Chasing Redd

Chapter One: The Attic

    I didn’t know my grandmother all that well. She mostly kept to herself. Mother says it was because my grandpa died too early. Her doctor said it was because of her alzheimer's. But no one really told me much about her. When she died last week, my mother could barely walk. She didn’t want to get out of bed let alone plan her wake and funeral. But she got through it. She always does.
    “Macey sweetie, you can start in the attic. Me and Pepper will do the first floor.” My mother said sniffling and and faintly smiling.
    “Of course.” I say not wanted to argue with her.
    “Oh and save the photo albums. Everything else is up to you if you want it. She was always a hoarder anyway. Ok?” She said trying to make light of the situation.
    “Yeah mom.” I say smiling. “Aunt Pepper? Do you want me to save anything?”
    “Oh no that’s fine. She gave me anything I would have wanted years ago.” She said.
    I smiled again and made my up the creaky stairs to the attic door. The dusty handle was shaky and the screws were lose. I pushed up on the plywood door and the cobwebs flew up and the dust spread across the floor. I climbed up through the door and took in the old and rustic look of the various boxes and shelves full of random items.
    “Wow grandma. Got enough stuff?” I asked sarcastically swiping my finger on a box and wiping the dust around. “Alright. Where to start.” I ask myself while making my way to the window that looks over the street below. I watch as Aunt Pepper loads a box into the car.
    I turn around to the mess that is the attic and begin opening things and looking this over. After about one hour, I’ve loaded about seven photo albums, two jewelry boxes, and one white lace lamp for my room into a box. The attic is almost clear other than a small pile of boxes and a very old bookshelf in the corner.
    I made my way towards it while passing through cobwebs and flinching when it touched my skin. I got to the bookshelf and grazed my fingers over their binds. All leather, All worn. Some even had tears that prevented me to read the title. One of the titles read “Guide to Tétara: English Version”. I was confused at english version then I realized, none of the other books were in English. They were letters of the english language but the words made no sense. Most of them weren’t even letters, more like symbols. I couldn’t read any of it, but they looked so cool. So old and rough. It would’ve been a waste to throw them away.
    Now the boxes. The boxes were not as you would expect. There were about five of them. Like old leather suitcases. When I opened them, I could hear the binding stretch. Inside of all of them were little marbles, hundreds of them. All sorted in sectioners built into the cases by colour. One section had blue, one had purple, yellow, green. They had the entire rainbow in each of them. The red one’s caught my eye. They were all different shades of red, but the deep ones were so… mesmerizing. I carefully picked one up from the box and spun it around in my hand. I noticed a name in black ink wrapped around it. Kelsis Boldoscene. I turned my head and with the other hand, moved the other marbles to read the names.
But I seemed to have a loose grip, as the red marble fell almost in slow motion. I heard it pass through the air and shatter into a million pieces. A slow dark red smoke arose from the broken marble, encasing an area in it’s thick mist. I stumbled back, almost knocking over the other cases. The smoke started to part and standing inside, looking almost annoyed, was a man about 6 feet tall with fiery red hair, dark brown eyes, and freckles that covered his face in a darker shade than his skin.
“What is it now, Redd.” He said while looking down at me. “Well you’re certainly not Alice, are you.”
“Alice was my Grandmother.” I  said stammering.
“Was?” He said curiously, inching his head closer and cocking it to the side.
“She’s dead.” I said quietly.
He waited a little while in thought before he spoke again.
“The thing is she was always such a free spirit. I knew her well before she had children,” He moved his body shaking his hands in thought, explaining this to himself. “and she never really trusted me after she did. For reasons you don't really need to know and I'm rambling.” He laughed then abruptly stopped as he then spun on his heels, facing me even closer than before. “So then, who are you?”
“Macey Redd. Alice’s granddaughter. Who are you.”
“Didn’t you read the ball?” I didn’t answer. “Kelsis Boldoscene.” He stuck out his hand but I didn’t take it. “Well then. Is there anything you would like from me, Macey Redd. Granddaughter of the Great Alice Redd?”
“The great?” I asked.
“Well, yes. Alice was very powerful. One of the most powerful Yorins I’ve had the pleasure to meet.” He said chuckling.
“Yorins?” I messed up the word, but I didn’t know what it meant.
“Yes. Didn’t she teach you anything?”
“No.” He was taken back by my reply.
“How old are you, might I ask.” He was very curious.
“Sixteen?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
“Answer. But that’s not the problem. The problem is who are you, where did you come from, and how did you just appear out of smoke?” I raised my voice.
“Shh child. Kelsis Boldoscene, New York City, and you shattered the ball.”
“Ok fine, be vague. What’s a Yorin then.”
“A magical being that can harness energy and spirits to their own or for other’s advantage. Roughly.” He said nodding his head and moving his hips around in thought. “You should know all this, though. I can’t imagine why your own parents never taught you.”
“I guess my mother never had the time.” I said lowering my head.
“Ooh. Have I done something wrong?” He said nervously grabbing his vest.
“No, not you.”
“Well then everything’s fine.” He said smiling again. He then shoved past me cooing at the bookshelf. “These books. I tried to buy these off of Alice for years. Would you care to strike an offer?” He said holding a stack of them and tearing them off the shelf.
“Well if you want them so bad, they must be important. But I can’t read them.”
    “If you’re really a Redd, you’re hardwired to. Trust me. You can read them. Understanding them is the issue, seeming as you haven’t been even been taught.”He said flipping through a book. “But they’re no use to you if you have no interest in them so-”
“Hold up. I never said I had no interest, I just said I can’t read them. I figured them I can translate them online or something.” I said annoyed.
“Well since you haven’t read the language itself, translation in your head might be a little off anyway.” He said widening his eyes for my offense.
“Then teach me. You seem to have this down pat.”
“Hold on, I’m not agreeing to teach you sixteen years of knowledge in less than a year.”
“So then leave. Put the books down and get out. My grandmother just died and I’m not in the mood to sell all of her stuff to random strangers who say they have magical powers.” I said taking the books from him and placing them in an empty moving box.
“Fine. But as a warning, just because you shattered the marble, doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. It’ll reappear in your pocket every time you break one. But don’t go messing around with them. There are some bad people’s names on those balls and trust me, you do not want to meet them.” He snapped his fingers and the red smoke encased him and once it cleared, he was gone.