by RL Stine
The diary. Maybe it contains some kind of special message. Maybe, if you can figure out what the hieroglyphs mean, then you’ll know how to get home!
You want to examine the diary again. You glance over your shoulder to make sure you’re not being followed.
Are you?
Make sure.
Then turn and run to PAGE 7.
Finally, the spinning stops. The darkness clears. You open your eyes and find yourself standing on top of a tower. You recognize it as Coit Tower, an old landmark in San Francisco. It’s on a hill over-looking all of the city and the bay.
The long bandages that tied your wrists and attached you to the mummy are gone. But you are still wrapped in ancient cloth.
Derek is at your side. He’s hideous — still a mummy with wrinkled dry skin and no eyes!
So am I, you think.
“Now … I … will … come … back … to … life,” the mummy says as he lifts the diary and opens it. “Now … that … the … stars … are … right. And … I … have … the … diary. And … I … am … standing … at … the … highest … place … within … twenty … miles.”
He’s only a few feet in front of you, at the edge of the tower. His back is to you as he stands facing up into the sky.
You glance down at your wrinkled hands and shudder. You don’t feel so sorry for the mummy anymore. Obviously, he has you under some kind of spell. How can you break his power over you?
Hmmmmmm. All it would take is one quick shove to knock the mummy off the tower. And it’s a very long way down!
If you push the mummy off the tower, turn to PAGE 50.
If you wait to see him come back to life, turn to PAGE 104.
Mohammed runs away so fast that all you can hear is the fading sound of his sandals flip-flopping on the stone floor.
Then silence. A horrible, stone-cold silence.
You have no time to waste. The torch isn’t going to last long. You hold it up and peer at the map. It’s a handwritten sketch drawn on brown paper, the edges torn.
This is a map? This jumble of lines?
Where’s the YOU ARE HERE sign? Your heart sinks. You need help!
But then you figure it out.
The steps are those close-together lines on the top left. The tomb is the box at the end of the angled hallway.
And that other box? The one with the X in it? That’s the elevator! The elevator in the Pyramid Building! You know, because you’ve seen lots of maps that are marked the same way. The elevators are always marked with X’s.
And that’s where you need to go, if you’re ever going to get back home.
You’ve got a pencil in your pocket. So you take it out and write in the words steps, tomb, and elevator.
Then you study the map.
Turn to PAGE 90 and study the map.
You stare hard at the map and decide to turn left, then right, then left, then right.
A moment later, your torch sputters and goes out. You are stranded in the cold tomb of an ancient mummy. In the dark.
Silence.
You move a step forward, feeling your way along the wall.
Left, right, left, right, you keep telling yourself. You chant the words over and over. Left. Right. Left. Right.
Your hand brushes against something slimy.
Eeeeeeewwww. You jerk your hand away.
Do you dare touch the wall again? You don’t have a choice. How will you find your way in the dark if you don’t?
Slowly, you reach one hand to the wall. Yuck. The stones are slippery with slime. You try not to think about what it might be! You hold your other hand out in front of you. You don’t want to smack into anything in the dark.
Finally you come to the first fork. You turn left. Walk a little farther. Turn right. A little farther. Go left.
Now, if you remember the map correctly, you have just one more turn. Then it should be pretty easy from now on. Keep going….
Turn the corner on PAGE 26.
“Derek, please! Give him the diary,” you beg.
“Not until he lets you go,” Derek insists.
The mummy hesitates. WHEEZE … WHEEZE …
Finally, he releases your arm.
Your knees shake as you race to Derek’s cot. You reach under the mattress and yank out the mummy’s diary.
“Here!” You rush toward the ancient mummy.
“Not so fast!” Derek grabs your wrist to stop you. “Listen, I know about these things. Mummies, ghosts, aliens — it’s always the same. We let them loose on Earth, and we’re in big trouble. I’ve seen it in movies a lot. Helping dead people come back to life, well, it’s a big mistake. Don’t give him the diary. He could turn into some kind of crazy, evil monster and —”
“But, Derek!” you interrupt. “He’s already come back to life! What’s the big deal? And anyway, he’s going to kill me if we don’t give him the diary!”
Derek shrugs. “Okay,” he says. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’ll be sorry.”
Derek sounds pretty sure about this. What do you think?
If you give the diary to the mummy, turn to PAGE 44.
If you think you should keep it, turn to PAGE 61.
“No!” The mummy-kid lets out a muffled cry from under his bandaged mouth.
But you ignore him. As soon as he is wrapped up, you reach out and touch him on the face. Your face.
Instantly, you feel a sudden jolt of electricity flow through you. Like an electrical shock. It burns and stings.
And you feel it twice! Once in the mummy’s body. Once in your own! As if you are two people at once.
You pull your hand away.
All at once, the mummy-kid’s skin begins to harden into the ancient, dried brown leather. You glance down at your own hands and watch them turn pink again!
