A Night Spent at the Museum of Natural History (Completed✔️)

Picking up the Pieces

The three of us hurriedly took the nearest elevator to the second floor. By the time we reached the bench where I had left my bag there wasn't much left.
"Oh no" I whined.
"Is this yours?" Asked Ahkmenrah, who had picked up my khol eyeliner pencil.
"Yes. But where is the rest of my stuff? I mumbled, searching the surrounding area.
"How about this?" Larry asked pulling my wallet from a nearby plant pot.
"Oh, yes that's mine, thanks." I said immediately checking if everything was still inside it. All my money and my cards were there. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Ahkmenrah seemed to have gathered a few of the smaller objects strewn around, mostly what little makeup I tended to wear. I found my small umbrella but it had been put up inside and crushed somehow. (If I were superstitious I might have worried more about the fact that someone had put it up inside but I was too busy searching for the rest of my belongings.) I found my actual bag hanging from another large plant further down the hallway. It didn't look too damaged and a few other things were still inside, but not my phone or my keys.

"Is that everything?" Larry questioned as he saw me climbing on the plant pot to retrieve it.
"Yeah except for my keys and my phone" I said concerned.
Ahkmenrah helped me to toss everything back into the bag that we had all picked up whilst Larry double checked for the items still missing, to no avail.

"Was that a monkey?" I asked suddenly seeing a small flash of brown fur dart across into the Hall of African mammals and hearing the jangling of keys.
Larry's face fell and Ahkmenrah looked similarly un-optimistic.
"Dexter. Of course!" He Larry muttered, cursing under his breath.
"What's he talking about?" I asked as he marched off in the direction of the small creature.
"Dexter is a little capuchin who isn't the most well mannered or best behaved of creatures. He likes to steal keys and anything else he can get his little hands on." Ahkmenrah explained sighing.
"Ah, an all round mischief maker then?"
"Exactly."
"So he has my keys... And maybe my phone"

Some screeching, shouting and one or two bitten fingers later and Larry returned my keys and dead phone to me.
I felt terrible.
"Thank you, Larry, sorry you got bitten on my behalf" I mumbled as he washed his hand under the water fountain on the ground floor.
"It's okay, i'm getting used to it. He's not such a bad capuchin when it actually comes down to it" he said reassuringly.

I was starting to feel somewhat tired; it was just past 1AM. I yawned and leant on the wall, resting my head on the cool stone for a moment and watched as some women in bright, colourful dresses leading llamas passed us by. I wondered what period and culture they were from for a moment before turning back towards Ahkmenrah, who was absent mindedly staring at the snow fall outside. I wandered over to the doors at the front of the museum where he was standing and looked outside too.
"Everything must be so different to you... I mean it's enough of a contrast to back home in Leicester for me... But for you..." I murmured, looking out over the snow covered city street. A couple of cars drove by leaving trails in the fresh blanket of snow and a man was buttoned up tightly in a winter coat walking his dog.
"It is but I've had a while to get used to most of it by now" he shrugged.
"We have a museum in my home town but it's tiny compared to this" I added, turning instead to look at the even less familiar environment of the huge museum of natural history. The architecture was stunning and I thought about how I could quite happily have spent almost as long trying to appreciate all of its features as I could trying to view all of the exhibits which were housed within its secretive stone walls.
"Do you ever go outside the museum?" I questioned, turning back to face Ahkmenrah who also turned to face me.
"Rarely, if we're outside when the sun comes up, not only do we revert to our true form, but we would turn to dust" he sighed.
I thought about this quietly for a moment.
"So in the day you're..." I begin.
"Dead, yes" he mutters.
"I was going to say mummified but yeah, same thing really" I answered feeling sad that my new friend could never again see the sun.
"It's not so bad... I mean, since I was murdered by Kahmunrah I ought to be permanently dead, yet I'm only half" he smiles.
"That is true" I nod.