I walk into are old, local bookstore. a smell of books both old and new meet my nose, new books have a sharp tang to them, while old books smell slightly musty, both are warm and comforting.

The old bookstore has always been my escape, but today it felt different, almost magical….

I dismiss the thought though, it’s probably just because theirs more people in here then usual, why are their that many people anyway?

And, is that a police officer? What’s she doing in here?

I open the inside door and everyone’s faces whip towards me, this seems to break everyone out of their silent circle.

An old lady starts to cry hysterically, the police officer makes a phone call, and a young girl pushes past me, silent tears streaming down her face.

I glimpse something on the floor behind them, I squeeze my way through everyone.

But what i see is not expected. the owner of the bookstore, an old man, is lying on the ground, eyes wide open, colourless.

I gasp. I kneel to the ground, though I already

know what I will feel when I lay my hand on his chest. nothing. No rise or fall, no beating heart. Empty. How? Why? I voice these questions to the person beside me, not fully expecting an answer at all, but she shakes her head and says: “no one knows, he was the first one who saw him” she jerks her head to a man around 20 in age “he came out screaming for someone to call 911, officer Jane came running, but theirs no witnesses, nobody knows what happened.” She finishes shrugging.

I can’t believe it, the kind old man downtown who runs my favourite book shop is…gone?!

Who did this? What did this?

was it some kind of sickness? People around me seem to be coming to the same conclusion.

Officer Jane calls everyone to go home, she says it was probably just a heart attack.

But then someone yells at her, I turn around, it’s a woman, I’ve met her before, she comes to the bookstore a lot and sometimes takes shifts there, her name is Marie if I remember right. “Just a heart attack!? How can you say that?! My father is dead!! Shouldn’t you investigate!!? Shouldn’t you be running tests!? And even if it is a heart attack, your saying it like he just had a cold! He’s lying on the floor dead for Christ’s sake!!” People are staring at her but she doesn’t seem to care, she just keeps yelling. I would too of course if my father was dead, but that doesn’t keep me from taking a step back.

“Okay, okay.” Says officer Jane trying to calm the hysterical woman down “I’m sorry that my tone offended you. your right, I should have been more considerate. I’m so sorry. But we really need to have a level head about this or we won’t figure it out.”

But this just makes Marie more angry.

taking one more sad look at the old bookkeeper, I turn to leave, I push the door open with my shoulder. Inhaling as I step outside, I breath in and out. Clean air, untouched by the stench of death.

I start towards the direction of my house, but I freeze when I hear the sound of something in the back alleyway behind the bookstore. I take a step closer, it sounds like someone is rooting through the old dumpster out back.

Unable to resist, I walk into the alleyway.

Theirs a big… dog? Pawing through the garbage. But, no. That can’t be a dog, for it looks like it’s made of writhing smoky black tentacles. I turn to run but before I get two steps, it turns around and leaps.

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Hi everyone! Hope you liked my story! It’s been sitting in my drafts for a long time so I thought it might be fun to finally finish it.

hope everyone is doing all right, and please tell me if you like this and if it’s good enough to do a second chapter.