Okamoto Comics & Games was a nondescript corner store in New Haven, Connecticut. The lettering was in an Asian style font typical of a Chinese restaurant, the once scarlet coloring now faded and chipped by the ravages of sun, rain, and wind. It was a small store, seeming all the more cramped by a neighboring pastry shop nearly three times its size. Undoubtedly the pastry shop siphoned off most of the foot traffic that would otherwise walk past the humble comic store, which mostly went unnoticed by passerby. When asked about it, people usually shrug and have nothing in particular to say other than it had been there as long as they could remember, but when it had come into existence no one seemed to know. So why Aden Pace felt compelled to take a look inside on his walk home from James Hillhouse High, he couldn't explain. At the time, he chalked it up to boredom.
A bell tinkled as he pushed the door open, announcing his presence. Aden took in the tight space, the walls covered by shelves of worn and new comics, card game packs, and glass displays containing figurines of superheroes and the rarer individual comics and cards. Tiny as it was, it had a certain character to it that Aden liked. He wondered why he had never entered the store before as he thumbed through old Green Lantern comics, absently flipping through an issue when a cover caught his eye.
"Can I help you with anything?" Mildly taken by surprise, Aden's head lifted as he turned to voice, which had come from the back corner of the store. Behind a worn blue countertop stood a short, balding Asian man with a graying pencil thin mustache. A thin smile lit up his round face, accenting the prominent apples of his cheeks. His voice was light and mildly accented. As he seemed to be the only other person present, the boy assumed he was the namesake of Okamoto comics. A shorthaired white cat was lying splayed across the counter, the tip of its tail twitching absently. Aden's attention was immediately drawn to its eyes, one of which was gooseberry green, the other a startling blue. The cat stared at him, unblinking. Aden smiled slightly at the man in return.
"I'm just looking," he said, indicating the comic in his hands. "Thanks though," he added quickly. The man seemed so eager to help that he almost felt bad he didn't need anything in particular. He wondered briefly how many customers the store received on a daily basis. He guessed that it probably wasn't many. Jake wandered deeper into the store, his eyes scanning the rows of Magic cards on the far wall. He looked briefly to his right. The man who Aden presumed was Okamoto was looking at him with interest, the same pleasant smile on his face, but when Aden looked at the man directly, he averted his eyes, occupying his hands with something behind the counter. The cat had not moved, but its head had turned toward him to follow his movement. Other than the twitching tail, it was still as a statue, with its unusual eyes still trained on him. Mildly creepy, he thought, and resumed looking at the wall.
"You know, today is free card day. Would you like a card?" The man announced, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"Um…sure why not? What kind of card?" He walked toward the owner as the Asian man continued to rustle things behind the counter.
"Pokémon," he replied. Aden's lips twisted up at one corner slightly. He had not played with Pokémon cards for years, but he remembered all the effort he spent collecting them as eager eight year old. Trading them with classmates were among some of his more fond memories of his elementary school days. Hard to believe that was almost ten years ago. He wondered what had happened to his collection. Had he thrown them out? Not likely, he thought. He had been fairly attached to them as a child. They were probably gathering dust in the recesses of his attic somewhere.
He stood awkwardly at the counter as the store owner rustled around. The cat broke its staring contest with Aden for an instant to shoot the small man what appeared to be a perfect expression of irritation, as if annoyed with his fumbling.
"Are you having trouble?" Aden asked. Okamoto shook his head, then finally pulled a single blue backed card from underneath the desk.
"Ah, here we are," he said, the pleasant smile back on his face. He handed Aden the card. Before he could look at it, the sudden movement of the cat's head caught his attention. The animal looked at the man with what appeared to be urgency. The owner stared back, his face going momentarily blank. Slightly perplexed, Aden put the card in the back pocket of his jeans and hitched his backpack higher onto his shoulders. Alright…I think this might be a good time to go. He was suddenly eager to leave the deserted store and its slightly odd owner. Not wanting to interrupt whatever moment the old man was having with his pet, Aden mumbled "Thank-you, sir," and started to turn around. His words seemed to snap Okamoto out of his trance, since his eyes snapped up. The cat's eyes again locked onto the blonde haired youth with renewed interest.
"Wait," he said. "Could you spare a moment?" Aden paused. "I received a new shipment of comics today, but my shelves are full at the moment. Would you mind helping an old man? The box needs to go to the cellar for now, and the stairs are hard on my knees." Aden was momentarily distracted by the cat's eyes before he answered. He wished it would stop staring at him like that.
"Oh…sure. No problem," he said. He supposed he couldn't refuse without feeling like a terrible person. He was probably the first and only customer Okamoto would have all day. The man's face lit up, his smile making the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen.
"Thank you, young man. Please, come around." He motioned for Aden behind the counter. A sizable box sat on the floor. Aden squatted down and took it in his arms. The box was fairly heavy; he wondered what the man would have done on his own.
"This way," he said, waving to him. He left the counter and took quick, shuffling steps toward the entrance of the shop. The cat leaped off the counter to follow at his heels, its tail held high. Aden walked behind until he came to the narrow stairwell. A flight of uneven wooden steps led down to the cellar, the bottom of which he couldn't see, obscured as it was by inky darkness.
"Careful now, the bulb burnt out. I haven't had a chance to replace it." Aden started down, pausing when a particularly slanted step groaned in protest. Paying close attention to his feet, he didn't bother to look up as he addressed the store owner.
"Where do you want—" The forceful shove against his upper back pitched Aden forward. He cried out briefly, the box tumbling from his arms as he fell. The world spun on its axis as he flipped head over heels. He caught a quick glimpse of a cat standing at the top of stairs. Its fur was pink, a two pronged tail waving high over its head. Intense eyes, one blue, the other green, stared back at him. Before his brain could even process what he had seen, his head smacked against the edge of a step, and he sensed no more.