Small World

Small World - Chapter Two

*above is Ahanu!!*

After leading me down a hidden zip-line, we had touched-base on the antique shop floor. I had never felt so happy to be on solid ground in my life. We both looked around at the vast shop. Where to go now?
"Where to go now?" I echoed with my thoughts.
"I do not know. Perhaps there is some sort of guidance we must find..." Ahanu said, looking around. Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation in my back. I shuddered a little, like I was trying to shake off the feeling. Ahanu turned to me.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I think. My back just started to feel a little weird," I replied uncertainly. Before I'd so much as blinked, Ahanu was behind me and looking at my curse-tattoos. I tensed up. This wasn't exactly something that all guys did to girls who were their friends.
"Wh-what is it?" I asked, suddenly short of breath. His fingertips gently swept a horizontal line over my skin. I tried not to shiver.
"There are words appearing on your back..." he said in a low voice.
"What do they say?"
"They say: 'you cannot do this alone'," he replied, letting my shirt go.
"Alone.. but there's two of us. I'm not by myself," I countered, my confusion irritating me. Ahanu didn't reply, so I looked to him with a raised eyebrow.
"Ahanu-"
"Shh!"
He's looking over behind some shelves towering in front of us for some reason. I furrow my eyebrows as I try to hear whatever Ahanu could. Then, to my joy, I heard voices. They were laughing and talking.
"Let's go and check it out," I said, following the sounds. We walk closer to the voices; gradually getting louder. We stop in front of an enormous doll's house around a shelf corner. It was like something straight out of Downton Abbey; really old-fashioned and detailed. The voices sounded hella snobby, making me a little intimidated. I really hate when rich people act all stuck-up and like they own the world.
"Geraty, do you think this is what the words on your back meant?"
"Hm? Whaddaya mean?"
"There are people inside here; meaning that we aren't alone. We could use their help."
I smacked my forehead with an 'argh'.
"Of course! You're right, Ahanu. Have you ever met these people before?"
"No; but I have a feeling they will be... interesting to talk to."
We walked up to the front door and pulled on a bit of thread tied to a little bell near the door. The previous owner must have added it as a homemade doorbell. The voices immediately stopped; like someone flipped a switch (or, in this case, pulled a doorbell). After a few seconds, we heard footsteps move towards the door.
It opened.
Behind the door were two middle-aged people; a man and a woman. The man was balding, wearing a black suit and tie and smoking from an opium pipe. The woman was aging a little more gracefully, wearing an emerald body-hugging dress which fell down past her knees. She was smoking from one of those long stick-thingies that I've seen in old movies, and kinda looks like a magician's wand.
"Good evening to you," the man began in a gruff voice (probably from puffing too much of that pipe).
"Good evening. Um, my name is Geraty and this is Ahanu. We were wondering if we could use your help for something," I began, unsure of how else to explain myself.
"Help?" the woman asked, holding the smoking-magician-wand between her fingers. Total. Snob.
"It is not manual labour, ma'am," Ahanu said. He must have read her mind!
"Thank the heavens..." the woman said, kinda sarcastically. I sighed.
"Look, can we please just ask you something about, um..." I said, my breath suddenly hitching in my throat. Do they know about the Possessor? How would they react to what I had to say?"You don't look like you're from around here, girlie," the man suddenly piped up. I felt my body tense.
"Yes... my husband is right. What are you?" the woman narrowed her blue eyes at me in suspicion.
"I-"
"She is my friend; someone I have sworn to protect," Ahanu fiercely interceded, making the couple blink in surprise."She wants to know if-" he jerked my back towards them abruptly, "- you know anything about this," he finished, yanking my shirt up to expose my back.
The gasps I heard from the couple behind me weren't giving me any hopes about them willing to help us.
"Be gone from this house! Away!" the man cried, as I turned around.
"Please! I need your help! I don't know what to do!" I begged, not knowing what else to do at this point. They slammed the door on us and locked it. Feeling my heart sink in defeat, I sat down on the spot, my back to the enormous house. Ahanu hesitantly sat next to me.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have done that," he quietly told me.
"I think they would have reacted like that anyway - regardless of how we said it," I sighed.
"But still, it was wrong of me. I have ruined your chances of finding help from others."
"You'll have to excuse them. They think they own the entire shop," a new voice suddenly said. Ahanu leapt to his feet and took to a fighting stance, while I merely stood up and tensed. Around the corner of the house, a girl materialised out of nowhere. She was holding tools and looked like someone you didn't wanna mess with. She had long black hair and pale skin. The girl wore long, black boots with silver buckles. She had black shorts and a singlet on; along with some leather band-thingies that covered her forearms.
"You know those people inside?" I asked, my curiosity peaking like crazy.
"Yeah, I know those snobs. They pay me with food and a room to keep their car in-line. Who are you two?" she replied, toying with a spanner.
"My name's Geraty. This is Ahanu," I introduced my friend, as he stood down.
"You're from the Abenaki, aren't ya?" she said.
"That is right."
"You've come a fair way. Where are you headed?"
"To find a way to get rid of the Possessor's curse. Geraty, do you want to show her the-"
"I'll show her myself," I sighed, going through the usual routine of lifting my shirt. I didn't hear anything from the girl, which kind of surprised me. I turned back around.
"You've got his mark," she didn't phrase it like a question, but I responded with a nod.
"Well, that makes two of us," she said with a sigh, unclipping her left arm-band to reveal a tattoo on her arm. I gasped in shock. The tattoo was only a word written in cursive that read 'owned'.
"He got to me. Instead of trapping my soul, he made me into a doll; an antique."
"I am truly sorry," Ahanu said.
"It's fine. I know how it feels, Geraty."
"What's your name?" I asked.
"CJ."Suddenly, there was pain in my lower back. Ahanu looked with CJ behind me. The tattoo was changing.
"What does it say?" I grit through my teeth.
"It's saying... 'more are soon to come'. What does that mean?" he asked, letting my shirt down. "I think it means that CJ is the one we want to have with us," I smiled to her. She looked at me warily for a moment.
"The mark led you to me.. it thinks I can help you?" she asked quietly.
"I believe so, CJ. I am not sure how; but it does. Will you help us?" Ahanu asks. After a few silent seconds, CJ looks to the car she's been working away on.
"Get in."