Bump in the night.

Chapter Two: The man in black

It had been three weeks since my birthday and I still couldn't remember anything.
Because of it, I'd forgotten to send off two important memos for the law firm and missed a swapped shift at the clinic the next night.
The law firm fired me, some of the other workers having seen me at the Underground nightclub, even though I didn't remember.
The morning after though, Cindy and I had woken up on the couch, our clothes looked like we'd gone through a blender and lost. Neither of us remembering anything from the previous day.
I shook myself, pulling myself together as I stepped out of the elevator into the offices block of the museum curators, holding my paperwork from the temp agency.
I looked at the card I had with the details scribbled on them, looking back up at the door signs for the Weapons and Artifacts curators office.
I found it after asking another receptionist, who giggled and informed it was actually in the basement.
I groaned as I half jogged back to the elevator, my feet aching from the stupid heels Cindy had convinced me to wear.
My pencil skirt restricted my movement but I was thankfully my button up shirt and blazer hid my sweatiness.
I smacked the Basement button a few times, hoping it'd magically make the elevator go faster and ignore the three other levels of collection.
It didn't, making me look at my watch continuously as I was now ten minutes late.
I hadn't been to the History Museum since I was a kid, I was called at 7:30am to come in for a 8:30am interview from the agency, so getting here from the ranch was a bit tricky with no buses and the Jeep was in the shop. The city was a two hour walk from home.
I'd settled to walk to my neighbours, an old couple named Peter and Mary Galvin. Thankfully Peter was heading into town and gave me a lift to the train station, where I'd walk from Central, six blocks to the museum.
The elevator picked up three more people, a woman and two men, all in suits.
They ignored me while I shuffled through my paperwork, trying to get it in order.
I dropped several pages, one of which slid between one of the man's legs perfect getting caught on his pants.
I looked up nervously, realising they hadn't noticed so I knelt down quickly and tried to grab the piece of paper.
Sadly the man realised and grabbed it before me, turning to hand it to me only to see I was crouched behind him.
The brunette woman beside him laughed and the other man didn't bother turning around as I stood and sheepishly took the paper, going to thank him but something about his honey coloured eyes made my words freeze in my throat.
They are the same eyes from my dreams the last few weeks.
The man watched me for second before the elevator opened to the groups floor, they stepped out, the man giving me one last look before the door shut.
I tried to catch my breath, feeling like I'd forgotten to breathe that whole time.
The door pinged, alerting me to my floor finally and I stepped out, thankful for the blast of cold air-conditioned air that hit me and brought me back to my senses.
I found the curator in a large doored back room. I struggled sightly with the weight of the door, stepping into the medically clean and shiny metal room. A thickly build 40something man with a shaved head and a lab coat was hunched over a table, his hands gloved as he looked though a lit magnifying lamp that was clamped to the table.
He used a pair of tweezers to slowly unwrap a piece of old fabric from around an item, speaking into a microphone attached to his ear.
"Relic from the British Museum archive, number eight-one-zero-eight-five. Egyptian fabric, some writing is evident on the front as a kind of seal to stop the spirit." He said, making me look at him curiously and step forward.
His head snapped up, finally realising I was there.
"Who are you? Why are you in here? This is restricted!" He snapped, dropping his tools and rounding the table to shoo me out of the room.
I moved quickly, shoving the door open with my shoulder but he pushed it open effortlessly and pulled me out with him.
I got a few feet away from him and spun, holding out my paperwork for transfer.
"I'm Penelope Wayland, I'm your new assistant. The temp agency sent me." I rushed out quickly.
He snatched the paper work and read through it in an impressive amount of time, sighing.
"Right, I forgot." He mumbled, embarrassed.
I looked at his coat, seeing the monogram name in the breast.
"It's okay Dr. Hyde. That's why I'm here, so you don't have to remember." I smiled as nicely as I could, handing him my resume, mostly filled with receptionist or personal assistant jobs.
He gave me a soft smile back and pointed to a cubicle that was near the elevator, two small walls backed on a shelving unit filled with boxes and crates with item numbers, a desk with a computer, phone, company roledex of numbers and a notepad and pen.
"Oh, I did at least remember to do this." He said, ducking to the draws under the desk, he pulled open the bottom on and grabbed out a small glass vase with a grouping of wild flowers in it.
He put it on my desk and gestured at it smiling.
"Welcome," he said, stepping out of the way to let me sit down.
I found the quick sheet for login details and signed in, checking the system finding it familiar enough I could use.
I found the calender app the museum used and check the weekly Inventory Expected tab.
