Off the Wall (11 page)

“—Not comfortable with disagreements,” Jane heard
her say. “Wouldn't it be great if we could all try to get along?”

Well, it was way too late for that. Daria was trailing the other girls by about twenty feet, trying to peel off her toilet paper bandages as she walked. She looked kind of uncomfortable.

Maybe she was embarrassed that her joke had fallen so flat.

The girls tramped along for what seemed like blocks, getting more exhausted by the minute. “Stay close to the walls so no guards see us,” Lucy warned them at one point.

“Maybe they should see us. They might carry us back,” said Jane. She yawned. “I've had it with all of this walking.”

But there was the sign for the Great Hall at last. Jane blew out a sigh of relief.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,”
hissed Megan loudly. “We don't want to wake anyone up.”

“
You
shush,” snapped Lucy. “Which door did you come out of?”

A look of panic crossed Megan's face. “I don't know! I was sleepwalking, remember?”

“Come to think of that, which door did
we
use?” asked Jane.

Lucy paused. “Uh, this one, I think. But all we have to do is look around for empty sleeping bags, right? We were definitely near one of the doors, because I had us use a different one. And now I realize how dumb that was, by the way.”

“Well, there's no way to figure it out while we're standing here. And it'll have to be every girl for herself when we're in there,” said Jane. “Just don't step on any sleeping bag that has a girl in it. See you in the morning, Megan.”

Megan looked as if she was about to protest, but Jane and Lucy walked quickly into the Great Hall before she could say anything. After a second she followed, with Daria right behind her.

It was so dark that Jane had to stand still for a minute or so until her eyes got used to it. Megan found her sleeping bag immediately and flashed Jane a big thumbs-up.
Good night,
she mouthed silently.

So Megan was taken care of.
Now, what about me?
thought Jane as she tried to remember where Megan had slept in relation to Lucy, Daria, and herself. She was
pretty sure that Megan had been across the room from them, which meant that she'd been near the door they snuck out of—which also meant that once again they were going to have to get all the way across the room without waking anyone up.

Every girl for herself. Jane set her teeth and started tiptoeing toward her sleeping bag.

This time, at least, she and Lucy were lucky. None of the other girls woke up, and they didn't trip over anyone. Daria must have made it back safely as well, but Jane never noticed. She was out cold before she'd finished crawling into her sleeping bag.

She'd been asleep for an hour or so when she felt something gently brush her cheek.

“No, Lucy,” she murmured thickly. “No more.” She turned over onto her back and tried to nestle her head into her pillow.

But where
was
her pillow?

Jane patted the floor around her sleeping bag. No pillow. And now that she thought about it, the floor was even harder than she'd remembered. Had she slid off her foam mattress? Why were her legs out in the open?

Because, Jane realized, she wasn't wrapped up in her blankets, either.

Startled, she opened her eyes.

And she realized that she was no longer in the Great Hall. She was lying on a high, hard surface in the middle of a room that was stiflingly hot.

Was she on a table? In the hospital, maybe? The dim shapes of people she couldn't quite see were hovering over her. She thought she sensed people bustling around behind them as well.

Was I in some kind of accident?
she wondered.

Now a sharp, strange smell wafted in her direction. Jane turned her eyes in the direction it was coming from and saw a row of stone jars lined up nearby. The smell was coming from one of them.

Why would a hospital have stone jars?

Jane struggled to sit up—but her legs and arms were too heavy to move. She tried to lift her head. It felt like a boulder that she couldn't dislodge. She tried to scream—but her mouth wouldn't open. She couldn't make a sound. Other than her eyes, she was completely paralyzed.

Helpless, she stared up at the ceiling of the tent overhead.

Wait,
she thought.
A tent?

Where was she—and how had she gotten here?

Then she heard a deep, hollow voice.

“The body is ready.”

“Excellent,” someone else answered. “Here is the linen.”

Someone began to wrap Jane's feet tightly, using what felt like strips of stiff cloth. Then they began wrapping her legs. She could feel the pressure of the cloth against her skin.

It's too tight!
she tried to shout—but she couldn't speak.

They were wrapping her torso. From somewhere behind her, a man began to chant.

“Now she will live for all eternity. Now she will meet the great Osiris, Lord of Silence, son of Geb, husband of Isis.”

Other voices joined in the chant. Jane's arms were being crossed over her chest and tied down with more bandages.

“Now she will make her home in the land of the blessed dead.”

The chanting grew louder and faster as Jane felt the bandages twist around her neck.

“Now she will make her home in the land of the blessed dead. Now she will make her home in the land of the blessed dead.
Now she will make her home in the land of the blessed dead.
”

Now Jane knew what was happening.

She was being turned into a living mummy.

Jane sat bolt upright in her blankets.

Around her the Great Hall was hushed and cool. Everyone was asleep. Nobody was in danger, and nothing bad was about to happen. Through the windows near the ceiling, she could see the first hints of gray morning light.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” Jane whispered to the air. “It was just a dream.”

She was breathing hard, as if she'd been running, and it took a couple of minutes for her pulse to slow down. Just a dream, but it had seemed so real! Was that really what being mummified was like? And if so, had she had a dream—or a vision?

