The Monkey's Paw
"Please! Please! Pleeaasssseee!! Can we go in there?" A loud whining was heard.
"Yao's Store of Mystical Objects and Relics. Really Mattie? You want to go in there?" An incredulous voice sounded after the first.
"Please Alfred! Can't we go in there? I waited for you for an hour when we were at the sporting goods store!" The whining continued.
"Fine…I do owe you for that." The second voice was reluctant to let the first one get his way.
"Yes!"
"But please! Let's not stay too long."
Alfred and Matthew, twin brothers were shopping at the local mall for a gift for their father's birthday. Unfortunately, they hadn't found anything yet that would please their picky, English father. They had gotten distracted along their search and had ended up looking at things that they wanted instead. Alfred had wandered into the large sporting goods store to look for football and baseball gear while Matthew had waited patiently for his brother. It was alright that they got distracted though, they still had a few more days left until their father's birthday.
As they were exploring a more unfamiliar part of the mall, Matthew had spotted a new store, Yao's Store of Mystical Objects and Relics, that wasn't there the last time they came to the mall. Matthew, being all into mysterious things, was immediately attracted to the dark, musty looking store. He begged Alfred to go inside. He grabbed his brother's arm in a death grip and used his undeniable puppy eyes just to make Alfred agree. When Alfred he had, Matthew pumped his arms into the air as a sign of victory and grabbed his brother's hand, determined to not let him escape going into the store. The two then entered, one more reluctantly than the other.
A little bell chimed softly as the brothers entered the store. A small Asian man was working behind the counter. He looked as if he was twenty or so years of age. Along the walls of the store were shelves lined with various goods and relics. Some were beautiful while others looked dingy and old.
"Ah! Hello aru!" An Asian man greeted as the two walked into the small space.
"Hello!" Matthew said cheerfully back.
"Can I help you with anything aru?"
"Uhh…not now I guess…but then again…could you help us look for something for our father? His birthday is coming up and we don't have a gift for him." Matthew said sheepishly, a little embarrassed by the fact.
"Here come with me aru. I'll find you the perfect gift aru. I'm Yao by the way aru." He gave a short bow to the boys.
"I'm Matthew and that's my brother Alfred." He said, pointing with his slender finger to his twin who was still standing by the door way.
"Nice to meet the both of you aru. Now if you will Matthew, I have the perfect thing over here aru…"
The two of them wandered into the back and Alfred was all alone in the entry. He began to look around at the shelves lined with antique looking like things, old and dusty, and probably a few hundred years old too. As he began to look at another shelf, his eye spot a slender, golden tube sticking out form the corner of one of the other shelves near him. He picked it up and examined it, unaware that his brother and the store owner were coming back.
"This is perfect! Thank you so much! How did you know that our dad liked fairies? That's so cool! Look Alfred! Look at what Mr. Yao choose for Dad!."
Startled at his brother's voice, Alfred jumped a little, almost dropping the tube in his hands. He caught it just in time, right as it left to hit the floor, too.
"Jeeze Matt! Don't scare me like that! I almost dropped this thing I was holding!" He couldn't stop staring at it, the golden tube.
"Oh! Sorry Alfred, I wasn't paying attention to what you were doing." Matthew said, a little embarrassed.
"It's ok Mattie." That was when he felt the eyes on his arm.
Alfred looked up from his examination if the tube only to see Yao staring at him intensely. Matthew was right by him, holding a fairly large book with fairies decorating the cover.
"Is there a problem?" He asked a little peeved that the other man had been giving him a nasty glare..
"How is it that you can see it? Nobody can see it…It must have chosen you to be the owner…" Yao mumbled to himself, his familiar "aru" absent from his speech.
"Excuse me? I really don't understand what you're talking about." Alfred said, a little confused.
"The tube." Yao stated, "You can have it."
"What!? Really!? I can have it?" Alfred was elated. He wanted to examine the tube further.
"Yes."
"Al! I don't think that we can pay for it!" Matthew spoke up, "We only have enough for the book for Dad…"
"It doesn't matter." Yao interjected. "You can have them for free, both of the items."
"Really? Here, we have to pay you something…" Matthew got out his wallet and tried to give Yao a twenty dollar bill.
"No! I do not need the money. Just take the tube out of here."
"Oh..ok then…" Matthew put the money back into his wallet. He and his brother then turned to leave the store. "Thanks again Mr. Yao."
"Wait! Before you go…" He pointed at Alfred with a thin, pale finger, "Don't open that tube. It'll cause you destruction that will ruin your life. Don't open it." With that said, he turned and went to the back of the store.
"What do you think he meant when he said not to open it?" Alfred asked his brother as they walked together back to their car, the tube in his hand.
"I don't know Alfred but I think that you should just follow his orders and not open it." Matthew stated hesitantly.
"Pshhh! Yeah right Mattie, like I'm going to follow the directions given to me by some weird Asian guy." Alfred said as climbed into the driver's seat of their little car.
"Alfred, I'd do it if I were you."
"Oh stop being such a worry wart Mattie! Nothing's going to happen to us." And with that, the two drove out of the parking lot and to their house. If only Alfred knew what he was about to get into…
Haha! A new story! So let me say this now, I wrote this in the span of about thirty to forty minutes. There's bound to be some mistakes in it and since it's about 1:16 in the morning, I'll fix them later. I hope that you'll enjoy this story though, I was inspired by that one XXXHolic episode with the Monke Paw in it :D Anyway, it's probably not as good as The Boy with the Purple Eyes but I wanted to try a new format and such. I think this story will be only six chapters long, one for each wish, including this chapter. FYI, I'm not basing it off the real story but the XXXHolic episode. in the real story I think that you only get three wishes...Oh well. Please, please please review! I need the help with this kind of narration. I want it to sound less boring and more interesting!
