The Misplaced Mummy

by Thomas Troupe

  CHAPTER 1: SAND!

  CHAPTER 2: A DUMMY MUMMY

  CHAPTER 3: WRAP IT UP!

  CHAPTER 4: PORTAL SHARD

  CHAPTER 5: AFTER THAT MUMMY!

  CHAPTER 6: THE PALACE OF BASTET

  CHAPTER 7: THE CAT BOX

  CHAPTER 8: RUN, FURRY, RUN!

  CHAPTER 9: NO TIME FOR RIDDLES

  CHAPTER 10: INTO THE DESERT

  CHAPTER 11: THROUGH THE CRACK

  CHAPTER 1

  “Florence Gardner! Get out here this instant!”

  Flo sighed with annoyance. Her mother knew how much she hated to be called Florence. She tossed aside the comic book she was reading, rolled off her bed, and headed into the living room of their small apartment.

  Flo’s mom stood near the worn recliner they’d dragged with them from house to house and finally into their apartment at Corman Towers, a high-rise building in the middle of the city. Like Flo, the chair couldn’t handle another move.

  “Really, Mom? Florence?” Flo asked, putting her hands on her hips.

  “Have you been to the park lately?” Flo’s mom asked, as if she hadn’t just called her that name.

  Flo shrugged. “Yeah,” she said. “School starts next week, so Furry and I are there practically every day. Summer’s almost over, Mom. We have to take advantage of the last few days.”

  Her mom motioned to the front door. “Do you need to bring the park back with you?” she asked. “The hallway is covered in sand.”

  “What do you mean?” Flo asked. She walked across the outdated carpet and tugged the door open. She figured her mom was exaggerating but wanted to see for herself.

  But when Flo stuck her head out into the hallway, she realized her mom was right. It looked like someone had dumped an entire sandbox out and raked it across the carpet.

  “I didn’t do that,” Flo protested. “I wouldn’t even know how to do that.”

  Mom threw her hands up. “You and Furry are the only kids on this floor,” she said. “The neighbors are sure it’s the two of you. The doctor down the hall seems to think you and Furry are trouble.”

  He wouldn’t think that if he knew all the trouble we’ve stopped, Flo thought.

  Since she and her mom had moved into Corman Towers a few months ago, Flo had discovered that their new home was far from normal. For starters, Furry wasn’t just a regular kid. He was a werewolf. And then there was the creepy crack in the basement laundry room. As Flo had learned, it was more than just a crack — it was a portal to another world. A world full of monsters.

  So far, Furry and Flo had managed to defend the building against the giant spiders and goblins that had slipped through the crack. But they hadn’t been able to close it up for good. Which meant more monsters could come through at any time.

  As much as Flo wanted to, she knew she couldn’t tell her mom about Furry’s secret or any of the creepy things that had come out of the mysterious crack in the basement.

  “I’ll talk to Furry,” Flo said. “But c’mon, Mom. Don’t blame the kids every time something goes wrong.”

  Her mom got up and headed to the kitchen to start dinner, and Flo grabbed her trusty Dyno-Katz lunchbox off the floor. “I’m going to see Furry,” she called as she opened the front door and walked out into the sandy hallway. The gritty sand immediately crunched beneath her shoes.

  That’s so weird, Flo thought. Where did all this sand come from?

  Flo walked down the hallway to Furry’s apartment and knocked on the front door. It swung open almost immediately, and Furry stood there, wearing a pair of worn-looking swim trunks.

  Flo rolled her eyes. Furry never seemed to be wearing clothes. At first she’d thought it was weird, but now she knew it had more to do with Furry being a werewolf than anything else.

  Not that it isn’t still weird, Flo thought. Just then, she noticed a thin piece of blue stone tied to a cord around Furry’s neck. It looked sort of like a faded piece of blue chalk. But it was skinnier and rougher looking. She’d never seen him wear it before.

  “What’s with the necklace?” Flo asked. For a moment she forgot all about the sand problem.

