Chapter one: The Book.
A rush and a scream, I giggled gently at the television screen, the blue light from the horror movie, which was playing seemed to give the room a rather soft glow. I smiled as I wiped the chocolate milk from my mug, my eyes glued to the screen. I stared as I listened to the screaming and the horrid squishy noises of torture from the film. I continued to watch the repetitive gore, which only kept occurring again and again, when Peyton tapped my shoulder.
"Christy, C'mon I wanna go to the book store. NOW." She hissed, shaking my shoulder a bit as she pushed me off the couch and onto the floor. I groaned in agony and rolled my eyes. Oh joy, BOOKS! I had always been one to enjoy movies much more than literature, unless I was the one writing it. I grabbed my coat and slipped it on. Along with some random pair of plastic pink flip-flops. I gulped my pride as I slid into the passenger's side of the Tiny black car. I groaned once more as I rolled my eyes and lay the seat back, her driving off without me attaching my seat belt. I propped my feet up on the dashboard pouting out the window a little. I was halfway conscious when we arrived to the dark and abandoned looking shop. I got out of the car, slowly but surely. Peyton was gone in a flash. All that was heard was the dinging of the bell-which the door to the shop had been fashioned to. I sighed as I followed my roommate in a hastened pace. The bookstore was huge looking from the inside, but outside it looked tiny. This fact surprised me a little, But I walked through it like usual until I found Peyton slumped over a book sitting on the ground reading it intently. I shrugged and looked around on a shelf near her and scanned through the books, picking one out and thumbing through it.
"Peyton, what is this place and how'd you find it? All the books are dark poetry or gore and death shit." I glanced through the pages of the book, which I had picked, skimming quickly. Peyton never answered me when I looked in her general direction she was gone. I gently shelved the book, walking around once more with my hands in my pockets. This place was very dark and dimly lit, which made it even creepier than it already was. I can see why PEYTON comes here…I thought. I giggled a bit to myself as I turned a corner, gently scanning through gory poetry and picture books of massacres. Then one certain book caught my eye, it was a book with no wording on the slender spine of it. The Book was soft and velvet covered, it smelled of sweet incense. How strange… I scanned over the book with my index finger, stroking the spine as I removed it from the oak shelf and held it in my tiny hands. I turned it over and looked at it, studying it contently. I suddenly realized that the book had a lock on it, a gigantic spider like lock. How strange… I thought. Why put a lock on a book? What was in this thing… and who wanted Too keep whom out? Perhaps it's to keep something in…Thoughts continued to torture me. I began to get dizzy I always got dizzy headaches from thinking too hard. All I knew was that I desperately wanted this book. I quickly scanned it over for a price tag, but I found to my own disbelief that it was 80 dollars. I quickly ripped the price tag from the back cover of the book, scraping off the sticky paper which was still left on it as best as I could… I then shoved the book into my bag as I looked around for cameras, there were none. To my own surprise, this shop had almost no security at all. Then and there on my knees, was when I felt a tap on my shoulder? I jolted up to my feet and spun around to see who the hell had startled me, as usual it was Peyton. She was standing there with a Boy who looked to be a bit older than she or I. He was wearing all black, and had luscious long black hair with red streaks… He smiled at me, His crimson eyes illuminating his pale and blemish-free face. I swear I almost shit myself. I smiled at him, a bit nervously. Which was rather strange… considering the fact that I hardly ever get nervous, unless I'm speaking publicly. That's just one thing I had Peyton for I guess. Peyton was my best friend and my roommate, for about 4 years. We understood and told each other everything. She's always been prettier than me though. With her long black hair and brilliant sea-green eyes. Her petite figure made me feel like a cow part of the time. But she ate like a horse when I hardly ate at all… Despite our different appearances I knew I'd always love her more than anything. I then shook myself from my daze when I heard Peyton mutter,
"Christy, this is Primus. He's the owner of this shop and one of my very good friends." Peyton said, chuckling a bit. I gave her a practice smile, which still seemed to tell her that I was nervous. He hadn't said anything, and his expression was changing into a soulful and fiendish glare. But the smile remained on his face, showing his sparkly pearly-whites. This form of his smile sent a few chills up my spine and made my hair want to erect itself and then fall off of my body completely. I bit my lower lip. The knowing of the book being in my backpack was starting to add to the guilt in my soul a bit. I made a faint whimper as I managed another smile and a nod to Primus. He smiled more intense and nodded, muttering a
"Hello there Christy, how're you my friend?" I shook my head and nodded, indicating that I was fine without the need of talking. I didn't want to talk to him, he frightened me allot. I didn't understand though, I was almost certain that he saw me take the book. It was just a feeling. I mean hell I was after all slumped over the backpack when he walked up. Right? Maybe he was just watching me the whole time, and took pictures or something… and later will call the cops. My head started to hurt again. I think Peyton could tell I was rather stressed; after all…I hated meeting new people or getting acquainted with any breathing thing that wasn't an animal.
"Okay, well Primus…Now that you two have gotten to know each-other SO very well, I think it's best that we take our leave." Peyton smiled at him, thanking him for her purchases, which she would so deeply enjoy when we got home… And I walked out of that bookstore with a straight face. Well a straight as possible face, I do mean.
Later that night, it seemed like all of time had just come to a halt. I was in my darkened bedroom staring at the crimson wonder before me in pure skeptical thought.
"How the hell are you supposed to open this damn thing?"
I wondered aloud as I gently ran my fingertips over the red gem, which the spider of the lock had held. The spider was a beautiful Onyx one with emerald green eyes; perhaps the red stone was a ruby. Maybe this is why its price was so high. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on the tip of my finger as I had pressed onto the red crystal. I saw a blood rushing out from beneath the hurting flesh. I bit my lower lip as I felt my hand set aflame with the touching of this gem. It hurt so much I started to scream and cry. Peyton had burst through my bedroom door and rushed to my side… By now, my vision was becoming quite blurry. This Book was sucking the bloody life from me! Literally! Peyton yanked the book from my hand, the skin on my finger tearing as she did so. I didn't mind. I was still sobbing as I gathered myself, staring at the book as the blood ran through the onyx spider, illuminating it with a faint red light. Peyton wrapped her arms around me and kept a stern eye on the book as well. The book began to shake, the eyes of the spider glowing now as the light subsided to the gems. It stopped it's trembling as it lay there on the floor. The once lifeless piece of literature was no longer moving. I slid over to it, Peyton following me as we gazed at it together. I reached my hand towards the book, extremely hesitant as I found myself able to open it. With it giving me no violent reaction, I picked it up and skimmed through it slowly…nothing was written on its pages. Now I was extremely confused.
"What the hell? It's got nothing in it!" Peyton hissed as if she wanted it to have some sort of valuable information from the literature. Apparently, since she didn't ask… she had known that I'd taken the book from the shop as well as Primus did because if Peyton knew, it had to be obvious…though she has a certain eye for detail, which cannot be explained. I quickly scrambled to my feet as I hurried over to my dresser, searching desperately for a writing utensil. I found a small hello-batty pen in an old jewelry box of mine, and quickly returned myself over to the book of certain death. I leaned over the book and began to write a simple "Hello?" I sat up and stared down at the book for a moment of blank un-active response. After a few minutes, right when Peyton was about to walk away from the whole stupid situation…The word that I had scribbled seemed to melt away and fade into the pages of the book, Almost like a sponge soaks up water. Then I saw in response, another word pop up in its place in a handwriting, which was far from my own…
It said "Hello."