CHAPTER 1: JUST ANOTHER DAY
I've been having a lot of really weird thoughts lately…
Like, is any of this for real, or not…?
It was late afternoon. The last class had let out for the day, and all the students in Grant County High were running through the halls and catching up with their friends. Grant County High was the only high school in the district of the same name, so students came from all over northern Kentucky. A lot of kids had a long way home to look forward to.
Jill Bones didn't have that issue—she lived in the northern town of Crittenden, which was a mere ten minutes up the highway from school. Normally she liked the brisk drive, but now she was dreading it, wishing she lived in a further town to justify not going home right away. She heaved a sigh as she walked out the front door…
…and got her boot caught on the edge of the door, knocking her to the ground and making her backpack flip over her head. A few students chuckled as they walked by her, and she glared up in aggravation.
"Boy, Miss Fortune is in full swing, eh?" someone asked over her head.
"Shut your mouth," Jill growled, but she calmed down as she saw who it was. Standing over her was a short blonde girl with a nose ring and streaks of green in her hair. She was dressed all in black just like Jill, except she also wore green eyeshadow and lipstick. The girl grabbed Jill's hand and pulled her to her feet.
"Thanks, Zoe," Jill sighed. "Sorry for snapping at you."
"It's fine. Sorry for the nickname—I thought you didn't mind that one," Zoe said. She and Jill walked side by side, with Zoe only coming up to Jill's chin. Despite being 'goth sisters', their insistence on dark clothes were all they had in common physically. Zoe was small and pudgy, with bright blue eyes and tannish skin decorated in freckles. Jill was pale and lanky, with dull gray eyes and boring black hair that laid flat against her back. Zoe always looked so cool that Jill felt almost like a ghost next to her.
"I do mind being called Miss Fortune," Jill clarified. "I just don't comment on it most of the time because I'm so used to it at this point. But now it's getting worse—vending machines don't give me what I want, automatic doors close in my face, the flowers in my room just withered after a single day…"
"Your bad mojo is affecting you, too," Zoe agreed. "Your grades are dropping, you're angry and defensive all the time, you're not eating as much… honestly, I'm a little worried about you."
Jill stopped in her tracks, glaring down at the asphalt. There was no use hiding anything from her best friend and fellow goth. "My grandpa's inheritance came in today," she announced. "It took a while to process after the funeral, but it's finally here, and it's waiting for me at home now. I don't want to look at it, though…"
"Jill…" Zoe said quietly. "I know your grandpa's death has really shaken you up. But maybe when you get his inheritance, you'll feel better. You'll always have a part of him with you."
"I don't want a part of him with me! I want him with me!" Jill blurted out. "This isn't fair! Grandpa was always with me when I was little, and then I got older and I had less time for him, and now… now he's gone! I feel like this is my fault, like I could've done something—"
"There's nothing you could've done," Zoe reminded her. "He was pretty old."
"I was the one who placed the 9-1-1 call when he fell over," Jill confessed. "And I don't even remember it. It's like that memory is blocked out, but how could I forget that? That was Grandpa's last day, and I don't even have it with me anymore!"
"Jill, when your grandpa died, you were so rattled that you couldn't go to school for a week," Zoe said. "You couldn't even answer the phone when I tried to call. Maybe it's better if you forgot that…"
Jill sighed. Zoe was blunt as a butter knife, but she was usually right about these things.
"I shouldn't be rattled in the first place," Jill said at last. "I'm training to be a mortician. I'll be taking over my parents' funeral home when I graduate school. But I can't look at a dead body, I can't stand the smell of embalmment, and I can't even process Grandpa's death, even when so many have passed through our home's doors… I'm a lousy mortician, that's what I am."
"Jill, knock it off. None of this is your fault," Zoe snapped. "And if your parents are blaming you for this, then I'm gonna—"
"No, they don't blame me. Mom and Dad are grieving, too," Jill explained quickly. "The only person blaming me is… well, me."
"Well, stop being mean to yourself, or I'll knock your block off," Zoe said with a smirk.
A loud honk came from the cherry-red pickup truck in the parking lot.
"I'M COMING, DAD!" Zoe called. "I'm talkin' to my friend! Keep your shorts on, will you?!" She rolled her eyes and turned back to Jill. "Well, I gotta head home. See you tomorrow, Jill. Remember, you're a goth—you're tough as bone." She walked out to the red pickup and jumped in, then left school with her father like every other day. Zoe Whitman lived in Williamstown, which was also ten minutes away, but south. Jill wished that Zoe lived in Crittenden, but as she learned very early on in life, she couldn't have everything she wanted.
