The Ghost Triangle

[everstrange]

She stood there in black, anxiously shifting her head and eyes among the antiques. The girl, about 19 was wringing her hands and looking at the jewelry boxes. She avoided looking into the mirrors as she opened each and cringed at the sound of the boxes. Every time the music started playing, the girl would promptly shut them hard. The girl sighed and moved through the disarrayed shelves, occasionally stopping and almost touching things. She reached the spot where dozens of books lay every way in and around the bookshelf.

Here, she was much happier than before and much more relaxed. The girl jiggled out a book every now and then and added them to his arms. The books were mostly of poetry and short prose though a few tattered novels made their way there. When she could no longer hold anymore, she sat down and sorted through them, seeing if she could get rid of any. The girl could not, she had already fallen in love with their smell, worn out pages, and broken spines. She carressed them in her arms again as she got up. The girl turned to the front and made her way to the cash way.

Half way to the cash register, she saw a beautiful old guitar with a red oak color to it. The sight caused her to instantly drop her books and burst into tears. She cried with soft whimpers, feeling alone, and it didn't look like was stopping anytime soon.

 

[Saint Tribs]

The Dusty Shelf never hummed with life like some posh antique stores. It wasn't in the best part of town and a few of the other shops were boarded up and deserted. There was a young reddish blonde haired young man standing around the cash register and the door. Abaijah had had enough shoplifters in the past couple of weeks and he was ready for a fight because every time the store got robbed it was taken out of his paycheck.

The girl wandering around made him nervous. She didn't seem like a shoplifter or one of the Boss's usual customers. For one she was under fifty and for another she didn't reek of magic and strange. The thump of dropped books and the soft strangled sobs of the girl caught Abaijah unaware. He peeked around a corner and stared in horror at the crying girl. Crying. Tears. ... Also dropped books. He cleared his throat, stepping out into the pathway before couching down in his beat up blue jeans and gray tee shirt. "Excuse me ...Miss? Are you alright?" Abaijah's voice was southern honey sweetness.

"I mean... You're crying and all but, I mean, I guess. Do you need any help?" He shifted from foot to foot. Crying people really weren't his forte... Unless they were dead. Dead people were what he dealt with the best.

"I'm Abaijah."

 

[everstrange]

The girl looked up at Abaijah through her long brunette bangs with wide eyes. The sight of him made her stop her sobs and recollect herself; she hadn't realize that she had broken down on the floor of the antique shop. She looked down at her hands out of embarrassment and then the books, the girl became immediately flustered at why she had let them fall.

"Oh god! I... The books! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize I dropped them....Here let me clean them." The girl immediately began picking up the books and continued to half mutter to herself: "Such a terrible way to treat books..... so sorry.... gosh....so so sorry."The girl stood up, managing to wipe the last of the tears from her face on her sleeve. The girl looked at the handsome man shifting in front of her. "I'm Rhi.... I'm sorry I just saw something and got overwhelmed. Things have been difficult lately."

Rhi smiled at Abaijah and hugged the books. "I'd like to....buy these sweeties, I don't think I could part with these already... I would look around some more, but I'm....not sure I can handle it."

She slowly walked to the counter and placed them near the cash register. She reached into her small, leather white handbag and searched around in it. She found her wallet a few moments after searching and waited for Abaijah to come and ring up the total. Her body shook from wanting to break down again, but she promised herself that she'd hold it in. She quite obviously made the handsome man uncomfortable with her sobbing.

 

[Saint Tribs]

Abaijah helped a little bit, holding up books for her to grab. "I'm sorry to hear you're having a bad day, Rhi." He gave her a small sweet smile. "The books will be though, did something scare you?" The shop was always full of strange things... The stranger the better according to the Boss. He had decided years ago that she just liked to give people the willies. Though these days he tried to keep the truly creepy merchandise out of sight of the few general customers they got.

"You've got a great eye, Miss. Classic literature is a love of mine. Oh!" He picked up a book and grinned. "You speak German? English title and German interior, just wanted you to be aware." He sat the book down. "When I was a kid I was in a used bookstore and grabbed a copy of Hamlet and got home with it and it was in like Greek and I was so unhappy because I don't speak it so..." His cheeks reddened, freckles burnished. "Anyway... We're getting another load of books soon from an estate sell, should have them out sometime early next week. If you wanna come and check them out you're welcome to."

