Grimm and Barrett
An Inkling of Magic - Chapter 6
It was a gloomy late April morning when Elspeth woke up. Though the clock by her bed read just past ten o'clock, it was oppressively dark and the dampness clung in the air like pet hair on clothing. Outside, she could hear the soft splishing sounds of the cars passing by on wet roads.
It was a day that reflected how Elspeth felt as she thought back on the night before. Unable to shake the edginess she'd felt since walking home, Elspeth had tossed and turned nearly the whole night – her mind refusing to quiet its questions. It wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that she was finally able to drift off to sleep for a couple of hours.
Bleary-eyed, Elspeth dragged herself out of bed and tossed something on before stumbling down the stairs for breakfast.
“She does exist!”
An overly dramatic Aiden proclaimed in a voice far too loud for someone that had just woken up – his arms gesturing wildly – as she entered the kitchen.
“Thank you, Aiden, I'm sure the neighbors will be glad to hear that, in fact they probably just did,” Maelyn said drolly with a pointed look from across the kitchen table.
“Oops?” Aiden squeaked sheepishly as he shrunk back in the chair.
Elspeth just laughed and shook her head, making her way to the cupboard to set another place setting next to her siblings. As the sole morning person in the family, apart from their mother, Aiden's exuberance was a frequent bone of contention among the less morning friendly members of the household.
Sitting down at the empty space between the twins and Aiden, Elspeth readily held her mug out to accept the offer of tea from the teapot Maelyn was holding. A blissful sigh escaped her as she took that first sip and she could already feel the tendrils of sleep recoiling from her mind to allow her to function once again as a fully aware human being.
“So did Mr. Grimmlich ever show up last night?” Maelyn asked as she poured herself another cup.
Across from her, she saw Farren wince at the question, already knowing the answer. It didn't escape Maelyn's notice either as Elspeth watched her eyes fill with concern and flick back-and-forth between them.
Elspeth's shoulders drooped and her head dipped down. Her mug was clasped tightly in both hands and her thumbs gentled rubbed semicircles along its sides and rim.
“No,” she said at last and full of despondency, “I was planning on visiting the store again today after breakfast. He should be open by then.”
“Why don't I go with you?” Farren offered out of the blue, “you spend much of your time there and I don't know that I've so much as even set foot in the place.”
Halting her intense study of the contents of her mug and inspection of every chip and crack, Elspeth tossed him an odd look – frowning deeply as she did.
“What are you talking about? You were in there just three weeks ago, remember?” she told him garnering the attention of everyone in the room.
This time it was her brother's turn to frown. Unlike Aiden whose head was like a sieve, Farren's memory was freakishly accurate to the point of nearly being photographic.
“That's right,” Hayleigh added, “Els had lost track of the time again and Mom and Dad sent you in to look for her.”
That only made Farren's frown deepen. He shook his head as he replied, as if the motion could clear away the cobwebs of his brain, “It's weird. Now that you mention it, I can vaguely recall it, but before I had no memory of being there. Even now, it's still all very foggy. Every time I think I remember something of it, it's like grasping for it pushes it further from my mind.”
“Welcome to the land of average, guess your memory isn't as perfect as you claim,” Maelyn teased, bumping him with her shoulder.
Around her, everyone else was laughing and joining in on the teasing of Farren except for Elspeth. She didn't know what troubled her more, his uncharacteristic lapse of memory or the way he described it. Uninvited, the memory of Derek smirking at her flashed before her mind's eye and his words were clear as day. “What, didn't think I knew this place existed?”
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In the end, Elspeth wound up going alone. Farren's boss had called while she was pulling herself together and he had had to go in to work. It was just as well as Elspeth wasn't altogether comfortable with the offer. She knew he meant well, but, sometimes, his over-protectiveness felt a bit like being smothered. Before running out the door though, he'd extracted a promise that she'd call if she needed anything.
And so it was that she came to be standing outside the door of Grimm and Barrett staring at the sign that read 'closed.' The spare keys were still in her pocket from when she'd locked up, and, for a moment, she toyed with the idea of using them. She was still fingering the keys when something caught her attention.
Taking a closer look, Elspeth inhaled sharply at what she found. The door wasn't latched and she knew she'd locked it tight before going home the night before. With just a gentle push, the door popped open. Inside, the lights were all off and it was as silent as when she'd left it.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she inched her way inside. She wanted to call out for Mr. Grimmlich, but fear mingled with logic made her hold her tongue. Mr. Grimmlich was never careless when it came to his store and precious books. If he had been the one to open the door, it would have been carefully latched behind him.
Going in knowing that the intruder might very well still be there may not have been the smartest decision Elspeth had made in her life, but, before he'd disappeared, Mr. Grimmlich had charged her with looking after his store and that was precisely what she intended to do. In the back of her mind, a quite voice whispered that she'd have to check Mr. Grimmlich's inventory to see if anything was missing. The thought nearly made her groan out loud. Mr. Grimmlich's collection was extensive. It could take days, maybe even weeks to sort through everything.
