#cxdonovan

He hated the basement.  He hated the basement, quite a lot actually.  For as warm and welcoming that the rest of the library was, the basement always felt cold and cramped - despite being quite spacious.

Brandon muttered to himself as he wandered past rows and rows of archived books and VHS tapes that no one wanted anymore, Cassette tapes, and computers from the late 80's...

"Send the newbie to get the reference books from the basement, he hasn't done too much today!"

His words come out high pitched and mocking -

He passes by a large doorway and stops as he hears what sounds like laughter passing through the door.  He backtracks and places his hand on the door, going in to press his face to try and hear something again.

"What the hell?"

He pulls his hands back, the door was warm.  Not terribly hot, but warm, like a cup of tea that had boiled for too long.

He grabs the door handle and pulls the heavy metal door open - moving the dust on the door plate.  He wanders into the darkened room, not bothering to read the newly uncovered sign on the door.

DO NOT ENTER: Dangerous Storage Area

Brandon moves around the room and finds the light switch.  It turns on two or three dim bulbs in the room that look like they haven't been used in eons.

The room houses four wooden crates, and a very small glass case that looks like it would belong in a museum exhibit.  Each case is very old and wooden, with the number 10 stencil painted on the side.  The laughter echoes off the walls again and Brandon freezes.

"H-hello?"

The laughter doesn't ring out again - so Brandon steps up to the crates.  The wood is practically falling apart, so the disturbance causes one side of a crate to creak open.  Out falls a very long, broomstick type object wrapped haphazardly in purple paper and tied with black twine, and two packages along with three scrolls.

Brandon very gingerly picks up one of the scrolls and reads the words.

"Moses' Staff: Imbued with the ability to call forth or repel water.  Warning: Causes wielder to go blind and hallucinate with prolonged use."

Brandon flares his nostrils and looks over at the broomstick type object, and reaches for one of the other scrolls.

"True Bones of Caiaphas: The bones of the High Priest Caiaphas and imbues the owner with the ability to maintain a certain outcome.  Warning: Causes owner to become agitated and hostile towards authority figures, and eventually homicidal."

He blinks repeatedly before moving onto the next scroll, afraid of what he'll find.

"True Claw of Archimedes: A primitive Grecian device that allows the user to capsize whole ships.  Warning: Causes the user to die at the hands of a friend."

Brandon frowns and gingerly puts all the boxes and scrolls back into the now broken crate before turning to leave.  However, the laughter appears again and he turns to look at the dusty exhibit in the middle of the room.  He crosses to it and wipes the dirt off of the name plate.

"The Mask of Pantalone"

He curiously rubs some of the dirt away from the glass itself and looks inside.  A wooden masquerade mask sits in the center of the case, flickering slowly.  Brandon looks down and sees that the base of the exhibit has some dried purple substance on it, as if it had leaked out.  He slowly lifts the glass of the case and looks for a description of the exhibit.  The laughter becomes louder and louder, not ceasing.

Brandon fearfully places the glass back onto the exhibit and turns to leave the room, when he hears a cracking sound under his foot.

"The Mask of Pantalone: Can only be used by a certain ancestral line and will call to those few with laughter.  The mask will actively seek out the viable users.  Unknown effects.  Current oldest artifact on record."

Brandon places the plaque back near the base of the exhibit and as he rises freezes.  The mask was no longer in the case.

He turns to leave the room as quickly as possible and gasps in fear.  The mask, was there.

-

Anyone passing by the room would've seen a flash of red light and heard the sound of crates being cracked open - and then seen 12 different artifacts zoom out of the room all on their own, before Brandon appeared again, iris's colored blood red.

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+ cxdonovan, filiusferrum, icarenxt, agentwise, hilariouslaughter, sentinelceo

"Gimme that."