Chapter 1: Secrets

Hi Everyone! First Night at the Museum Fanfiction, and I thought I'd try something new! But I had a thought at the end of it when Tilly (and Ahkmenrah, and the Tablet!) came to the Museum of Natural History: who was guarding the British Museum?

So, based on the idea I had, here's a shortish story on who I think would've been guarding the British Museum!

Disclaimer: Even though I wish I owned Night at the Museum, and all its character's, I don't :( But I do own this plot, so that counts as something!

Also, to add to that: I know this idea has been used quite commonly, and I'm so sorry to anyone that has used it! So, technically I don't own the plot, but I do definitely own the character used! So, please don't get all offended if you're like, 'Hey, I used that plot, that's mine!'

...But now thinking about it, it actually is a bit different because the girl and Ahkmenrah are not shipped. There is mainly no romance in this story, sorry! Friendships are made though, so that (kinda) counts... right?

Anyway, onto the story!

Ahkmenrah's P.O.V.

It looked like everyone was enjoying the party. We were playing a song Tilly had said was 'The best song in the whole flippin' world', and it seemed that everyone else thought it was pretty good too.

I tried to mask my worry by trying to relax, but no matter how many conversations I held, no matter how many jokes I tried to make, I just couldn't. We had recently appointed a new Security Guardian to guard the British Museum, and it was her first night alone tonight. And I certainly knew that the tablet wasn't with her, and all the main exhibits had been transported to the New York museum, but I still couldn't shake off the feeling I held. I still remember her first few nights at the museum...

*FLASHBACK*

She started by inspecting the Egyptian Ramses-Sculpted head, while Tilly was instructing her not to touch anything, however hard it may be. She responded with a nod, and a mumble that sounded suspiciously like, 'Yeah, sure. I'll note that down'.

Then she actually asked Tilly something. "How can you not just be… well, amazed at all these exhibits?"

Tilly responded with "Well, I have been here for 6 years, and truth be told, I wasn't that big of a history buff at the beginning... and, to be completely honest, I'm still not."

"Really? I find history the most interesting topic in the world. Just take the Egyptians, for example. They invented some of the most useful medical tools, which are still used in some parts of the world to this day, and do I even have to mention the Pyramids?" From the pillar I was hiding behind, I could tell she had obviously studied the Egyptians. Why, or for how long, those facts were still not clear to me.

You might be asking why I was hiding behind a pillar. Tilly had told us all to. Not behind a pillar exactly, but to hide from the new security guardian, so that she wouldn't 'freak herself out and pee her little shorts'. And yes, she was wearing khaki shorts in the middle of winter. And also a short sleeve branded t-shirt.

"Interesting," Tilly said, interrupted her babbling about the Egyptians, and started to move her onto the Asian part of the museum. But before she completely could, the young girl said one thing that made my heart leap in panic. "Well, that's weird. I remember that Ahkmenrah's sarcophagus used to be over there," she said as she pointed toward the empty wall. We had decided to move my sarcophagus to make sure it didn't distract the new guardian and make her wander over to the inner part of the Egyptian part of the museum, and undoubtedly see my mother and father, and other exhibits alive and moving. "Oh, um, well, you must have been here a while ago. We've moved exhibits around since... since the last time you came." Tilly ended off.
"Right..." stated the new guardian, deciding whether to believe her or not.
"Right! Off to the next part of the museum then!" Tilly said, with a rather harshly forced smile.
"OK! And you have the mythical Xianglui statue, don't you?" She replied happily. She obviously had bought the story.

