Extend the Story - Add a Room

You approach an old, brick building in the middle of downtown. There is a stone embedded into the brick structure. In shining white marble it says “Henry’s Books and Baubles, est.1811”. You push open the heavy green door and the smell of old books hits you and you inhale. You walk further in and it appears that the store is empty. You walk along the long walls of shelves, running your fingers against the spines of the books.

As you’re walking, you notice colors dancing on the floor behind a shelf. Curiously, you head towards them. Rounding the bookshelf, you realize the colors are from a stained glass window. You approach the window, looking at the intricate artwork. The picture depicts a dark demon looking figure at the top, made of dark navy glass. On the bottom, a light colored woman in white who looks like an angel is speared by the demon's spear, but is throwing a lightning bolt back at him. The scene seems oddly biblical for a bookstore.

“Beautiful isssn’t it?” a man says, startling you.

The man is tall and lanky. He wears a top hat with a purple ribbon. He’s dressed in a suit that seems too big for his small frame.

“It’s well crafted.” you say.

“Can I help you with anything, misss?” he sounds like he’s hissing.

“I’m looking for a book that could help me understand my dreams.” you say plainly and begin to walk down the aisle.

“What kind of dreamss?” the man says.

“Bad dreams. I dream of black smoke that chases me.” you voice weakens, thinking of the predicament.

The man touches his long, thin finger to his lip and taps it pensively, “I think I know exactly what you are looking for.”

Your ears perk up and you follow him as he walks briskly through the aisles, looking for a book as if on a mission. Eventually he picks up an old leather bound book that looked as if it could be a century old. He opened the book, flipped through pages while nervously mumbling to himself incomprehensibly.

“Oh yessss, here it is.” he said eventually, nodding his head.

“What is it?” you ask

“This is an old ancient book from the shamans who lived in the small, extinct village of Hurrowsmuth. The shamans found that many of the villagers were being plagues with horrible, vivid dreams. The shamanssss came up with remedies for these bad dreamsss, and put them all in a book.”

He laid the book down in front of you and you looked down to see a depiction of a man running on a tiled platform, with black smoke behind him.

“The caussse of the dream is when you are not living the life you are destined to,” he hissed, “and the remedy is a spell.”

“A spell?” you say, unsure if you believe him.

“Yess, the shamans used spellsss to rid the dreamsss from the villagers.”

You looked down at the old writing and after a moment, you decided it was worth a try. You don’t necessarily believe in magic, but there is always a chance that it might change things. The lanky man rings you out and you pay with the tips you made from the day.

At bedtime you got changed into a white night gown and opened the book and begin to read. The shamans believed that the black smoke was spirits looking for you from another world, trying to bring you back to where you belong. You chuckled at the notion. The smoke didn’t seem too friendly in your opinion. In smaller text, a text was written that was supposed to be said outloud in the moonlight. You opened your shades and the moonlight flooded the dark room. You begin to say the words, feeling completely ridiculous. As you got towards the end of the text, you felt yourself getting extremely tired and you fall down to the plush, white bedding.

~~~~

You hear birds chirping and feel wind rolling against your skin. You lay, smiling. It worked. You didn’t dream of black smoke. You went a whole night without waking up. The guy may have been creepy, but he saved your life.

You open your eyes. It’s a sunny day. Until you realize groggily, you’re not in your bed. You shoot up and look around. You’re lying under a large tree on the edge of a field. The blue sky above you has birds flying through.You don’t know where you are and you have never been here before. At the edge of the field you see a dirt road with a sign attached to a pole. A sign pointing right says “The Capital” a sign pointing left says “Huntington”.

Which way do you choose to go?

The Capital