"I still can't understand why someone would go through the trouble of
stealing a box with a very ancient corpse. The finish was nice enough, but the city's not
that dull."
I turn to the voice coming from my left.
"Beckett? What happened to the fucking box?"
He scratches his chin, half mockingly.
"Since it's missing, I'm inclined to believe it was stolen. Or intentionally misplaced, if you like. Clearly though, it's not here."
"And I suppose
you didn't steal it."
"Hmm. Interesting choice of words. Weren't you here to take it away? Wouldn't that make
you the attempted thief?"
"I'm under
direct orders from LaCroix."
"That certainly doesn't make it theft."
"Alright look, if you weren't here to take it what
are you doing here?"
"I'm an archaelogist, so I thought I'd indulge in a quick study of this... Ankaran Sarcophagus everyone's so riled up about. My guess, from what I've read, is that it's a mummified Mesopotamian king. Of course, I needed confirmation."
"Then you didn't steal it."
"If I stole it, I would know where it was, and most likely wouldn't be looking for it here."
"And you didn't get a chance to look at it?"
"Oh, I really wish I had. All this speculation about the sarcophagus containing an Antediluvian and being a portent of Gehenna is making me
cringe. These are the kinds of ridiculous, superstitious assumptions I came here to debunk."
"Gehenna?"
"Armageddon, doomsday, the end of all Kindred. It's a common facet of most mythologies- fear that the world will end. Many believe Caine and the Antediluvians will return to consume or destroy all Kindred. I wholehearedly disagree."
"Caine? You mean from Caine and Able?"
"Yes, more or less. Caine is the biblical first Kindred and founder of the mythological First City, Enoch, a place where Kindred and kine coexisted. I believe Caine's a figure concocted to personify the transition from a nomadic society to an agrarian one. That myth, like most, has been twisted by time."
"And he's supposed to bring about this... end of the world, Gehenna?"
"As I said, many cultures have the fear of some form of apocalypse. Kindred believed in these stories when they were human, and naturally carried them over into Kindred myth. But it doesn't take a supernatural act to cause widespread destruction. Humans and Kindred are just as capable of managing their own destruction as a deity, something you should understand more than most, being the... what was it? 'Merchant of Menace'?" He chuckles to himself. "A self-realized Gehenna warrants more vigilance than a god-induced one, don't you agree? Such is my argument... which so frequently falls on deaf ears."
I take a glance at the broken wood where the coffin used to be. I'd been starting to doubt the superficial nature of what I'd seen on the Dane.
"Are there any signs for it? The end of the world, I mean?"
Beckett half smiles.
"What prophecy doesn't have vague, apocryphal signs? Let's see... the usual ones cited are the apperance of thin-bloods, Caine sightings, doom, gloom, that route."
"And you're trying to debunk it?"
"For three hundred years I've been trying to determine the
function of our existence, the Kindred's
role in the world. I'm not content to attribute it to some act of supernatural, biblical vengeance. We exist for a
reason, and if it takes me another three hundred, I'll figure it out."
He eyes me for a moment, almost coyly.
"Hmm. Any thoughts?"
I rub my temple, trying to clear out the muck of everything that's been happening.
"I imagine it's some kind of disease, communicable, obviously. I have no idea how it would do all of this or why a debilitating disease would have so many extreme and varied symptoms, but... I barely finished high school, I'm not exactly a scholar."
He smiles again, rubbing his chin.
"Yes, I've heard that theory before, although it's not exactly popular amongst Kindred who like to view themselves as above humanity instead of alongside it or, even worse, beneath it. I suppose it goes to show you don't have to be Malkavian to be nonsensical."
He tilts his hand and head away from each other.
"At any rate, it's always seemed like a plausible theory, but so far I've been able to uncover little proof to support it. Still, for being almost a high school drop out, you've managed to come up with a better explanation than a divine sentence for manslaughter, which I think places you a good ways ahead of most of your peers."
"Remember, the truth won't be told in time - it will be told by us. Well, my work here's stolen away into the night, so I suppose I shall do the same."
With a quick farewell, Beckett disappears into the darkness and I'm left standing near an empty platform. It doesn't take long for me to backtrack through the museum, and when I reach the exit, the cab's waiting for me. I ask if he'd been waiting long, but he said he hadn't. Damned if I know how he knew when to pick me up. The drive back to downtown is quieter than it'd been earlier and I think about what Beckett had told me. It seems silly to worry about the end of the world, but... on the other hand...
Oh boy.
Helen, you got some 'splaining to do.