Reina awoke slowly, groaning and touching her hands to her forehead. Migraine...and she had to work today too. She sighed in resignation, realizing that she would have to get up even if she didn't want to, sitting up and stretching. Her wake-up stretch was probably Reina's favorite part of the day; she strategically maneuvered her limbs to take up as much space as possible and yawned with a cry not unlike that of an angry sloth and somehow it always made her feel better about the whole having-to-wake-up thing. She ambled her way over to her bathroom mirror, really only about a five foot journey in her studio apartment, but perilous nonetheless as there were used notebooks and loose pens littered all across the floor and covering every flat surface in her home. Reina looked at them in disdain; approximately two hundred and ninety two notebooks and yet not a single one held what she was aiming for- the ideal novel.
Reina had been a novelist for years, but never managed to get anything published-and not for lack of trying. Combined, those two hundred and ninety two notebooks held a whopping total of thirty four novels. Two sets of trilogies, a line of several crossover stories that were ultimately brought together in the end after a total of ten books, a couple of children's books she had written when she first began her writing career and the rest simply standalone novels, and not a one of them had tickled the fancy of any of the publishers she had tried. As she brushed her teeth and attempted to chase away her morning breath, Reina's gaze shot over to her desk and settled on a book lying open faced in front of her laptop- her last hope. The last novel she would ever write, if this one didn't go well with any publishers.
Her parents had been so proud of her when she moved to the city. Rural life had just never been her cup of tea, and when she got the chance she had bolted, taking up a job at a used bookstore and moving into the tiny studio apartment she now called home. But her joy was short-lived. About a month after she moved, both of her parents were killed in a car accident. The perpetrator was never found and after a while the case went cold, so Reina never got the chance to have the finality of knowing what exactly happened and why, but she vowed to not let them down. They had given her everything, and she wanted to make it worth it in the end.
Snapping herself quickly back to reality, Reina checked the time on her phone, almost immediately choking on her toothbrush. She was late! How could that be; she was never late! And by almost a half an hour at that! Shimmying quickly into a pair of leather pants and her favorite turquoise tank top, Reina dashed into her living room. She threw her boots on in a state of panic and ran down the stairs of her apartment complex, skipping two steps on the way down. Once on the street, she started outright sprinting, her feet barely touching the sidewalk. In her head she could hear the words pounding like a heartbeat- can't miss work, can't miss work, can't miss work!
She had to slow down after a moment to make sure her lungs didn't ignite, but she still made it to work in only thirty minutes. An impressive time considering she was running and her work was three miles away from her house. She normally drove to work, but her stupid car was in the shop. She had recently gone through a breakup- her novels took up too much of her time and dedication for her to have a boyfriend, and the poor guy had not taken it well; two days ago her car had mysteriously gotten beat up with a baseball bat and had the side mirrors taken off entirely.
But who had time to deal with that nonsense?
Reina threw open the door to the bookstore, setting off the bells tied to the handle on the inside of the store like crazy. Two men jumped from behind the donations counter, one letting out a startled squeak and dropping the book he had been holding as they turned to face the door. "Reina! You can't just be coming in here like that! You almost made me orphan my cat!" One of the men exclaimed, a tall and lanky redhead who looked unfortunately similar to the main character from that one movie about the cooking rodents. Flyaway curls fell sloppily into his eyes and he aggravatedly pushed them away to no avail; his hazel eyes peeked out from under rather bushy carrot-colored eyebrows. "Sorry Ryan," Reina said untruthfully. She had always somewhat disliked Ryan. No, that was the wrong word choice. He had always made her nervous, more accurately. Always checking to see what she was doing, always asking her what she was doing after work... Reina didn't know how to politely say that she was not interested in any post-work activities besides writing her novel, so she just sort of brushed him off.
The other man was not as vocal; in fact, he immediately fixed Reina with a blank stare that frequently made her wonder if he hated her or was just not mentally present at all. "Nice of you to finally join us," he said, and if he had put any more sarcasm into his tone it would have begun to drip off his tongue in a cascade of hurt feelings. This was not uncommon for Daniel, however. Several decades spent as the owner of a used bookstore in a time where books were available to read on tablets and on computers had left Dan jaded and ineffable. In fact, many of the customers who still even bothered to come in simply referred to him as "Deadpan Dan," a nickname he generally met with the same blank stare he was leveling at Reina right now.
