When that was done, I went out into the antechamber where the lockers were. It was easy enough for me to use my Ice magic to freeze and then shatter their flimsy metal locks. I sorted through the items inside, but I didn’t find anything useful or interesting, except for the fact that one of the guards kept a stash of porn in the bottom of his locker. Of course he did. Why stare at priceless works of art for hours on end when you could look at fake, inflated boobies?

I also came across a small red cooler, which I opened. Someone had brought his lunch along tonight. A tuna fish sandwich, from the rancid smell of it. I wrinkled my nose. Ugh. I shut the lid and put the cooler back where I found it.

I had turned away from the lockers and started to go over to the exit when I noticed a door next to the vending machine, one I hadn’t spotted before. A sign on the front read Broom Closet, but I was more interested in the blood smears on and around the handle. Senses alert and knife in hand, I carefully opened the door—and immediately stepped back as bodies tumbled out of the dark space.

Five poor souls had been killed and stood up and crammed into the closet, and they pitched forward and thumped to the floor like dominoes. Three men and two women, all giants, all with multiple bullet holes in them. Well, now I knew what had happened to the museum’s real guards. They’d been shot, probably while they’d been looking at the monitors in the other room. There was nothing I could do for them, so I left them on the floor, although I did take a moment to close their eyes.

My search complete, I headed over to the exterior door. I listened a moment, but I couldn’t hear any more through it than I had before, so I cracked it open and gazed out into the hallway.

The dead giant lay in the same position as before, although more blood had pooled under and around his body. Sharp, shocked whispers reverberated through the gray marble, but I shut those sounds out of my mind and listened for any other notes of warning, danger, or unease that might be rippling through the stone. But there was nothing. Now that Clementine and her crew had taken control of the museum, the stones had settled down a bit, their tension lessened—at least, until I killed someone else within the marble walls.