Swept Away by Blank Pages

“Wooooohooooo!” I yelled. I couldn't believe it, I had come into the pawn shop to sell this ring I found, and wouldn't you know it. Today of all days they were having a contest.

“Kid, you just won 20,000 dollars. It's your lucky day!! There is a catch though, but that catch is for you to find out. I just need you to sign right here and the money is all yours.” Sam the owner of the pawn shop said.

“Seriously? You aren't going to tell me the catch? Well whatever, I imagine it won't be that difficult.” I said as I signed the paper. “Oh! Here, how much will you give me for this ring? That's what I even came in here for.” I said to Sam.

Sam was a pretty unremarkable, middle-aged man. He always kept a tidy short beard and wore a dress shirt. For those that knew him well enough his clothes didn't really hide his more abrasive character. Although, he was a business man he wasn't entirely a crook. On a couple of occasions I'd seen his softer side.

He took out his monocle and inspected the ring. “I'll give you twenty bucks.”

“That's highway robbery, it's at least worth 50!! Give me my ring, I'll be on my way.”

“Hey kid you just won twenty grand you can't help an old geezer out, I have grandchildren to feed.” The owner said.

“How many grandchildren is it this time, Sam? Four? Ten? And geezer? You're like fourty. And how many times have you helped me out of my extra money? I think I'll be on my way, thanks for my winnings.” I said and winked. This guy has conned me so many times, and probably every customer he's ever had.

“Hold on, kid, here I'll give you fourty-five. That's plenty fair.” Sam reluctantly offered.

“All right Sam, just this once. You have yourself a deal!” I said. “You sure you aren't going to tell me what I have to do for this twenty G? Where's my prize?”

Sam tossed a small box to me, then walked over to hand me a slip of paper. “The combination is on the paper there. Just wait until you sit on the bench out front to open the box. Take care of yourself, see you soon!”

The box was a plain wooden box of light construction, there was a combination dial, the kind with four turning dials, where the latch was. The corners and edges were lined with a silverish metal. Probably to secure the box and make it more attractive.

The whole thing seemed screwy, but hey even if the box was empty, which it wasn't. I could feel the weight and something shifting inside. And besides I'm opening the box right out front, I'll give Sam hell if he's screwing with me.

I walked outside. Sam locked the door. “What the!” I knew he was screwing with me. I turned around to give him a piece of my mind but he was already out of sight. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the bench.

With the box on my lap, now that I have a moment to look at all this. I notice the combination wasn't numbers or letters. At least not any that I have ever seen. They were runes or sigils, I'd never seen before.

*******

As I entered the last character of the combination sequence into the dial, the four characters glowed and there was a slight click as the locking mechanism released. The glow faded and the dials went blank. I was very confused and curious at the same time.

I opened the box and looked inside. There were several stacks of money. I've never seen 20,000 dollars before, but I'd guess the amount inside would potentially be in full. On top of the stacks of bills was a small black notebook. I wondered if inside that book I'd find out what the catch is that Sam spoke of. Of course I reached in to pick up the book, the box and the book began to glow slightly. It was too late I had already had my hand on the book. I felt a sharp prick on my index finger.

“What?” I said as I tried to pull out my hand. I heard a voice in my head, but I couldn't understand the words it spoke. As I watched what unfolded, the metal bindings on the box detached and reformed to create a very decorative strip of metal, it had characters that resembled those that I entered into the dial. The strip of metal wrapped around my wrist, as if floating and reforming wasn't enough to already scare the crap out of me.

I was able to pull my hand out of the box. I began trying to find a clasp on the bracelet. There wasn't one and it wouldn't get it to slip over my hand. It was snug but not constricting. I looked at my finger where I felt the sharp prick, there was a small cut almost like a paper cut, but there wasn't any blood. So I turned my attention to the book.

Where the book was once just a plain black notebook. It now had one of those runes in each corner on the front. I could swear they were glowing slightly, but I was outside in the sun, so it was difficult to say. I reached cautiously inside to get the book. This time nothing happened, and I picked up the book, the money was still there, but it was the least of my concerns at the moment.