"Okay, you have two new items coming today. One you already have in the back room, the other is expected tonight at 7pm." I rattled off the delivery companies and the next few deliveries for the week, seeing him panic slightly.
"I overbooked. I have a lecture I'm giving tonight." He rubbed his hands together, pacing back and forth in front of the desk.
He seemed to get larger for a moment.
"I can stay and sign for it," I offered.
He stopped in his pacing and looked at me with glimmering brown eyes.
"You would? Are you sure?" He asked, his brows furrowing.
I smiled and nodded. "I can get a taxi home, where do I need to put it? In the back?" I gestured to the room we'd come from, noticing the slight angry expression bloom on his face.
"No, it's off limits." he said a little too quickly, before taking a steadying breath. "Just put the item number it on your end through the Inventory Logs system, I can check it from my phone." He showed me the system and some extra, incase I wanted to do some other things in the storage area my desk sat while I waited.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Dr. Hyde locked himself in the backroom, telling me to use the intercom system to call him if I needed.
I sorted some paperwork that had be haphazardly stuffed in the draw, checked logs and noted down in my own diary the delivery days.
I chatted a little with Dr. Hyde when he finally came out, asking me to order us lunch from upstairs.
Delores, the cafe receptionist was incredibly sweet, already knowing the doctors order and helping pick something for me as well.
A young man with spikey blue hair and a satchel bag across his chest came down with our sandwiches, both of us having chicken and mayo with a juice.
Dr. Hyde chuckled slightly, pulling the stepping block from one of the storage isles and sitting in front of my desk.
I was still sorting some old paperwork I'd found, eating and working while I chewed.
"Tell me about yourself." Dr. Hyde prompted, making me look away from the backlog to him.
He smiled sweetly, reminding me of my dad.
"Um, I, what do you want to know?" I asked, sitting back in my chair slightly.
He shrugged. "Family? Friends? Fun?"
I thought for a moment before answering, taking a sip of my orange juice to wet my suddenly dry mouth.
"I'm an only child, I've taken care of my cousin Cindy since she was eleven, shenjust turned 18." I smiled thinking about her.
"No parents?" He asked, concern in his voice.
Sadness gripped me a bit but I breathed through it, use to the familiar pain.
"Our parents died in a car accident together, seven years ago." I said, not wanting to look up and see the usual pity.
I hated people's pity. I'd survived it and managed to keep a roof and food on the table for Cindy and I without having to touch our parents life insurance.
When Cindy turned 25, she would be given her parents share, but for now it stayed in an untouched account in a bank I never used.
"Well, you seem to have done well. Especially if you got her to eighteen." He chuckled, I looked up at him, finding no pity only a proud father kind of look. "I have two daughter, both in their thirties now, but they were handfuls as teens." He laughed at his memories, making me smile.
"Cindy wasn't too bad, she's a good kid." I said proudly, some was a bit of a lie, her tantrums and rebellious stage made me almost consider sending her to a boot camp, but she'd calmed down after we'd had a massive argument and she ran away for three days.
I spent the whole time looking for her, getting pneumonia from the snowy weather I'd trekked through trying to find her.
She helped nurse me back to health when I finally got her home, since then she'd been an amazing kid. Good grades, graduated one of the tops of her class, prom queen and accepted for a scholarship for psychology at a university two hours away next year.
She'd managed to put it off for a year, wanting to try some new fields before she accepted.
Her mother would have been proud.
We spent the next half an hour chatting about the rows of storage shelves that spanned behind me across the room.
Most were just items that had been swapped out of exhibits, some on loan from other museums for display and some just Artifacts Dr. Hyde liked and kept.
The backroom was for incredibly rare and unique items, no permittance from anyone unless Dr. Hyde said so.
"So, items with spirits attached?" I joked, scrunching up our food wrappings and throwing them in the bin below me.
He gave me a serious look that stopped my giggling.
"Don't mock the dead, kid." He said, standing.
I ducked my eye.
"Sorry, I just overheard you talking about the Egyptian seal."
"Forget you heard it, anything I say in that room is none of your concern." He snapped, making me jump slightly in surprise.
The tension from him was palpable but thankfully broken when the elevator behind him opened and two men stepped down the hallway into the area.
They both work black suits, I hadn't noticed before when I'd seen them in the elevator.
The honey eyed man looked at me for a moment in surprise before looking at Dr. Hyde.
"You wanted to show us something?" He asked in a flat tone, but his voice set off something inside of me, making my heart flutter erratically.
Dr. Hyde gave me a look for a moment and then checked his watch.
"Call me on the intercom at 5pm if I haven't come out."
"Yes, Dr. Hyde." I nodded and watched him lead the two men to the forbidden backroom.