After she had left, I gave a quiet sight of relief. But we can't keep this up every night, it would just be too much for everyone. I also heard a smash of something right after she left. "I am so sorry! I honestly, I... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I banged into it accidentally, and... I'm so sorry," I heard the young guardian repeat over and over again. I managed to shuffle to a closer pillar to them, and I saw what she had 'broken'. The medieval weapon's case, which we had actually broken before she had even arrived, now had its door smashed and lying on the floor. She must have just bumped it. I heard Tilly say, "Oh, no biggy. I'll just," at this point she picked it up, broke the rest of glass remaining on the door frame off, and then she shoved it into the slot. It looked like no one had ever touched it. "And there!" she finished off.
"But-but won't someone notice? I mean, someone will touch it sooner or later..."
"Well that's what the 'Don't touch' signs are for. Why else would they be there?"

For the rest of the night, I followed the two guardians as they (well, the younger one anyway) examined the museum's greatest attractions, and Tilly made plenty of jokes, some of which I heard her laugh at. Actually, I'm sure she laughed at all of them.

At the end of the night, just as I was heading back to my sarcophagus, I heard Tilly ask the younger girl a question. "I did tell you I'm very forgetful didn't I? Well, even if I didn't, you should know I am, and I just forgot one tiny detail about you: What's your name again?"
"Oh, my name is Meredith Wilson. I know, I know, very old fashioned, so my friends just call me Will."
"Will? Well, Will, what a wonderful name you have." Tilly replied to her answer.

"Thank you Tilly." Meredith answered her back. Well, I haven't exactly met her yet, so I don't classify as a friend... yet.

The next night...

"Well that's just plain off..." Meredith muttered under her breath. She currently was staring at my sarcophagus we had placed back into its right position just before dawn last night. "Tilly? Why-" Meredith started to ask, but noticed that Tilly was no longer with her. "Tilly? Tilly!" She started to yell. "Man this place is creepy at night... TILLY!" I'm pretty sure my brother in the underworld could've heard that yell, but apparently Tilly couldn't. Meredith switched on her flashlight, and started to wander about. I saw she was very wary and cautious about where she was walking, making it obvious that she didn't want to topple anything over.

A flash of light must have made its way to my crown, because she gasped in shock and dropped her torch. "Hello? Move where I can see you... Please." She said as she crouched to pick up her torch, and hold it over her shoulder like it was a baseball bat. Clearly she was not as skilled as Larry was with the flashlight. Backing away, I turned to run... and ran. What else what I was supposed to do? Let the secret of the museum fall into her hands?

She predicted my next move and began to chase after me. She clearly had lots of exercise and no heavy weights on her, because she started to catch up to me. Started, but never finished. After I ran into the inner part of whole museum, I managed to quickly fit myself into a crack between the walls and a lone vending machine. Fortunately enough, there was an unmounted garbage can right in front of the wall, so I dragged it over to the crack, and I slid myself behind it. I prayed to all the gods that they would be over my protection, as she slowed to a stop before the vending machine.

"Where are you..." She whispered, tiptoeing to the corner of the wall. She then jumped out, her torch flashing, and said a heroic 'Aha!' to no avail. She then motioned in a way that made her fingers click, the same way Larry did sometimes to turn his torch on or off. Tilly, deciding then it was best to join the 'party' then, walked over to Meredith, and poked her on the shoulder. "Ah!" She screamed out in fright. She then asked, "Where were you? You scared the heck out of me."
"Oh, you know, just went off to the toot-toot," she started to explain. "You look like you've seen a ghost Will! What happened?" She said after Tilly had a quick examine of her facial features. Meredith quickly regained her posture though, and said this as casually as she could, "Oh, you know, I was chasing a robber, who took Ahkmenrah's crown and robes. Yeah, just the usual."

"Who took... Oh man, you must be tired Will." Tilly obviously put the picture together, but tried to distract Meredith from the true facts.
"What... are you calling me crazy?" she replied.
"No, I'm just saying that you're tired! And believe me, you see crazy things when you're tired. I once saw Lancelot riding a Triceratops called Trixie! Ha ha..." Tilly finished off.
"But I could've sworn... How..." Meredith looked thoroughly confused.
"Here, I'll shout you a coffee after dawn if you want me to," Tilly quickly replied, and started to drag her off to another part of the museum. Fortunately enough, Tilly asked Meredith some questions, and that started to make her babble on about the Ancient Romans and Pompeii.

