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Chapter 1

"Hey, I've never seen this shop here before," Kathryn wondered.

I tried to hold my sarcasm, but it escaped anyway: "News flash, we don't usually go on this street."

"Maybe we should go in and see what's inside, it looks decent," she didn't seem to be affected by my words. She never is anymore.

I sighed: "Well, let's go, let's look if it intrigues you so much."

We quickly ran across the busy street and into the shop.

The shopman looked just as old as all the things on display. The walls were so crumbled and dark, one might mistake the room for a cave. The shelves and tables held items that looked like they belonged to someone who died way too long ago.

I took a full turn around and scanned the area. Suddenly feeling presence behind me, I took a sharp spin. I jumped as I saw the old man in front of me. With no emotions shown, he questioned: "Looking for something specific?"

"N-no, just looking around." He eyed me suspiciously, nodded, and went back to where he sat when we entered. I turned away and marched to see what had caught Kathryn's attention.

"Look at this, Daisy! It looks like it came from an old, war movie," she barely contained her screams of excitement. She showed the stuffed bear into my face. Looking at it, I noticed it lacked part of its left ear and had two different button eyes. The dirty appearance made it look like it indeed had survived a war.

Flipping my long, black hair out of my face I noticed the man eyed us nervously.

Kathryn moved on to eye the jewelry boxes. Each one looked unique. One was standing out. It looked modern? It was simple, no details, just a white box for jewelry.

The blonde friend's attention was shifted to black leather covered book. I took an inconspicuous look at the salesman to see he had his attention focused on something outside now.

She turned the pages of the book so fast I couldn't see the letters. "It's empty," she stated, "no wait, there are some words here." She had to focus her vision because she refused to put on glasses. "It says To dust we shall return, from ashes we must rise."

The old man could only manage to yell out No with a fearful grimace as the world started shaking. Kathryn slammed the book close and pressed it to her chest. The sky darkened in a matter of seconds, we all froze.

The silence was broken by things falling and shattering. The shopman looked at Kathryn: "What have you done.."