The squeaky wheel of Erik’s cart had finally given out and made him run into it as he pushed the cart down the hall. It tipped the cart slightly almost knocking all the cleaning bottles and supplies off the top.

Stopping in the damp and dark back hallway of the museum, Erik could hear muffled and dampened voices as they mixed with the echoes of nearby janitors’ carts.

“Really?” He whined, getting down on his hands and knees.

“Erik. How’s your day going?” Erik looked up from his hands and knees to see Linus, Talvi’s father towering over them.

In a thin, beige wool sweater vest and crisp dress shirt beneath, Linus’ museum pass hung from his neck. A thinly laminated photo stuck out beside a barcode. A slightly younger Linus sat with a flat face and a staggering lack of dark circles beneath his eyes compared to what he now had.

“Morning Linus, just fixing the wheel on my cart. It keeps getting stuck.” Erik spoke upwards even as his fingers felt around the bottom of the cart and tried to fix the crooked wheel.

“Why don’t you take a break?” Linus’ voice was gruff as he placed a cold hand on Erik’s shoulder.

Looking with confused eyes over to the pale hand resting on his grey uniform, Erik responded, “Uh, sure?”

Linus’ hand lifted off of him before clapping together enthusiastically once, “Fantastic!”

Erik rose, staggering slightly as he wiped his dust and dirt brimmed hands on his uniform.

Linus walked with his hands clasped behind his back, an almost drag in his step as he rounded the corner and into the Mirasen Pantheon’s designated area. Erik was only a couple steps behind him.

Only a few museum walkers still strolled around the dim area, a slightly cool rush pulled the hair up and left behind goosebumps on Erik’s arms from beneath his uniform. A few statues dotted around the large area.

Their rolling eyes turning as the duo gazed back.

Linus looked over to a fidgety Erik as they ambled, “I’ve worked here for almost thirty years. I first got this job as a fresh faced graduate, eager to learn and to see the world. I wanted to learn and to delve deep within the world surrounding the Mirasens.”

Rocking back and forth on his heels to toes, Erik tried to soothe the pricking and aching pain in his feet from the long hours of work today. Unsure of what Linus was poking at, Erik responded in a light voice, “I’m happy you found something that makes you happy.”

He hadn’t known Linus long, at least not with this new amnesia-filled mind.

Linus didn’t acknowledge his words as he looked to the nearest statue, his airy steps stopping in front of Lekthys.

Lekthys, the Queen of Death as was engraved into the chipped stone beneath her statue stood tall and elegant with a curved bone scythe in her hand.

His shoulders straightened, “I have spent many a silent night among these statues. Are you aware that the old patrons and worshippers of Lekthys as well as her sister Brotnia would give them human sacrifices.”

“Yeah. Of course.” He said quickly before pretending to be more humble, “…Though probably not as much as you. I mean you’re the curator after all.”

“Yes, I am the curator. How good of you to remember.” Linus gave an incomplete smile as he twisted the ring around his finger. “Many cultures and religions have interacted with the activity of human sacrifices; from the Mongols, the Incans, the Mayans, the Scythians and even the Egyptians. Each one putting their own spin on it. But the Mirasens for some reason their ritual sticks out to me, perhaps it is the art that surrounds it or the intricate ritual they have for it.”

He did not elaborate, Linus’ voice dragging away into silence as he gazed on the tools. His eyes almost tracing twinkles in the indented circles on the knives.

Continuing on, away from the statues, they stopped and leaned over, gazing into the thin glass case containing rows on rows of stone tools and weapons. His voice was light, as though the words twisted in his mind before he spoke.

“They believed that Ysdos, the god of literature and education first touched our Earth not with his feet but with the circular bottom of his cane. Forever the imprint would be carved onto their tools of advancement.” Either small or large, among the hand held shovels or knives, each one has a circle dug into its handle.

Erik had seen the artifacts thousands of times before, slithered past them as he mopped the tile floor before sunrise touched the tilted museum rooftops. Still, there was such passion in Linus’ voice, a conviction that made it so he couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“Everything about the pantheon, about the world that surrounds the Mirasens is perfection.” Linus’s cerulean eyes almost sparked with twilight as he spoke.

“I didn’t know you’d be here.” He said, side hugging Talvi.

“Just here to pick him up.” Finally able to make eye contact with him, Talvi waved, “Hi.”

His cheeks raised like the apples of his cheeks were becoming ripe, “Hi.” Erik mused. Talvi was wearing a simple grey sweater, the white zipper was slightly unzipped.

Linus turned away, fading into the dim museum hallways as he returned to his office. Erik and Talvi pressed towards the exit. Though before they could do that, an overjoyed Mariana stretched out her hand, “Erik! Talvi! Come here!” She had a wide smile on her face despite the slightly messy hair bun and wrinkled security guard uniform.

“What’s up?”

Almost breaking into song and dance with “You know how I was talking about that break-in a couple weeks ago?”

“No?”

“Oh! Right! Right! Amnesia, oops sorry.” She smacked her forehead dramatically, “Well this might jog your memory.” Mariana joked.

Following her into the back room filled with security cameras lining the dark walls, Mariana held her arms open, “Welcome to Thunderdome.”

Pictures of the museum played on all the televisions. From where he stood, Erik could see all the nooks and crannies of the exhibits.

In high definition Erik gazed on the flowing and vibrant colours of the ancient art and fashion exhibit. The light curled silver from old British knight panoply. From China, to Iran, to Peru, Erik’s wide eyes took in the museum that he’d had the luck of cleaning.

“Okay, so about that break-in…actually I think the break-in was close to the time you went missing and-“

Talvi interjected just as Mariana began to ramble on, “Mariana, what are you trying to show us?”

“Oh right!” She turned towards the monitors, “Nothing was taken but still, I’m here to protect the artifacts and the people at the museum. And they’re not safe if I don’t know everything that’s been going on around here.”

“The police have been useless, obviously. I asked them to help me restore the file but I got silence back. Anyways, because I’m a genius, I restored it myself. It’s not fantastic but it’s better than nothing.”

“Nice!” Erik patted her on the back.

She clacked on the black buttons, “Here, feast your eyes.” There was no audio attached to the slightly underdeveloped video. Under lowlight the museum looked lonely, still statues within the Mirasen pantheon looked like wax figures.

Erik’s eyes squinted as he stepped closer to the monitor, trying to make out the details under the dark light.

Then, as if the fog parted within the labrynth of his mind, Erik bent forward as it became overwhelming. Images flashing in his mind like flickers and beams that burst nausea in his chest. Pressing a cool hand to overheating and pulsing forehead.

Thrust into the low-lit arches of the museum fingertips pulled away spots of dripping blood from the edges of his forehead. The world was hazy and rippling beneath his feet. Streaks of vermillion pressed themselves onto the glass surrounding Vaheera, the chief goddess as well as the sun goddess’s looming statue.

“Erik?” Mariana inquired, putting a light hand on his back, “You good buddy?”

“I remember.”

“What?”

Voice rising with quiet hope, “You remember?”

“What is going on?”

His back straightened, “I remember something! I remember something!”

Hopping up and down, the brightest smile burst onto Erik’s face, “I remember something!” Talvi and a slightly confused Mariana joined in with him.

Mariana chuckled, “You did remember something!”

Delicate murmurs of the sweet smell of rain lingered in the air afterwards.