  “Oh, this?” Furry asked. He put his fingers around it, as if to protect it. “It’s sort of a family heirloom.”

  “Did you get it from your parents?” Flo asked. “Your real ones, I mean.”

  Furry looked at the ground and avoided her gaze. “Yeah, I guess you could say that,” he said.

  “What is it?” Flo asked. Now she was really curious.

  “Something from my world,” Furry said. “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, we’ve got trouble.”

  Flo sighed. “Again?” she asked.

  “Again,” Furry replied.

  “What is it this time?” Flo asked.

  “There’s a mummy wandering around the hallway,” Furry announced.

  Flo’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at her friend in shock. “What?” she cried. “You mean like a dead guy wrapped up in toilet paper? That kind of mummy?”

  Furry laughed. “Toilet paper?” he repeated. “That’s hilarious.”

  “How are you being so calm about this?” Flo exclaimed. “How did it get here? Did it come through the crack in the basement?”

  Furry shrugged. “Probably.”

  “I thought we covered it really well last time!” Flo said. “What are we still doing up here? Let’s go!”

  “Okay, okay,” Furry said. “Jeez. Let’s go find ourselves a mummy.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Furry and Flo followed the incriminating trail of sand all the way down the long hallway.

  “So does the mummy have anything to do with all this sand?” Flo asked.

  “Yeah,” Furry replied. “Mummies live under the sand in my world. It gets stuck all over them. Most of the sand probably fell off while it was wandering around.”

  Flo shuddered. She didn’t know how Furry slept at night, knowing what kind of creatures might be wandering around. First the spider, then the goblins, and now a mummy? she thought. It’s enough to give a girl nightmares.

  The sand grew thicker on the floor as they reached the door to the stairwell. “The goblins weren’t enough?” Flo said. “Now a mummy wants to find you, too?”

  Furry shrugged. “I don’t know if it really wants to find me. Mummies aren’t exactly the smartest monsters. He might have just fallen through on his own.”

  “How?” Flo asked. “Aren’t mummies dead kings and queens? Like pharaohs? Shouldn’t he be in a fancy tomb someplace?”

  Furry shook his head. “Mummies from my world aren’t like the ones in yours,” he explained. “They’re not important people. They just sort of . . . swim around in the sand. Maybe this one got lost or something.”

  The lightbulb was burnt out in the stairwell on their floor, making it hard to see where they were going. Furry got down on his hands and knees and sniffed the ground.

  “This mummy really is a dummy,” Furry said, shaking his head. “He was right in our hallway, but it smells like he ended up going upstairs.”

  Flo shuddered. The idea of a mummy seriously freaked her out. Even more than the other creatures they’d faced. A mummy was basically a zombie wrapped up like a rotten birthday present. And there was one stumbling around Corman Towers? It made her skin crawl.

  “So where is —” Flo started to ask.

  She was interrupted by a gurgling moan from somewhere up above them. It echoed in the dark stairwell. A second later, they heard what sounded like a foot scraping against the sandy steps.

  “It sounds like he’s headed our way,”
Furry said, looking up. He pointed up the stairs. “Right there. See him?”

  Flo squinted in the dim light of the stairwell. She could just barely make out a lumpy shape a few flights up. “Barely,” she said. “I don’t have wolf eyes like you, remember?”

  “Oh,” Furry said. “Right. I forgot. Well, he’s coming.”

  Flo backed up until her foot hit the metal door. Furry stood his ground, waiting for the mummy to get closer.

  “So . . . do we have a plan of some kind?” Flo asked. She couldn’t believe Furry didn’t seem more concerned. For someone who’s terrified of spiders, a rotting corpse in bandages sure doesn’t seem to bother him, she thought.

  “Not really,” Furry said. He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we need to get him to the crack and send him back where he belongs. Same old, same old.”