There was something odd about the girl, now that Abaijah was close to her. There was something ... dead about her. Like she'd been around death recently. The magical scent rattled him but he kept smiling. Hopefully she wasn't carrying anything around with her that would pick up on him.

It was hard to be an undead homing beacon.

 

[everstrange]

Rhi blushed as he complemented her; her feelings were so easily pulled in many directions these days, but she couldn't help it. As he rung up the books, she insisted on buying the German book. "Oh I didn't know it was German, thanks for pointing it out. I'd still like to buy it...." Out of slight nervousness, Rhi continued: "I'm a linguistic major at a college here. I grew up on studying mostly dead languages and conversing in many other languages. When it came to college though.... I went with linguistics....unlike..." Rhi shook her head to shake the thought away. She still wasn't about to cry some more in front of Abaijah.

"I don't know German very well, but.... I think....I'd like to try it again....it's a very beautiful language for something that can sound so harsh sometimes.....they have long words, yes, but they have so much meaning...."

Rhi stopped herself from rambling on about German; Abijah made her flustered and a little lightheaded. Could this be? Was she already developing a crush on a complete stranger...?

Rhi scratched her arm nervously and then remembered he had mentioned the new books. At this, she happily said: "I'd love to check out the new books! Tell me where the books and I'm there. I can't resist their smell, their feel, or their contents." Rhi began smiling at the thought of looking through the new shipment of books and more of the old ones that she hadn't been able to look through.

As Abaijah finished up ringing the books, Rhi smiled at him and decided she wanted to apologize for her state earlier. "I'm sorry....about you having to deal with me like that... from earlier..... I just saw the old guitar.....and it reminded me of....." Rhi paused and swallowed her tears down. "It reminded me of my other half.... my twin.....he died in car crash that we were both in.....I.... I just miss him."

Rhi had managed to get through without crying, but there were quite obviously tears in her eyes. With a few blinks and a deep breath, she managed to make them disappear.

 

[Saint Tribs]

"I'm currently studying Latin in college, actually." Abaijah smiled as he rung up the books and paper bagged them neatly, folding the top down for her. "Fifteen bucks for everything, Miss Rhi." He had written down the titles as well, noting that they were going away. "I like languages... But only the old ones. New language doesn't concern me so much. I'm studying to be an archaeologist." There you go giving away too much about yourself, Abaijah. But hey, at least the girl was smiling again. For a moment.

"I'm sorry to hear about your twin... I've only got one little sister and we aren't that close. I'm sorry for your loss." Oh yes, that explained the scent of death on her. Recently losing someone like that left a tang in the air around a person. He shifted feeling a little nervous and recalled that she was interested in the books.

"Oh! Here." A freckled hand fetched a business card with the shop number on it. "If you call Tuesday, I'll let you know if the books are in yet..." He gave a small smile.

 

[everstrange]

Rhi nodded at him in agreement. "I studied mostly dead languages as a kid; Latin was one of them... My family loved ancient cultures and.... Pry always hated being forced into it...well at first." Rhi could hardly talk about her family at the moment, it reminded her too much of her brother. The car crash had only been mere weeks ago and she was surprised she had collected the strength to start the new academic year. Her mind shifted back to Pry and thought about what would be happening right now.

She knew Pry would be teasing her and playing that guitar. He'd be singing about something silly she had done this morning and that she had a huge crush on Abaijah; he'd push her to ask him out or perhaps invite him over for games with them--word or strategy games of course. He would do this all while following her around the store singing.....on. That. Stupid. Guitar. At this she smiled and opened her wallet. Memories like these made her feel a little stronger

She shuffled through her wallet and pulled out a ten and a five, but after a moment of thinking she traded the five for another ten. "Here....keep the change.... I don't really need another muffin today and... I imagine you don't make nearly enough." Rhi took the business card gratefully and put it in her wallet.

Rhi picked up the books and smiled at him. She began walking towards the door, but then turned around and walked back to Abaijah. His back was turned and she set the books back down. Blushing, Rhi asked him a little awkwardly: "Um... would you.... like to get a coffee sometime Abaijah?......" Rhi had started fidgeting with herself out of nerves. "I mean just to talk...you seem really nice and I think I could use a friend who isn't out to coddle me to death...."

Rhi chuckled to herself at her remark and waited for his reply.

 

[Saint Tribs]

It sounded like her life had been a lot more normal than his up a point... Though what sort of family encouraged their kid to learn dead languages? That was rather fascinating to him for some reason. Of course, Van's family encouraged her to play with dead things, Abaijah thought... And him too for that matter. It was no wonder he liked his ex-girl friend's family better.

