Toni Ames rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, then proceeded to push her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. The dust aside, her time spent working at the museum would definitely look good on her resume, even though it mostly consisted of busywork, cataloguing artifacts and the like. It wasn't glamorous, but she did get to see all the museum's exhibits well before the general public, and it gave her time to work on her thesis. Heading over to the last crate, Toni looked it over, then scanned it again.
"Myron, this one doesn't have a label!" Toni called to her supervisor. Lifting the lid, she clicked her tongue. "It doesn't look like it has a list of contents, either!"
"Just move the entire crate into the back," Dr. Myron Leeds responded from his office, not even bothering to look up. "We'll deal with it later."
Shrugging, Toni lifted the crate with a little effort and heaved it into the storage room. As she stuffed the packing straw back into the crate in order to put the lid back on, her hand brushed up against something cold to the touch. Although normally she wouldn't bother, her curiousity got the better of her, and she slowly brought up the object. Hanging on a soft leather strap was a small strange golden medallion. Usually smaller artifacts were carefully wrapped, not tossed into a large crate with other items. Tony squinted at the medallion, unable to make sense of the symbols. While she was no expert in languages, she had been around the museum long enough to be able to recognize the origin and era of most writings, although not the meaning. However, this artifact looked like nothing she had ever seen.
She wasn't sure why she did it. A proud historian, she would never contemplate ever stealing something from a museum. In fact, she hated people who did, since they were holding knowledge hostage for their own egos or profit. Nevertheless, as she turned to leave the storage room, rather than placing the medallion back inside the unmarked crate, Toni slipped it into her own pocket.
"See you tomorrow!" Toni called as she quickly headed out the door, Myron again not bothering to look up. "Oops!" Toni gasped as she nearly charged into a figure loitering outside.
"Sorry!" Darren Jones apologized, then smiled when he realized who it was. "Hey, I was waiting for you. Want to go get a drink?" Normally, Toni would have definitely agreed to hang out with the cute grad student, but the contents of her pocket were gnawing on her mind.
"Got something to take care of," Toni quickly deflected. "Next time, okay?" She called back as she rushed off to the parking lot, leaving the disappointed Darren behind.
Finally reaching home, Toni removed her jacket, tossing it on the bed without removing the medallion from her pocket, almost studiously ignoring it. As she completed her evening tasks, she couldn't get the medallion out of her mind. Exiting the shower naked, she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. Walking over to the bed, she finally reached in the pocket and pulled out the medallion. As though making a decision, she turned around and went back in front of the bathroom mirror. Lifting the medallion, she put the leather strap over her head and slowly let the medallion fall against her chest. The cool metal had an almost soothing effect, and she stared down at it where it lay just above her breasts, entranced.