Reliquary!

So back in 2004, I came up with a fabulous idea... and then I scrapped it. In 2007 I found the idea, written on the back of some notes that I had taken in a Psychology class. I was cleaning out my filing cabinet when I found the idea. I fleshed it out a little and in January, I wrote the second part of a story called Reliquary. I will say, no one really responded to it, so I put it to the side, and instead, came up with an alternate universe of where entirely different things were occuring and gave up on the story of Reliquary as a short story disaster.

Well recently, because of Amaretto's Tale, I have found the need to at least finish this short tale of disaster because of... artistic endevors. Now this tale is not going to be listed in the other blogs, rather, but instead shall be here. So if you wish to familiarize yourself with teh other entries, by all means the links are as follows:

Reliquary - Part 1
Reliquary - Part 2

After reading those, might I suggest the following which is the Third instalment of this tragically short, left-on-the-wayside tale:

The girl brushed a stray brown hair out of her face and looked at the man. "Well at least we got somewhere," she responded quietly.

The man, who had crossed his arms reached out and gripped the girl by the shoulders. "You mean you didn't know where it would take us?" Amazement, wonderment, surprise, and anger all flitted in the man's face in a flurry of emotions. It appeared to Denis that the man was constipated.

"Well I knew it would take us somewhere, I just didn't know quite where..."

"You could have dropped us right in the middle of the ocean floor though! I thought you knew where this would take us!"

"Theoretically, yes. Virtually... no..."

Denis looked dejectedly at the now scattered mysteries and shook his head. He needed a break. He took the opportunity to but into the conversation and then say in a rather loud voice, "You two broke in through the back! I hope that you plan on paying for that door because no one ever uses it!" He turned around to head towards the cashier and spoke as he continued walking. "I'm calling the cops right now. I've never seen you here before, but you better not run, I have a very good memory as to what people look like!"

As he walked towards the phone he heard something being muttered and he suddenly stuck fast to the floor. He tried to move forward, but nothing his feet refused to propel him forward. It was as if he was a fly trapped in flypaper, only the brown carpet beneath him was not sticky at all.

“Hey! What did you do to me!” Denis swiveled as best as he could at the waist to look back at the two people who were now crowding out the romance and mystery section of the store. The girl ignored him and pulled on a long golden chain that was around her neck to look at something that looked like an hourglass. The lumberjack man looked at him and then snarled in response, “Shut yer mouth. No one asked for your opinion in this matter."

Denis was shocked and then all he threw up his hands in shock and fury. "You let me go this instant or I swear when I get the cops here, I'm gonna let them have you!"

The large man chuckled and then snorted. "I don't think that you are going to let anyone have anything there. Just be quiet and sit there." The girl was quickly smoothing out her dress, which seemed more like a slip than anything else. Denis all but shrieked as he opened his mouth and yelled. The girl put her hands over her ears.

"Please stop screaming, it's unbecoming." The girl actually sounded like she was offended.

"Then let me go!" Denis turned furious eyes on the girl who slowly walked to where he was and then shrugged her shoulders. She muttered something under her breath that sounded more like someone fast forwarding a tape than anything else. Denis snapped his mouth shut as he tried to listen to her, but it was impossible. Suddenly Denis tipped over and fell onto the floor in a rather untidy heap. The large man looked around and then poked at the bins.

"Comic books then. What kind of place is this?"

Denis pulled himself up off of the floor and growled. "It's a used book store. We also sell comic books." The man snorted in response. The girl fiddled with the hourglass necklace and frowned again. She looked up and motioned to the large man who came over to where she was.

"The hourglass was supposed to take us to the place where we were supposed to find the next bearer. The only person I see is this man though."

The tall man in the flannel looked at Denis and then rolled his eyes. "You have a point there m'lady. There is no way it could be him. I mean if it was, then we would have some serious problems."

Denis frowned as he brushed dust off of his shirt. He knew he would have to vacuum the carpeted floor before he left that night. The carpets were pretty dirty. He suddenly caught himself in what he was thinking and whirled on the two intruders. "All right then, you two had better be prepared to pay for that back door." Denis began to walk towards the phone once more, but he stopped dead in his tracks when the cowbell above the door rang once more. Denis froze in mid-step and stared at the door. The big man turned slowly around as the girl managed to peak around him.

There in the doorway, a young boy huffed and puffed for breath. Behind him, dressed in a thick coat and also gasping, was an even younger girl. The boy looked up through mussed red hair and long bangs and while gasping for breath said, "We arrived... as soon as... we possibly... could!" The boy continued to pant and the girl was too busy trying to catch her breath to say anything.

“Chris? What are you doing here?” Drew frowned at the boy as he tried to catch his breath.

