High Hopes
Jesse's POV:
The morning was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly. The sky a deep blue, stretching out for miles into the horizon where the sun was just breaking. The trees were a gorgeous, lime green and the birds were chirping merrily, hidden amongst the pink blossoms and basking in the joy of another fresh spring day. Yet, the air held a sharp winters frost, slowly melting away from the last remnants of the long gone icy winter nights. The sea was calm, and from where my house overlooked First Beach, I could see the early fishers, putting faith in the promise of a good catch.
These were the days that I felt held the best potential for something new and exiting to burst out and say ' Hey, this is what life is about!'. It felt good and I had hope that maybe today was the day I'd finally meet my soul mate.
Yeah, just like you to be optimistic today. Just like every other stinking day where you find yourself wallowing in self pity and sorrow once you realise that fate has cursed you to live alone in this world. Yeah, good luck with that.
Don't worry, I'm used to tearing myself down. Feeling a great empty hole inside you for three years kind of deteriorates your high hopes.
This must be it. I looked up at the old, eroding shed, supposedly my second hand bookstore. The only sign giving away what it was, was the grimy window, where if you squinted hard enough, you could make out the shapes of bookshelves and a counter. Well it certainly looks antique. I opened the door not so quietly, because it creaked, then the bell clanged then it unexpectedly swung back and slammed shut behind me, waking up a grumbling old lady behind the counter.
" Good Morning. Welcome to Nuchatlaht Book Store." The lady gave a huge yawn and waddled into a back room, leaving me alone in the eerie book shop. Friendly reception. It was still very early morning so I was the only person there, though I highly doubted there would be many people there on it's busiest day.
Everything looked so old and fragile. I felt that if I touched anything, it would crumble into brown leathery dust- if you can get that.
I scoured the bookshelves, looking for any books about legends. Guess I didn't need to look far as most of the books in the store were about just that, though many were hardly readable as the ancient pages were covered in ancient stains and the ancient ink had also faded into ancient smudges. The ancient shop was so...old.
"Wow, it's old in here."
I finally found a book that looked like the most recent. I blew the dust off and looked at the green leather cover. It was blank, so I opened it to the second page where the title of the book usually is, but there was just some curly writing across it. There was a date at the top but it had stared to fade and was indecipherable.
I flipped through the pages but they were all the same. Someone had written all over the pages. It looked like a diary. I opened the inside cover to finally find the title. It read:
Changing Perceptions
by
Emily Young
I had no idea who Emily Young was, but if this was a diary, then the stories would be true and from the perspective of some one with a front row seat. So this was my source for information.
I took the small book up to the counter and rang the bell. The lady came grumbling into the room and snatched the book from my hands. She took one swift look at it and then turned her back on me, tottering to the back room.
" This book is not for sale," the lady said grumpily, flinging aside the bead curtain.
" But it was on the shelf-"
" It's not for sale," she called from the other room. So if that was the way it was going to be, then I had to try my luck elsewhere.
" All right then. Good day," I said cheerily, spinning on my heel.
" Wait!" I knew she couldn't refuse a customer, she barely had any," I could make up a price on the spot." She then walked back in and fumbled roughly through the pages to see what it was worth. " $24" she snarled.
"16" I bargained.
"But it's antique! It costs a fortune!"
"It's a diary! 16 and that's final!"
"Fine. Deal. Take the stupid diary," she spat. I handed her the money and she shoved the book into my arms. Grumpy old witch, no wonder she has no customers.
I left without a word.
19th April
I'm writing this to keep track of what has happened so far. These stories I'm about to tell you are all true- I experienced them myself. Maybe one day, someone will find this book and I will be remembered and my stories will be legends and will be worth a lot of money.
I'm writing this so that my great grand children to how many degree can share this experience with me as I write from the time it all happened. I hope to not ever forget these days, adventures so incredibly shocking that if the pack from the future were to ever read about, they would surely not believe a word of it.
But trust me now, I am not uttering one lie and everything I am about to tell you, is true.
I flipped through some of the next pages. As I skimmed the lines, I felt quite nauseous from the amount of love and adoration she felt towards this Sam guy.
I wasn't looking for that kind of soppy stuff, I wanted to know about legends. I found a page where she told the story about this Jacob who left his pack because he was the true Alfa by blood. It sounded startlingly similar to the stories at the bonfire. About the Great Jacob who left his pack so that he could start an army of newborns for a vampire reign. I guess that story was false, the legends must have changed over the years.
In fact, Emily said that he was a sweet boy who was leaving to save his love.
But this was not what Jonah was talking about.
Emily had said that he started his own pack at first, but then left with his imprint and his pack dispersed. Sam's pack stayed on. So there was only one pack.
No. Jonah said something about someone called Vince and other. The story Emily told of was not the story I was trying to research.
My legend hunting had come to no avail. At least I found out that some legends could be more true than I had initially thought. I had started to rethink things slightly. I was more open minded and slowly slowly, I was starting to believe.