34. It’s a Wrap!

Nudging the rope ladder pile with her foot, Rosella watched as it kinetically unraveled down to the floor below, shaking
off the dust of time unused.  The timid princess sneezed against her will and looked around with fearful blue eyes in
hopes her indiscretion didn’t wait the dead, literally!  After she felt certain that everything was still safe, she crouched
down at the edge of the platform, and reached a leg down feeling around with her heel for the first rung of the ladder.



One, two, three, the princess used the arch in her heels to secure her safely each rung down the ladder, until she saw
something that literally scared her out of her shoes and consequently landed her once again roughly on her bottom!  
Hanging directly underneath the platform was what looked like the remains of one of Lolotte’s goons.  He was mostly
wrapped in dirty rotting bandages, but his leathery batwings were partly exposed badly broken and tattered.  The
shocking surprise had been enough to send the princess reeling backwards off the ladder and down the crypt floor.  
Rosella now realized that Lolotte had tried to retrieve Pandora’s box when she had Cupid’s bow locked safely inside the
crypt, only her “man inside” never made it out.  It appeared that he had fallen victim to the guardian mummy.  These
revelations came to Rosella in her unexpected fall and were followed by two little clunks on her pretty blonde head as
her little black heels came tumbling down after her.



A scary dead goon, and a sore bottom however, were the least of the poor princess’s concerns.  As soon as she hit the
floor in the crypt something happened.  Something evil.  There was a long groan and cracking sound that echoed loudly
in the chamber.  Rosella craned her long slender neck to see what was happening, and then wished she hadn’t.  The
sound was coming from the sarcophagus against the wall as it unhappily opened in a cloud of smoky dust.  Cupid’s bow
hung trembling on lid as it opened.  For a moment, Rosella thought she might have the courage to scramble to her feet,
scurry over there and grab the bow but a bandaged hand with long broken fingers curled out from the slightly open lid
and changed all that.



The mummy pulled itself forth from the confines of the sarcophagus forcefully twisting and cracking its limbs after so
long of misuse.  The sound of he bones made Rosella cover her ears, the vivid red eyes made her squeeze her own
shut tight, and the putrid smell made her sick to her stomach.  The princess was terrified, but she wasn’t about to stand
still and become the next victim of the mummy.  She picked up her little black shoes and hurled them at the shambling
monster only scoring one hit, which bounced harmlessly off the bandaged walking corpse.




Escape seemed to be the smartest idea, so Rosella turned and reached for the highest rung on the ladder she could
grab with her small hands, and proceeded to climb up as fast as she could, but it proved too late.  Her courageous
“attack” had wasted the only precious time she had had.  The mummy’s rotting hands grabbed hold of her long skirt and
tugged hard.  Rosella’s slender fingers proved no match for death’s grip, and slowly the lost their grip around the
precious escape ladder.  The terrified princess fell down into the arms of the mummy, one under her back, and one
under legs.  Contact with the creature made the princess feel cold instantly.  She screamed, kicking her legs in frenzy
and swinging her arms against his firm grip on her.  Rosella watched in horror as her clean white stockings opened up in
runs, and her skin was turning a sickly gray!  The mummy carried the princess kicking and screaming toward the open
sarcophagus as she resisted her pending doom.  Dropping her legs, he hugged her in a standing position against him,
and backed into the coffin.  As the lid was slowly closing, the mummy’s bandages came alive like snakes and began
wrapping around the wriggling princess’s slender body.  After the lid closed there were few muffled screams and then
just the sound of the flickering torches in the crypt.  Nice going, Rosella.  Guess that’s a wrap!





-The End

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