Reina squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze, nervous. "I'm really sorry I was late. I stayed up way too late working on-"
"Working on your novel; yes I would wager so. In fact, Reina, I think you may have stayed up so late you forgot something. Something very important." Reina gasped, frowning. It was very unlike her, this whole "forgetting things" business. "What did I forget? Is it your birthday?" she asked, and Dan just gave her the same jaded stare as always. "You don't have work today. This is your only day off all week."
Reina's jaw dropped, and Dan grinned deviously. "Speaking of that, how is your novel going? Banging out any decent chapters so far?" Reina shook her head slowly, frowning. "Honestly, it's a dilemma for me. I have the characters all worked out and the backstory written up already, but in terms of the actual novel...I can't figure out how I want to start it. It's getting frustrating. I've gone over twenty possible beginnings but none seem to fit the plot the way I want them to."
Dan shrugged, having already lost interest. He retreated back to the donations counter, ducking for a moment to reach into a box of recent book donations before standing again and slapping a smaller wooden box onto the counter. "Well, maybe you could use some more space to work out the details. We got this in this morning, but the damn thing is blank! And old, at that. Probably older than you, to be honest. What are you, twelve?"
The box was definitely old, that was for certain. Decades of dust coated the lid of the box, and Reina could clearly see the imprints of Dan's hands from him lifting the box to bring it inside and check it out. Reina walked over and set her phone on the counter, Ryan watching from a safe distance of five feet, and took the lid off of the box. Inside was the oldest book she had ever seen, and it was a strange one at that. Probably about the size of a really old Webster's Dictionary, the tome was bound in a strange-looking leather Reina had never seen before. On the cover was no title, simply a sewn-in image of a black lily that oddly enough made Reina feel extraordinarily uneasy. Upon opening the book, she realized Dan was right- the entire book was completely blank!
"I thought maybe you could keep it. Nobody's going to buy an empty old book from me, so I don't need it. Use it for your novel," Dan grumbled, and Reina smiled at him in thanks for the unexpected gift. "Now get on out of here; it's your day off which means I don't want to see you around here. Go work on your book," Dan said.With that, Reina excused herself and left the store, cradling the book like it held the answers to everything.
About halfway down the block, Ryan came running out of the bookstore, shouting incoherently and waving at Reina to slow down. He caught up to her quickly, bending over with a hand on his knees and his other hand outstretched, offering her something. Her phone. Reina took it and waited a moment for Ryan to get his breath back; dude was seriously out of shape if he couldn't even jog half a block. "Dan got all weird and grumpy and dismissed me for the day," he said, "Said he would still pay me for the hours though, which was weird. He's been doing that lately; I wonder why. Anyway, I have nothing to do with the rest of my day; can I come check out your novel or something? Please? I know I'm not your favorite person ever, but I've been curious to read the kind of stuff you come up with."
Deciding that was a fairly reasonable thing to ask in return for giving her phone back, Reina nodded and indicated that Ryan could follow her. She tried to ignore the sudden burst of sunshine in his eyes when he realized she was going to let him come over and started walking. Upon entering Reina's apartment, Ryan immediately took a step back. "Whoa," he gasped, "okay, so when is the last time you cleaned in here? Seriously, you've managed to carpet your entire house with books. I'm going to build you a bookshelf so you can store these. At least I'll have a chance to use my carpenter workshop again."
Reina rolled her eyes so far she was almost certain she saw her brain, but decided it would be best to simply ignore it. Ryan walked to the kitchen while Reina started putting her notebooks into piles organized by whether they were part of a series or standalone novels so it would be easier to pick some out. "Hey, you have macaroni and cheese! Can I make some? I mean, I'd like to chill for a little bit if I could; it's hot out and your A/C is on point!" Reina grunted an affirmative answer while moving books. She remembered the miniseries she had been keeping in her bathroom under the sink. An odd storage place, admittedly, but it was her favorite so far of all the stories she had written. Three books in total, each containing about twenty to thirty short stories that all combine in the second half of the last book when the universes of each story overlapped. It was madness, but it was also a masterpiece that Reina had labored over for several months. As she picked them up and began to organize them before taking them to the living room, Reina caught sight of herself in the mirror.
