Fairytales

Chapter 8

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It was a couple tense minutes before I managed to get a hold of myself. Strange, all of this was so darn strange and left me with a twisted feeling in my gut that I was sure wouldn't subside for quite a while.

But there was work to be done. Or, at the very least, work that I could pretend to do.

When I turned to do just that I found the woman, the customer I'd completely forgotten was even there, staring at me out of bright blue eyes.

"I'm so sorry about that." I said hastily, already uncomfortable under her shrewish stare. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

The woman, who looked far closer to twenty than thirty like I'd originally thought, tilted her head to the side, a gesture that reminded me more of an animal than a girl, while her eyes continued to watch me like a puzzle she couldn't quite solve. She had an unusual face, thin but pretty, the kind of pretty you saw in fashion magazines and not real life. Something in her look made me think she was very aware, and proud, of her strange sort of beauty.

"Um, mam?"

The sound of her book slamming shut made me jump. When she stood, slipping the book she'd been reading in the little empty space she'd taken it from, I suddenly understood that subtle air of vanity. Standing at least three inches taller than me—which, let's face it, is pretty damn tall—she had the body, and the poise, of a runway model to match her face.

She didn't answer my question, just walked on past me and out the dinging door with little more than a knowing smile—though what she thought she knew I couldn't be quite sure—directed my way.

I was alone. I can't say I was disappointed.

Then again, without the new shipment to organize, I had just about nothing to do. Not even a customer to keep my insides from tying themselves into knots. The rolly chair behind the counter squeaked under my weight. Using the tips of my toes, I spun myself slowly to the right in the hopes that the motion would reconnect whatever wires had been crossed in my brain.

It was probably nothing. He was just stubborn. Stubborn and angry, like he usually was around this time of year. He would call me tonight and apologize in the way only he could do, being very nice to me and doing everything someone who was sorry would do without actually saying the words. I'd probably do something along the same lines.

He'd probably even take me to the cemetery with him on Saturday, as he should. There was no reason to feel my stomach start to ache and my chest hurt.

The book I'd pulled out for Chase still lay on the counter, offering a welcome distraction to my solemn thoughts. It was a big thing, newish compared to some of the antiques Rita sold in here, but trying desperately to look distinguished with its thick cover and curli-que writing. Encyclopedia of the Unknown, I read again, a guide to all things mysterious and paranormal. Intellectual reading it most certainly was not, very different from the historical fiction books and crime novels Chase usually read during his long stays here. I didn't even know we sold books like this.

Curious, I flipped through the pages, surprised that, despite its complicated name, it looked like any other encyclopedia, with words in bold and long paragraphs describing what they were. Only this one, filled with hundreds of words I could hardly pronounce let alone define, was made up entirely of "creatures."

I made it to the page Chase had book marked, all the way near the very end of the book. I read down the first page, taking in the vaguely familiar words like Valhalla and Valkyrie and the short descriptions below them. The whole next page, looking much more informative than the first, was dedicated to a single creature: the vampire.