Authors note:This is a bit of an odd story idea, in which a modern day person gets sucked in to a book and is able to change it's story through their actions. This is not going to be a highly smutty story, but it is going to be dark, depressing, and very VERY OOC for some characters later on. I hope you all enjoy this tale, and I highly request some reviews so that I know where I can improve as a writer. They also keep me motivated to keep writing. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Kaylee Denmoor
The light pitter-patter of rain on the roof of the small car was a calming sound. The slight squeak of the windshield wipers swishing back and forth in front of the hazel eyes behind the steering wheel, being little more than a slight annoyance. Kaylee had been driving for a little over ten minutes, and she already wanted to go back to her tiny apartment building. It had looked like such a nice day out, before the rain blew in, but that is the nature of living in the mountains. She had worn her denim shorts and a light tank top, thinking she would spend a few hours walking about downtown Flagstaff. But now she was just glad she had an umbrella in her back seat.
The car pulled to a stop at a red light, causing an eerie sort of glow inside of the vehicle. It is a strange type of person, to excel at being alone. She had no real friends, and no family, once her mother had passed away three years before. Most who knew her considered her odd and antisocial. She never went out to drink with her coworkers, never spoke of having a boyfriend, or girlfriend, and rarely spoke when around people, unless she needed to.
"She may be a bit introverted, but she's a good worker." She had overheard her boss say that once. And it was true. Kaylee worked hard, and efficiently, never asking for more than she needed. When she did speak she was polite, and never raised her voice. The nature as to why she was like this was a mystery. Those who had known her the longest say that the death of her mother had hit her hard. Before then she was still strange, but more sociable. She would crack jokes, and hang out with friends. Now, she spent her time alone, and everyone respected that.
What they were unaware of, so far, was that one thing in her life had not changed with the death of her mother. Her love of books. Even now she could be found out in a park on a summer day, sitting under a tree and just reading.
It was for this one, lingering, hobby that she had really gone out of her cozy little home for, today. She had been forced to recycle some of her old favorites, due to them being too worn out to read any more, and she adamantly refused to go electronic. So, as the light turned to green, she pulled around the corner and in to a nearby parking lot, were she would not need to pay the meter, and pulled out her small, fold-up umbrella. As she stepped out her car, her combat boot sloshing in-to a puddle, she made her way towards the small bookshop on the corner of the road.
The shop was warm and smelled of old, dusty paper the moment she stepped inside. She leaned her closed umbrella up against the front counter and gave a small smile to the clerk.
"Kaylee! It's been a while!" The older, hispanic gentleman said with a big, friendly smile.
"Hello, Mr. Greene." She replied kindly, her throat rough from a recent cold. "Any new arrivals?"
"Yes!" He said happily, moving out from behind the counter and looking up at the young lady. "Just arrived today, in fact, and I had a feeling you would want to see them! I was about to give you a call actually."
"I'd love to!" She said, a much larger smile spreading across her pale face, as she pushed her ashy-blonde hair out of her eyes.
Mr. Greene motioned for her to follow and lead her through the claustrophobic isles and in to the back of the shop. The room was small, and dark, perfect for keeping older books. Greene pulled out a hefty looking box and set it on to the table he would normally use to examine the condition of old books. As he pulled it open, however, Kaylee could see that these books did not look particularly old, and would be fine to be sold for reading. He reached in and pulled out a few, rather large looking books, bound in what looked like a fresh leather.
"Repurposed?" She asked, and he nodded.
"Apparently they had been falling apart, so they were rebound and touched up a bit for the sake of selling. I won't complain though, I've been wanting to get my hands on some more Hugo's for a while."
"Are they all Hugo?" Kaylee asked, her eyes lighting up. "Is there a-"
"Already out and ready for you, Ms. Denmoor." He smiled, handing her the largest book in the box. Kaylee took it and ran her hand over the soft, brown leather, reading the words that had been pressed in to cover.
