Open Hollow

The tiny bell above the door trilled throughout the bookshop. The tone was inviting, bringing a subtle charm to the silence it broke. The patron stopped, inhaling the smell of old books and incense. The runes in the door frame made everyone pause, as though they held a spell preventing everyone from venturing further into the shop. The door behind clicked softly, the lock carefully catching preventing any wayward spirits from entering.

Karis tilted her head to the side slightly, her mouth formed into a soft grin. "Welcome to Open Hollow, how can I assist you?"

The young woman standing before the door gripped her bag's strap tightly. Her eyes darted from side to side, searching the shadowed shelves, as if monsters lurked among them. She pushed her glasses up her nose, let out a quick and determined sigh and moved towards the counter where Karis was resting.

She lifted the flap on her bag, rifled through its contents and handed Karis a rumpled piece of paper. Karis took the abused sheet from the woman's hand. Karis smoothed the paper on the counter top, glancing at the words.

The bell to the door chimed again, Karis kept her eyes on the paper. "Welcome to Open Hollow, I will be with you in a moment."

"Take your time, ma'am." The patron's voice was deeper than Karis' normal customers. She glanced up, surprised to see a man similar in age to her. Most of her customers were like the young woman before her, college age or middle-aged women who had been practicing Wicca for several years.

"Please, walk around I'll come find you once I've finished." Karis watched the man walk towards the divination books and disappear into the shelves holding them.

She turned her attention back to the woman before her. "Now as for this, this is not a love potion and I do not deal in affairs of the heart in such manners."

Dominic shook his head as he listened to the proprietor of the shop chastise the girl at the counter. His cousin had warned him that she was blunt when it came to the trivial and misconstrued information about her craft. This part of his life needed blunt, it needed real and maybe the harsh words of a stranger would help.

Dominic felt silly walking through a new age, hocus pocus, paganism shop but at this point finding solace from anywhere was going to be a bonus. Martha had convinced him that this place, that the proprietor, could mend a broken heart with a snap of her fingers. He didn't know why he had listened to her. He could probably sneak out before the woman noticed him again. He started to pull a book from a shelf instead.

"That book isn't good for beginners." Karis smiled as her guest nearly jumped out of his clothes. Dominic tucked his hand into his pocket. "I wasn't sure what I was even picking up."

Karis crossed her arms over her chest. "Most people aren't, this is a place where people come for the novelty, so they don't understand what they're exploring."

Dominic's eyes tightened, he wasn't at the store for the novelty of it but for help. He turned his head away from Karis, he'd made a mistake coming here.

Karis looked the man before her over, his posture had stiffened and turned his face away from her. She could tell he hadn't come for the novelty and hadn't meant that about him when she'd made the statement. She uncrossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, in hopes of establishing an amicable and open conversation. "I don't think that you're here out of curiosity. You're here for something else, how can I assist you in obtaining your goal?"

Dominic's shoulders loosened he turned his head back to the proprietor. She was about his age, softer around the eyes than most women their age should be, her features were open and inviting and helped him feel more at ease.

A sigh left his lips. "My wife passed away all most a year ago. Part of me can't find solace in her passing. I know I should have, the cancer ate her alive, but I can't. It didn't seem like that was the last option for her, that death was all that was left. My cousin said that you're some type of miracle worker, told me I should come here."

He reached up and rubbed the spine of a book. He wasn't really looking at, he did it out of comfort. Karis had seen death affect people in so many ways that this situation wasn't new to her. Her lips pursed together as thoughts of comfort and reassurance pushed to the surface of her mind. Those weren't things this man needed, he'd been hearing it and it wasn't helping him."First off the book you're touching would be the best for you right now. It is one of my brutal favorites when it comes to death and mourning. "Death: The Insufferable Bitch.", not many people would understand that sometimes satire and brutal honesty is the best for them. In your case I think it would be, you don't need to feel sorry for yourself or have others feel sorry for you. She died, and you must come to terms with that, get the book and read it. It might help you realize why it had to be death in the end."

Dominic pulled the book from the shelf and looked at the cover. The skeleton on the front was shrugging its shoulders giving it an I don't care attitude. The edges were worn, and the pages were yellower than he'd expected for a new book sitting on the shelf. He thumbed through it and noticed sentences had been underlined and words circled. This book had helped someone in the past maybe it would help him.

"I know it looks older than you'd expect. I usually lend that book out; it seems to serve its purpose better that way." Karis turned and headed back to the counter. She didn't need to hover over this man while he made his decision about the book. If he wanted to read it, he'd take it with him.

Dominic followed Karis back to the counter, if she said this is the book, he needed to get it. "I think I'll go ahead and get it. I'm desperate to heal and if this helps me get headed in the right direction, I'm all for it."

"I'll let you borrow it on the condition you do return it once you're completely finished with it."Dominic nodded his head. "I can do that, thank you."

"You're welcome..." Karis had failed to ask her guest's name.

"Dominic." He tucked the book into his coat pocket.

"I hope the book helps Dominic."

"Me too."