Don't Read from That! (Tag - Paul)

Where were the customers? So not in the shop, that was for sure. What needed to happen was more people in Los Angeles needed to find reason to use Charms N Thangs. Wasn’t there anyone who desired some magical ingredient to cast a spell to make someone fall in love with them? Or maybe the incantation to a spell that would make the hair on someone’s back completely disappear? Or what about candles? Did anyone even use them anymore? No phone calls to answer. No stock to put out. No items to put away. No customers to ask her questions. It was official. Boredom had begun to take over.

Tahlia sighed loudly hoping that a bystander walking by the shop would hear her and feel bad enough for her to come in and visit. She didn’t even have another employee to talk to, as she was the only one working for the night. ”What to do? What to do?” Tahlia asked herself aloud. She scanned the vacant already straightened magic shop. Well, she could always brush up on her Latin. Okay, it would be more than just brushing up. For a witch, her Latin skills were horrendous. She could conjugate words, she could write it, she could even interpret it if someone would speak it slow enough, but she absolutely could not speak it herself which had been a major hindrance to her learning her ability. If you couldn’t speak it, your spells were useless. Of course, not all spells were in Latin. But if they weren’t Latin, they were some other language unknown to modern society that would have to be translated into Latin anyway. She was even taking a class to help her learn. And she was sucking at that too. It unnerved her to find something that no matter how hard she tried, she could not perfect.

Deciding that practicing was the best thing to do at the moment, she searched the shelf for a harmless spell book, pulled it out, and headed towards the glass front counter. Plopping down on the stool behind the register, she leaned forward and flipped open the old bound book, gently skimming the pages. ”Ooooo, haven’t read you yet,” she spoke to the book softly as she began reading a section about dimensional creatures. For anyone else, It would have been hard to believe that any of what she was reading was true. But she WAS a witch and she HAD com e across a few other supernaturals in her time. So, why would it be so hard to believe that there were such things as mermaids and dragons and….trolls? Tahlia scrunched her nose in disgust as she stared at the image of the grotesque troll on the page in front of her. ”Ewww!” Her eyes moved down to the caption below the picture. She cleared her throat deciding that this was the best time to test out her Latin tongue. “in troglodytam de terra non abscondam a….”

Before Tahlia could finish reading the caption, the small bell above the door dinged and her eyes lifted from the pages spotting a guy glancing over the little shop. She was immediately drawn to his outfit. He was so….well dressed. Something that she was not used to these days especially when most of the students in her classes looked like they had JUST rolled out of bed. She sat up straight as he approached. Oh my gosh, she thought, why does he have to be so adorable? With his bright hazel eyes, ruffled dark hair, and charming smile, it was hard to focus enough to actually speak to him. ”Hi, what can I help you with today?” she asked with a smile. For someone who was totally against relationships, lately she found herself being drawn to people in THESE kinds of ways, and it made her extremely uncomfortable. It was the beginning of the semester! Like she had any time for boyfriends.

Tahlia listened as he asked for her help in searching for a specific book on the purple moon. ”Purple moon?” she asked really not familiar with any purple moon. But when he mentioned that it had to do with urban legends, Tahlia was immediately intrigued. If she didn’t know about something that a customer had asked her, it would be a learning experience for the both of them. ”You know what, don’t worry about it.” Tahlia hopped off the stool and walked around the counter. ”I’ll help you find what you’re looking for.” She flashed him a smile and led him over to the Astronomy section of the book shelves. ”Okay, so this is the astronomical occurrences section….and yes, we do get that specific.” She laughed finding herself getting a bit nervous with this stranger. ”So, this purple moon in the legend, was it a full moon or an eclipse?”

”Alright, full moon it is.” Tahlia turned her attention away from him long enough to focus on the nicely organized books. She scanned the titles searching for the one that she thought may be helpful. She had skimmed it over before for another customer who was also doing a research project. Although their project had had nothing to do with purple moons; theirs was far more boring as it only focused on a plain old full moon. The colored moons were more likely to be in the private bookcases which were up in the second floor lounge. Books like that were available for customers to look at but not to buy. They were too old and although the owner probably didn’t know it, the books were too dangerous to just be handing out to anyone. The books covered curses and dark magic, and it hadn’t been just research on these concepts but actual incantations to perform the curses and dark magics. Quite often, she would look at the books available for purchase first to help her customers, just because morally, she didn’t find it safe for anyone to be looking at the books on the second floor. This guy didn’t look at all to be dangerous, but these days, you had to be careful. You never knew who was a dark being in disguise. But she WAS an employee of Charms N Thangs, and as an employee, if they asked to look at the second floor items, she had to let them.

