Marcus and Zarisa had no idea what was happening today. They had been escorted by heavily armed escorts but were repeatedly told they were not under arrest but needed to be put under police protection for a short period. Their lives were apparently in danger, and they had been investigated and a police escort was involved. The sheer rushed nature of the police made them mildly concerned but not overly worried.

Rather than a simple interview at the museum in a private room they had been escorted to the city police station, from then, it had been a marathon session of paperwork, cheap snacks and soft drinks and a pair of bored-looking police officers escorting them. They had both been removed from their workplace under police escort which had thankfully been done quietly so as not to disturb members of the public and other staff.

The work at the museum research facility had been running smoothly if slowly. They had discovered records of a pair of ancient angels that had fallen to Earth and introduced the concept of magic to humanity. At least according to historical records, the time that it took to read through the sheer amount of linguistic data was Duke’s job.

Gathering the physical evidence and field research was the role that Marcus and Zarisa undertook. They had met previously at university and married before taking on the role at the Museum of National History. It hadn’t been the ideal career posting and they had ended up having a childless marriage, but the work was fully engaging and brought its rewards.

Through field trips and expeditions overseas they worked with cultural heritage groups and museum and archaeological dig sites to uncover more artefacts and history on the hidden role of myths in the world.

Both of them were in their mid-forties and showed small creases and the beginnings of grey hair. A strong work ethic and a shared love for ancient history had kept their marriage strong through the years, it was the mystery of solving and bringing the past to life that fully engaged the both of them.

Once, the sheer amount of physical artefacts and records had been gathered the task of sorting through it was deemed enormous. At this time, the Museum’s director Mr Finch had introduced the young Duke to them. He seemed quiet if somewhat insular and occasionally gave a response that some would consider rude. He was on the autism spectrum and had a teacher who had guided him and was an old friend of the director. Still, given that Nikolai and Sofia had been working for the National Museum of History for so many years as a couple it was harder for them to accept another person who was taking on part of their workload.

The young man apologised for causing any mistakes and told them about his enthusiasm for ancient history, his focus being on myths and ancient spirits. It was during their first meeting that they met Duke’s teacher Alexa. She was in his early sixties and although walking around with the aid of a walking stick still kept herself straight with a good posture and a clear voice that carefully enunciated each word. Her figure was trim but showing signs of age. Her fashion is carefully conservative in a dark blue business suit with flat dress shoes.

‘I am Professor Alexa. You could call me a teacher of sorts for young Duke here. I would like to ask for your understanding in collaborating with him, he occasionally makes some social mistakes, but he has a good soul. Please treat him with kindness, he deserves your respect despite his age and relative inexperience.’

The five of them had been sitting in the Director’s office quietly sipping cups of hot tea and crunching away on biscuits. Zarisa, Marcus, Duke, Alexa, and the National Museum director Steve Bradford. The main reason for the employment of the young man had been two-fold, the first point being a rather substantial monetary donation that would be provided on yearly basis on the level of a patron.

The actual amount was never mentioned but it had surely convinced the director who was well known for his complaints about the lack of funding that was received from the government. Even he was stunned by the sheer amount.

The second had been the amount of research information that Duke had brought with him. The couple tried to assess his knowledge of ancient history and records and found that he simply knew far more than his twenty years of life should hold. It felt as though he had either lived through the different periods of history or had internally absorbed all the information and sorted it out in his mind before recalling all details with perfect memory.

At the time, they had assumed that it was a factor of autism. Having never had a child of their own they lacked the same emotional maturity that developed with parenthood and despite trying to understand they felt that the young man was a gifted individual with social difficulties and a certain lack of awareness that was hard to pin down.

When they had asked Duke about his background he had responded with simple answers. He didn’t tell them exactly where he was from or his family but rather brushed aside the questions with sheer politeness. Judging from his physical appearance he was young enough to be attending a university or even the last year of High School. It was his gift with ancient languages that had surprised them the most.

‘I follow rules from my mentor. I hope we can work together well. My hobbies are eating chocolate and learning magic tricks.’ Duke would give a closed-mouth smile and stand straight as though mimicking the actions of his mentor Alexa.

He wouldn’t mention the exact nature of the rules and after his first disclosure, he failed to mention the topic again even if it was casually raised in conversation. The most that he would say is that he followed the rules to keep order in his life. Zarisa and Marcus had assumed then that the young man was on an autistic spectrum of some level but if so, it wasn’t shared with them and he gave them no further cause for concern aside from occasionally coming across as being overly blunt when talking.

After several months of working together, the three of them have developed a closer relationship with each other. Duke was always respectful and almost entirely focused on his work in the museum, sifting through and sorting fragments of data into clearer images and translated text. They would have thought him too hard a worker if not for the fact that he occasionally took breaks to walk around the city and return with several bars of chocolate. There had been a few occasions where he had come across as directly rude or upsetting to other staff in the museum, but they had been told by Alexa that Duke was better working by himself to not offend others.

When a member of staff threatened to quit regarding an incident with a young man when a delivery order had been disposed of in the trash rather than being brought into the staff room a strange accident occurred. One of the side doors had broken off when opened and fallen on the shouting man’s foot. According to CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, it was because the man had slammed the door in anger and out of coincidence it had broken off due to a weakened hinge. The man had been dealt with by Human Resources and transferred to another museum site and the matter had been considered settled until Alexa had come and entered a private talk with the Director of the Museum.

