Page 89 of Ancient Obsession

He took a deep breath and then another, waiting for their musical cue.

He heard a scuff against the stone walkway, then the dry and dusty smell of something old and desiccated washed over him. Plugging his nose, Oliver turned.

The mummy stood directly behind him. The strips of material covering its head were dirty and torn in some spots, revealing glimpses of yellowed skull. Its sunken and withered eyes were still somehow infused with life, but jagged and blackened teeth lined the maw of its mouth behind tattered linens. It reached for Oliver, sharp, bony fingers visible through the torn and dangling linens.

“Fuck!” Oliver stumbled back several steps. The giant leaves slapped against his head and face as he broke through onto the patio.

The mummy followed, both arms up, fingers reaching for him, clawing at the air. Its eyes were locked on Oliver as it came after him. Jaw working beneath the bandages, it released a keening, broken syllable that almost sounded like a word: mery.

A high-pitched scream erupted behind him as Amenmose burst out of the greenery and into full view. The mummy glared at the gathering, swiping as people scrambled aside. It fixed on Oliver again and stomped forward, knocking aside chairs and flipping a table. Oliver retreated, unable to tear his eyes from the mummy as it came after him. Another roar tore from its ruined throat, followed by an unexpectedly quieter sound. A pleading whine.

Oliver grabbed a chair to steady himself before taking another step. His feet got tangled in a fallen chair and he went down hard. The back of his head thumped against the fieldstone, and the last things he heard were Dave screaming his name and the mummy howling in rage.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Everything had been so perfect.

Cody had joined Dave in the small office where they’d dressed in their tuxes. They’d joked with each other about weight gain, though Dave told Cody he was showing good muscle definition in his arms and shoulders from his new workout routine.

Cody had left the room first, and before he’d followed, Dave had paused to look back at his jeans and t-shirt neatly folded on the desk. When he came back to get them later, he’d be a married man.

The music had been perfectly timed. When Cody heard the instrumental version of “Holding Out for a Hero,” he’d turned, smile big and bright, tears glittering in his eyes, and grabbed him in a hug. Once Cody walked out to meet Demetrius, Dave stood alone within the greenery, closing and opening his fists, more excited than nervous as he waited.

Those first notes of their song brought fresh tears to his eyes. He wiped them away and shook out his hands, blowing out a breath before stepping from behind the leaves.

He saw his mom at the family table and shared a smile with her, but a shout from Oliver made him snap his head around. Oliver backed out of the opposite pathway, stumbling and grasping behind him for something to balance himself. Was Oliver doing something funky during his walk down the aisle? Why hadn’t he told Dave about it?

A noise followed Oliver. It was terrible, almost heartbreaking. A sound full of yearning and pain. And then the mummy batted the leaves aside and lumbered into view. Someone screamed. Guests fled their seats and the mummy swiped at them, narrowly missing Jugs’s shoulder.

“What…?” Dave wasn’t able to make sense of it for a second or two.

Had it followed them inside?

Where had it been all this time?

Oliver kept backing away, sliding over the stone, running into chairs as he fled.

The mummy flipped a table. Linens, glasses, and chairs went flying.

More panicked cries.

Dave yelled Oliver’s name as he watched him stumble over a fallen chair and go down. That triggered him to move. He pushed his way through their friends and family fleeing the monster. The panicked guests were everywhere, blocking him, forcing him to waste precious seconds as he fought his way between them.

The mummy roared and shook its fists at the glass roof, its voice a deep well of rage.

“No!” The word was a scream as Dave struggled to get to him. “Oliver!”

He heard someone else yelling. Cody and Demetrius were both working their way forward, fighting to get to Oliver.

Dave shoved Roman aside, finally in the clear and able to lunge toward it. “Get away from him!”

A side-armed swat knocked him off his feet and sent him flying backwards. For seconds, he felt weightless. He heard his mother cry out his name. Someone else shouted a string of curses.

He landed hard on a table, glasses and flatware spinning aside. The tablecloth was slick and he slid off the opposite side onto the stone patio. His breath left his lungs in a shock and his glasses skittered off somewhere.

The mummy roared, and more people shouted. Dave heard the thump and crash of tables and bodies tumbling, but it all seemed to be coming from a distant room in another part of his life. He fought to get free from the tablecloth, struggling to draw a breath, but his lungs seemed oblivious to their purpose.

“David. Oh my God. Are you hurt? What is that thing? Where are you hurt?”