Ink (Book 1 of the Ink Series)

Intoxicating

Homework is easy when it's your main source of education. School was no longer school. It was endless amounts of homework. And I was so bored alone in my house that I easily mulled through a week's worth of school in just two days.

Logging off the website, I spun around in my chair, trying to think of something else to do now to keep me busy. It was only noon. Dad wouldn't be home until six. The boys wouldn't be around until four. I had the whole house to myself.

First, I stripped my fingernails of the chipped pink nail polish. Then I threw my iPod on my stereo dock and rocked out to Buckcherry's "Next to you". I paid careful attention to each brush stroke, doing the best I could to paint my fingernails black.

The other night I was cleaning out an old shoebox under my bed, I had found the nail polish I had bought for last Halloween. Only now it was more a serious attempt at fashion. A simple way to step a little closer to the darkside. Admittedly I was attempting to dip a couple toes into Slade's world. And I hoped he noticed.

Slade hung around in my thoughts all throughout the day. I had to keep telling myself it was natural to pine over a boy. It was never something I did much of. I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to be close to him. I found myself wanting inside his head to see exactly what he was thinking and feeling. He was that interesting.

I blew on my fingernails staring off into space. Life was going to get extremely boring quickly with nothing to occupy me. And that exact thought is what lead me all the way back to PauWau.

As I wandered through the aisle of books, the same eerie presence filled up the whole store and coursed through me. It was like it was abandoned and empty. And dusty.

Really dusty.

I looked around for Circe, hoping she would pop out of some nook or cranny and spit on me again. Anything to bring some excitement into my life. Something to entertain my bored soul for awhile.

I stepped lightly across the wooden floor. The wood let out a noisy creek at each step that I made. I plucked a book from the shelf. Black Magic, I read. This was interesting seeing the internet suggested this when I did my snooping. But to my disappointment, it seemed to be more historical than actual spells.

I stuffed it back onto the shelf, wandering further down the aisle. I got on my tiptoes gazing up at jars on the highest shelf. I located a stool, dragged it over, and climbed up.

"Disgusting," I muttered, shaking the yellow, viscous blob inside the bottle. A murky center surrounded by oily liquid stared back at me. I replaced the jar, moving onto the next. Another unidentifiable concoction.

"Welcome back," Circe called from below. She seemed to appear out of nowhere. Today her hair was braided into a silky sheen of white hair down her back and she was wearing a long dress with a dark shawl tied at her breast.

"Just trying to keep busy." I smiled. She waved me to the back. I followed, interested in whatever she had going on.

She pulled a latch on a door. It looked like storage possibly. Giving two looks over her shoulder, she waved me inside.

"What is this place?" I asked, looking around at the shelving. Really, it was nothing more than tons of boxes with a small spot in the center with two milk crates acting as seats and another milk crate that was being used as a makeshift table. Large candles burned on top of the crate, big indents in them showing me they had been burning for some time.

Circe took a seat, her dress falling around her feet as she sat before me. "Please sit. I would like to know more about you." She took my hand, pulling me to the other crate.