Theo traced the pattern with his finger. An ammonite. He didn't need the brass name plate to tell him that; the fossils were his favourite exhibit. Not as shout-out-loud as the dinosaur skeletons, it was true, but there was something about the rocks and their ancient imprints that he liked.

‘Beautiful, isn't it?'

Theo jumped. A man wearing a green silk scarf was standing beside him.  

‘Um, yeah,' Theo said, replacing the fossil on its stand.

The man—a museum worker by the look of his name badge—was watching him intently. His eyes were light. The colour of amber. 

‘Go ahead,' the man said. ‘Touch another one.'

‘It's ok. I should really . . .' Theo gestured vaguely in the direction of the stuffed mammals.

‘Oh, but you mustn't leave yet,' said the man softly. ‘Not before you've seen our most treasured piece.'

Theo knew every exhibit—probably better than most of the staff. He shook his head.

‘I'm meant to be meeting my friend,' he said, edging further from the fossils.

‘But this is something you have to see,' the man said quickly. ‘A very rare find. Not the kind of thing we show to just anyone.'

He crept closer. Theo could feel his breath—oddly cool against his own cheek.

‘You should stay,' breathed the man.

‘Please, I was just going to see the woolly mammoth. I've finished with the fossils now. Really.'

 

The man side-stepped swiftly, blocking the archway to the main hall. Theo moved to squeeze past him. As fast as a gecko, the man grasped his arm, his fingers pressing just a little too hard. With another sharp movement he withdrew something from his suit pocket. 

‘Know what this is, boy?'

Theo looked. It was a smooth, curved claw. Sharp as a knife. About the length of Theo's hand. He'd recognise it anywhere.

‘A raptor claw.'

‘Clever boy.' The man's face was level with Theo's. His breath smelt stale and meaty.

‘And do you know how the raptor killed its prey?'

He ran the point of the claw slowly in front of Theo's stomach, not quite touching his T-shirt. He was still gripping Theo's arm.

Theo swallowed. ‘It . . . used the claw to, to—'

‘Yes . . . ?'

‘—to pin its prey down. And some experts th-think it slashed them open and—ate them alive.'

‘Very good.' The man licked his lips.

 

The museum was starting to empty. The last few visitors were drifting towards the turnstiles. Theo looked around frantically. If he could just catch somebody's eye.

‘I don't think you want to do that.' The man had slithered behind him now. He pressed the claw into Theo's back, hard enough for Theo to feel the lethal point digging into his skin.

A school group hovered near the archway, jostling with rucksacks and clipboards. Their tired-looking teacher glanced at Theo and the museum man as she passed. Instantly, Theo felt the point of the claw. Any harder and it would surely draw blood.

‘Just showing this lad the door,' the man said smoothly. ‘You know how kids can be? One sight of a T. rex and they lose their heads as well as their sense of direction.'

The teacher laughed. ‘Try keeping track of thirty of them!'

And then she was trudging away, herding her students noisily to the exits.

 

‘Well, would you look at that,' the man hissed, widening his amber eyes. ‘Looks like it's just the two of us.' He smiled, revealing a row of uneven, yellowing teeth.

‘What do you want from me? Leave me alone!'

The pressure from the claw increased. And suddenly the man slunk in front of Theo, brandishing the claw between them.

Theo gasped. ‘Your hand!' 

One of the white gloves had come off. The skin beneath was greyish green and covered in scales. Where the nails should have been were smooth, curved talons—claws!
‘Who—what—are you?' Theo cried. But he didn't wait for an answer. As the man bent to pick up his glove, Theo darted past him. He sprinted across the polished museum floor, heels skidding beneath him. Run!

He could hear the reptile man behind him. The sharp click of his heels echoed around the empty museum. Theo looked desperately for a security guard. There was no one. He flew past the dinosaur skeletons. Megalosaurus. Iguanodon. Plesiosaur. He was running farther and farther into the bowels of the building. His breath was coming in short gasps now, his heart slamming against his ribcage. Where was the reptile man? Theo didn't pause to look back as he shot beneath the suspended whale bones. He could hear the rasping breaths getting nearer. He rounded a corner. No! It was the insect gallery. A dead end. He spun round. Lizard man was right there, his grotesque hands skittering up near his scarf. Theo was trapped. He might as well be pinned down like the beetles in their glass cases.

And the reptile man knew it.

 

‘Going somewhere?' he asked, unwinding the silk scarf slowly from his throat.

Theo backed away, his eyes fixed in horror on the glistening scales snaking across the man's neck.

The reptile man slithered closer. ‘You're a collector, too, aren't you, boy?'

‘Get away from me!' yelled Theo, flattening himself against the wall. What did this . . . this creature know of his collection?  The snakeskin by his bed; the fossilised sharks' teeth; his precious robin's egg?

‘Come now, don't be shy.' The man's lizard-like face was centimetres from Theo's, his rancid breath making him retch. ‘It takes a true collector to recognise another, you know.'

A terrible rasping sound filled the gallery. Theo flinched. The reptile man was laughing.

‘But there's one treasure my collection lacks,' he chuckled, staring greedily at Theo. ‘Have you guessed what it is yet?' 

Theo's stomach went cold.

The reptile man's lips peeled back in a slow grin, his contorted features filling Theo's vision. Yellowed teeth. Blazing eyes. A single clawed finger reaching towards him . . . 

 

‘NO!' Theo wrenched himself free and bolted back across the gallery.

The reptile man hissed behind him. Theo sprinted on, colliding with a cabinet and sending it crashing to the floor. An ear-spitting screech filled the air as the museum's security alarm wailed into life.

Theo could see the exit now. Just 20 strides away. Ten. Five.

‘Stop right there!' A hand clamped around Theo's arm.

 A burly security guard was blocking his path.

‘Help,' Theo croaked. ‘Lizard man . . . chasing . . . me . . .'

The guard raised his eyebrows, looking pointedly around the deserted museum.

‘He was here a second ago, I swear!'

‘Look, son,' said the guard gruffly. ‘I won't call the police this time, but don't let me catch you here out of hours again, understand? Now get out of here, before I change my mind.'

 

Theo didn't need telling twice. He burst out of the museum and didn't stop running until he arrived, breathless but safe, at his own front door.

 

*

 

Midnight at the museum. The security guard patrols the silent galleries, pausing—as he always does—at the fossils. He can't shake the feeling he's being watched. Tutting at his own foolishness, he flicks off the lights and plods away.

 

Deep in the bowels of the building, something stirs. The security camera above the fossils swivels as a lizard-like shadow flits across the room . . .