As I opened the book, I heard the same voice inside my head, the bracelet began to tingle and the runes glowed. The voice said in a feminine tone, and I could understand this time, “There are about to be stories, write them in this notebook. Are you prepared for adventure?” And the voice was gone.

I thought I was imagining things. Inside the black notebook, the first page had my name on it at the bottom of a list of about twenty-five others. What is this and how did my name get in this book? I looked around, I didn't see anyone watching. What is going on? I thought. I took the money out of the box, the box crumbled to dust. “I'm losing my mind.” I whispered to myself. I put the money and the notebook in my backpack.

I went to the door of Sam's shop, it was still locked. Wait a minute, I looked through the glass, the shop was empty. Just fifteen minutes ago it was full of all of Sam's pawned junk. I backed up and looked at the sign above the door, there was no sign above the door. Wait a minute, what in Heaven's name is going on? I went back to the door and knocked on it. The door swung open, I hadn't even touched the handle.

Of course I had to go inside. It seemed as if there was a glow coming from the back room. I couldn't hear any noise. I slowly made my way through to the entrance to the back room. Inching through the narrow hallway that ended in a small store room to the left. I peered into the room cautiously, what I found took me aback. There was a circular framed doorway, the glow seemed to be emanating from the around the door within it's frame. The door was standing in the middle of the room attached to nothing but the floor, just a door standing free, glowing in the middle of an empty, dusty store room.

I didn't see anyone so I walked in quietly and looked around the door. There was nothing on the other side of it. So I did what normally killed cats, I reached out and gripped the handle. The bracelet lit up with those strange runes glowing furiously. I took a deep breath and turned the handle. That now familiar feminine voice echoed in my head, “Your story begins.”

*******

There was a flash of light as I opened the door, it wasn't painful but it did make me disoriented a little bit. As my vision came clear and my senses normalized, I realized I was no longer in the store room at all. I was standing in a clearing on the edge of a cliff. The clearing was surrounded by a forest. The cliff overlooked a world that seemed impossible. I pinched myself on the forearm to make sure I wasn't dreaming. “Ouch!” escaped my lips as I apparently pinched harder than was necessary. “No, definitely not dreaming!?” I said in a fading voice.

The landscape before me was a fiery one, almost like it was something from inside a volcanoe. There was rivers of bubbling lava and jets of flame spewing forth. At what appeared to be the center of that hellish landscape was a spire crowning a castle. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Flying circles and occasionaly breaking formation to swoop down were dragons!?

In places on the ground below were short stout people with reddish skin and hair of fire. There were also larger...um...people? They carried fiery whips and would lash the shorter ones if they grew complacent. They were all in quarries, heaven knows what they are looking for. It looked like a dreadful place to call home.

I turned, there was no longer a door, but there were three people. One looked like the short stout people from in the land beyond the cliff. She even had fiery hair brought up to a bun, and a gashing scar from some wound that took her left eye. She stood there with her arms crossed and I could see a great sword strapped to her back. Despite the scar, her stout body was curvy and she was ruggedly attractive. There were two others that stood at her sides.

One towered over me. She was quite slender and lithely muscled. I don't know how tall she was but I am 5'11”, she had me by a foot at least. Her face was fierce, but beautiful. She had an arrow trained on my chest. The other was slightly shorter than me and whether male or female I couldn't know. It's clothes were like what you'd see on an old martial arts movie depicting ninjas, but these were more crude in design. It seemed to have a cocky arrogance to it as it balanced darts on each of it's...um...eight!?...fingers.

The shorter of the three companions said, “So the day has finally come. Even though you are late! Come, we have much work to do!”

“Wait! I'm not going anywhere. I don't even know what is going on.” I said.

“Funny, you think you have a choice. Suh'anna do you mind?” She said.

Just then the one about my height, Suh'anna, flung a dart that hit me in the chest. Almost immediately, my body grew heavy, my mouth ran dry. I tried to speak, but it sounded like drunken ramblings and I collapsed upon the floor of the clearing.

I was awoken by a splash of water. “Wakey! Wakey!” The voice of the fiery woman from the clearing said.

My hands and feet were bound. A pile of gold coins and a notebook on the dirt floor in front of me. That feminine voice in my head said, “I am the notebook. This begins chapter one.”