Les Miserables.
"This version is bigger than the last print I had…" Kaylee stated, opening the book and flipping through a few of the thin pages.
"That's because this one is a direct translation." Greene said with a smile. "No cuts, no edits. This is as close to the original as you can get, without the ability to speak French."
"Wow…" She breathed in the smell of the paper, and ink. She could already tell just how much her original version had been cut, without even looking at the page number. The paper was almost like tissue paper, the kind you would find in a bible, and the text was certainly not a size eleven font.
"Is it for sale yet?" She asked, looking down at the man's kindly brown eyes.
"Of course!" Greene said with a nod. "It's priced at twenty-five dollars, but for you it can go for twenty."
"You don't have to do that.."
"Hey, your my favorite customer! You deserve a discount!." He laughed and began to pile the other Hugos back into their box before stopping, and frowning. "What in the world is that?"
The muttered words caught Kaylee's attention and she drew her eyes away from the book and to 's hand, were there was a small, silver object.
"Is that some kind of book mark?" She asked, leaning over to look at it closer. The shop owner shrugged and turned it over in his hand, so that they both could look at it.
It was, in fact, a small silver quill. It was flat and long, the metal feather on the end sweeping upwards in one direction dramatically. It could certainly fit into a book to mark it, but it sure was fancy looking. There were, what looked like, small colored gems inlaid into the quill, so small they looked like little more than colored glitter from a distance.
"Well, this wasn't in the order, or on the receipt." Greene said confused. "Still, it's hardly something valuable, it's not even real silver, you can tell from the weight. Why don't you take it, Kaylee?"
"I don't know, I hardly need another bookmark…" She hummed in thought. "At least give the people a call, in case they need it sent back."
"As you say." He sighed and finished putting the rest of the books away. "I'll give them a call, if you want to browse a bit more. It won't take more than five minutes."
Kaylee nodded and held the quill as he placed it in her hand. She sighed and stuck it in to the middle of her book, for safe-keeping, as she returned to the main store and looked around.
The shelves were as full as ever, unfortunately not a lot of college students liked to buy old books. But this was like an amusement park for Kaylee. Not matter how many times she came here throughout her life, she would always find something interesting. While she preferred the classics; such as Hugo and Stoker, she would often find a few small, unknown authors in here that managed to tell really good stories about adventure and justice.
She browsed for a short while, picking out a few more books she hadn't had the chance to read before, before she went up to the front counter to pay, just at was hanging up his phone.
"They know nothing about a quill bookmark." He said with a smile. "They said to keep it. So it's yours now. Are you all set to go?"
"Yep." She sighed and pulled a small wad of cash out of her back pocket as Mr. Greene piled all of her books in to one of the cloth bags he always kept behind the desk. After paying for her books, taking her rather hefty bag, and picking her umbrella back up, Kaylee reopened her umbrella and quickly made her way back to her car, careful to keep her books dry.
As she pulled back out onto the road, and started to roll down the wet street, she couldn't help but have a small smile on her face. She would go home, start up a fire, and read the rest of her weekend away. Her new copy of Les Miserables should keep her busy for at least a week, if not longer. It was strange that, no matter how many times she had read the book, seen any of the movies, or listened to the musical, she always enjoyed the story. It was just one of those that continued to hold her interest.
Continuing to drive, she softly began humming to herself, the sound of her tires over the wet pavement causing a slight humming inside the car. It was oddly relaxing. So relaxing, that she did not notice that the humming wasn't coming from her tires, but from the bag at her side.
A twelve minute drive later, Kaylee was stepping out of her car and running under the awning of her apartment building. Her heavy boots clanked on the metal stairs as she climbed up to the second floor and to her apartment. Taking her keyes out of her pocket, she unlocked the door and stepped inside of her little home.