Waist long curls of pure golden frizz cascaded down her shoulders, strands of sunlight that graced her ivory skin and freckles like a royal mantle, wide-set eyes fringed with thick lashes, her irises the color of amber, and sarcastically arched eyebrows. Not too bad, except that in the depths of her eyes she could see a sort of hollowness that had always bothered her, and her Judy Garland lips and jaw gave her a sardonic-looking pout that made her seem unapproachable. Not to mention the bruised-looking circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She sighed- at least she didn't have to worry about a relationship anymore and could just focus on her novel. Maybe when that was done she would play the dating game again but for now it would only be inconvenient. Besides, there was always time for that later in life.
As she came back into the living room area, Ryan approached with a bowl of Macaroni and cheese, which he handed to her with an exaggerated motion. He paced around for a bit before settling down on Reina's desk chair, looking down at the triple stack of books Reina handed him in return. "Are these all one series?" he asked, and Reina nodded. Ryan said, "Ah," and looked closer at the books, opening them and flipping through a couple of pages. Reina glanced at Ryan for a moment in much the same way she would look at a spider before wandering over to her couch and sitting down to watch him read. "Where's your food?" she asked, and he muttered "already ate it."
They sat like that for another minute before Ryan's phone began ringing in his pocket. Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer began playing, and Reina raised her eyebrow at the ringtone. Ryan's face flushed as he shot Reina a panicked glance and pulled the phone out of his pocket. He had a quick, quiet conversation with whoever was on the other line and hung up, looking up at Reina significantly. She arched her eyebrows, puzzled. "Dan is grumbling at me to go get my car out of the parking lot because it irritates him to look at. I guess I'll be going now. May I take these home with me to read?" Ryan asked, indicating the three books Reina had handed him, and Reina nodded absently. Ryan stood and straightened his collar, flashing a glance out the window, moss-green eyes quickly taking in the scenery before he turned to go. "Oh and make sure you keep some water and food rations handy," he added as he walked out the door, "There's supposed to be a pretty bad thunderstorm coming, and if the power goes out your refrigerated foods could go bad." And then he was gone and Reina released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Looking out the window, Reina realized why Ryan had bothered to mention the weather- there were rather dark clouds closing in on the city, and they were moving fast. Reina figured the storm would hit in a matter of twenty to thirty minutes, and then she remembered the wind chimes she had hanging on her balcony. She ran out quickly to take them down and bring them inside, and then she put on a fuzzy blue sweater and settled herself at her desk with the old book in front of her. Seeking inspiration, she opened her laptop and pressed play so muted 80s hits filled the background of her thoughts, and flipped on her desk lamp. She had installed a blacklight into the lamp since she liked the color and it made the paper of the notebooks glow.
Opening the old book, Reina immediately gasped and scooted her chair back in surprise. Under the blacklight, the book was suddenly full! But there were no words, only pages covered in symbols and images that Reina didn't recognize from any foreign literature she had ever seen. Flipping through the book, Reina saw landscapes and animals and humanoid creatures she had never seen, and scenes depicting what looked like a history of those same creatures. Coronations, the design and building of great cities, war, the same cities collapsing into ruins, the remains of the creatures running into an odd forest. And a lot of those lilies like the image sewn into the cover of the book. The image that stood out the most to Reina looked like some sort of prophecy. It showed a group of the creatures Reina had seen retreating to the forest falling into some kind of hole and being swallowed by darkness, then one of them that seemed to have escaped going to what had to be a different race and offering them some kind of scroll, obviously asking for asylum with them from whatever had devoured its fellows. The race seemed to accept it, but then when the creature returned to the forest a lot of confusing things happened and then the creature fell into another hole.
After that, the second race seemed to just kind of go through a feudal period in which a royal family dictated everything and those not of high status served as slaves. And then there was a war among them and one left with the slaves to the forest. But they were not swallowed by anything; they thrived.... Then all of a sudden, there was a woman who was very recognizably human who appeared in the middle of the forest. She looked very much like Reina- long curls, a heart-shaped face and dramatic eyebrows with a stocky but curvy body. Almost like some sort of weird viking warrior lady. Reina wondered where she came from, but the picture was smudged and hard to read after that.
Reina's reading was interrupted by a bone-shaking crack of thunder, and Reina was so startled she jumped. Her chair slid backwards from the sudden movement, and Reina fell, hitting her head on the edge of the desk. Reaching out to hopefully stop her fall, Reina cried out and grabbed the book by the cover. She accidentally sliced open her palm on the glass lily sewn into the cover, and it felt like raw electricity ran through her. The book let loose a sudden flash of light, and as blood from her wound began to trickle slowly down her wrist and arm, lightning flashed outside her window, and all was dark.