After they were out of hearing range, I gave a loud sigh of relief, and managed to move out of the crack. Even though the space wasn't completely closed off, my claustrophobia had started to creep up on me.

At dawn, when Meredith was closing up the shack outside and Tilly was closing up the museum, Tilly walked over to me, and had a look on her face that looked expectant.
"So... when were you planning to tell me that you've been stalking Will and I these past few nights, huh?" Tilly questioned, as though it was one of the most common questions in the world.
"I, I... I wasn't really planning on telling you." Well, if you're going to tell anyone anything, it might as well be the truth.
"Well, just another question for you Ahk: Do you remember anything I said about staying away from the new security guard? I know it looks like I'm treating you like a baby, but I just don't want another guard to quit." Tilly said with a sigh. She told us all a few nights ago that the board was forcing her to hire more night security guards due to having new and more priceless exhibits, (*cough, me and my tablet, cough*) and that 4 other possible guards had already refused the job when Tilly told them it was all magic.

But before I could reply, we heard Meredith call from the first level, "Tilly? Tilly!" It seemed Meredith had a habit of yelling.
"Coming!" Tilly yelled back, but before she left, she gave me a look that clearly communicated that she didn't want me to follow them the next night.

Well, who said that everyone gets what they want?

A few nights after that... (Meredith's Diary)

Dear Diary,

I have only one thing to tell you: It happened again. And I know you're like: 'Really? Again? C'mon'. I know, but this is serious! This has been happening the last few nights: A man all dressed in a fake Ahkmenrah costume has been stalking me and Tilly, and no matter how hard I try to catch him, he manages to out run me. Which is ridiculous. Actually, thinking about it, it probably is my tiredness taking its toll on me. And maybe Tilly's right. Maybe it's just my brain using the little energy it has to make a hallucination that I can't catch.

And maybe she's wrong. Maybe a creep keeps sneaking back into the museum, just to try to steal something, and then I keep stopping him. And if he is stealing anything, it's probably from the Egyptian part of the museum. And so, being the genius I am, I set up a plan.

Everyone likes doughnuts, right? Well, I certainly like doughnuts, so if it is my hallucination, then this 'Ahkmenrah' will come out. And when it isn't my brain (which you can see I'm relying on) I've set up a little old fashioned trap, with a rope and everything! I spent most of my day, which is sorta my night now, studying how to make one, and I experimented it on my brother as soon as he came to my apartment. He came over to have breakfast with me, which is now my dinner... Kinda.

Anyway, enough about that. So, after I set up the trap, and after I double checked that Tilly had gone somewhere else, I went to discover my stalker's hiding place. I so wish I had the Mission Impossible music going on in the background, that would've made it 10 times cooler! Anyway, I went over to the inner Egyptian part of the museum, only to see something I never thought I'd see in my life... But right after that I fainted, so I'm still not sure if it was just a hallucination or not.

But if it was, shouldn't I have forgotten it by now? But I don't think I ever will forget it. It just seemed too, well, real.

Ahkmenrah's P.O.V.

I have no idea what happened. She just strode into the inner part of the Egyptian room in the museum, saw us, and then fainted... OK, so I do know what happened, but I don't know why it happened. I mean, I decided not to follow Meredith around that night, and to acquaint myself better with the rest of the Egyptian exhibits instead. I've only been here 3 years after all, and that's almost nothing compared to the 4,000 years of my lifetime... Even if a majority of those years was spent in a sarcophagus.

And then, she walked in. At the sight, everyone gasped and ran to hide, although they all knew it was too late. I gave a small gasp as she fell to the floor, and immediately I ran over to her to see if she wasn't hurt too badly. So did my father and mother.

