Dark Realms (29 page)

“I suppose there could be books there. It’s
called ‘Secrets’ and it’s on Main Street.”

My mom nodded. “Yes, I remember seeing it
when I drove home from the market the other day. I’m not sure what
they sell, but when you find out, let me know.”

I nodded. “Okay, see you later.”

“Whoa…you’re not leaving yet, my dear,” she
said. “Make your bed first.”

“Fine,” I groaned, turning away.

“Hey, Kendra?”

“Yeah?”

“You never told me how your first day of
school went.”

I shrugged. “It was okay.”

“Okay? Well I guess that’s
a whole lot better than last year’s answer of, ‘
it sucked’
.”

I smiled. “Last year
really
did
suck,
mom.”

She chuckled. “So… what
time is this
poser
bringing your sister home?”

“Later,” I called, leaving the kitchen.

“Great, that tells me a lot…”

I ran upstairs to my bedroom and threw my
bed together as quickly as possible.

“Kendra!” called my mother as I was about to
walk out the door, fifteen minutes later.

“What?”

She walked over to me and handed me a bagel.
“Here, I saved this for you.”

It was a little stale and I’d lost my
appetite, but I smiled anyway. “Thanks.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.” She reached into her
pocket and handed me ten dollars. “Just in case you find something
you like.”

“Thanks, mom.”

She kissed my forehead. “Hurry back and let
me know all about the store. I’d come with you, but these parents
won’t be back until suppertime.”

My mom was a shopaholic. If she could have
found someone to watch all eight kids, I’m sure she would have come
with me.

“I will,” I said, walking out the front
door.

It didn’t take me long to
walk into town and find Secrets, which had actually been a tobacco
shop before. As I approached the building, I noticed that it had
been freshly painted from its original mustard-yellow color to a
bright white with purple shutters. In front of the shop was a
mixture of exotic flowers planted in a large black pot that almost
looked like a witch’s cauldron, which I thought
was
pretty cool.

“Calm down, idiot,” I mumbled to myself as
my heart began to race. “He just invited you to check out his mom’s
store. He’s much too cute to be interested in someone like
you.”

Taking a deep breath, I pushed through the
entrance and into the dimly-lit store. It was cool inside and
smelled strongly like vanilla incense, which made perfect
sense.

“Welcome,” said the woman behind the
counter. She was tall with long, brownish-red hair and a friendly
smile.

“Thanks,” I said softly, stuffing my hands
into my hoodie pockets.

I gazed around the store and noticed there
were only a couple of other people inside, one of them old Mrs.
Buchaard, who was in her seventies and a little creepy. She’d never
seemed to like children much and had always kept to herself. Some
of the kids in my neighborhood used to claim she was an old witch.
I didn’t really know one way or another and didn’t really care.

“Is there something I can help you find?”
asked the woman.

“Um, no,” I said, walking towards some
dragon figurines. “I’m just looking around.”

She smiled warmly. “Well, if you need help,
don’t be afraid to ask.”

I nodded and started wandering through the
aisles. The shop wasn’t anything like I’d expected. There were
large bookshelves and glass cases throughout that held everything
from candles and colorful crystals to books that appeared to be
hundreds of years old. It almost felt like an antique shop, without
the usual junk.

“I have some lovely handmade jewelry in the
front of the store,” said the storeowner, suddenly standing next to
me. She smiled again and I knew at once where Tyler had gotten his
vibrant green eyes, although hers weren’t quite as penetrating.
“That is, if you’re interested.”

“I’ll help her, mom,” stated Tyler, coming
out of the backroom wearing a different pair of dark sunglasses
this time. In this dimly-lit store, I wondered how he could even
see anything.

His mother studied me closely for a minute
then went back behind the counter. “Okay, have fun.”

“Hi,” he said, standing over me. He seemed
taller and even more mysterious in the shadows of the store.

I licked my lips. “Hi.”

“Find anything interesting that you just
have to have?” he asked.

Besides him?

I just smiled. “I don’t know, I really just
got here.”

