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| Carnahans. He dreamed ever night of holding the Scepter in his hands while Adinah and Robert crumbled in a slow painful death at his feet. That dream had become a favorite of his. He knew that they had to be taken out of the picture in order for him to get what was rightfully his, but how? It had to look like an accident. He thought back on it and gave a cruel smile. He had wandered off and found a group of four thieves and paid them off for their help. He instructed one of them to get some strong sleeping medicine, but nothing deadly. Only two would die tonight, and it would be by his hands. The rest would serve as murder suspects. He slipped the sleeping draught into the soup they�d be having for dinner. He waited until nightfall when everyone was knocked out and slipped into the Carnahans� tent. He killed them quickly and quietly, not wanting to take any risks. Oh how he wanted to hear their screams as he torture them with a slow and painful death, but he did not want any risk of being discovered. Two of the men he hired each carried one of the bodies while he instructed the other two to gather up all the journals and books they could find in the tent into sacks. He had been very clever in creating the fake deaths. He took pleasure in killing his next two victims. He imagined they were Adinah and Robert and slowly tortured them to death. He thought himself quite clever when he came up with the idea to mummify his two new victims in a cruel messy fashion so that the bodies wouldn�t be recognized. The note he forged for the kids was to give the impression that the no longer recognizable people were the Carnahans. He wanted to make so many tracks leading in all different directions that the authorities would give up. He killed another two couples in different ways and hid those bodies in different places just to create more confusion. He had decided that he�d covered himself from blame and began looking through the various books and journals he had taken from the Carnahan�s tent. He became furious after finding nothing that related to the Scepter of Seth and went out to the nearest kasbah to get drunk. He ended up taking a prostitute home and proceeded to beat her and torture her to death. He�d then found out that many of the others that were at the dig were pointing their fingers in his direction with many of the same clues being given by each. �Skarzinski disappeared earlier that day and returned in the late afternoon.� �Skarzinski didn�t eat dinner that night.� �Skarzinski and all his things were gone in the morning.� Blah, blah, blah. He was mad that he�d made so many mistakes, and he blamed it all on the Carnahans. Damn them! They obviously had begun to suspect him of trying something, so had given the journal and other important documents to someone else in the group for safe keeping. But who? He decided to fake his own death, and this time he�d succeeded in fooling everyone. His anger took control and he began tracking down the people that were with the Carnahans. One by one he tore apart their homes and killed them. None would reveal anything or knew anything. Until he came to the home of the fourth person on his list. The weasel had some information. In hopes to save his pitiful life, which it hadn�t, he told Skarzinski all that he heard while eavesdropping. This eventually led Skarzinski on another string of victims and eventually to the offspring of the Carnahans. Unfortunately, it seemed they had found out about him just as he was learning about them. He was not prepared and needed some time in hiding to come up with a plan. He had nearly finished off the bottle of alcohol while he was rounding a bend and still had a strong urge for a killing. He looked up at the setting sun, and as if in answer to his needs, a woman in strange clothing stood up on a ridge with her back to him watching the setting sun. He gave a quiet evil laugh and his mouth watered in anticipation. ~*~*~*~*~ Gabrielle loved her daily ritual and looked forward to it all day. She would think of Jonathan while watching the sun set halfway in his time, then she�d go back through the tunnel to her time and finish watching the setting of the sun there while, once again, thinking of Jonathan. She stood there now right outside the mouth of the tunnel. The sun was about to start it�s decent. She took Jonathan�s pinky ring off her ring finger and held it while watching it shine in the remaining light. She smiled at her thoughts and hugged the ring to her, then continued to look at it. She couldn�t wait until they could be back together again. She looked up again at the sun. It was time to head back. Just as she was about to turn back toward the tunnel, Skarzinski placed a hand over her mouth and locked her wrists together with his other hand. �Well what do we have here?� he said as he pulled her against him and looked her over. �Aren�t you a pretty little thing?� Gabrielle panicked and wanted to scream. �Uh, uh� you keep quiet now. I�m going to take my hand off your mouth. If you scream, it�ll be the last think you do.� His hand roamed down the length of the arm. �It would be such a pity not to take advantage of what you could offer with that pretty little body of yours.