Meow: Episode Twenty

Dark Books

"Sable..."

Something hit my foot but I ignored it. The blankets were warm and my bed was comfortable.

"Sable! You need to get up!"

This time something pounced on my back and the covers slipped down over my head. Bright sunlight was streaming down from the skylight in my room, and I… Wait - bright sunlight?!

I sat up quickly, flinging the blanket off of me and the cat in the process. My eyes shot open, then closed, then open again. My phone sat on my bedside table but it wasn't plugged in. It had died at some point during the night. How did I not plug my phone in?

"Oh, god, I'm late!"

The cat slowly crawled out from under the blanket that was now at the end of my bed. His head popped up from the edge of the blanket and he stared at me. "Yes, you are. The Bookseller will be here shortly."

I was up and pulling on jeans before his sentence sunk in. "Bookseller?"

"Yes, we can't be late." The cat pulled himself the rest of the way out from under my covers and padded across my room toward the door that was barely open.  "We might need to skip breakfast." His voice sounded so depressed at that. 

I paused, then moved faster, grabbing a bra and a shirt to go over it. At the very least we needed coffee and I still had to brush my teeth. It didn't take too much longer until I walked down the stairs in my socks, skipping shoes entirely. If the day was like most, I'd have some downtime to finish getting ready after the customer left.

The cat was already at the counter next to the cash register as I made my way out to the front of the store. The shop was set up in what I called the normal arrangement. Bookshelves with no tables or special areas. The wooden shelves lined the walls and there were rows with signs that showed each genre. A quick glance around and I smiled, but then my head snapped back. Not the normal arrangement at all. There was a door! Not the front door that was always there, but between two bookshelves was a curved archway that showed another room beyond it. The room didn’t seem to have any lights, and I couldn’t make out what was inside.

"Coffee would be good," said the cat.

I pulled my eyes away and started quickly grinding some espresso beans before getting the machine going. I needed something to get my head on straight. I pulled a teacup out first for him and added the espresso. I topped it with some heavy cream, just enough to lighten the shots. "Here you go." I moved the teacup closer to him. Then I made myself an Americano, but then also added a drop of heavy cream. "I'm sorry I overslept."

The cat lapped at his coffee. "It's fine. I was just concerned something was wrong with you."

"Nope, just my phone didn't get plugged in." I shook my head. "I swore I plugged it in like normal. It's strange. I have no idea what happened." I always double checked to make sure my alarms were set. I hated to be late to anything. It always made me anxious. Before I could say anything else, the bells rang as the front door jerked open.

A man entered covered in flowing robes of dark green cloth. Silver, short hair covered his head and highlighted the sharp pointed ears on the sides of his head. Each ear was priced with several earrings that sparkled in the sunlight. Large, woeful brown eyes reminded me of a puppy, and they turned to gaze at me. The man, or elf, or whatever, carried a basket in one hand, which looked to be made out of reeds. "Ah, I've found you after all...."

The cat nodded from his perch. 

"I wasn't sure after our last encounter that you'd still want to do business with me. Oh, but you have a new keeper." He snorted, before he continued, "That'd do it. I didn't like that old man." He moved confidently into the room, moving across the space quickly as he chatted. The door shut quietly behind him. "You can call me the Bookseller," he said to me while bowing his head. The closer he got, the taller he appeared to be.

"Tell him you’re the Shopkeeper," said the cat. His voice came out frosty.

"I'm the Shopkeeper," I said, following instructions. This was the first time the cat didn't want me to say my name. That had to mean something. Who was this person? What was this person?

The Bookseller set the basket on the counter. 

The cat moved forward to sniff at it. He nodded his head again. "Let him know we are looking for five books..." 

Yet, before I could say anything, the Bookseller reached into his basket and pulled out one book, then another, and then a third. He stacked them on top of one another next to the cat. His fingers were long and his nails were sharp talons. While the rest of him was human-shaped, ignoring the ears, his hands betrayed him as something else. Probably not an elf, or at least not like I’d seen before.

"He said he is looking for five books." My voice came out strong, but I couldn't help but wonder where the books were coming from. The basket had a lid on it preventing me from seeing inside, but the three books he had pulled out were much too big to have been inside. Each was clothbound, and two of the three were a dark blue, while the third was a deep green. Deeper than his robes, almost a black.

"Of course he is," muttered the Bookseller. He then added another five books to the top of the stack. "Are any of these the ones you are looking for?"

The cat peered at each of the spines and touched two of them. The bookseller moved those two in front of the register. "Only those two?" asked the Bookseller, tapping on the counter. “Are you sure?”

"Tell him to try again," said the Cat.

I took a sip of my coffee first. "He said to try again." This was interesting. The Bookseller had obviously worked with the cat before.

He grabbed each of the books left in the stack and shoved them one by one into the basket. Then he pulled a black leather-covered one out. The cat nodded before it touched the counter and it was put on the stack by the register. 

"I haven't lost my touch yet," whispered the Bookseller.

The next book was a deep blue color, and for some reason my fingers itched to grab it. Inlaid in gold was an oak leaf on the front cover. I gripped my coffee mug tighter to keep my hands to myself. Yet, I couldn't help but lean closer to it. I didn’t see any writing on the cover, just that oak leaf. 

The cat nodded again and it was set on top of the stack. As soon as it touched the other books, the urge to snatch it vanished. The tension disappeared and I let out a breath. The Bookseller's eyes snapped to me and they didn't look brown anymore. Instead, they were a deep black, and something else stared out of him. 

Everything in me wanted to freeze, but warmth flowed from my coffee cup. "There should be one more book." My voice came out softer than I wanted but it caused him to flinch. The cat moved closer to me and glared at the Bookseller.

"You are a strange one," he said before looking away. "You found yourself someone special this time, cat. Lucky, lucky cat. Though, you’re stuck here, so how lucky can you be?" A dark chuckle came out, and he reached again into the basket. This book was smaller than the others, and dusty. "Is this the last one?" he asked with a sneer.

The cat nodded.

The Bookseller placed it on the stack. "Now, as for payment..." 

The cat's eyes narrowed and he moved closer to the Bookseller.

"Now now, I know you won't give me her..." He reached into the basket one more time and pulled out something. It shimmered and the form stretched before settling into the shape of a book with a clasp holding it shut. Cold air rose from it, visible wisps that dissipated slowly.

I took a step back and warmth streamed from my cup. The sunlight grew brighter from the skylights, falling directly on the Bookseller and what he held. The cold wisps shrank and they pulled back into the book. The clasp moved and it seemed to tighten.

"You can guard it. Keep it." This time the Bookseller’s voice was almost pleading. "Free me of this burden." His fingertips dug into the book but he did not set it down on the counter. Slowly, dark lines grew from his contact with the book up his fingers. "It has to be time. Surely, I have paid my debt to you."

The cat stared at him, then looked at me, his green eyes glowing. "I need you to take the book from him, and carry it into that room. The one with the arched doorway."