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It was eventually agreed upon that Duke would have his own working space and although he would have close working interactions with Zarisa and Marcus he would be limited in his interaction with the other members of staff at the museum.

The young man had his accommodation provided for by the museum through Mr Hodgeson so they would often see him earlier in the mornings and late at night as he only lived a short distance away from his workplace.

The last few months had been quiet with Duke cataloguing, translating, and compiling new records of any ancient histories or artefacts that had been uncovered and shipped back through the efforts of Marcus and Zarisa. Then today a police officer arrived at the museum, told both of them that they were under police escort regarding an important enquiry, and they needed to vacate the premises immediately.

A junior member of staff had been notified regarding their sudden disappearance from their post. Every member of staff was then made aware that they would be assisting with an ongoing police investigation except the museum director who was currently off-site and in a budgetary meeting with the local government to secure further funds.

Duke on the other hand was in the back minds of most of the staff who barely saw him due to his work in a separate area. At most, they would assume that he was a member of the public who frequently visited the museum as his profile was kept relatively low and he didn’t attend any staff meetings or birthday parties. His lack of social skills combined with the request from his mentor Alexa who had supplied both resources, materials and monetary contributions kept his working situation fairly quiet.

When the police officers first arrived at the museum, security staff had directly been approached for the location of their whereabouts. There had been a minor state of alarm that there had been a break-in or illegal theft at the museum, but staff were reassured that it was simply a routine exercise, and no one had been placed under arrest but were simply assisting with an ongoing investigation.

Duke had been picked up earlier by a pair of polite uniformed police when he had been buying his favourite chocolate bar in a local convenience store that was some distance from the museum.

At first, the cashier thought that it was a robbery or a terrorist act that had been caught and had become concerned at the event of them directly escorting the young man but not placing him under arrest. As he had not responded and there were no violent actions or responses it was more of a case of curiosity than anything else. An unusual event but not dangerous. The cashier felt mostly amused at the whole process. She had seen a lot of strange events during her time working in the convenience store and this was likely going to be another.

Once the matter was explained that the young man was merely helping with an ongoing police investigation and was not under any suspicion of criminal activity the cashier calmed down. It had helped that the pair of uniformed officers had purchased several cups of coffee and boxes of doughnuts and paid in cash.

‘Will that be all officers?’ said the cashier as he rang up the fifth box of doughnuts on the cashier.

‘No, add on the chocolate bar that guy was going to buy. It looks pretty good; he’s got some nice taste in sweets. We’ll also take a few iced coffees to go.’ Responded the taller of the two officers. He was an older man in his late forties, his uniform slightly stretched judging by his waistline.

Duke had felt pleased that his favourite chocolate bar was being purchased on his behalf by the police officers but rapidly became disappointed as one of them stuffed it into her uniform jacket and didn’t hand it over to him. They were able to talk to the shop clerk but didn’t say a single word to him.

It was this series of actions that would later lead to a broken chair and table in an interrogation room, but it was unknown at the time how large the consequences became as a result. Sleeping monsters were best left undisturbed.

When the police officers had left along with Duke, the cashier had a small surprise as he was closing up the store that night. It seemed that the person who was in the store had caused an incident somehow, but he was at a complete loss to explain it. The entire shelf full of chocolate bars had been altered so that all of the bars had been perfectly sliced in half with no signs of the other half in the store.

A man and a woman had visited the store dressed in plain black business suits after the police had departed. Following a short discussion on the nature of the incident which was written off as a routine training process and the young man had a paid actor, she had been made to sign an NDA ensuring that her silence was kept.

They permitted her to call her brother though to make sure that she would follow along with the established procedure.

The head office of her company had been pre-notified, and her cell phone rang with the news that she would be receiving further information from Human Resources regarding a promotion.

‘Jerry? Something odd happened today.’

‘Addie. Let me know if you got robbed. I told you to quit the business and come back to work with the family business. It’s what dad would have wanted. ’

‘No, it was…well, I can’t talk about it. I’m fine, no robbery.’

‘Then why are you calling me?’

‘Forget about it. This is good news for once. I’m going to get a promotion in another city. A larger store with a management position. Pretty lucky right?’

‘Sure, you work hard and get promoted. Sounds about right. Are you going to be able to come back home on the holidays then? Mom was asking about you.’

‘I will. Better salary and more holidays. I’ll be there for Christmas. Just giving you a heads-up about the good news. I gotta go and prepare my current store closure.’

The pair in the business suits then asked her to shut down the store for the day and that her head office had been contacted and would be giving her paid vacation times of five weeks to allow her time to move to her new management position in another larger store in a nearby regional city. The convenience store was closed down and the contents were entirely removed and disposed of in an incineration facility the following week.

The empty store was shut down and boarded up before becoming another closed-down business in a country full of them. The matter became completely forgotten and the ashes were smothered and disposed of in an experimental energy reactor.

All traces of the story in the convenience store were suitability disposed of and it didn’t even have the time and space to grow into an urban legend or a rumour.