Trying not to make a sound, she crept through the store looking for any sign of life or disturbance in the darkened aisles beyond the unlatched door. Hearing something, Elspeth whirled around trying to locate where the noise had come from, but, before she could make any further move to check it out, she was pulled backwards and into the next aisle. She tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth. Reflexively, Elspeth shot her elbow behind her and into the person who grabbed her. She heard them hiss in pain, but the grip they had on her only tightened.
“Calm down, Elspeth! It's only me.”
Instead of making her relax, the frantically whispered reassurance only made Elspeth stiffen even more. She knew that voice. Only earlier that morning it had been replaying in her mind.
“Derek?” she hissed when he finally removed his hand from over her mouth, “You're the one that broke in?”
“What? No!”
“Then what on earth are you doing in here and would you please let go of me!”
After a moment of hesitation, she felt Derek reluctantly loosen his grip on her allowing her to slip out from his grasp. Hugging herself tightly, she turned to face her assailant who now had his arms crossed and was leaning casually against one of the bookshelves.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again, his failure to answer her not having gone unnoticed.
“I came here, same as I presume you did, looking for Mr. Grimmlich. When I arrived, the door was already open. So I didn't break and enter, I merely entered,” he replied coolly, his green eyes practically glowing in the dim lighting.
Her eyes narrowed as she debated whether or not to believe him. Another conversation, one that didn't belong to her, began to whisper eerily in the back of her mind. She pushed it aside for now and decided to ask another question.
“And you had to scare me half to death because....,” she asked him expectantly.
“Because, I don't know if you've realized it or not, but there's actually a very good possibility that we aren't alone in here,” he replied, a little bit of snark entering his voice as he did, “I would think startlement to be preferable to possible injury or death. As it is though, I was the one that ended up being injured; so, perhaps, I should rethink that next time and just leave you to fend for yourself.”
Elspeth rolled her eyes at his dramatics, “All I did was elbow you in the ribs, I think you'll live.”
“Oh, I don't know, I think you might have bruised something. I'm a delicate flower you know,” his green eyes bright and sparkling with mischief as he teased her, his signature smirk playing at his lips.
She was about to unleash a snarky retort on him when she heard the same noise that had captured her attention from before. It was a weird dripping sound and it was coming from somewhere towards the back of the store. Hardly even sparing him a glance, Elspeth turned her back on Derek and, ignoring his frantic whispering for her to stop, quickly ran off to investigate.
Thoughts of what it could be raced through her mind as she hurried to figure out just where in the back of the store she was going. The aisles in Grimm and Barrett were not all laid out in the normal, linear fashion of most bookstores, but, instead, some of them twisted and turned like some sort of maze. The first time Elspeth had visited the store, she'd half expected a minotaur to pop out at her from around a corner.
“One of these days, I really need to have a talk with Mr. Grimmlich about the layout of his store,” she muttered to herself. If you see him again. The words floated unbidden in her mind. Stomping them down, she pressed on until she found what it was she was looking for.
Sliding down the door to Mr. Grimmlich's office and dripping on to the floor was a noxious looking liquid, but, whenever she tried to focus her eyes on it, it would shimmer and fade out of her vision before reappearing. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. She crouched down to get a better look. Getting closer, she could see as it faded in and out that it was a pale yellow-green in colour, translucent in quality, and with an iridescent sheen of lime and gold. Elspeth leaned closer and reached out her hand.
“I wouldn't touch that!” Derek's voice said from somewhere behind her.
“Of course not,” Elspeth huffed, but didn't look back at him. “I wasn't about to. I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid. There's a pencil on the ground near it, Mr. Grimmlich is always losing them, I was going to pick it up and use that.”
Doing just as she planned, Elspeth picked up the pencil and touched it against the dripping liquid. Her intent was to drag it across the strange substance and pick up some of the residue on the pencil to examine it, but, no sooner had she touched it with the wood of the pencil, then the pencil started to hiss and smoke causing her to jerk and drop it into the pool that lay at the foot of the door. In horrified amazement, Elspeth watched as the pencil slowly burned until it was nothing but ash.
“What is this stuff?” Elspeth gasped in horror.
“Basilisk venom,” Derek spat in disgust.
Elspeth's spine stiffened as if it were a rod of iron and, slowly, she rose and turned to face him – her whole body quivering with barely controlled anger.
“I realize that perhaps you just can't help yourself, but surely even a bully like yourself has enough of a heart to know that this isn't a time for your endless mockery of me!” her voice shaking and cracking as the words fell from her tongue from the pain she'd long kept buried.
A flurry of emotions played across Derek's face at her outburst. First, there was confusion, then anger, and pity with perhaps a hint of guilt and shame, before, finally, settling on profound irritation. As they had the day before, his eyes changed in colour with the shifting emotions everywhere from pale to dark, cloudy to muddy, and, at the end of it all, an even more vibrant green than usual with tiny flecks of gold.