� Bile rose in Gabrielle�s throat. She had to think fast. The sun would be completely set soon and the opening to her time would close. Then, she�d be stuck with this scary guy and end up dead. She stood very still in hopes that he would think she was accepting his offer. It worked. As soon as the hand holding her wrists together loosened, she stepped forward and brought her leg back with all her might. She�d gotten him right in the shin. Damn. She was aiming for higher. As she turned, she brought along with her a mean right hook and knocked him on his ass. Despite the pain in her heal from the shin kick, she ran. Skarzinski picked himself off the ground and grabbed the knife out of his boot. He was close behind her and just about to catch up to her when all of a sudden, he ran smack into a wall, knocking himself out for the count. Gabrielle saw that the sun had just completely disappeared right when she cleared the tunnel to her time. She looked back, and sure enough, the tunnel was sealed. She sat down on the ground and rocked herself gently as she examined her heal and her already bruising right hand. She gasped and immediately looked to her left hand. There was nothing there. The ring! No! She began to cry. She must have dropped it in her shock or her struggle; she didn�t know which. Damn it! Ever since she�d become all sentimental, she�d been doing nothing but screwing up. Now, there may be a man, a bad man no less, that knows about the tunnel. She prayed to Isis in hopes that the man had been knocked out. ~*~*~*~*~ Several hours later, Skarzinski began to stir. He put his hand to his throbbing head and opened his eyes. Where the hell was he? He remembered a woman. He sat up and looked around. It was a dream. He must have had way too much to drink, but at least his craving to kill had settled. He got up and walked out of the tunnel. He looked at the moon and knew he�d been out for some time. His damn leg was hurting him. He bend down to try and rub some of the pain out of it when a glint caught his eye. �What�s this,� he thought. He picked it up and saw it was a ring. His head whipped back to the tunnel thinking about the woman, then his gaze returned to the ring. It was a man�s ring. He placed the ring on his pinky finger and admired it. He was thoroughly convinced that the woman was a dream, but he couldn�t for the life of him figure out why the hell his shin and left cheek hurt, or why he had blood coming from a bump on his head. He wandered back to his tent to drown his pain in some of his more potent liquor and proceeded to pass out. Shelby ([email protected]) January 15, 2003 Having to clean the galley, wasn't what Alex or Jonathan considered as a fun task, and really, Jonathan was doing most of the work, while Alex sat on one of the stools, feeling worse than he had when they had been eavesdropping on his dad and Kit. "I think Mum has gone a little Loopy," Alex said as he rested his head on the counter top at the bar. Jonathan looked over at him from where he was mopping the floor. "You know how she is about eavesdropping," he said, sympathetically. His sister had put both of them in here to clean, saying that if Alex was well enough to spy on his father, that he was well enough to help clean, though looking at the boy, Jonathan wasn't too sure about that. "I don't think she would be quite so loopy as you say, if it weren't for me," he said, then smiled. Alex lifted his head and looked at his uncle. "So you did something that forever jinxed me when I eavesdrop?" asked Alex, though more interested than annoyed. "Lets just say that once I got a hold of her Diary, and that perhaps I shared some of that information with a certain young fellow she had a crush on," he said. Both of them laughed at that, then Jonathan frowned as Alex coughed. "Look partner, what say you go back to bed. I can handle this and you need to rest. If she gives you any trouble just tell her I forced you to rest," he said. After thanking his Uncle, Alex left to go back to his bed, grateful that they were such good friends. ~*~*~*~*~ While they were good friends, another uncle and nephew were not doing as well. When Evelyn had left to go see what all the commotion was about in the next room, Kit had clamed up, and hadn't spoken a word since her departure. For Rick that was frustrating. He wanted Kit to feel a part of the family. He felt obligated to protect him as he had done for Alex, but the boy was no closer to trusting him than Rick was willing to trust that they wouldn't find some god awful curse when they arrived in Egypt. "I need to go see how close to Egypt we are getting, but I will be back," Rick finally said as he stood from his chair. "I'll be sure to have a party when you return," Kit grumbled. He watched as Rick left and when he was gone he looked at the plate of food that Evelyn had left him. He had thought about not eating but his stomach had been grumbling since she had left the sandwich and cookies, and without another thought he scarfed down every last piece. As he was eating the last bite, the door knob twisted, then she stepped in, and Kit, though still annoyed by their persistence, was glad it was her, instead of him. "Would you like anything else to eat?" Evelyn said as she looked at the empty plate, and empty glass. |