I knelt down to her side, and checked if anything had been bruised in the fall. It seemed that she had knocked her head, because she groaned a little whenever I touched it. But soon enough, her eyes fluttered open, and I signalled my parents to go hide. I only just managed to hide behind an information board before she leaned upwards and started to rub her head. She started to moan a little, and eventually got up on her feet.

Feeling confident enough to walk, she began to, only to fall again. She then muttered something about her shoes, took them off, got up on her bare feet, began to walk around, and, seeming to be happy enough with her balance, began to walk away, only to walk right into Tilly.

"Tilly! Where have you been?" Meredith asked in an inquisitive tone.
"Where have I been? Where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere!" Tilly exclaimed.
"Well... We can talk about those details later. I just need to know something, something that you have obviously been keeping from me!" Meredith stated.
"...Could you try to be more specific?" Tilly questioned. She was making it quite obvious that there was something that she wasn't telling Meredith.
"Look, ever since day one, I could tell that you haven't been telling me something that I'm pretty sure that I should know! If you could tell me, it would sleep a whole lot easier during the day," Meredith replied.
"...You'll have to come with me." Tilly said with worry in her tone.

"...Why can't you tell me here?" Meredith started to say after a small awkward silence.
"Because I don't want you to freak out and then possibly be put in a coma," Tilly answered her immediately.
"...Good point" Meredith replied.

After their conversation, Tilly and Meredith walked off to the shack, where, undoubtedly, Tilly was going to tell Meredith about the magic of the tablet.

Meredith's Diary (Continued)

And then it got worse. Tilly took me to the kitchen shack outside, and before I could do anything, she locked the door after we had both entered. She also took my flashlight and the hammer, and put them out of reach. She also made sure that I was calm, and ready for anything she told me. I started to become impatient, so I asked in the nicest tone I could muster, "Please Tilly, can you please tell me what's going on?"

She gave a sigh, and asked me for the final time: "Could you just promise me that you won't quit this job after I tell you?" After that remark, I sighed myself, and reluctantly promised, not 100% knowing what to expect.
"You know about the tablet of Ahkmenrah?"
"Yes... what about it?" The tablet itself was a supposed way for Ahkmenrah and his family to live continually in this life, so that they would never have to bear the pain of the loss of a loved one.
"It... It brings all the exhibits to life at night," Tilly started to explain, but before I could say anything, she added, "And I know you're going to say that I'm crazy, but it's true! The man that you've been chasing these past few nights hasn't been your imagination, it's been-"
"Ahkmenrah himself," I interrupted. It... it made total sense! I mean, it was crazy, but... it was awesomely crazy! It's like something out of a fairy tale or... something! I don't know, it was just... crazy!

"Yes... how did you know?" Tilly asked with the most confusion and interest that I had ever seen.
"Well... I may or may not have seen the conversation you had with him the other day..." I whispered in the tiniest voice I had ever used.
"Huh," Tilly said. That's it. Well, that went better than I planned.

Apparently it looked like it went better for her as well, because she gave a huge sigh of relief after we had sorted out the 'secret'. Right afterward though, she swore me into secrecy about it all, and not to tell anyone. Literally! She made me repeat after her and to keep my right fist on the left side of my chest while doing so.

But then the gravity of the whole situation started to weigh me down. And I started to hyperventilate. "Can't *gasp* breathe *gasp*" I tried to communicate to Tilly, but she seemed distracted with something else. I then grabbed her security guard jacket sleeve, and I accidentally slipped out of my chair. She then saw what was happening and tried to help me up, but I couldn't breathe properly, and therefore I didn't have enough energy to get up. She then ran over to a drawer, and pulled out a brown paper bag. I grabbed it with all the energy I had left, and started to breathe in and out. I only managed to breathe a little oxygen in my system, but it was enough to get me to calm down.