Usually so unflappable, it surprised Elspeth to see her words have any affect on him, as they had the day before. This time though, she stood her ground and refused to let the sudden shift frighten her as it had the last time. She was tired of his poking fun at her tenuous grasp of reality, something she would dearly love to know how he'd found out about given that he'd not been around to witness them personally and the whisperings had long since ended before his arrival, but she was equally tired of not standing up for herself. It was high time that she stopped living a life controlled by fear.
“You can see the venom pooling on the ground, yet you still reject the truth of your own eyes?” he asked dumbfoundedly and full of irritation. “Have you even read the book Mr. Grimmlich gave you?”
“Of course I can see it, I'm not blind,” Elspeth huffed in reply, “but apparently you must be as you saw me reading the book only yesterday.”
“In a manner of speaking, yes, you are, but it is a blindness of your own creation and little to do with your eyes,” Derek argued, “and I mean truly read the book, not the cursory glance for mere amusement's sake that forgets what words were read the moment the page is turned.”
“It's just a book of things that don't exist,” Elspeth replied.
“I suppose you're going to insist then that the voices you've been hearing don't exist either?” he asked caustically, making Elspeth's eyes widen in shock. “Yes, I know about that. I've seen the way your head turns all over as you walk home from here at night. The way you try to chase the voices with your eyes, but never seem to locate them and how you shrink into yourself because they won't stop. They never stop.”
“How do you know all this?” Elspeth whispered weakly, trembling as she spoke.
“Because, right now, I know you better than you know yourself.”
His enigmatic words did little to ease her temper and she was growing tired of him playing games with her head.
“Then would you please just spit it out as to what it is you think I'm being blind about?” she spat in aggravation.
“I can't.”
“What? Why not?”
It seemed that, with every word that left his mouth, they served only to give her more of a headache. They were absolutely senseless. He insisted she was missing the boat, while refusing to explain what it is she didn't understand, but, apparently, should.
She glared at him expectantly as she waited for his reply.
“Because there are rules.”
Elspeth rolled her eyes.
“Since when do you care about rules? You've bent or broken a number of them before,” she pointed out. She knew he'd skirted around his fair share of them at school – though he somehow always managed to avoid being implicated.
“Not these ones.”
The firmness of his words took Elspeth aback. At school, she'd witnessed him dropping surreptitious suggestions of pranks which someone else always ended up carrying out and taking the blame for while he just sat back and enjoyed the chaos. That trickster jarred strongly with the rule-abiding Derek that stood in front of her now. She couldn't reconcile the two.
Without another word, Derek turned around and started to leave. The movement broke Elspeth out of her stupor.
“That's it? Someone broke into the store and after barely even searching the place you want to leave?” she asked, “you aren't even the least bit curious about what we found?”
Derek stopped, but he didn't turn around as he spoke, “As I've already told you, it's basilisk venom. So, no, I'm not curious about it. I'm more curious about who it was shot at, but I sincerely doubt we'll find them here.”
“And how would you know that? Wasn't it you that said there was a good chance they were still around?”
“I don't, but what I do know is that, if I was the one on the receiving end of that venom, I wouldn't have stuck around either. Come find me when you finally stop living in denial.”
“And how am I supposed to do that? I don't even know where you live!” Elspeth called after him as he disappeared into the maze of bookshelves.
“Oh, you'll find me. If not, I'll find you,” his voice floated back to her from somewhere down the aisle, the impish ring sending an unbidden shiver down her spine.
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Much to her annoyance, Derek was right. After he'd left, she'd continued searching the store for the intruder, but there was no one else there. Breathing a little bit easier knowing now that she wasn't going to surprise anyone, Elspeth turned on the lights and began the tedious job of surveying the damage and checking if anything was missing. At a cursory glance, it didn't look like anything was, but, with as many books as the place contained, only Mr. Grimmlich could be certain without a thorough cataloging. It was a task she was not looking forward to.
“Well, no time like the present,” she said with a sigh, dropping onto the chair in the back office.
It felt weird, almost wrong, to be sitting there, but there was little to be done about it. It was something that had to be done and she didn't know when Mr. Grimmlich would show back up. The last thing she wanted was for him to come back and have to discover it for himself. Learning of the break-in would be upsetting enough for him, but, at least this way, she had the chance to tell him whether or not anything had been stolen and save him the added distress.
First, she needed to find where, in the jungle that he called an office, he had stowed his inventory logs. She had only ever seen him using them maybe once or twice when she'd drop by after school or on the weekends, and each time he'd been quick to close their covers, but she couldn't recall if she had ever seen him put them away.
Deciding to start with where she was at, her hand hovered of the handle of the first drawer of this desk. Fighting the feeling that she was somehow invading her friend's privacy, she took a deep breath and began her search for the logs.