Chapter 3

Summer Va-Ca

"Come on…come on…" said a freckled brown haired boy. His hazel eyes moved along with every twitch of the second hand on the clock. "Go faster."

"What was that, Matt?" asked the balding man up in front of the classroom. He pulled his glasses down to the bottom of his long nose as he looked at his student with a puzzled look.

"Um…I said…uh, uh…go on. Go on, Mr. Lullman."

"Oh! Well, in that case, you see that the answer has to be equal to the opposite angle of the adjacent side…" he rambled on; paying no attention on how much his students hated his class. Every student was either running their hands through their hair, burying their faces in their hands, or sleeping on their desk.

A second after Mr. Lullman went back to his work on the board, a blond haired boy with thin rimmed glasses tapped Matt on the shoulder.

"Go on? Nice save, doofus."

"Shut up, Derek." Matt snapped.

"Why can't class be over? It's the last day of school! Why are we learning?" Matt though to himself. Matt looked up at the clock. It was still another seven minutes until the end of class. Matt groaned as he collapsed on his desk.

"I wish that time would speed up."

All of a sudden, the bell rang. I had the same effect as a starting gun of a track meet. Every person in the room, including Mr. Lullman, bolted toward the door.

"That was odd," Matt said.

"What was odd?" Derek asked. Derek sat behind waiting for Matt. Matt usually gave Derek a ride home after school since Derek didn't have his license. It was a regular routine for them. Matt would pick him up and go to school. Then, after school Matt would take him over to McDonald's. Finally, he would drop him off.

Today was different though. Since today was the last day of school, they planned to go shopping together at the local mall.

"Nothing," Matt replied putting it aside.

"Are you ready?

"Oh yeah."

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" Matt sang as he skipped across the mall floor. "Free at last!"

"Summer Va-Ca! All freakin' right!" added Derek. The two of them had been planning the mall trip for almost a whole month, and they had already bought at least two hundred dollars worth combined of clothes, games, and cd's.

"So…where next?" Derek asked.

"Oooh! What's this place?" Matt asked as they walked past a small store. There was a mysterious feeling about the place. It had dark curtains decorated with sequins that made them seem like they sparkled as they moved. There was a small sign above the door that read

Mystic Shop

"Obviously a place that doesn't get a lot of business," Derek guessed. "C'mon Matt. Let's go."

Before he even said this though, Matt was already opening the door to the store. He took a quick glance behind him as he waved his cautious friend to follow.

Inside the store it looked as if they were in some type of gothic arena. There were many weird looking objects scattered around the room.

"Okay…and I thought you were weird," Derek joked. "Matt? Are you listening?"

Matt was intrigued by everything he saw in the store. He was picking up every trinket, box, and gizmo and staring at it with amazement.

"These are so cool!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah…if you slit your wrists for a living," said Derek as he held up what appeared to be a human hand attached to a stone bird, but quickly dropped it in disgust.

"Where's the store owner? There's no one here!" Matt examined.

"This place is so creepy, even the owner doesn't want to be here!"

They continued to look around the store when they found what appeared to be the front desk. It was extremely messy. There were papers, objects, and books scattered all around it. What caught Matt's eye though were the titles of the books. Matt wiped the dust off the crest of the books to read the titles.

"History of Magic…Master's Guide to Spells…Wizard Works…does some kind of magician live here?" Matt asked Derek.

"I don't know, but I really don't want to stay here when someone gets sawed in half," replied Derek as he continued to look around the place in disgust.

Matt, however, was still intrigued by everything in the store. He continued looking through papers sorted out on the desk until he looked up. He saw a curtained doorway just behind the desk. He moved past the curtain. Both of them were completely oblivious to the fact that there was a sign above the doorway that read,

Keep out!

If the front side of the store was creepy, Derek didn't know what to think of the back room. It held just as many disfigured, if not more, objects than the front. Derek looked around and saw Matt standing in the way back holding up another book.

"Winnie the Pooh? A lot of different from the other ones." He put the book down as he saw a more interesting object. It was a small decorative red chest. It was outlined with ruby colors and in the middle was a silver latch keeping it closed.

"Matt! Don't touch that!"

"Why?"

"Because…it might be like a…a human finger or something!"

"Oh come on! I know this place is a little weird, but it's not like a cannibalism shop!"

"Who cares? Just…don't touch that, Matt."

"What could it hurt?" Matt said as he flipped the latch.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know I had customers."

written by Matt