Master Maker

Chapter 3 - In My Own Head

Have you ever had one of those days where everything just seems to…wrong? Well, I was and it didn’t seem like it was going to improve any time soon.

Lucis seemed to be everywhere I looked, I could have sworn I had seen him in the mirror in the girl’s bathroom, Greg pretty much just brushed it off that I was being paranoid. I hadn’t told him about the night that Lucis and I had spoken, then again what could have I said hi Greg so you know that night I said I saw someone outside the window turned out to Lucis and I ended up outside in my underwear talking with him… yeah that would have gone down smoothly oh then there was the little dream I had minutes before… I felt my face flush… yeah.

“babe you okay” Greg’s voice cut through my inner rambling

‘Huh, what?” I said realizing that Greg had been speaking to me and I hadn’t heard a damn thing even though I had been looking him dead in the face.

“I asked if you wanted a ride home?” he asked slowly, like really slowly.

“oh, no. Amanda and I are gonna catch a bus into town to go check out an old bookshop” Greg was watching me closely before he answered with a smile and touched my check

“look after yourself missy’ he said softly and kissed my forehead before walking away towards a group of guys that were waiting for him.

“Okay honey, you know I always look out for you,” Amanda said from behind me, which made me scream

“could you not be so damn sneaky” I hissed at her

“oh, sure I’m being sneaky, you just lied to your boyfriend’

‘I did not… technically”

“uh-huh next time let me know about your little sneaky plans before telling them to Greg”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said grabbing my bag and slinging it over my shoulder

‘got your back just don’t go get killed because that is going to be hard to explain”

“I’ll be fine; not like I’m going to meet a serial killer in a dark alleyway” I wave goodbye to Amanda and made my way to the bus stop.

I hadn’t technically lied, I was catching a bus into town, to go check out a book shop… it was just by myself.  My mind was running over information from lessons that had I had during the day, I had been watching my feet while I walked so I hadn’t noticed the number of people that were gathered by the bus stop. I came to stop and pulled my phone out reading through messages that had been sent throughout the day

“Are you stalking me”

“uh!” I must have jumped at least a foot into the air and dropped my phone “what is with you people and being sneaky” I looked up to see Lucis standing at my side, he was half smiling almost like he was trying to stop himself from laughing but he also seemed deadly serious.

“I was here first,” he said c*****g his head to the side

“sneaking,” I said softly to myself

“there was no sneaking’ he said matching my volume. I raised an eyebrow at him, studying his face. It was still again; I could make out the sharp details of his face.

“like what you see,” he said in low voice, I shook my head realizing that I had been staring at him for a tad longer than I had meant to. I cleared my throat

“where you going?” I asked looking for any excuse to change the subject and dodge his question at all costs

“small book shop in Central,” he said looking forward as the crowd started to move onto the bus

“you read?” I asked unable to stop myself “sorry, my mind and mouth don’t have a filter”

“I do,” Lucis said with a bit of a laugh “quite a lot actually, I received a call from the front desk that they received a book that was looking for “

“oh, I see, I just wouldn’t have… sorry, no filter well, have a good day,” I said walking past him and getting onto the bus. Making my way down to the back of the bus. The drive into town wasn’t exactly enjoyable. My mind was full, and uneasy and having Lucis on the bus wasn’t making it any easier, with his perfect face and his perfect hair, and his perfect… blah. Stop! I scolded myself that one is way too much creep for you. But I couldn’t stop my eyes from sneaking glances towards him. No, no, no I said to myself pressing the button on the railing I had to get off at the next stop, I would walk the rest of the way to the damn book shop, I just needed to get off. The bus came to a stop and I made my way off the bus as quickly as I could without actually running, I looked back with a glance to see that Lucis was looking at me, his face frowning as I suddenly departed.

The walk to the book shop took about two blocks, the cold autumn air felt nice against my face as I walked. I was honestly happy to be on my own for a bit, life seemed to be going in fast-forward while I was stuck on pause. I got to the book shop, I couldn’t help but glance around, don’t be in here, please don’t be in here.  I started chanting to myself as I pushed the door open. I let out an auditable sigh of relief as I looked around the small shop. It seemed to only be me and the shop keeper

“can I help you miss,” the old lady behind the counter asked sweetly

“yeah I got a call that you got a book in that was looking for”

“oh, yes, your name honey?” she asked looking down at a stack of notes that were scattered along her counter

“Lilith,” I said looking around the shop again

“What an unusual name” the old lady muttered mostly to herself but I couldn’t help but let out an odd giggle “here we are, there were two of these that came in, they are in the fantasy aisle, would you like me to show you”

“No, I’m sure I’ll manage,” I said quickly before she could stand up “thank you” I walked in-between the narrow aisles of books, there were copies of books stacked next to shelves, and the dust on some of the books was so thick that you could see several layers of letters that had been made by people, I got to the section that I needed and started to look for my book.it seemed to have taken ages but I finally found it, I looked around the area, remembering that the old lady had said that there were two copies of the book, but didn’t see the other copy. I took it turning it this way and that in my hand…  the book wasn’t that old but it looked roughed up to the point that it looked as though it had been thrown into the water. I turned it to the front again Demonological grimoires, huh poor book. what the hell happened to you

“I’ll trade you” the sudden sound of his voice made my blood run cold I spun around to see him standing behind me.

