Under the guise of fog shadows darted quickly along wet pavement, the silhouettes of people in their rain jackets and hats braving the weather to go about their daily business. Jane braved the weather because she was bored. Her mother was busying herself around the house anyway which wasn’t the most comfortable environment for someone who otherwise would have liked to lounge on the couch all day. She would have had her up doing the dishes or folding clothes for sure. So she took her afternoon into her own hands and decided to go explore another part of this town they’d just moved to. The square down Haddish street had old vintage and antique shops, a cafe, a hot dog diner, a pizza place, an arcade, a funeral home which took up a good block, and one of the county’s fire departments.  

Jane was a collector, so naturally the antique shops caught her eye first. Particularly the one advertising for books and tapes. She had an entire shelf in her room that was only half filled from odds and ends she had acquired over her years of moving and traveling with her mother. It was time to start a new adventure. She shouldered her backpack and pushed the swinging door to the shop open. She was greeted by the tinkling of bells and a wheezing cough. A balding, wispy haired head peeked over the stacks of books piled high on the desk. It was an old man with huge and round blurry glasses that magnified his watery eyes.

“Who’re you”  he said in an unexpectedly gruff voice. Jane took in his appearance unimpressed. His sweater vest was fraying at the seams.

“I just wanted to look at your books”

He huffed and pushed those moon-sized glasses up his crooked nose, “never seen you round here before”

“Just moved here. Are you closed or…?”

“No no we’re open” he waved his hand and sat back down “you’re free to look around.”

“Thanks”

Jane walked deeper into the shop rolling her eyes. Seemed like everyone in town had some level of paranoia when it came to newcomers, and it was starting to get annoying. At least this guy wasn’t asking hounding her with questions. She was perfectly content to be left alone.

The shop definitely delivered on dust and musty smells. The covers of some of the books she noticed looked like real leather. These ones looked more weathered and torn in some places, like they were older or had seen the most use. She continued skimming through the shelves until she came across a cluster of tables towards the back of the shop. They looked decades old. The books stacked on top of them looked even older. She looked over them curiously; decorative covers with glinting print that had seen the weather of the years. Some of the titles she couldn’t even read as they were in a  foreign language. It was one of these that caught her eye, a book with a gilded title that read Captionem.  She wasn’t sure exactly what language it was but the title wasn’t what had caught her attention in the first place. What had caught her attention was the chain wrapping the book tightly shut. It looked like a locket, a diamond shaped component hanging off of it with what looked like a latch on the side.

She picked up the book and turned it over. It would take some work to open but her curiosity was peaked. She tucked it under her arm and grabbed a burlap bag from a rack on her way up that said “READ” in big red blocky letters. She set the book on the counter before the man.

“How much for this one?”

He looked up, boredly. His expression remained so as he regarded the book on the counter. “Eh, take it.”

“....what? You mean like, free?”

“Yeah kid whatever. Just take it. Been collecting dust back there for a while now anyway.”

“Well, alright. What about the bag”

“2.50”

She had to pull her coat up against the rain and huddle her new book inside her jacket and wrapped in the burlap “READ” bag. Maybe it was just a novelty item, probably a history book or a fairytale...that could be interesting. She made it home only slightly soaked and shook herself off. No car in the driveway so her mom must be out. She set the book down in the living room and went to change into dry clothing.as she was coming back downstairs she heard a dull thud and paused for a moment before going to investigate.

The book, which she had set on the arm of the recliner, was now laying face down next to the chair. She considered it face down on the carpet for a moment before rolling her eyes and picking it up. Time to crack this thing open. She didn’t have anything better to do today. She sat down on the floor and crossed her legs, setting it in front of her. She got to work untangling the locket from around the books cover. It looked like it must have been there for a very long while. There was a deep, lighter colored indent where the chain had been wrapped around the book. Just like that the book was free of its binds.

She opened it.

...Nothing spectacular happened. She flipped through the paged which were filled with print and scribblings of a language she didn’t understand and symbols she didn’t recognize. Something about them made her uneasy. She eventually snapped it shut and sighed. Well, that was a bust. At least she got an expensive reusable bag out of this whole adventure. She tucked the locket into the pocket of her cardigan and carried the book up to her room.

The rest of her night was relatively uneventful. Her mother was gone for an overnight trip and there was virtually nothing to do in the house other than watch TV or lie around. Jane fell asleep in the middle of doing the latter, still over top of her covers. As she fell into dark unconsciousness a shadow crossed over her peripheral vision. Her breathing slowed to a gentle rise and fall as a tall figure stood over her bed. Dark and cloaked and towering. It’s pinprick light eyes staring down at her.

“Foolish” it muttered. And disappeared.

Jane woke up the next morning with the locket in her hand and the curtains of her...now open...window blowing into her room. She sat up abruptly, adrenaline rushing into her veins at the sight.
“What the f--”

“HEY!”

She yelped and jumped so hard she fell off of the bed. “...?? Who’s there?!” She scrambled up and looked around frantically.

“Down here! You dropped me!”

She looked down. The locket was open now and glowing from the inside where...a little talking face was glaring up at her.

“Nice going bozo. You just let out the ghost king.”

“...Im sorry but, what.”

“Of course you stupid humans are always getting into other people’s business aren’t you? Can’t keep your grubby mitts to yourself??”

“....it’s still talking” she mumbled to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut “wake up wake up wake up--!”

“Oh my gods shut up! You are awake idiot!!”

Jane opened her eyes again and stared down at the locket, “That’s not...” she cut herself off and thought for a moment. She was having trouble processing this all at once. “...who are you?”

“Not important. What is important is that somehow you got ahold of this book and just unleashed an ancient evil upon your world.”

“But the guy at the shop, he just gave it to me. How was I supposed to know??”

The locket’s face furrowed its brows up at her “Did you say shop?”

Jane nodded quickly “He gave it to me for free. I thought it was just a dusty old book.”
There was a tiny groan “Nooo, seriously? This can’t be happening.”

“What can’t?”

The faces tiny eyes regarded her silently for a moment. Expression unreadable. “Eh...nothing. Nevermind. Not important” it said again “But you’re in this now. You have to go find him.”

“The shopkeeper guy?”

“No! The guy you released from this book!”

“That sounds super dangerous. I am literally in no way equipped to do that.”

“Sucks, it’s your problem too now. “

“Well what do you want me to do ?? I don’t have like, a proton pack or anything??”

“Did you seriously just reference Ghostbusters.”

“I don’t have a lot of other ghost catching media to go off of.” she said through gritted teeth.

“Well you’re not gonna be able to suck him into a vacuum, that’s for sure. You’re going to need a sword.”

“Not sure if you’ve noticed but I don’t actually have any of those just lying around.”

“Anything you had wouldn’t have cut it anyway. You need a special sword.”

“This sounds like its venturing into divine quest territory. Let me reiterate that I am not qualified.”

“Trust me you’re not my first choice either, but do you really want to be the root cause of some inevitable mass destruction because that’s what this guy is after.”

“.....not really”

“Then you’re gonna listen to me. Got it?”

Jane sighed and pushed her hair back, trying to collect herself, “I don’t even know your name.”

“You can call me Aithne.”

“....ok. Yeah ok fine I’ll help.”