Whatever it had been, she was definitely here right now, and she was safe. Jane lay down and stretched luxuriously, savoring the fact that she was the only one awake in this quiet place.

Or was she? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daria beginning to sit up a few sleeping bags over.

“Sorry—did I wake you?” whispered Jane.

Daria didn't look at her. Either she hadn't heard Jane or she was ignoring her.

“Daria, are you okay?”

Daria certainly looked very strange. Not as if she'd had a nightmare—more as if she was in a trance. Slowly, slowly, she sat up. Slowly, slowly, she stood up. As she stood motionless for a second, Jane caught a glimpse of her face.

It was as pale as paper. Daria's dark eyes were glowing, and her mouth was set in a mysterious half smile.

“Daria!” Jane whispered it more urgently this time.

Still Daria didn't seem to hear. She began to move away from Jane, walking so lightly that she almost seemed to float. Stepping over some sleepers and walking around others, she headed toward the nearest doorway.

Jane gave an exasperated sigh. Could Daria possibly
be
another
sleepwalker? Should Jane follow and try to wake her? Get one of the chaperones?

It's not as if she's a friend of mine,
Jane reasoned with herself.
She's been obnoxious all night. She's gotten me and Lucy into trouble a couple of times. And I've definitely had enough wandering for one night.

Maybe Daria was just going to the bathroom. In any case, Jane decided not to let it be her problem.

She watched Daria vanish through the doorway. And then she settled back down to sleep.

“RISE AND SHINE! GOOD MORNING, GIRLS! TIME TO WAKE UP!”

“No, no!” Jane mumbled into her pillow. “I've only been asleep for a minute!”

“WAKE UP!” Katherine screeched again. She flashed the overhead lights on and off and then left them on. She and Willow started clapping their hands and stamping through the Great Hall, tugging some sleeping bags and nudging others.

“It's payback time,” Willow said cheerfully as she passed Jane and Lucy. “You kept us up late, and now
we're waking you up early. I only wish I had a megaphone. C'mon, girls! Get dressed! Breakfast in fifteen minutes! We've got to have you ready to go before the museum opens for the day.”

Groaning, Jane lifted her head. Next to her, Lucy was scrunching up her face in protest.

“That light's tooooo briiiiight,” Lucy grumbled. “What
time
is it, anyway?”

Jane glanced at the clock. “Seven a.m.”

Megan walked up to them, wide-awake and already cramming her sleeping bag into its stuff sack. “I
knew
I wasn't going to get enough rest on this lock-in,” she fretted. “Now I'm going to be tired all weekend! And it's your fault,” she added, frowning at Jane and Lucy. “Both of your faults.”

“Keep it down,” said Lucy. “We don't want Willow or Katherine to hear.”

“Oh my gosh, that's right!” said Megan. She looked around quickly. “You don't think they heard me, do you? Should we have some kind of—of cover story ready in case they question us?”

Jane laughed. Now that the weird night was over, she felt carefree and relaxed and ready to enjoy the day. It
didn't even matter how tired she was.

“They won't ask us anything if they don't hear us,” she pointed out to Megan. “I think we're safe. Let's go eat breakfast.”

As the girls dressed and packed up their sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows, Jane suddenly remembered: Daria! Had she come back from her trip to the bathroom or wherever she'd gone? Jane scanned the room, but there was no sign of Daria.

“Your pancakes are getting cold. Let's get a move on, girls,” Willow remarked as she passed.

“Willow, where's Daria?” Jane asked. Lucy moved closer to hear the answer.

“Daria?” Willow asked. “Who's that?”

“One of the girls we hung out with last night,” replied Lucy. “She has dark hair. Wasn't too friendly. Her stuff was next to ours. But she's nowhere to be found now.”

Willow frowned and glanced at the clipboard she was carrying. “What was her last name?”

“I—I don't know,” Jane admitted. Lucy shrugged in agreement.

“Maybe you didn't catch her name right,” suggested
Willow. “Because no one named Daria signed up for this event. I bet the girl you think is Daria is already at breakfast.”

Jane and Lucy glanced at each other. They were very confused, but they didn't have any other option except to see if they could find Daria—or whatever her name was—in the dining hall.

But even though Lucy and Jane paced through the dining hall three times looking for Daria, there was simply no sign of her.

The girls were confused, but not panicking yet. “Does it really matter where Daria is?” asked Lucy. “Don't you think she can take care of herself?”

“I guess so,” Jane said unwillingly. “But I'd still like to know what happened to her. Maybe we should check the Egyptian wing?”

Lucy's eyes opened wide. “The Egyptian wing! Why on Earth?”

“Because—because—Lucy, I know this is going to sound strange, but I had a horrible nightmare after we got back to the Great Hall.” Quickly Jane described the dream, and the way she'd woken from it to see Daria leaving. “I don't know why,” she finished, “but I feel
like my dream had something to do with Daria. I can't explain it. And since I dreamed about mummies, we need to look at the mummies. And that means checking out the sarcophaguses—I mean sarcophagi.”

“All right,” said Lucy. “But let's hurry, before people start to notice that we're missing too.”