After that, everything seems like a blur. You race to your hotel room and tell your parents the whole story. No one quite believes you about the mummy being alive, especially since he’s not alive now. He seems perfectly and completely dead.
But later that night, when you pick up the mummy’s diary, you find something new written on the last page.
“I am back in my prison — for now,” it says. “But soon I will awaken again and take my revenge!”
Here we go again!
THE END
You decide to stay in the alcove. You don’t want to risk being seen by anyone else.
Besides, you figure you can get away from these doctors.
Wrong.
“Grab him, Stuart!” the female doctor suddenly shouts. “Grab his legs!”
You struggle to pull away, but the two doctors overpower you. Dr. Lacey — you can read her name tag — grabs your arms. The other guy, Stuart, hoists you by your legs.
They carry you through the emergency room, down a hospital hallway, and into a small, dark examining room.
With an evil grin on his face, Stuart locks the door. Then he picks up a tray full of gleaming surgical tools. One of the tools has a jagged, wheel-shaped razor on the end of it. Like a pizza cutter with a supersharp blade. Another one has pincers!
“Okay,” he says. “Let’s see what’s inside this mummy.”
There’s no way to escape. Just turn to PAGE 14.
The other guard, the one named George, runs through the marble lobby and lunges at you from behind. His arms encircle you. At the same time, the first guard grabs your legs.
No! you try to scream again. But in the last few moments, your transformation into a mummy has become complete. Your vocal chords have hardened into dry sticks. They won’t move.
Suddenly, the terrible truth hits you.
To all the world, you are a mummy. Not a kid.
You are a living mummy, a freak of nature, something to be feared … and destroyed.
You struggle against the guards, flailing your arms wildly. You kick your dry, brown legs at George’s shins. Desperate to escape, you twist your small, leathery body, hoping to slip free.
But you’re no match for the guards. They are swift and powerful.
They lift you off the floor, carry you toward the mummy’s sarcophagus — and stuff you inside!
Turn to PAGE 33.
“Two thousand dollars?” you say to Web. “You’ve got to be kidding. This diary must be worth a lot more than that.”
Web’s smile fades and he gives you an angry stare.
“Okay,” he says grumpily. “How about four thousand?”
You shake your head no.
“Eight thousand?” Web suggests.
No.
“This is my last offer,” Web says. “Twenty thousand.”
Twenty thousand dollars? Is he serious? He’s offering you that much money for the mummy’s diary? It must be really valuable. Maybe it’s worth millions!
You shake your head no.
“Hmmm,” Web says, narrowing his eyes. He glares at you as if he hates you. Then his expression changes. The lemonade has arrived.
The Egyptian waiter sets a tall glass down in front of each of you. There’s only one problem. His lemonade looks normal but your lemonade is blue!
Turn to PAGE 135.
You need to get these bandages off! And you have to hurry. That guard is going to wake up any second.
Frantically, you claw at the bandages around your neck. Around and around you go. Unwrapping one piece at a time. Some bandages are long, flimsy pieces. Others are short little scraps of cloth. As each one comes loose, you let it drop on the marble floor at your feet.
Finally, you reach the last layer of bandages. Slowly, you peel away the thin cloth that covers your skin.
Skin?
No. That’s not skin under there. That’s ancient, mummified flesh!
It’s as hard as football leather. As brown as beef jerky. As wrinkled as a sixty-year-old prune!
You whirl around and come face-to-face with your own image in the mirrored elevator doors.
What do you see? Find out on PAGE 77.
You decide to throw the croc some candy.
You are just about to reach into your pocket for some Fruity Bites, when the crocodile suddenly opens his mouth — and attacks you, chomping down hard!
“Aaaahhh!” you scream as you feel his teeth tear through your jeans and begin to pierce your leg.
Crawl over to PAGE 129.
You decide to write a note to your brother and slip it under your family’s hotel-room door.
Clumsily, you pick up a pen and clutch it in your gauzy hand. Your hand feels like a paw with all that cloth wrapped around it. So your handwriting looks weird. Messy.
But who cares? Quickly, you scribble a note. It says:
“Dear Derek, Help! I can’t explain how, but somehow I’ve been transformed into the mummy. And the mummy has taken over my body! Don’t trust that creep. He’s just pretending to be me! I’m hiding in the storage closet down the hall. Please — come help me!”
You think a moment. Then you add your birthday and the name of your favorite basketball player. Just so he’ll know for sure that it’s you.
Then you sign your name.
You sneak out of the closet and walk down the hall. Your gauzy feet don’t make a sound. You slip the note under the door to the room where your family is staying.
Then you hurry back to the storage closet to hide — and wait.
Turn to PAGE 59.
“Whoa, Derek,” you murmur softly. “Something really freaky is going on.” Trembling, you sit beside Derek on the cot. You read the new entry out loud:
“I have waited forty centuries for this night. The night when the stars are once again just as they were on the night of my birth. The night I can return to life! But now it is not to be. Why? I was too eager. I tried the spell too soon and the diary has fallen from my hands!”