Then he surprised me by grabbing my hand.
“I’ll show you around.”

My heart was doing flip-flops in my chest at
the feel of my hand in his warm one. I cleared my throat and
grinned like an idiot. “Okay.”

“So tell me, do you believe in witchcraft?”
asked Tyler as he pulled me towards the back of the store.

Chapter Six

I stopped I my tracks and laughed.
“Witchcraft? Like in casting spells and stuff? Let me think about
that. Um… no.”

“Why not?” he asked, a serious expression on
his face.

I snatched my hand back. “Not you, too?
Listen, witches aren’t real and either is magic, so quit teasing
me.”

A slow smile spread across his face and he
removed his glasses. “Everything is real, Kendra. It’s what you
believe in that brings it to life or lays it to rest.”

His eyes were hypnotizing me again. “What
are you doing to me?” I asked hoarsely. “Your eyes…”

“Oh, sorry,” he answered, replacing his
glasses.

I took a step backwards, feeling the hair
stand up on the back of my neck. “Maybe I should just go.”

He grabbed my left hand again and gave me a
sheepish grin. “No, not yet, please. I have some really cool things
to show you.”

How could anyone resist that smile?

I nodded. “Well, alright.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “Cool. Okay,
this way,” he said, pulling me towards the door to the backroom.
“Back here is where the magic begins,” he said all
mysteriously.

My eyes widened in surprise when we entered
another dimly-lit room. This massive area was closed off to the
public but it had to be twice the size of the regular store, which
seemed impossible. My eyes gazed around the room, which was filled
with hundreds of different boxes and containers, in different
stages of being unpacked.

“Oh,” I said as a white cat pressed herself
against my legs, purring. “Who is this?”

“That’s Sicely,” smiled Tyler. “She’s my
mother’s cat.”

“She’s adorable,” I said, petting her soft
fur.

“Believe me, she knows it,” he said.

The cat meowed and took off.

“We used to have a cat, but she disappeared
last year,” I said softly. My mother had cried for days.

“Sorry,” he said.

“His name was Salem and mom had him for
years. He was a little testy, but we still loved him.”

“Cats are pretty cool. Um, sorry it’s such a
mess back here,” he said, swatting at some cobwebs. “I’ve been
trying to help her unpack everything, but as you can see, it’s a
lot of work.”

“How can you have such a large warehouse
back here?” I murmured looking around in wonder. “The shop doesn’t
seem this big on the outside.”

His lips twisted into a sardonic grin.
“Don’t ever be deceived by what’s on the outside.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah,
yeah…I know, “
Looks are
deceiving.
”

“More than you could ever imagine.”

“You’re so dramatic,” I stated, walking
around the room. “I keep waiting for a sinister laugh from out of
nowhere, or a loud clap of thunder whenever you hit me with your
idioms.”

He burst out laughing. “Sorry, I drive my
mom crazy, too.”

Tyler was definitely an odd character. But
he was also super cute and nice to me, so I didn’t really care
about his silly quirks.

“So, what did you want to show me?” I asked,
trailing my finger along a dusty old book about crystals.

“Well, I was looking for it when you arrived
but still haven’t located it yet,” he answered, pulling down a box
from a metal storage shelf.

“Oh,” I said, lifting up something that
looked almost like a magic wand. “So, your mom collects some pretty
interesting stuff.” I began waving the stick around.

“No!” shouted Tyler, lifting is hands in the
air. “Put that down, please, very slowly.”

I giggled. “What? Am I going to conjure up
something or make you suddenly disappear?”

He stepped towards me with a stern
expression. “Give it here.”

When I handed it to him, he let out ragged
breath, then put it away in a glass case and locked it.

I stared at him in amusement. “You’re kind
of serious about this stuff, aren’t you?”

His look was pensive. “You…
have
no
idea.”

“Oh, this is cool,” I said, picking up an
ornately designed owl. “I kind of like the stuff your mom’s
selling. It’s really different.”