Jill walked over to a small gray Mercury and got into the passenger seat. Christopher Bones, a pale dark-haired man wearing a powder-gray suit, was at the wheel.
"Hello, Jill," he greeted. His voice was always quiet, like a whisper. "Did you have a good day at school?"
"Yeah, Dad," Jill lied. She placed her black backpack down near her feet. "Did you guys go through Grandpa's inheritance?"
"Yes, he left us all his money," Christopher said. "That's why his inheritance took so long to process—experts wanted to make sure the money was valid, and I guess it is." He pulled out of the parking lot and steered onto Highway 75.
"Mom was worried that Grandpa's money was phony, since he never said where he got it from," Jill said. "So where did it all come from?"
"Pawn shops. Your grandpa sold lots of things to several pawn shops—jewels, old relics, that kind of thing," Christopher admitted. "Seems like he was quite the adventurer. In any case, it seems like the money is clean. Your mother's beside herself with relief."
"What did I get?" Jill asked worriedly.
"Just a box. You should be the one to open it," her father replied. "I know this is a hard time for us all, but this is your grandpa's last will for you."
Jill nodded, her stomach twisting into knots. She glanced down at her backpack and saw her Jack Skellington keychain. The Nightmare Before Christmas was her favorite movie of all time, and seeing Jack's smiling skull always made her want to smile, too. Even on a day like this.
Finally, they drove into Crittenden, and Christopher parked into the Bones family driveway. Jill got out of the car and looked up at the grayish two-story house. It was always drab, but now it seemed ominous. She crossed the lawn without bothering to use the asphalt path, then noticed that the roses near the front were still red and blooming. It was best not to stay around here for too long, or those flowers would wilt, too…
As soon as Christopher opened the door, a tiny Maltese jumped up, yipping excitedly.
"Una, baby girl!" Jill squealed. She knelt down to pet the little dog as Christopher walked into the tiny kitchen.
"Cathy, we're home," he greeted.
Catherine stepped into the room. Like her husband and daughter, she was also pale with black hair, though her bright blue eyes usually lit up her face. Those eyes seemed dull today, though.
"Welcome home," Catherine said quietly. "I hate to be frank, but you should go through your inheritance, Jill."
Jill swallowed. "Right." She hung her backpack onto a nearby chair, and then stared at the medium-sized cardboard box that was on the circular table. It looked just like any other box, nothing to be afraid of. Jill removed the lid and placed everything on the table one at a time.
The first item was a large silver key with a skull on top; this gave Jill a bad feeling when she touched it, so she quickly set it aside. She took out some envelopes that had her full name printed on them, then some folded-up papers that had strange maps to foreign places. Then there were some odd books written in a font she'd never seen before. The Realm of Dreams, Magic for Beginners, Animal Linguistics… what were these? Where was her grandfather's collection of vintage records, or his Disney movie VHS tapes? This weird bric-a-brac didn't seem familiar at all!
But there was something else in the box—rather, two things.
The first was a golden key with an orange gemstone in the middle. It had an old insignia of a bird in the middle, and the hilt was worn with age. Next to it was a weird pen-looking item that looked identical, right down to the aged golden surface.
As Jill looked closer at the two, the orange gemstones suddenly flashed. At first, they lit up simultaneously, then they blinked one after the other like a strobe light. Were these electronic toys, and if so, did they somehow still have working batteries in them? Jill held the strange pen and key in her hands.
And then she realized that she couldn't loosen her fingers. Or move.
A chilling wind howled through the little house, and Una barked angrily at nothing.
"J-Jill!" Catherine cried.
"What's going on?!" Christopher panicked.
"I-I don't know!" Jill yelled. She tried to drop the items in her hands, but it was like they were glued into her palms. They burned her flesh like hot curlers, making her cry out in pain.
The cursed items belched out a thick cloud of indigo smoke, which circled around Jill. A round, ornate door with golden patterns appeared underneath her feet; it looked like a mirror save for the doorknob and hinge. Just as Jill processed this, the door opened, letting her fall into an endless chasm.
"JILLLLLLLL!" her parents screamed after her.
Jill shrieked all the way down, the world growing further and further away until it was a pinprick. She felt something fly past her head, then she heard a loud slam as if a door was being shut…
The last thing she felt was the sensation of hitting the ground.
Then Jill's eyes closed, and everything completely slipped away.
If she was lucky, then this would have been just a bad dream, and Jill would've woken up in her bed like any other morning.
But Jill was not lucky. And she had found herself in the midst of something wonderful and terrible.
Author's Notes: Here we go, Jill's humble beginnings! It'll be a bumpy ride, that's for sure.