"I know, we're going to have to be quick about it. We need Nick to hold out as long as he can then we will drag her back to hell." He nodded acknowledging the problem.

I watched what unfolded before us ready to jump to Nick's side if he needed help. He ran once again towards Ahmanet and she smacked him down to the ground like she had done before.

"Give in to me." Ahmanet yelled at Nick as he crawled towards our position. I quickly tapped Rick telling him to get ready to move around the tomb we were currently at. Nick thrust a dagger into Ahmanet's leg just as she grabbed his leg and started to drag him away from our position. She turned and glared at him as she grabbed the dagger out of her leg and thrust it into his. He yelled out in pain. As she threw him away from her yet again. Nick lay on the ground mouthing for us to help him. But we couldn't just yet. It killed me to watch him suffer like this. He grabbed her arm as she went to pull him up again by his throat this time.

"Give in. Give in. When it's over you will thank me. I promise." She whispered to him as his hand moved towards the dagger, she licked his cheek in the process.

"I'm sorry. We are just never gonna happen. And it's not me. It's you." Nick choked out and I smirked. He was always so clever with his words. Like I said before, he reminded me of Jonathan. She threw him once again across the room, Ahmanet stopped looking down at her hands realizing what he had done.

"Thief." She uttered out.

"Now Rick." I told him as he popped out from behind the stone and started plastering Ahmanet with bullets as Nick turned the dagger upside down to destroy the stone pounding it into the ground as he did so. It cracked and Ahmanet threw her energy into Rick. I opened the book and flipped to the page that I knew would make her mortal.

"Kadeesh mal, Kadeesh mal pared oos pared oss." I echoed my sisters previous words through the temple of the railway. A gust of wind threw my hair back and a blue chariot, the one I'd seen previously took away her immortality. I honestly was surprised it worked, since she was cursed by Set the god of death. I guess he didn't have all the power that one would've thought he might. I smirked at my work.

"Wait! Destroy the stone and all is lost. You will be a living God. You will have the power of life over death. Give it to me, my chosen. Give it to me, my love." She tried her last effort to have him hand it over. Rick unloaded his submachine gun into her and she fell lifeless to the ground. She fell into a fetal position, turning to sand. A gust of wind howled through the tunnels.

"Thank you." Nick told both Rick and I as I started to grab the Book of the Dead from Rick's rucksack. I thrust the Book of the Living into his hands and walked towards my great granddaughter. I settled on the ground next to her figure.

"Don't thank me yet, we're not done." I told him as I put the key inside and unlocked the book. I sighed before I flipped it open the pages heavy beneath my fingers. I had never done this resurrection spell before. I was hoping it would go just as Alex had done to bring me back.

"Hootash naraba oos Veesloo. Ahm kum Ra. Ahm kum Dei. Efday Shokran... Efday Shokran Ahmenophus!" I waited a moment, gesturing for Nick to come up next to me as the book did it's magic. A golden light appeared from her body and settled there. I gazed at it hopefully. Rick at my other side gripping my hand that held one edge of the book.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth, please wake up. Please. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Liz." He said as he was over her. I watched as my great granddaughter woke up coughing up water. I smiled, relieved, looking at Rick seeing him smile back at me happily. All was okay, I was thrilled we were here to help with the mummies, retirement didn't look good on either of us. I smiled as he grabbed me in a hug.

***ELIZABETH POV***

"Nick? Nick!" I screamed awake. Seeing his face, he quickly pulled me into a kiss I had been wanting for years.

"I have made so many, many mistakes. But not this time. Not you. I don't want to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I'm so sorry Elizabeth." He said as he pulled me into a giant bear hug.

"You won't." I replied seeing the devastation in his eyes as he pulled away from me.

"We didn't see this coming, did we?" He asked me, I laughed and looked to my left to see Josephine and Rick.

"No, we certainly did not." I laughed out as he helped me to my feet.

"Never again..." He told me as he walked me towards my great grandparents.

"We'll hold onto these for safekeeping." Rick told me as he stored the Book of the Living and Book of the Dead into his bag. I smiled happy they had received my gift.

"Sounds good, I'm glad you got what I brought from Jekyll's lab." I told them.

"Yes, we're very grateful, without it we wouldn't have been able to destroy Ahmanet." Josephine told me.

"Let's get going, if I know Jenny at all she'll bring the cavalry back with her." I told them all and they nodded slowly as we made our way back into the sunlight of London.