‘Lucis” I said breathlessly holding the book to my chest. He frowned but it was a split second before he smiled widely

“you are quite the jumpy one aren’t you,” he said towards the back of him like he was looking out for someone.

“just didn’t expect you to be here, not everyone I know gets second-hand books or would be found dead in this dusty little place”

“I got a call about this coming in,” he said holding up the second copy of my book, the book in his hand looked well looked after compared to the one in my hand. I hugged the book closer to my chest. Lucis c****d his head to the side and gave a small chuckle. “wouldn’t have pegged you as demonology buff” he said finally, I couldn’t do anything but stand there all wide-eyed, I seemed to have forgotten how to use or form words. He lifted a brow and gave a small sigh, “uh well, I’ll see you around then” he said as he started to walk past me

“sure” I finally said softly, “um, Lucis?” he turned around which made me swallow hard, I had no idea what it was about this man but he made me so uneasy “don’t believe what they say about me in that book,” I said jokingly “I swear that the story was miscommunicated” he gave a small smile

“I won’t if you don’t,” he said winking and walking away. I was left standing dumbfounded at his response.

I sat on my bed reading through the names and stories of the different demons that were documented throughout history. I couldn’t help but try to find out what Lucis had meant about not believing the book about him but I couldn’t find his name among the names that were listed. I started to think that I was missing pages from the book but when I backtracked they were all counted for by the number in the left-hand bottom corner of pages. Reading on and trying to forget about his comment I soon came to a Demon that was fairly new to me, Vine, the name seemed to spring out at me.

The demon Vine is a fallen angel and the 45th of the 72 spirits of Solomon, in hell Vine is a king and Earl. He appears as either a monster or as a lion seated on the back of a black horse holding a viper. When commanded he assumes human form. Vine discerns hidden things, reveals witches, and knows the past, present, and future.

I looked up from the book, towards the window thinking I had seen a shadow, I got up slowly and walked to the window looking out of it, it was windy and stormy so the shadows from the trees must have been playing tricks with my eyes. I took a deep breath and walked back to my bed picking up the book again. When something fell out from the pages. At first, I had sworn at myself for having kept the badly damaged book thinking the pages were now starting to fall out until I looked at the small round silver disk that was laying on my bed. I picked it up carefully. The design on it was faded but you could just make out a name on the disk

Master Maker

 Weird name, I turned the disk this way and that trying to find out what the hell this thing was. On another thought, where the hell this thing came from? Had it been in the book this whole time? I put the disk down on my desk not sure what else to do with it, and when back to reading.

I was finding it hard to concentrate though. I kept looking over at the disk-like I was expecting it move or something.

Ugh this is ridiculous

I got up snatching up the disk and headed over to my desk where my lap sat, I opened the disk player and put the damn thing in. and waited…

And waited.

And waited….

Nothing, absolutely nothing happened.

Ugh what a waste of time

I closed the laptop and went back to the bed, feeling frustrated I sat down with more force than I intended, everything went flying off. Ugh!! I got up again to retrieve my book and phone that seemed to have flown to the other side of the damn room. As picked up my phone I notice that there was a message

Hey. Hope you don’t mind.

Got your number from a friend.

Do you drink coffee?

Would you be interested in getting it?

What the hell… there wasn’t a name and I didn’t recognize the number, I texted back asking who it was. It felt like ages before got a reply

The new coffee place in town.

At 8 am tomorrow.

I stared at the screen for a while trying to make my brain make sense of what the f**k was going on. I switched off the screen and put the phone on top of the nightstand. No way in hell was I going to meet some creep and not know who the f**k or what they the hell they wanted.

I woke up to the sound of a dog barking, it was still dark out. I looked at the time on my phone 03:30, I turned over hoping to get back to sleep when a light caught my eye, I sat up to find that my laptop was open with the words Master Maker across it.  I got up and walked to it, the screen seemed to be frozen it wasn’t responding to anything, I opened the disk reader and took out the disk, having half a mind to fling it across the room to maybe hit a wall, but ended up just placing it down on the desk. I shut down the laptop and closed it up again, cursing any damn ghosts that were touching my things, before getting back into bed and going back to sleep