  Furry let out a low whistle. “Jeez, he looks a little unsteady,” he said. “Maybe he should hold on to the —”

  As they watched, the mummy lurched and tipped forward, falling face-first down the steps. The monster landed in a pile on the landing, just inches away from where Flo and Furry stood.

  “— handrail,” Furry finished.

  CHAPTER 3

  Flo shuddered at her first glimpse of the mummy. She’d seen plenty of cartoon mummies in her time and even a fake one at the museum, but the real thing was even worse than she’d imagined.

  Dingy, tattered strips of cloth were wrapped loosely around the mummy’s head. The edges were frayed and loose, exposing the dark, shriveled skin of the monster beneath. One of its eyes was half-open, and the other was missing completely. The monster’s right leg seemed to be twisted in an odd angle, and a rib poked out through its chest wrappings.

  “Is it dead?” Flo asked. “Still? Or . . . again, I guess?”

  Furry got down on his hands and knees again and sniffed the fallen mummy. It was a little odd to see him act so much like a werewolf while he was still in human form.

  “I’m not sure,” Furry replied. “But we should probably get it out of here before it wakes up.”

  Flo took a step forward before she realized what Furry was asking her to do. “Hold up a second,” she said. “There’s no way I’m touching that thing. It looks like shriveled-up beef jerky.”

  “I can’t do it alone,” Furry said.

  Flo took a deep breath and immediately wished she hadn’t. She could actually smell the rotten mummy lying on the floor.

  She was pretty tough, but touching a mummy from another world was asking too much. “Ugh, do I have to?” she asked.

  “Just grab his legs and we can slide him,” Furry said. He reached down and grabbed the mummy by the shoulders, digging his hands into the dingy wrappings.

  Flo tried to hold her breath. The mummy stunk so badly.

  “We’d better hurry up,” Furry said. “I don’t know how long it’ll stay dead.”

  Flo wanted to refuse. But then she remembered how she’d felt when one of the Goblins Three had pulled Furry through the crack in the basement. She’d thought her friend was gone forever.

  Who knows what’ll happen if this thing wakes up and catches Furry, she thought. I’d better just get it over with.

  “Fine,” Flo muttered, grabbing the mummy’s legs. “But my hands will never feel clean again.”

  Together Furry and Flo managed to slide the mummy down the stairs, bumping its lifeless head on each step on the way down. Flo figured out that if she breathed through her mouth the stink wasn’t as bad.

  As they neared the basement, the mummy started groaning. Suddenly, he raised an arm and swiped at Furry. Furry yelped and tried to jump back, but the creature caught hold of his necklace with a finger.

  “Ah, its got me!” Furry cried. He pulled away, letting go of the mummy’s bandage-wrapped shoulders.

  Flo dropped the monster’s feet, and they watched the miserable mummy tumble the rest of the way down the stairs. It came to a stop on the basement landing. With a final wheeze, the mummy fell lifeless again.

  “It got my shard,” Furry cried and touched his neck. He quickly leapt down the steps and crouched near the mummy.

  “Your what?” Flo asked. She hurried after him, making sure to stay a safe distance from the pile of rags that was the mummy.

  “Gimme that,” Furry said. He pried the broken strap and blue shard from the mummy’s lifeless hand. It didn’t resist.

  “What is that thing?” Flo asked.

  “It’s my shard,” Furry said, looking relieved to have it back. “It’s how I got to this world in the first place. I can’t lose it.”

  Flo wanted to ask more about the shard, but glancing down at the mummy, she realized her questions would have to wait. First we have to shove this stinky bag of bones back through the crack, she thought.

  Furry tried to put the necklace back around his neck, but the string had broken, and it was impossible.

  “Here,” Flo said. “Give it to me. I’ll hold onto it for you.” She opened her Dyno-Katz lunchbox and held it out to him.

  Furry stared at it for a few moments. He seemed hesitant to let go of the necklace. Finally he took a deep breath and placed the necklace inside the lunchbox. “Keep it safe,” he whispered.

  “Don’t worry,” Flo said. “I never let this lunchbox out of my sight.” She closed the top of the box and latched it. “It’s as safe as it’ll ever be.”

