The power of a good book

Chapter 1

You're standing in a doorway at twilight. A doorway that leads into a little bookshop in a tiny alley full of foreign sounds and smells and sights. Muffled sounds of life coming from the main road running through the city. You can see inside, just a slight glimpse being as the doors blocking most your view and there's no widows, which is odd now that you think about it. It was by pure chance you saw it at all in fact. The kind of , blink-and-it's-gone, type of place. But something called you here, that little voice in you head pleading with you not to pass it by. So here you are, standing on the threshold, you glance up and down the alley, no one's in sight, which is also strange. All the other venders and store owners are sitting outside their shops, showing off merchandise, bantering back and forth, "ah!" They would say to you "Come! Come! Look inside! No cost to look! No cost!". The thought of it brings a little smile to you face, when suddenly, a noise breaks you from your daydreams, you jump, heart pounding. It sounded like a whisper. But that couldn't be. You look up and down the alley again, still you see no one. You turn back the little shop,and mustering up all the courage you have, you speak. "Um, h-hello?", you call out experimentally, wincing at the loudness of your own voice and tensing up hearing it ring off the stone walls. You wait. You don't hear anything and you relax, letting out a slow breath you hadn't noticed you'd been holding, when there comes a harsh cackle of laughter, you give a start, heart suddenly feeling like a bird in a cage, desperate to get free. Spinning around, you see an old woman, sitting on a basket she's a portly woman. White hair, open face and smile lines around her mouth and eyes. "Where did she come from?" You think wildly, mind racing. She gets to her feet and bustles past you into the shop. You stare after her in amazement, "wait!" You call out to her as you watch her receding into the shop. "Come along dearie, I won't serve you tea on the front porch! Now that would be uncivilized! And you don't want to be outside tonight!", She calls over her shoulder and cackles again like it was the funniest thing in the world. It's growing drake, and this is it, a pivotal moment, you can feel it in your bones, it would take a second, maybe even half a second, and you're life will change forever. And all you have to do is step inside...

The bell over the the door tinkles merrily as you push past it into the shop, the door thuds closed ominously.