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A customer came in just at the wrong time today. I was checking the doll chest. You can never be too careful. I slammed the chest as soon as I heard the door open. I yelled at myself in my head. Why didn't I lock the door? The customer asked about the chest. "I-I'm sorry, this rusty old thing isn't for sale."

They wanted it. They loved the mix of black and red paint, and commented on the strange pattern on it. I ran my hand along it smoothly. "I'm sorry, my… Grandmother gave me this." I was always good at lying. But only if I had time to practice.

"Nothings in it!" They gave a comeback about if it isn't bizarre then it wouldn't be in this shop. "I'm awfully sorry…But my…Urm… My room is just upstairs and I didn't have enough room." I bit my lip. If they didn't buy this they'd want to look…

The customer simply turned and sighed. "Oh! If you're looking for something along the lines of strange chests than I've got the perfect thing for you!" I ran to one of the closets and pulled open the heavy wooden door. Shelves of chests stuffed with god knows what. I reached up high and pulled out a small rusted silver one, blowing the dust off, I handed it to the annoyed customer.

"Now, this is only big enough for say, a few books, but it's story is a fine one."

- To avoid the light-

They say that in the days of knights and kings, there was a simple peasant who had been called a slave his entire life. So much so, that he forgot his name. One day, this peasant was asked to look after a knights horse. He took care of the horse, but couldn't help but wonder what was in the bag around the horses neck. His morals and fear told him that it was bad to tick-off a knight, but his greed only took a few days to take control.

There he found this very chest. He pondered how a horse was even able to carry something this heavy, but that did not occupy his mind for long, for this nameless peasant wanted whatever untold riches where inside. He opened it, only to see a list of names scratched onto the top of one of the chests corners down to the middle of the chest. The last name there was the name of the knight.

The peasant closed the chest in anger and walked back into the night. Something called him to go back there. To gaze into the chest again. Temptation took hold. He hurried back to the chest and opened it in a second. But the names where gone. And after a while, so was the horse. And the stable. In a splitsecond the peasant was floating in darkness. After a few mores seconds the peasant was somewhere warm. A bed.

The peasant must be insane. He ran towards a window and looked uponthe land. It was his home. He was in the castle. But how could this be? A mere minute ago he was kneeling down besides a chest, gazing upon a list of names. He was happier than he had ever been.

But then everything changed. The glory was replaced by fire. Fire everywhere. And yet, it did not burn. He heard a voice. A scarred, harsh, echoing voice.

"Surrender your life to return."

The peasant was gasping for air. He didn't give a second thought. He nodded and heard laughter. Then he was back in the stable, staring into the chest. According to him, whenever he stared into the chest he would be there again. His heaven. Where he had a name. Where he was happy. Where he was something besides a puppet. According to passers by he stared into the chest untill the day he died. He did not hear, nor feel, the outside world. He just had his little piece of paradise. They couldn't remove his corpse from the chest for another three weeks. When they looked in the chest they saw, scratched on the bottom of the list a name. That name was-

"Sorry! That's where the story ends. If you want to know his name you'll have to buy it and see for yourself. Don't look a second time though. Me? No, I've never looked in it once. I'd like to keep my soul thank you very much. Of course, they could just be stories. I'm using thousand year old word, here. You'll take it? Thanks!"

I once again accepted the beautiful pay. The customer left, I drew down the blinds, locked the door and walked towards the doll chest.

"Sorry to keep you waiting…" I opened the chest. "…My Beloved…"

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