It was a plain sort of place, with only one reclining chair with a coffee stand, a desk that currently held her mostly unused laptop, and a bookshelf. Everything was nice and clean, and in its place. She kicked off her wet, and slightly muddy, boots by the door and stepped in to the kitchen to turn on the kettle for some tea.
At the stove began to heat up, Kaylee went over to the bookshelf with her bag, and carefully placed her new books into whatever empty spots she could find. Except for Les Miserables which she sat on the coffee table by her chair.
When the kettle began to whistle, she quickly made her tea, and a sandwich, before making her way to her chair and settling in for the day.
Eating quickly before picking up her book again, and wiping her hands off on a paper towel, Kaylee pulled a soft, fuzzy blanket up over her bare legs as she pulled the book on to her lap, and slipped the silver quill out from between it's pages.
She looked at the quill again, running her fingers over the carved feather. Even if it wasn't real silver, it was pretty. The little stones in it glistened red and blue in the dim, rain light from the window. She turned it over in her hand again, and frowned. There was writing on the quill, a tiny little fraze carved in to the side of it. "Recensere."
Is that Latin? Kaylee thought as she looked at the words that seemed to glow slightly as she tilted the small item towards the light. She shrugged, deciding that she would look it up later, before placing it on the arm of her chair and opening the book up to it's first page.
Kaylee Denmoor read for the rest of the day, and long past sunset. It was true, this version of the book had a lot more in it to get through, especially the various histories of the many characters involved. While it was fascinating, Kaylee could understand why people would have cut some of it out, as it did tend to drag on. Nonetheless, Kaylee had made a good dent into the book by eight o'clock that night, having read about Jean Valjean, and how he stole the silver from the kindly Bishop, and was saved from being rearrested. Now the book was in a town called Mantreuil-ser-mer, were a M. Madelein, who was really Valjean, had made a glass factory, and the Inspector, Javert, had just arrived in town. It was a good place to stop, with plenty of suspense and yet a nice calm.
Stretching out her back, Kaylee picked up the small quill from her chair arm and set it into the crease of the book. Just as she did, as if it was timed, a loud booming sound shook her entire apartment. Kaylee bolt upright in her chair and looked outside, were lightning flashed.
That was a close one…. She thought as the smell of electricity filled the air. Lightning must have struck right around here, it wasn't uncommon. Still, the way the air around her seemed to vibrate, her hands shaking as she held on to the book, made her nervous.
I had better get to bed, so I don't throw off my sleep schedule for work on monday. She thought as the grasped the covers of her book and moved to close it. Only, it wouldn't.
Looking down at her hand as they tried to press the pages of the book closed, she found that she could not get it to move. She tried again, harder, but still it was like the book was being held open by something. The quill in the middle of the pages was glimmering in the light.
"What the hell is going on?" She muttered to herself, just before another thum hit her room, shaking it so hard that she was thrown out of her chair, hitting the floor with great force, landing on top of the thick book. The lights around her flickered out as she sat up and looked around in the darkness.
"What the hell!?" She called out in shock as she sat on her knees, trying to will her eyes to adjust to the dim. A slight glow beneath her caught her attention. Thinking her cell phone must have turned on when she fell she reached towards to glow before stopping and staring at it.
It was the quill. It was letting of a white light that illuminated the pages it was sat between. It was mesmerizing, and Kaylee could not move from her spot on the floor. The pages were white, with no words written on them at all, but at Kaylee continued to watch, the quill bagan to move.
A soft, flowing writing began to scrawl across the page in silver letters as the light brew brighter and brighter.
Montrueil-sur-mer.
The light engulfed Kaylees vision before she could see the rest of what was being written. Another loud clash of thunder, and one more flash of lightning, and the room was dark and silent. The gentle patter of rain hit the window as the silent room sat, empty, save for a mostly-empty book sitting on the floor, with a few silver words written on a page.
Montreuil-sur-mer, 1819
Kaylee Denmoor awoke in a dark alleyway, confused, and alone.