Dr. Barnabus heard a soft noise and irritably glanced up from the microscope where he was currently inspecting an interesting fossil from the Mesozoic Era. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

A black shadow was crouched in the corner of his office. As he started at it, the thing slowly stood up into an upright position. It—he—was the strangest character that Dr. Barnabus had ever seen. It was wearing a long black robe, and it’s shoulders were an odd shape, as though it was wearing a backpack under it robe, or had some horrible hump-back malformation. The hood of its robe was pulled low, hiding most of its face.

“Um, can I help you? Did you get lost?” Dr. Barnabus asked inwardly recoiling at the vision of the thing. Sometimes visitors would get separated from the tour guide and wander around the basements looking for the gift shop. But this didn’t look like a normal visitor. “Are you with maintenance?” he asked. The thing stood silently.

He suddenly remembered that the museum was hosting the Clark Middle School's field trip today. Probably some jerk kid, he thought, losing patience.

“I can lead you back to the front entrance, if you like. Only museum staff is allowed down here,” he said, hoping it would take the hint and go away.

But the thing stood motionless in the corner, clearly unconcerned about directions to the front entrance. Probably not interested in directions to the gift shop, either.

"Are you looking for the main exhibit? That’s on the third floor--” Dr. Barnabus began. Silence from the creature.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be down here,” Dr. Barnabus said nervously. The strange creature gave him the creeps, its posture was unnatural, its silence menacing.

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“You better leave or I…I…I’m going to call security,” he stammered, fumbling for the phone, knocking it off the receiver.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A security guard entered.

“Oh, well that was fast,” Dr. Barnabus exclaimed, looking at the phone and hearing a distant dial tone. “I didn’t even call you….Look, officer, this gentleman is lost, and needs some assistance to the front entrance,” Dr. Barnabus emphasized.

The security guard slowly looked around the room. His gaze rested on the bizarre creature in the corner. After a moment, he looked back at Barnabus.

“What gentleman?” The guard said, looking confused and somewhat upset.

“He’s right there,” Barnabus, said, gesturing at the dark form.

The guard looked directly at the corner again and then turned back. “Nobody’s here, sir, just us. Wait -is this some sort of joke?” He said, looking annoyed.

“Officer, please-just, just, just get that thing out of here,” Barnabus said, panic rising in his voice.

The creature moved slowly during their exchange and was suddenly standing directly behind the guard, no more than an inch away, like a bulky misshapen shadow.

Stumbling out of his chair, Dr. Barnabus backed away to the corner. He could hear the thing making noises; quiet, strange and –slithery--behind the guard, and then suddenly, the officer’s expression went blank. His eyes slowly rolled up into his head, showing only the whites.

“Ubi est?” The guard muttered in a strange breathless voice, with a timbre that set the teeth on edge and ran fingernails down the blackboard of the spine.

"What? What did you say?!" Barnabus nearly tripped over an electrical cord protruding from the back wall.

After a few seconds, the guard responded with a normal, if not slightly monotonous tone, “Where is it?”

“Where is what? What are you talking about?—Wha- wha- what is that thing doing?” Barnabus’s voice quivered.

“Odore et metus,” the guard said, slipping back into the voice from the grave. There was a pause; then he said with his normal bland voice, “We can smell your fear.”

“What?! Look, look—both of you just leave,” Barnabus yelled, inching towards the door, as the security officer and the creature turned synchronously, like one being, to follow him. Barnabus tried not to look into the creature’s black cowl, but the officer’s slacken grey face with blank white eye sockets were no better. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“Et nolite manducare,” the guard whispered, stepping closer. “Give us your fear."

The desk was roughly shoved, blocking his path to the door. The microscope with the Mesozoic fossil hit the floor and shattered.

“You will never be afraid again.”

Now the officer was directly in-front of him, and Dr. Barnabus could smell a pungent odor of putrescence like rotten meat. Dr. Barnabus felt his stomach heave just as his back nudged up against the wall.

He was trapped.