It was darker than Nella had expected. It was nighttime and the museum had been closed to the public for hours, but she had assumed at least a few lights would have been left on. Then again, she'd also expected to run into at least one or two guards patrolling the halls. Turns out, there were none. Whether that was because nobody expected someone to be stupid enough to break into a museum with such a complicated alarm system, or whether the guards were just terrible at doing their job, she didn't know. She assumed it was probably the latter.

She glanced at a sign on her way past and smiled slightly when she found what she was looking for. Pompeii exhibit, level 2. This was going to be easier than she'd thought.

She climbed the stars silently, clutching at her leather shoulder bag and noting that it was probably good that she had left her shoes outside with her other things. She'd tied her hair up in a tight bun to try and keep it out of her face but, to her annoyance, a few red tendrils had already escaped, tickling the sides of her face.

She got to the door of the Pompeii exhibit and looked around anxiously. It had been surprisingly easy for her to disable the security cameras and alarm systems, but she was still paranoid. She turned the handle and stepped cautiously into the room.

It wasn't one of the main exhibits, the one she was looking for. It was one of the smaller ones, around the back, mostly hidden behind the signs explaining the larger artefacts. She shone her torch around until she found it. On the very end, covered in dust as if even the cleaners couldn't be bothered with it.

Out of all the things Joe had wanted, this was the strangest. It was a small square object, about the size of a Rubik's cube, decorated in small triangles. At first glance, Nella thought they were probably some sort of inscription, but after a closer look she realised that they were all the same. Decoration, she assumed.

Now came the tricky part. Nella reached into her bag and brought out a small blowtorch. Hitting the 'on' button, she carefully traced the outside of the glass case with the flame. Satisfied with the outcome, she discarded the blowtorch and carefully lifted the glass off of its wooden base. No alarm. She'd done it.

She traced the artefact gently with her fingertips before reaching down and cautiously picking it up. It was heavier than she'd expected. Smaller too. She ran her fingers along the small triangular indents in the cool stone and smiled slightly.

Nella went to place the cube back down for a moment, when suddenly there was a bright flash of light and the world around her went dark. Nella felt herself falling forward, then a moment later she landed in a corridor, hands and knees hitting the cool floor.

Well, she hadn't expected that to happen.

She stood up and dusted herself off. Her head spun. She was in a corridor similar to the one leading to the Pompeii exhibit, however the floor seemed to be a slightly different shade of grey and the lights were on, flickering every so often.

A noise came from somewhere behind her and Nella jumped. Footsteps. She looked around, trying to find somewhere to hide. There were a few doors up ahead of her, most of them closed and, by the look of it, locked. She let out a shaky breath. The footsteps grew louder and Nella could hear her heart beating in her ears. Suddenly, there was a shout.

"Through here!" Someone yelled.

There were now multiple footsteps running towards her. Lacking any alternative, Nella ran down the hall away from them.

Suddenly, a hand was placed over her mouth and she let out a muffled yelp. Someone grabbed her and she was pulled backwards into a dark room.

"Hello sweetie." Someone whispered in her ear, "Terribly sorry about this, but I don't think my lovely friends out there would be very happy finding you wandering around their museum after hours."

The voice was female which surprised Nella slightly, but didn't stop her from struggling and biting down on the hand clamped over her mouth.

"Shh." The woman tried to calm her. Nella stamped her foot and bit down harder, slightly bemused by the fact that it didn't seem to be causing her captor even the slightest amount of discomfort.

The footsteps outside faded slightly, but she could still see the light of their torches shining under the door. A moment later the lights vanished and the woman tried to push her towards the door. Nella squirmed and tried to get her arms free. Usually she was good at getting away from people, but she shock of the fall had left her anxious and distracted. Behind her, the woman chuckled again.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if you weren't so wriggly."

Nella let out a stifled scoff. The men had obviously moved on to another part of the hall, but she still had no idea who this woman was, where she was, or how she had got here. Was this some sort of secret part of the museum where they stored things that weren't on display?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she was suddenly spun around, the arms around her dropping, coming face-to-face with the woman for the first time. She was shorter than Nella by one or two inches, with masses of curly blonde hair. She was older than her too, by quite a lot, though she was pretty terrible at guessing ages. Forties, maybe? Nella wasn't sure.

She snapped back to reality when the woman finally spoke.

"Hmm, you've done quite a bit of damage there, thanks for that. Good thing it was my left hand."

Nella's eyes shifted to the woman's hand, and sure enough it was bleeding. She frowned, unsure whether she should apologise or not. The woman had just dragged her into a cupboard against her will, but if she hadn't Nella doubted she would have got away from the strange men.

"It's rude to stare, you know."

Nella's eyes snapped up. The woman smirked.

"Can you talk?"

Nella raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I can talk." She snapped. Then, realizing she should probably keep her voice down, she sighed. "Sorry. About the hand." She muttered, eyes shifting downwards again.

The woman shrugged. "No harm done. Well, no serious harm." She chuckled slightly.

"The cupboard! That one!"

The two of them jumped as loud footsteps approached again. A moment later, their torches appeared under the door and Nella's eyes widened. She looked around briefly. There was no other way out, not even a window. She opened her mouth to say something, then yelped when the woman linked arms with her and began typing something into a device strapped to her wrist. A bomb? Nella twisted anxiously. The woman smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, love. This isn't going to be fun."

She pressed another button on the device. There was a blinding flash of light, and Nella's head began to spin as the world around her vanished.