Chapter 1 a new job

Note to the reader: Chapter one is in third person, after this the story is in first person.

Sharon awoke and looked in the mirror. First day at her new job as a museum curator. She was excited. She’d been able to land a job straight out of college, and in a position that was sought after and desired. It was contested. She beat out people who had more years of relevant experience than she had being alive. “Well, maybe it’s because it’s a new museum?” She said to herself as she got dressed. The New England Museum of Antiquities wasn’t even open yet, it would be her job to set everything up. Sharon looked at herself in the mirror, she was small in every way. Sharon was short, and skinny. She was 5’2” and her weight was in the double digits, she honestly couldn’t say exactly what, she hadn’t weighed herself in months, she didn’t have any reason to. Sharon knew she was skinny, she didn’t need a scale to tell her that. Sharon finished getting dressed and looked at herself in the mirror. She saw a girl with long, straight, brunette hair, and green eyes. She had gaunt looking features and had no visible fat or muscle on her bones at all. This wasn’t the attractive type of “model” skinny. She was THIN. In high school she had been reported to CPS by teachers who thought she was anorexic or being starved by her parents, repeatedly. It happened on three separate occasions.

When Sharon arrived at the museum she was met by a jolly fat man in a red suit. He made Sharon think of Santa. He said “Aahh Ms. Kumquat. I hope you’re ready to hit the ground running today.” Sharon sighed. She hated her last name. It was a fruit, and not even one she liked. So he said. “Please, call me Sharon, there’s no need to stand on formalities.” The man laughed and said said “Alright then, you can call me Johnathan, no, John is fine.” With a grin. Sharon nodded and they went into the empty building that would become the Museum of Antiquities.

John guided Sharon through the grand marble floored edifice pointing and speaking. “Here we will put an exhibit on tribal groups, here the remnants of Greece and Rome, here. . .” Eventually he came to a room with several small alcoves dug into the walls. As Sharon looked around the room, John said “and THIS is where we shall put our most exciting pieces, where you shall be doing the bulk of your work!” now, Sharon had not been ignoring her new boss by any means so far, but this grabbed her attention quite closely. She asked “What do you mean by that exactly?” And John responded “Well, we actually have hired two curators. One to handle all of the normal duties of a curator, and one special curator, to handle our more,” and he paused while twirling his hand around “more unusual artifacts.” Sharon looked at John quizzically and he said “That would be you my dear.” Sharon asked him what he meant and he said “Why, we have hired you to curate our most valuable pieces. We intend for the items to be placed in this," and he pointed straight down at the floor as he spoke. “This room. It will be our single greatest draw of patrons.” Sharon said “What sort of things will be here exactly?” To which John looked a bit embarrassed and stammered a bit as he said “Well, uummm, uuhh,” as Sharon stood silently, waiting for him to get out with it. John eventually said “Occult items," Then took a breath and began to seem less embarrassed as he continued, "the arcane, magic.” To which Sharon laughed and said “Wait, you want to put me in charge of the exhibit on witchcraft and wizardry? What is this, Haply Potter?” to which John slumped his shoulders and said “I was afraid that would be your reaction. But no. This is far more serious than a children’s book, and I assure you each item to be held here is authentic.” Sharon had no doubt to the authenticity of these things. Surely their creators and users believed they would work anyway. John said “Look, I’ll show you to our storeroom where the items are being held. Just don’t make any final judgments until you’ve seen them. We have worked very hard to only bring true remnants of powers forgotten by mankind into the museum."

John guided Sharon beneath the Museum, to a lower floor which held various exhibits to be displayed throughout the museum, it had dinosaurs, pottery, even a sarcophagus. He guided her to a small room with alcoves along the walls. Sharon realized something, it was almost a perfect mirror to the one upstairs. Almost because one thing was different. Each alcove carved into the walls contained a single object. Some were silly, there was a pointy hat with stars and moons stamped onto the fabric with the word “Wizzard” written on it. They hadn’t even spelled the word right. Most alcoves had more serious looking items. Burial masks, a shamanistic headdress, a sword, and so on.

Sharon looked to John and said “Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to have the job, but I must admit, I am curious. What about these things requires a separate curator?” John sighed and said “Well, they have already denied Mrs. Harkens.” Sharon tilted her head and said “Denied?” John nodded and gave Sharon a grim look as he said “Yes, that is the term we use when a magical artifact refuses to exhibit its power, and acts as though it were mundane. The exact rules by which this effect manifests itself are unknown at this time. But since they have rejected our current curator we have to find another to handle these items. Especislly if we are to display their powers. I intend to reveal and prove the existance of magic to the world.” Sharon laughed and said “Sooo, you want me less as a curator and more as some type of,” Sharon tried to think of a word for someone who handles magical things “artificer?” John said “Perhaps? You merely need touch an object to determine its stance on you. If you get no reaction at all we know it has denied you.” Sharon frowned. This was stupid, they got her hopes up for nothing, made her think she had gotten her dream job and guided her here just to have some absurd test deny her, and lose her the position because MAGIC IS NOT REAL!

Yet, Sharon had no other choice, she needed a job, and this would, at the very least , look good on a resume. So she said “Alright, what do I have to do to see if these things reject me?” John lead her to a case containing seven rings, each a different color, but otherwise identical. He opened the case and said “Simple. Take this,” and grabbed the yellow ring, then held it out to her “and put it on, tell me what happens. Sharon thought this was absurd, but what could it possibly cost her? Sharon took the ring without a word and put it on. When she did the entire world went black.

The blackness eventually gave way to a yellow pair of eyes. They were huge, and covered the totality of Sharon’s field of vision. It was like nothing existed but those eyes. A voice spoke, it sounded sickly and had an echoing reverberation quality to it. The voice said “Hello young one. Your offering is accepted.” Sharon asked “What offering?” the voice stated “The offering of your flesh, given up to greed.” Sharon tilted her head and said “Like, wanting money?” the eyes moved from side to side, as if attached to a shaking head that Sharon couldn’t quite see. The voice said “Possibly. My Greed is the desire for more. More and more with no limit, unrestrained by circumstance or the laws that govern this world. More of what exactly, that depends on you.” Sharon began to speak, but was cut off by the voice saying “Time runs short, we must begin now. I must thank you,” the voice paused for a moment, then spoke in an oddly threatening tone. “for my new home.” And suddenly Sharon found herself back in the artifact room, lying on the floor with John standing above her. He said “Oh thank goodness, you’re awake .”