"Oooh a tip!" Abaijah grinned. "You shouldn't give me tips, Miss. You'll just fuel my addiction to coffee and old books." He winked and tucked it into his back pocket though. "Thanks. You're really sweet though it's surprising what I do make, I help do home appraisals for older people or rich people for that matter because I can go into attics and the boss lady doesn't like to be that far off the ground." He seemed surprised at the ask though. The death scent was strong enough to make him worry about being too close to Rhi, what if being near him made her recently deceased brother decide to stop in for a little haunting? That'd be pretty crappy...

"Sure! You know the Coffee Shop down the street from here? The one near that awkward little museum? It's pretty good. They do a mean bran muffin. I'm in there most mornings actually from about seven to eight and some evenings depending on classes and stuff... So, ah. Just stop in and I'll be there! Or you can come and kidnap me."

 

[everstrange]

Rhi smiled and nodded along to the conversation. The two of them....seemed so compatible. Did actually have good taste in a man for once?

"I'll definitely swing by sometime when I'm attempting to procrastinate on homework sometime." Rhi was definitely much happier than earlier and was excited to kidnap him. "Don't be surprised if you see me soon!" Rhi nodded to him in goodbye as she left, her bag full of books and a smile on her face.

Rhi eventually reached the bus stop, waited some time for it, and rode it home with her mind in the clouds and her head buried in a new book. She had pulled off the first book off the pile and it was a book of assorted poetry from well known authors. Rhi's bus stopped at her stop. She almost missed it due to being engrossed in the poems, but she managed to make it off. Rhi finally reached her apartment after a slow walk there. She put her bag of books on the counter and went to transfer her purse contents to her backpack. In the process she noticed something.....her heart keychain had fallen off....

At this she instantly freaked, it was from Pry and meant the world to her. She panicked and began to look all over for it. But little did she know, the heart was lying near the guitar back at the shop.

 

[Saint Tribs]

There had been the usual wave as Abaijah ushered the girl out the door and took a breath, looking around the shop. She was ... intense, to say the least. The reek of death and her highly charged emotions were hard to handle. Abaijah went about his business and strolled through the shop, listening to the tell tale noises from the back room that told him that the Boss Lady was back again.

Which was a good reason to not be seen slouching around at the front desk on his ass. Rose didn't like slouchers. Abaijah wanted to keep Rose's affection because she was powerful and scary and she had given him his first top hat, hadn't she? He liked that top hat even though she told him to stop wearing the battered old thing. Perhaps he had looked a little silly in a pair of khaki shorts and a top hat. ... On a Vespa.

Just a little.

The heart on the floor caught his eye and he stared down at it. No one else besides Rhi had been in the store today. At least no one that would have had a heart key chain. It certainly wasn't his and it sure as hell wasn't Rose's. Which meant it had to be Rhi's. Touching it... Abaijah wasn't sure he wanted to. Who knew where it was from and what it had on it and what his touch could activate. It concerned him but it had to be picked up. He looked around for something he could scoop it up with as the door opened and the shop bells tinkled.

"Shit." Abaijah muttered and winced as he grabbed it off the floor with his bare hands and stuffed it into his pockets before jogging towards the counter with a friendly smile at the customer...

The heart felt heavy.

It made him itch.

Nothing good ever came of feeling like this.

 

[everstrange]

A boy with light brunette hair walked into the coffee shop behind the customer walking in the door. The boy looked like a normal human being, common for the freshly dead appearing for the first time. He was were still tethered strongly to the Earth and could appear, prompted at the right time of day or by the right person. Abaijah had been that person. The next time, he would appear as all ghost do, translucent and cold, unless something significant and powerful enough happened.

The boy smiled at the customer as he conversed with Abaijah. The boy stalked the rows looking for what he had come from. He finally reached the bookshelf as Rhi did and the boy sensed her presence strongly. He sensed the lingering sadness that she had left behind as if it was a perfume to him. He touched the books momentarily and then moved on. He saw the guitar that had made her drop down to the floor and was tempted to play it.

The boy didn't know if he could move it, but he had to try. Lo and behold! He was able to! The boy picked up the guitar and began to play it. His voice, full of power and strength, was a bit softer than usual as he sang Curve of the Earth. It was a simple song and he could play others, but it had been the last song he had sung while alive. Naturally, he felt tempted to sing it.