He smiled and then grabbed another box.
“There are a lot of cool things, just don’t touch them unless you
check with me first. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

I shrugged. “Fine.”

“Is everything okay back here?” called his
mother from the doorway.

“Oh, mom, I almost forgot, let me introduce
you. This is Kendra.”

“Hi, Kendra,” smiled his mother. “My name is
Rebecca.”

“Hi,” I answered. “I love the interesting
things you have here.”

“There are some great finds back here. Just
be very careful how you handle them,” she answered. “Some of these
items can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

I looked at Tyler. “Yes, I’ve already been
warned.”

“I’m watching her,” said Tyler.

She smiled wryly. “You be careful, too,
young man.”

He snorted. “You don’t have to worry about
me.”

The bells at the front entrance jingled and
Rebecca excused herself.

“Your mom is very pretty,” I said to
Tyler.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “It gets her into
trouble sometimes.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Let’s just say she receives a lot of
unwanted attention. And that’s the last thing she needs, right
now.”

I snorted. “Why, is she running away from
someone?”

He froze and turned to me, his expression
unreadable. “What makes you ask that?”

I smiled. “Sorry, I was
only joking. Lighten up.”

He opened his mouth to say something but
then seemed to change his mind.

“So,” I said. “I’d better not stay too long.
I can come by tomorrow if you still haven’t found the thing you
wanted to show me.”

He crouched down and opened up another box.
“To tell you the truth,” he said, looking up at me, “it might take
me awhile to find it in this mess.”

I looked around. “I can imagine.”

He stood up. “Here, I’ll walk you out.”

“Okay.”

As I turned to walk away, I almost tripped
over one of the open boxes. I knelt down and picked it up. “You
might want to find a better spot for this box; it looks like you
have some breakables here.”

“Okay.”

I glanced inside and noticed several
colorful bottles with labels. I smiled as I read some of the
bottles. “Oh, what are these? Magic potions?”

He moved beside me and picked up one of the
bottles. “Promotes hair growth,” he said, staring at the label.

I noticed a purple bottle labeled “Promotes
Thinness”, and grabbed it. “Wow, I wonder if your mom would sell me
this.”

He sighed. “You don’t need that,” he said.
“You look good. These potions are too dangerous to mess around with
anyway.”

I laughed. “Magic potions? You really think
these are magic?”

“Let’s just say, I know they work. At least
the ones I’ve used.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to hide my smile.
“Which ones did you try?”

He grabbed a brown bottle and showed it to
me. “See, this one kills trolls.”

“So, are trying to tell me that you killed a
troll?” I laughed.

He stood up straighter. “No, I killed three,
in fact.”

His expression was so serious that I began
to wonder if he was a little too caught up in all of this
witchcraft nonsense.

I took a step backwards. “Well, I suppose
I’d better go.”

He removed his sunglasses. “I’m sorry. I
hope I didn’t frighten you.”

“No.”

But he was definitely starting to freak me
out.

“I’m just saying these little bottles work,
and some of them are very dangerous. My mom will be the first to
tell you.”

“Well, if a little bottle like this can help
me get thinner, it’s worth checking out,” I said, deciding to humor
him and his belief about potions. I grabbed the purple bottle
again.

He grabbed my wrist.
“Seriously, Kendra… you don’t need that bottle. It might actually
make you
too
thin.
Besides, you look perfectly fine the way that you are.”

I was flattered that he thought I looked
“fine”, but the threat of looking too thin wasn’t helping his case
one bit. I smiled and pinched my fingers together. “Listen, I’ll
just try a little.”

He frowned. “Don’t play with these things,
Kendra. They can be very dangerous. You heard what my mom
said.”

“Well, let’s just go talk to her then,” I
answered, turning towards the exit leading to the shop. He followed
me as I walked through the main store and towards the register,
where his mother stood reading some kind of book about
“enchantments.”

“Hey, mom.”

“Hi,” she said, putting the large book down.
She looked at the bottle in my hand. “Did you find something that
interests you, honey?”