Reno Schneeberg's life was packed to the brim, so much so that it didn't seem impossible to overflow soon, taking with it his ability to keep his mind from experiencing burn out.

Going straight from being a regular 18-year-old high school graduate to a full-time medical school student was an immense hurdle and brought stress he had never imagined before. Even his finals hadn't been as stressful as his first semester studying human medicine. Learning the basics seemed to be the hardest thing in the world, but he also knew that the beginning of a journey always turned out to be the most difficult part - so he had to stick with it and trust the process.

Fortunately, he always managed to balance out his high stress levels with his job as a night guard at the local museum of history and archeology. The quiet and lonely night shifts made his mind quiet down and helped him bring his thoughts into order.

Today marked another one of those relaxing shifts.

Reno's body was leaning against the backrest of an office chair, while the heels of his boots rested on a metal table holding a keyboard and mouse. In front of him, multiple screens were mounted to the wall, flickering slightly from time to time in shades of black and white.

His gaze was transfixed on one of the never-changing screens, almost as if staring through it. Indeed, at that moment, his head was empty, using every second of silence to relax his tired mind. But when his thoughts weren't blank, they always revolved around his studies, fully consuming his focus and causing him to ignore the screens altogether, just like now.

Nothing ever happened here that required his attention, so he used the time however he wanted.

The museum was small compared to others, housing few valuable items - most were replicas. Adding to that, it was located in an area with an almost zero crime rate. The chances of thieves or a group of reckless teenagers breaking in seemed extremely low, and as if to confirm this, nothing like that had occurred since Reno had started working here almost two months ago.

The pay was also quite good for a university student working part-time. Everything about the job was to his liking.

With his tired eyes, Reno continued to stare into the nothingness. Only the quiet hum of the monitors and PC, as well as his breathing, broke the silence in the dimly lit control room.

An unknown amount of time passed during which his eyes threatened to close multiple times. If he wasn't careful, he knew he would fall asleep in an instant. This week's workload had left him even more exhausted than usual.

Fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on how one viewed it - something interrupted his struggle. A sudden, high-pitched beeping sound shattered the room's silence, making him sit up straight with wide-open eyes.

For a moment, Reno was confused. What was going on?

It couldn't have been the motion sensors at the entrance, right? Was there actually a break-in attempt after all these weeks of tranquility and relaxation?

His eyes scanned the screen showing the entrance hall. To his surprise, it was completely devoid of any motion or foreign objects. His gaze wandered over the other screens in quick succession, but none of them showed any sign of movement or change either.

'What the hell?', Reno thought, now wide awake. Where had the sound come from, then?

After another moment of confusion, his gaze landed on his digital watch sitting next to the keyboard. A small alarm clock symbol glowed on its screen, and the persistent beeping emanated from its position.

"Oh, that's why."

With a somewhat annoyed expression, he turned off the alarm and looked at the time displayed on the watch: 1:05 a.m.

Reno remembered setting the alarm so he wouldn't forget to make his 1 a.m. control run through the museum. Usually, he wouldn't have forgotten and would have turned off the alarm beforehand.

His face still slightly contorted by annoyance, Reno slowly stood up and grabbed his flashlight. There was no way around it. Protocol required him to make a control run through the halls every three hours during his shift, even if it didn't make much sense when he could overlook everything with the cameras.

Of course, he could have just skipped it and said nothing to his supervisor in the morning. But he had at least this much work ethic and honesty.

His figure stepped out of the control room and into the dark hallways of the museum. Only the important parts of the building where cameras were located - like the entrance hall, back entries, or bigger galleries - were lit during the night.

That's why, most of the time, he walked using his flashlight, its beam creating long shadows along the floors and walls. Surely, some people might have been spooked in this atmosphere, especially when coupled with the lonely silence of the hallways. Reno, however, wasn't one bit scared. After all, he was used to it, and his sour mood from being surprised by his alarm hadn't worn off yet. There was no space for other feelings except resignation and tiredness.

His flashlight illuminated the many glass panels behind which different ancient artifacts were stored - most of them replicas, of course.

At some point, he reached the entrance hall and turned off the flashlight again.

After a moment of consideration, he walked closer to the entrance doors, just to be sure. Even though the alarm had turned out to be his watch, he wanted to be on the safe side. As expected, they were in their normal state, with no signs of a break-in.

With that done, he made his way out of the hall and back into the dark tunnels to finish his patrol.

Time passed slowly as he walked in the dark. His thoughts finally moved on from the rude surprise of the alarm and focused instead on his soon-to-come anatomy exams. As he got lost in his thoughts the time seemed to finally flow faster and after a while of walking from one room to another he was almost finished. The museum wasn't that big after all.

By now, he had checked all the back entries and main galleries. All that was left was the newest gallery, still under construction and not yet opened to the public. For this gallery, the museum had financed an entirely new building block that had been added to the main structure.

Soon, Reno came to a stop. He looked at the heavy curtains sealing the entrance to the new gallery.

The last time Reno had been there, it was almost completely empty, except for a few weird-looking statues and several wooden boxes covered by sheets. From his supervisor he had heard that the theme of this new gallery would be centered around medieval Europe. He couldn't have guessed that in a thousand years from only inspecting the statues though.

Other than that he knew that cameras weren't installed yet, as he hadn't had access to any views of this space in the control room.

He let out a quiet sigh.

'Last room for tonight, and then I can relax.'

Without wasting more time, he pulled the curtains aside and stepped into the hall beyond them.

Immediately, Reno was met by utter darkness, just as he had expected. He turned on his flashlight, its beam illuminating the space around him.

With a bored expression, he stepped forward, the soles of his boots echoing through the desolate hall.

But then, not even a few seconds after entering, Reno came to a stop.

"Desolate… not so much anymore," he muttered.

His gaze landed on a bunch of rectangular shapes veiled under grey sheets.

'They've already stocked up on even more stuff.'

A little curious, he continued walking, revealing more and more boxes in the beam of his flashlight. These were definitely new, as the statues and boxes from last week had been located farther toward the end of the hall.

After a few moments, Reno stopped again, his eyes fixed on an unexpected sight before him.

'What the…?'

One of the boxes had toppled over, its contents spilled across the floor. The grey sheet that had veiled it before was torn, with a long, irregular cut running along its surface.

'Ugh. I really don't want to clean that up… and how does something like that even happen?'

With his eyebrows raised, he studied the scattered metal cases of varying sizes that had spilled from the box. Suddenly, another concern crept into his mind.

Were these original archeological findings or just replicas like most of the exhibits? If these were real and damaged, it could spell trouble for him. Would his supervisor scold him - or worse, make him pay for part of the damages? Surely, he couldn't do that… right?

A migraine felt imminent, but even so, Reno had to do something. He needed to clean everything up and file a report on any damages. Also, if one box had toppled over, there could be more.

He let out a mental sigh.

His mood soured further as he resigned himself to the task at hand.

Kneeling down, Reno grabbed the first metal case when he noticed something odd.

Was the case scratched?

He ran his hand over the deep scars marking the frame, his brow furrowing. His gaze wandered to the other cases nearby, each bearing similar marks.

For some reason, Reno felt uneasy. These scratches should have been caused by the fall, but they looked far too misshapen. The cases assumingly hit a flat ground, the museum floor - not a rocky surface - which should have resulted in more symmetrical marks, if any at all. The cases were extremely sturdy, after all.

He slowly looked up from the boxes and pointed his flashlight into the darkness in front of him.

Something wasn't right.