“I knew it!” you whisper to Derek. “I knew I saw his arm move. That’s when he dropped the diary.”
You go back to reading:
“And now, my diary has been stolen. My life has been stolen! I must take revenge on the one who steals my magic. Perhaps destroy the thief!”
Revenge. Destroy! The words are horrible. They jump out at you from the page, a terrifying warning.
Derek lets out a low whistle. “But how did he write that?” he asks. “How did he get in here?”
You remember the words you read earlier. “He — he wrote it with his mind,” you explain.
Derek’s eyes widen. “But how —”
A knock at the door cuts him off. Who’s there?
Turn to PAGE 126.
You stare at the Sphinx, your eyes growing wide.
Is this really happening? Is the Sphinx really talking to you? Or have you finally lost your mind?
Then you spot a crowd of people swarming around the base of the monument.
“Go back!” the Sphinx’s voice booms again.
Instantly, the crowd turns. They run from the Sphinx, screaming in terror for their lives!
Fear grips you. You don’t know why the people are scared, but suddenly you’re scared, too.
So you turn and flee. Sand flies in your face as your feet pound across the desert.
“Cut!” a voice suddenly shouts from a megaphone.
Go to PAGE 122.
Finally, a glass door in the spa swings open, and the mummy walks out.
“How … do … I … look?” he asks you in his raspy voice.
“Uh, younger!” you exclaim. “Much younger!”
And it’s true. The mummy looks about five hundred years younger. Now he only looks about three thousand five hundred years old.
“Thank … you,” the mummy says, giving you a small, satisfied smile.
Then he walks out of the health spa and waves good-bye. The last you see of him, his bandages trail behind him as he stiffly strolls down the street.
Weird, you think. But at least it’s over.
That’s what you think.
When you get back to the hotel, you pick up the mummy’s diary. And gasp.
There, on the last page — a page that was blank when you left the hotel — you find more new writing. It says:
“Today I met a new friend. A wise friend who knew how to restore my youth. What else does this young person know? I must find out! I will follow this young person for all eternity!”
Oh, well. Here you go again!
THE END
You hang from the mummy’s grip, terrified. Your feet dangle several inches off the floor. But you still can’t wait to hear what the mummy has to say.
“Welcome to the Pyramid Building,” the mummy announces.
Huh?
That’s it? That’s the message from beyond the grave? Rip-off! Bogus!
“Put me down!” you yell, and you kick the mummy’s knees.
Owwwwww! Your toe bangs into the mummy’s bandaged leg, only it’s not soft and leathery. It feels hard, more like metal.
Then you hear sounds down the hall. Another figure appears in the dim light of the lobby.
“Over here, Sylvia,” the figure calls out. “Found him.” The person steps out of the shadows. It’s a guy in jeans and a sweatshirt, carrying some kind of remote control.
Definitely human.
“What are you doing in here?” the man demands.
You can’t answer. The mummy still has you by the throat.
Turn to PAGE 136.
Huh? you think. Did someone just yell “Cut”?
You glance over your shoulder and notice another group of people you hadn’t seen before.
It’s a movie crew. An American movie crew! It looks as if they’re making some kind of adventure picture in Egypt. The crowd of terrorized, running people are all actors and extras. And the voice of the Sphinx is coming from a speaker on the side.
Cool! you think. You wonder who’s in the movie.
Then you spot him. The star of the film.
Illinois Smith! He’s the character in all those action movies about lost treasures
and ancient tombs.
Hey — maybe Illinois Smith can help you figure out what the mummy’s diary means!
What do you think?
Do you ask for his help?
Or do you puzzle it out for yourself?
If you ask Illinois Smith to help, turn to PAGE 54.
If you try to figure it out yourself, turn to PAGE 81.
You decide to take the passageway to the left.
Bravely, you march down the oh-so-dark hall.
You walk a few more steps before you realize that you are alone. Mohammed isn’t following you anymore.
“Hey, stupid,” Mohammed calls. “Why did you go that way?”
“Well,” you answer him in your most reasonable tone of voice, “you said to follow my heart. And my heart is on the left. So I thought —”
“I said to follow your heart.” Mohammed snorts. “Instead, you are thinking too much with your head.”
Oh. So does he mean you should have gone the other way?
Yes, stupid.
And don’t look surprised at being called that name again. You answered to it, didn’t you?
Go back to PAGE 15 and take the other passageway, and we won’t call you stupid anymore.
For a while, you just stare after him into the darkness.
Then you notice Derek on his knees a few feet away from you.
“What happened?” Derek moans. “I feel so dizzy.”
“What happened?” you repeat. “I think we just brought a mummy back to life!”
You help him up. Then you and Derek gaze at each other. Your hands, your arms, your faces. They’re all normal again!
No more mummy skin. No more empty eye sockets.
Just two normal kids — on top of Coit Tower.