  Furry and Flo managed to drag the mummy out of the stairwell and down the hallway to the laundry room.

  “Look at this,” Flo said as they slid the mummy behind a bank of dryers and closer to the crack in the floor.

  The piece of plywood that Curtis, Corman Towers’ retired janitor, had placed over the crack was broken in half. It looked like something had punched its way through — hard. The blue crack glowed eerily underneath.

  “Told you,” Furry muttered, shaking his head. “The crack never stays sealed for long. There’s always a way something can come through there.”

  Flo sighed. It was such a cruddy situation. She didn’t want Furry to leave — he belonged here. But as long as he was in Flo’s world, the crack stayed open. And she was getting a little tired of monsters slipping through.

  “Let’s get Ol’ Stinky back where he belongs, then,” Flo said. She set her lunchbox on the floor and held her breath as she squatted down next to the motionless mummy.

  “On three?” Furry said, crouching down next to her. “We give him a shove and away he goes.”

  “Sure,” Flo agreed. “Let’s get this over with before someone else sees him.”

  “One,” Furry said, putting his hands on the monster. “Two . . .”

  Just then, the mummy groaned and lashed out. There was a metal clank as his twisted hand knocked against something.

  “Three!” Furry hollered.

  They gave him a hard shove, and the monster rolled toward the crack. Just like the goblins and the giant spider had been, the mummy was sucked though with a loud WHOOSH!

  “Awesome,” Furry cried. He stood up and brushed his hands on his shorts. “We’re getting pretty good at this.”

  “No kidding,” Flo agreed. She turned to pick up her lunchbox. But it was gone.

  “No!” Flo screamed. She turned back and forth, scanning the floor for her beloved Dyno-Katz lunchbox. But it was nowhere to be found.

  “What?” Furry cried. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s gone! My lunchbox is gone,” Flo said, gasping. “Oh, no, no, no!”

  The news seemed to hit Furry like a punch to the stomach. He staggered back and put his hand against the gritty, cobweb-covered wall. “Oh, this is bad,” he mumbled. “This is really, really bad.”

  “I have to get it back,” Flo whispered, staring at the crack. “My dad gave that to me.”

  Before Furry could make a move to stop her, Flo stepp
ed forward and put her foot at the edge of the blue crack. Just like the mummy, she was immediately sucked in.

  WHOOSH!

  CHAPTER 4

  Flo had never been fired out of a giant circus cannon, but she imagined being sucked though the blue crack felt similar. One moment she was standing on solid concrete and the next she was hurtling through the air. She couldn’t open her eyes, and it was hard to breathe.

  Suddenly, Flo felt herself falling. Hot air rushed past her face, and she slammed into something soft, but gritty feeling. She didn’t have to look to know she’d somehow landed in sand.

  Flo finally opened her eyes and squinted at the shimmering expanse of desert before her. It seemed to stretch forever. “Holy socks,” she said, gasping.

  In the distance were the hugest sand dunes Flo had ever seen. There were at least ten of them spread across the horizon. They rose up toward the sky, seeming to almost touch the clouds.

  It took Flo a moment to realize that what she was seeing wasn’t sand dunes at all — they were giant pyramids. All around them, grand temples and beautiful statues decorated the landscape.

  It looks like some sort of ancient city, Flo thought.

  Flo stood up and felt the sand sift from her clothing. She brushed it off her arms and legs and used her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “Where am I?” she wondered aloud.

  As Flo stared at the horizon, something howled and landed behind her with a loud THUMP!

  Flo turned around to see Furry, in his werewolf form, lying on his back in the sand. The scorching sand must have been even hotter for someone wearing a full-body fur coat, because the little werewolf quickly leapt up onto his paws and shook the gritty sand from his fur.

  “Dang, this sand gets everywhere,” Furry muttered. His tongue hung out of his mouth, and he panted in the scorching heat. “And it’s hot here.”