“I'm... so... sorry,” Chris gasped. He pointed towards he back room and then finally having caught his breath said, “Edie left a note for people if this happened not on her watch. It's on the shelf on the back wall, on top of the books.” The girl with the lumberjack tapped her foot and Chris' sister, Sarah, was hiding behind him and had also caught her breath. Denis frowned and then shrugged his shoulders and walked back to where the “office” was.

Hole in the Wall was laid out as if someone had lived there at one time and the patio area had been converted to the front entrance and the register area as well as where they kept the anthologies. Right before that there was a sliding glass door and a small inset where a crowded desk and chair sat; the office. On the back wall, the oldest books that Edie kept in the store were stored. On top of the books, a small white envelope that Denis had never noticed was siting collecting dust. Drew stood on top of the ancient chair and grabbed the envelope.

Walking back to the magazine racks, he opened the envelope and then read what was written in Edie's elegant script:


Workers,

I am so terribly sorry that I did not inform you before hand, but the curtain in the back is really important. Besides simply preventing the basement from causing a draft in the store (not very well I might add), it is also a portal pit stop. Do not ask how, but I can explain why. My husband saw it, bought it from a strange man (I think it was the gypsies down the street, damn them) and used it. Usually people only come though on the weekends, which is why I work, but just in case someone comes on a weekday, let them do their thing; don't bother them, they won't bother you. You can also let them use the bathroom if you need to. If a man comes through asking for a book called “Alefile's Alchemy”, we do not have it in stock and probably never will.

Thank you,

Edie

P.S. Don't tell anyone, and place the letter back where you found it. If things get too complicated, ask the Puzzle Gnome.


Denis stared at the letter for a moment and then looked up at Chris. He then looked at the little girl and the lumberjack man. Sarah moved from behind Chris and the girl in the white dress looked relieved and stretched out her hands as if in a motion for a hug.

“Thank gods, I found you!” Sarah smiled shyly and then walked forward to within distance of the girl's outstretched hands and placed her own in the girl's. “My name is Amantha. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.” Amantha squeezed Sarah's hands happily.

Denis stammered. “Portal?”

Everyone ignored him.

“My name is Sarah and this is my older brother Chris.” Chris nodded his head and smiled as well.

Amantha pointed to the large lumberjack man behind her and said, “This oaf is named Gavon.”

Gavon frowned, “Would it kill you to give me a proper introduction at one time in your life?”

Amantha rolled her eyes, something that Denis thought that he would never see in a girl who was as poised as she was. “Fine then,” said Amantha, “Gavon Thorson.” Gavon smiled and his chest puffed up even more than it already was.

“Pleasure to meet you Lady.” Gavon bowed to Sarah and she blushed.

Denis tried to interject once more. “Portal? That thing is a portal?” Even though he said it louder, no one still paid any attention to him.

Chris moved around his sister and then spoke directly to Amantha. “I trust it then that we got here on time?”

Amantha nodded her head. “Yes, you made it on time, so I can assume that you got my message.” Chris nodded his head in a rather enthusiastic way. Sarah continued to smile.

“I think then we are all ready to go then?” Amantha smiled and began to move back towards the mystery section when Denis interjected.

“Wait now. First I hear there is a portal here and now I am expected to let you just take these kids to God knows where?”

Amantha shook her head and said, “Gods.” Denis looked at her with confusion.

“What?”

Amantha frowned and said, “You said 'god knows where'. That is incorrect, it is supposed to be gods, not God.”

Denis felt his eye twitch before he began to get mad. “No, I refuse. I won't let you take these children with you. I have duty and a responsibility to make sure that my customers are taken care of and you most certainly are not allowing for that to happen.” Denis stomped his foot down and he watched as Amantha rolled her eyes.

“This is hardly the case. I am simply here to collect the next Lady of the Glass. Would you kindly stay out of it?”

“Here here, let the Lady do as she wishes. It hardly has anything to do with you.” Gavon finished talking with a large nod of his head at the end.


Chris moved forward and patted Denis on the shoulder. “It's fine. Don't worry about it. We will be out of your hair momentarily.”

“This is to much,” Denis looked back at the note and then scrunched up his face as he read the post script. What the hell was a puzzle gnome?

Denis frowned and then looked at the wall where the hanging was. "I have a portal that functions in my store now, a pair of random people who are from Canada, without accents I might add," he paused to shake his head. Amantha raised her hand in order to get attention.

"I never said that we were from Canada here, we are from a different Canada." She stated her fact as if it was the real truth and nothing else mattered.

"A different Canada?" Chris looked at them as if the idea truly fascinated him.

Gavon frowned. "It's not just Canada that is different," he looked over at Amantha who frowned and then she shook her head.

Sarah looked forward and then waved her hand. "I think it's my turn?"

They all looked to the small girl and then Amantha smiled and said, "Yes, you are quite right. Let's get started then shall we?"