Nightmares

A Little Truth

            That night I was able to finally get some sleep in a very long time. The next morning, I went to work to pull more of the item’s out of the holding room. As I was leaving the room, I almost ran into one of the other workers named Thomas. I could have sworn that he was a double for Imenand from Egypt.

            “I’m so sorry for that Thomas! I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was walking.” I stated as I was trying to juggle the items I had when I ran into him.

“That’s quite alright Rebecca. I wasn’t really watching where I was going either.” Responded Thomas.

                “If you’ll excuse me Thomas, I need to get these cataloged and cleaned up before the director comes and starts asking questions again as to why my work is starting late” I said as I walked past Thomas. My arm brush against his and I got the sudden feeling of cold air running past me. I rushed to my station and began getting to work before Thomas could start a conversation with me. I put in my earbuds and started to clean the items from Egypt again since the soot was easy to remove with just a piece of cotton.

                I started to get an odd feeling when all of a sudden there was a tap on my shoulder from the director and almost made me jump off my seat. “Could you please clear you throat next time so I don’t almost have a heart attack from you doing that next time?” I asked my director.

“I’m very sorry for startling you, but I was just coming to see how far along you were in restoring the Egyptian items we received the other day. I noticed you checked out later than everyone else last night and wanted to see if most of the items were cleaned?” stated Director Johnson. While he was walking around the table looking at all of the different items I had pulled back out of the room that morning.

                “Is there a specific item I can help you locate Director Johnson?” I asked politely.

“No, I am just trying to see if there are any items I can take off your hands to work on myself, but it looks as though you are almost finished with all the items, I had given you to work on Ms. Moreau.” He replied.

                “Well I hope to have more items soon that will be just as rewarding as these to restore in the future.” I stated to the director as he walked off to check on the next person in the room.

               I had started to zone out to my music and cleaning when I again started to get another off feeling again from Thomas coming up behind me. I was about to turn around and ask Thomas what exactly he wanted when all of a sudden, he caught my arm. As I was in the prosecco of using a piece of cotton when my arm was grabbed, I accidently threw it in Thomas’s face.

                 “Oh my gosh, Thomas! I didn’t think anyone was around me! I’m so sorry about throwing that in your face, I thought that was Director Johnson coming back to see if there was anything he could take off my table.”

“Wow. I thought Director Johnson did that to only me, but I guess he just wants what ever credit he can get his hands on these days.” Stated Thomas

                “That seems about true. So, what brings you to my small cleaning section Thomas?” I asked rather confused.

“Well I was wondering if after we were both off work this evening if you would like to get a drink with me?” Asked Thomas.

                “That is a very kind offer Thomas, but I normally don’t do anything outside of work other than sleep. This whole job has been my life even since I was in University. And to be honest I normally don’t go out with co-workers. But thank you again for the offer Thomas.” I said with a small smile that he would hopefully understand and walk away from my little section, but with no suck luck did that manage to happen for me.

“Would I be able to ask why you feel that you shouldn’t go out with your co-workers?” Thomas questioned me.

                “I would rather you actually did as me Thomas. The reason behind that is a rather personal one and I would rather not have it going around work for people to pity me or treat me any differently than they are now.” I stated, but as the words came out of my mouth, I saw just a slightly confused look come across Thomas’s face.

            “Alright if you must know Thomas, I was involved with one of the men in my graduation class but as the years went along, he started to change from how he had been. Even in class he would watch me like a hawk just waiting to either get me kicked out for being better than he was or to take any credit for the work that I was doing at that time in class. By the end of the final semester when we were having our finals in that class he had decided to try and take the project that I had been working on and pass it off to the instructor. Well that didn’t work out for him due to the fact that I had been in to present my final just the hour before he did, but I had told him that my final was an hour after his just for the fact that I knew he was going to attempt pulling something like that off. Needless to say the instructor had him kicked out of the class for that semester. He was so furious with me after he came from the finals halls that he decided to use me for a human punching bag. I can only remember waking up in the hospital some time after he had done that to me. Needless to say he is in jail now for attempted murder and has been blacklisted from any University. That Thomas is why I don’t’ go out with co-workers.” I relented to him.

“I’m sorry to hear that he did that to you. I won’t tell the rest of the team here what has happened to you, but if you ever do feel the humor of wanting to go back out for just an after-work drink with a co-worker please keep me in mind.” Thomas said with a small smile on his face that was starting to turn into a look of pity that I just couldn’t stand from him.

                “You will be the first one I let know if that ever comes to pass Thomas.” I let him know with a small smile of my own.

                After I watched him leave my area and head for his section, I decided to put my headphones back on and finish the items I had pulled out of the lockup again. By the time I had finished my work for that night I noticed that I was the only one in the workroom again for that night. I took the items back to the lockup and headed out of the museum for the night. As I was heading for my car which was in the back lot, I got that same bad feeling again that someone from the past was around that shouldn’t have been. When I got to my car there was a single black rose on my windshield with a blue ribbon on it with a note. “I found you again my love, and you won’t be able to get away from me like last time Isis. With regards Imenand.”  

                I dropped the rose on the ground and ran back to the front of the museum to catch the bus. I couldn’t believe that after all this time that sick man was actually still here. I had tried to get the memories of that horrible man out of my head since he first came into my life but I guess that just wasn’t going to happen. I had hoped that his soul would have been eaten when he had his heart weighed but I guess he had somehow tricked Osiris into believing he was a good and right man while he was alive and had done nothing wrong when he died. If only I hadn’t made that journey so quickly before him and had been around to see how he had tricked the god of the dead.