Taking the paper bag from my mouth, I struggled to get back on the chair, but eventually got on it with help from Tilly. "OK, one question," she asked after I sunk back into the chair and my breathing had evened out. "What was that all about! I thought you said you wouldn't panic!"
"Well, when you've studied the general subject of history in University for who-knows-how-long, you tend to freak out when it comes to life in front of you," I told her, trying not to shout. "Plus," I started to add, "with all of 'them' in there, I could ask them questions that no one ever knew! Like, why the pyramids were invented, or Stonehenge! And..." I looked up at Tilly at this point, and it looked like I had lost her attention. "...And other stuff," I ended off.

"You still remember the rules I told you on the first night?" Tilly asked after a while of complete awkward silence.
"Um, truth be told, I wasn't really listening. Sorry," I said in an apologetic tone.
"Nah, don't worry about it, I don't really know the rules either. I was just making the stuff up as I went along," she said, relaxing back into her chair.
"Really? You seemed so... professional about it all," I replied.
"All in the tone and the posture," she continued. Eventually, we started to have the biggest conversation I had ever had with someone about posture and tone. In other words, it was a long conversation. Lasted nearly 15 minutes. 20, tops.

Eventually, it had to end, and Tilly unlocked the kitchen door and forced me to come with her back into the museum. "Why can't I just stay here? You know, someone has to look after the kitchen! I don't think I ever noticed a camera hidden in here... And maybe someone could steal all the batteries! That would be horrible, wouldn't it, Tilly? And it would all be because you didn't let me guard the kitchen!" I stared to whine as we waked back into the museum.

"You know you make a good point there Will. Why don't I go back into the kitchen, and you stay here and guard the museum all by yourself! Oh, and with the exhibits, of course." I never did realize before that how much of a good arguer Tilly really was.

I then sighed in defeat, made sure my flashlight still worked, and then prepared to see something crazy.

Ahkmenrah's P.O.V.

After both of them had left the main Museum building, and had safely entered the kitchen shack, I went over to the medieval part of the museum. I hadn't seen Lancelot for the past week now, so I needed to check if he hadn't turned back into 'Sir Lancelot'. That's what we call Lancelot when he turns back into the person who wants to complete his 'quest' and get back to Guinevere. And yes, he sometimes does turn back into that person.

Apparently, according to the rest of the exhibits in the Medieval part of the museum, he had during the week, but was back to his normal self now. Well, I assumed he was back to himself, because as soon as I entered, he gave me a strong-shook handshake and a theatrical loud hello. Which is how he normally acts, otherwise he would've put his sword to my neck.

Anyway, I started to tell him about Meredith, and how I thought that Tilly was going to tell her about the secret of the tablet. He soon interrupted me though, and gave a sigh of relief. Relief from what, I still wasn't sure. He soon made it clear though, and he started to babble on about how long it took Tilly, and how much he wished she could've told her sooner. Apparently something happened in the Greek-Roman part of the museum, but Lancelot wasn't there to see it.

He was soon interrupted by loud footsteps coming down the hallway. We both ran over to the door to see who it was, only to find Tilly and Meredith coming towards the room we were in. Lancelot signalled for me to hide, and I complied by putting myself behind one of the pillars... I really need to find some better hiding spots.

Lancelot himself ran over to his post, put his helmet back on, and stood completely still. If I didn't know any better, I would've mistaken him for a real wax figure. Tilly soon entered the room, and seemed like she was forcing Meredith to come inside with her. Meredith did try to get rid of her grasp though, and you could see she was struggling to do so. But just before Meredith looked like she was going to succeed, Tilly let go of her arms completely, and Meredith went sprinting out of her grasp, right into the centre of the room.

Everything was still. There was a deadly silence in the air. I could hear my heart beat louder with every quick breath. Which is ironic, because my heart has been pulled out and been put in its proper jar. Anyway, the moment quickly ended with Tilly's voice.

I'm so sorry that I ended there! I originally planned for this to be a one-shot, but then it started to get WAY too long.

I also have to add one thing: I'm really bad at updating, so reviews are very, very helpful! They make me schedule time to write these things, otherwise I tend to forget!