Her eyes finally stopped on the title she had been looking for. She pulled it out standing up. ”Ah here it….” She began but was cut off as the man extended his hand and introduced himself as Paul. He had caught her off guard completely. ”Oh, uh, Tahlia extended her hand towards him as well giving it a gentle shake. ”I’m Tahlia.” She smiled not at all being able to hide her coyness now. When he had first walked in, she had told herself to stay calm and focus. Clearly it wasn’t working for her.

Tahlia was taken aback by his strange interest in the book she had been reading when he walked in. It had been a book from the second floor of course, but she didn’t think he was paying that much attention to what she had been doing previously. ”Yeah, it’s pretty….” Tahlia realized that he was heading for the book. She quickly ran ahead of him sliding in front of the counter and the book before he could reach it. She leaned her back against the counter with a smile. ”….old.” she finished. She was uncomfortably close to him now, and she quickly lifted the full moon book she had grabbed from the shelves and slid it between the two of them handing it over. ”Here. This will help I think.” She cleared her throat hoping that he would be satisfied with the book enough to forget about the leather bound one behind her. ”There are tables right over there. Feel free to sit and read.” She nodded towards the tabled area. ”What kind of project is this anyway?” She asked politely hoping to change the subject. But out of all Tahlia’s knowledge and skills, she could not one, lie and two, take someone’s attention off of something they really wanted.

Tahlia could breathe again as he stepped back ending the extreme awkward closeness that had been swirling between the two. She pushed off the counter slightly so she could now stand up straight as she watched him. He had taken the book from her grasp, thanked her, and was even apologizing for trying to grab at her books. When he put it that way, it made Tahlia sound like she was a crazed book hoarder who would most likely bite your hand off if you tried to touch her collection. Had she really acted like that? Tahlia replayed the scene that had just taken place back in her head. She was stunned by her actions. Yep, he thinks I’m a crazed hoarder for sure, she thought as he moved across the room towards the table to read where she had suggested before. She could totally understand where he had been coming from. She was curious too, all the time actually; including at this very moment with this Paul character.

Tahlia moved around the front counter to return to her book closing it and attempting to lock it as it had been before she opened it. Maybe it was best that she put it away for now while he was here. She didn’t want another awkward moment like she had had just seconds before. She could always practice once he left. It wasn’t like they were going to be any busier later than they were now. As she fidgeted with the latch on the bound book, she listened to him explain this ‘purple moon’. It was something that they had in common. She too had seen this specific moon a year ago, and she understood what he meant by ‘strange things’. She had witnessed a few bizarre occurrences herself with her friend Jericho. It was nice to know that others had been seeing things as well. Things that couldn’t so easily be explained. She wondered if Paul had just read up on them like he claimed or if he had actually observed something take place.

As the latch finally shifted into place and snapped the lock shut, Tahlia was too happy that she had actually managed to lock it that she hadn’t felt the energy around her thicken. She put her hands on her hips and nodded staring down at the book. ”Take that,” she said in triumph more to the book than anything else. She picked it up and held it to her chest as she walked around the counter preparing to bring it back up onto the second floor lobby. ”Strange things huh? Like what?” She asked as she reached the staircase. But just as she was about to ascend up the small flight of stairs, a yawping howl echoed throughout the shop louder than anything she had ever heard before. The sound was deafening and caused Tahlia to wince and reach to protect her ears. The book in her hands dropped immediately making a thud on the floor, but it was not heard by the overpowering of the screeching. ”What is that!” She yelled as she glanced over at Paul. The sound had been so piercing that the glass cases around the table where Paul was sitting at burst spraying tiny glass pieces, too small to cause extreme damage, everywhere. Tahlia fell to the floor to shield herself from the flying glass. She curled into a ball waiting for the sound and the falling glass to pass.

Once the sound had finally dissipated, Tahlia slowly lifted her head letting her hands fall to the floor to help push herself up. ”Paul?” she called not sure what he had made of the action that just ensued. Once to her feet, Tahlia dusted off the pieces of glass that had stuck in her clothing. Tahlia was afraid to scan the shop now, but she had to. She turned around slowly preparing herself for the worst, and yes, she did indeed get the worst, but it was not at all what she had expected. There standing in front of the main counter was a towering green figure illuminated by swirls of black and green smoke. There were so many features that stuck out to Tahlia when she stared at this creature before her, but the one thing that kept coming to mind was how each and every vine of its body looked as if they were blood vessels entangling themselves within green skin. ”Oh….my….god,” she managed to stutter. She was scared. She was really scared, and all she wanted to do was call Jericho to get his ass over and help her get rid of this thing. How had it even gotten here anyway? Tahlia swallowed hard as it only took her a matter of seconds to realize what had actually happened. This creature looked disturbingly similar to the troll creature she had been staring at that had been within the pages of the spell book she had been reading from before Paul walked into the shop. ”Oh dear,” she voiced as she grasped that he was not here just for the hell of it. Tahlia had summoned a damn troll with her crappy Latin tongue.