The mysterious package!

The delivery room was outside the museum. This room had double doors, a door from outside where people can come to drop off or pick up stuffs and from inside where the museum staff can access the artifacts to take it inside for display, but usually in the mornings only the outside door would be opened, so they were both walking towards the main entrance.

While passing down the big halls and corridors, Ana was quietly observing the various proud displays they had and felt a sense of peace and calm spread warmly in her heart.

When she was walking through the corridors of bird kingdom display, she made a mental note to check up on the new piece of specimen there and arrange them in proper order. Ana was lost in her thoughts and was jotting down her to-do list while walking, when Katherine interrupted her thoughts, "We have a meeting with the boss today after this….".

Ana stopped right there on her tracks and her eyes widened in shock. "No...…..!", she grumbled which made her friend Kathy purse her lips in pity for Ana. Kathy didn't expect Oliver would be in office that day and if she had known any better she'd have never forced Ana to get back to office so soon.

"I'm sorry….!", she said and dragged her friend to start walking again. It wasn't like they had much time. They had to wind up there and get to the meeting on time as patience was not a skill Oliver mastered.

Ana was quiet for some time and then she uttered, "But why? There's nothing coming up anytime soon… Uff! I hate seeing him...".

"I know… I didn't know any better. Actually, this meeting is the reason why he's in office today. Apparently he wants to say something to all of us….. This is a disaster!", she said with an eye roll and continued, "Our group meetings have never gone well and I know he's gonna tear us away piece by piece….. We'll be leaving his office with no shred of dignity or the will to live.….", Kathy rambled on along the way.

Ana's feeling of contempt to being back was short lived. There went her peace and a chance at redemption. She already set up her mind for the worst day possible.

They both finally stepped outside the museum and Ana felt the November chilly air hit her face hard. She was dressed up in a thick red sweater and dark blue skinny jean with thick black boots especially meant for black ice, so she was well dressed for the climate and had nothing to worry about. But Kathy on the other hand instantly felt the chill reach her head and rushed to get inside the delivery room.

They used their ID cards to open the mechanical door and was greeted by the delivery boy over there. He was a guy in his early twenties, maybe some fresh graduate. Ana pitied him instantly because this was the fifth guy in two months to work in that room as for some reason Oliver always kept firing them.

The person working here were also in charge of gatekeeping and CCTV monitoring, so even if he was late to open the gate by a fraction of a second when Oliver arrived, he fired them. This was mostly the case with everyone there but sometimes he kept around a few employees who were interesting for his own amusement, like Ana.

"Good Morning, mam…. I'll lead you to your parcel. Please sign in the entry register here…", he told them politely and showed them towards a thick binder where Kathy and Ana signed.

"Please come this way….", he indicated and lead the way which the two friends promptly followed along.

He was going through the packages and finally found the one marked to be delivered to Ana.

"This came in here for you yesterday but there's no sender's address. We have processed it through the scanners and it looks safe, mam… I'd request you to please check it out here before taking it inside for further study…", he said already turning to provide them a pair of gloves and goggles.

As an employee of the museum, they knew better than to open or touch specimens with their bare hands. Sometimes the specimen might be too old and they might accidentally spoil the integrity by manhandling it.

They both felt odd and looked at each other before opening it, because the museum never received any unknown artifacts like that. They always knew who was sending them the item required.

The package was very small too so they were sceptical as to what it could entail.

But rarely under some circumstances, as soon as archaeologists found something that was worth studying, they'd send it over to the museum for a deeper analysis. This could be one such thing, Ana thought.

They strapped themselves with the gloves and goggles and slowly and carefully opened the package.

There was an antique wooden box inside it which held a very old piece of white ceramic in it. The broken piece looked like it might've been a part of something bigger like a ceramic pot or a brick.

It had traces of soil sedimented in between the wavy patterns which made Ana assume that it would've been buried for a long time and unearthed recently. It also had a very beautiful diamond shaped red stone embedded on it and the stone glistened under the white light.

"Do you think this is a prank?", Kathy asked Ana who was keenly observing the artifact in her hands.

"I don't think so…..Look at it, it looks like a very old piece…. Maybe some archaeologist would've sent it to us for review?", Ana said mirroring the same perplexing expression of Kathy.

"Ana look...!", Kathy said urgently and slid over the wrapping pack to Ana. She took it in her hands and saw what her friend was pointing out. She was shocked that the package was addressed to Ana and not to the museum and it had a note which said "Use it wisely".

Why did someone send her something and put her museum address on it instead of her home? What was the meaning of the note? Multiple questions were gnawing at her and she didn't know how to make sense of anything!

"What do you think this means?", Ana queried Kathy for which she just shook her head.

"Did you ask that archaeologist whom you used to work with to send you anything? Or did you ask anyone and maybe due to all the recent events, you forgot that you asked?, Kathy asked her.

"No! I'd remember something like that, Kathy….. And even if I had asked someone, it would be for the museum, right? See this! It even has my full name on it, which is extremely weird because no one knows my middle name…", Ana said. The package was addressed to one "Anabelle Quinn Higgins" which only made things more mysterious.

"Okay…. I give up! Let's think about this later…. First let's go to that meeting. I don't wanna be fired today…", Kathy said and she was already removing her gloves.

"Wait! What to do with this? I can't record it as Museum artifact as it has my name on it and I can't take it either because that would be wrong, isn't it?", Ana was asking Kathy clearly confused.

"Just take it with you as of now. Let's figure something out after the meeting is over.", she replied and straightened out the table a bit.

"Fine!", Ana said and carefully placed the ceramic piece inside the box taking another final look at it and closed the box.

She was still riddled with many questions. What was she supposed to do with it? As Kathy mentioned, did Ana really ask someone to send her something and then forgot about it? What could it be?

If it was some other thing, she'd have had to agree that she forgot, but when it came to work she was extremely careful and cautious. She never carelessly did things.

She removed the gloves and goggles and they both left the room with the parcel in hand.

"Hey! Are you okay?", Kathy asked Ana on their way back.

"I don't know… This all seems very suspicious. Doesn't it seem weird to you? I really don't remember asking anyone to send over an ancient artifact to me.. I'm very curious of what this might be. A little curious and a little scared too!", Ana answered shrugging her shoulders.

"Not that, you idiot! I'm asking about the other thing….", Kathy said and Ana looked at her funny like she didn't understand the question fully.

"Joshua???? Ringing any bells?", Kathy asked exasperated by her friend's denseness.

"Oh… yeah…. I think I forgot about him for a minute there…. Woah! That's good… I'm going to spend my whole day working and researching about this piece and it'll be a great thing to keep my mind off Joshua….,", she said cheerfully.

"Yeah! Whichever works for you…", Kathy said happily.

They now reached their cabins and could see everyone preparing to leave to the meeting room. Lucas was outside discussing something seriously with Jack.

He saw Kathy and Ana entering the room and abruptly stopped whatever he was talking to Jack. "Hey…. So…. You guys ready?", he asked sheepishly.

He thought he was being smooth, but Ana noticed that something was amiss and maybe they were hiding something.

"Yup! All ready…. Let's go meet the devil!", Katherine joked and they all went to the meeting room.