Once

Chapter 2

When dinner and drinks were over, the friends parted ways and Briar hopped into her car to make the two hour drive down to Rhode Island. She had the name of the shop, Castle Curiosity's and that was all she had. Briar checked into the hotel she had been saving for after arriving, dumped her weekend clothes in her hotel room, and took the quarter mile walk from the hotel to the shop. Rhode Island weather in the summer was nicer than Boston's since it was on the coast. Briar passed multiple mom-and-pop shops on her way to Castle Curiosity, enjoying the scenic route with the ocean looming in the background. Finally, she hit Castle Curiosities; the sign hanging above the door had a spindle on it with a glowing blue magic wand spewing magic dust onto it. Briar thought that was an odd logo, but ignored the feeling and pushed the door open.

The shop was filled with stuff. Like, nothing had a place or a price tag or any organization. It was truly a trinket shop. "Hello?" Briar asked the deserted store. She then heard some shuffling coming from the back of the shop and suddenly, a woman appeared holding a box. "Hello!" She bellowed, setting the box on the ground. "One second miss! We are just unloading stuff from a truck outside. Please feel free to look around!" The woman then exited through the back of the shop again, leaving Briar alone to browse. She thought it was weird that the woman was unloading more stuff into the shop, since it didn't look like there was a lot of room left for more things.

As Briar looked around, she saw a bookshelf with hundreds of books piled onto it. Except, when she started reading the titles, they were books she had never heard of before. Whispers of the Moonflower: Tales from the Stardust Garden, and another one titled The Curious Chronicles of Cobblestone Cove. What are these books? Briar wondered, reaching out to grab one. "Don't touch that one!" A woman's voice rang behind her. Briar spun around to see a different woman coming from the back of the shop towards her. "This one will pull you into it and then the being from the Infinite Tapestry will be released into this world". The woman plucked the book, consequently titled Mysteries of the Infinite Tapestry, from the shelf and put it up higher onto a new shelf. "But..." Briar said, confused. "You just touched it. Wouldn't it have done the same to you?" Briar was now playing into this clearly deranged woman's story.

"No", the woman said curtly, and turned around to face Briar. "I have," she paused, trying to find the right words, "I have particular expertise with books such as these." Briar did not miss the rhyme that escaped her lips. The woman then held out her hand, "I'm Felicity, this is mine and my sisters shop. They are out back unloading the cart." Briar shook her hand, "Briar, nice to meet you." Felicity walked to the front of the store, moving trinkets and things out of the way as she did. "What brings you in to Castel Curiosity's today?"

"I'm actually hoping to get some answers about a certain..." Briar didn't know how to explain the family curse and she didn't quite know what she was looking for. "A certain curse that I heard the shop owner has an elixir for?" Felicity stared at her and Briar knew it was a lost cause. She sounded insane. She may as well deal with the dream at this point and try to move on with her life. 

"Gwen!" Felicity yelled while starring straight at Briar. "Do we still have that everflower elixir?" A woman popped out from behind the curtain that separated the front of the shop from the back. She looked just like Felicity, only shorter and more rotund. "Let me check the back", Gwen said, then sheepishly curled herself back behind the curtain again. "What's an everflower?" Briar asked, now totally confused as to what was happening. "I've never heard of that kind of flower before." Felicity leaned down beneath the counter and pulled out a small tome. As she flipped through, Briar suddenly got the feeling she was being watched. "Rylan, are you going to gaze at our visitor the entire time she's in our presence?" Felicity asked to no one in particular without even looking up from the small tome in her hand. That's when Briar noticed a small boy leaning down from the top of the cabinet that overlooked the entire store. "But she looks just like--" Felicity cut him off before he could finish. "I know who she looks like, but I promise that's not what this is. Now get down from there before you hurt yourself." Felicity offered her hand to Rylan so he could jump down from the cabinet to the tall chair behind her. 

"Who's this?" Briar asked, not wanting to be rude, even though the boy, Rylan, kept staring at her. "This is my son, Rylan. He likes to climb on the furniture instead of help his family", she said smuggily to him. "Anyways, I believe what you are looking for is the everflower elixir." She pointed to a picture in the tome of not a flower, but a type of bush with pink leaves. "The everflower only grows in a certain part of the world, at a certain time of year. I would give more details, but that is all I am willing to say." Briar had a feeling this was a load of shit, but she went along with it. "So I just need to drink this 'everflower' elixir and the dream will stop?" Briar asked, her hand reaching out to touch the book. Felicity pulled it away before she could grasp it. "Let me guess," Briar said. "If I touch this book, the bush will escape and eat me too?" She said sarcastically. 

"You mustn't make fun of things you not yet know", Felicity put the book back under the cabinet. "Found it!" A yell came from behind the curtain where Gwen was. She came bouncing out holding a small lavender colored bottle. When she handed it to Felicity, Gwen's eyes grew wide as she took in Briar. "Oh my, Felicity, she looks--"

"For Lyr's sake, I know who she looks like!" Felicity snatched the bottle out of Gwen's open palm, then set it down on the counter. Gwen scurried off back behind the curtain, speaking low to another who was also back there, but that Briar could not see. "Now, with this elixir, it will have a profound impact on your life, but you may not yet know it." Felicity said, holding up the bottle. The lavender liquid almost glowed in the bottle and Briar had a strange feeling of longing when she looked at it. "So I just drink it and I'll stop dreaming about the man? The darkness won't rip us apart anymore?" 

"I wish I knew the answers to your questions, but this affects everyone differently. Yes, you must drink the entire bottle for it to work. However it chooses to work on you is the everflowers choice." Felicity sighed at the end of her sentence, almost seeming exhausted from explaining this to Briar. Briar paid for it and then left the store with a quick "Thanks!" over she shoulder. She wanted to get out of there, to get as far away from the Castle Curiosity's shop and its weird owners. 

Back at her hotel, Briar changed and got ready for bed with the elixir starring at her from the nightstand. Before she took it, she replied to a few text messages from family and friends about her birthday, then turned on the television. She could only stand to wait another five minutes before she pulled the bottle onto her lap and ripped the cork out. "Bottoms up", she said, then downed the bottle. It tasted like mint and...banana? That confused her tastebuds as she wasn't expecting it. After it ran down her throat, she felt it settle in her stomach. Although, she felt the same. She wasn't sure what she was expecting--maybe a beam of light to crash through her or a loud noise to erupt in her head letting her know the 'curse' was broken. But nothing. 

So to sleep she went.