As we ascended, our surroundings became decreasingly tenebrous. Almost without my noticing, the otherworldly stones of mostly stair-shape gave way to actual wooden stairs. Nebulous boundaries at the edge of sight became brick walls shedding ancient coats of no-color paint in long strips. By the last ten steps, I could almost believe we were coming up from a normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill basement.

At the top of the stairs was a fairly regular four-paneled wooden door. It was illuminated by a bare light bulb which hung from a very standard seven-foot ceiling.

“Prepare yourself,” said Riley sternly as he turned the handle and drew me out into…

…the street across from a junk shop?

Chapter Ten: Chaos

The shop shared an old-timey wooden storefront with a Blockbuster and a small bakery, and I realized we must have been just off Main Street. The big front windows were cluttered with velvet-covered displays of pendants and tarot card decks, ceremonial candles, books and sets of hand-carved dice. A hand-painted sign above the windows read The Crawling Chaos.

Riley crossed the street and pulled the door open, but then hesitated, watching me expectantly as I caught up to him, his fist clenched tight around the tarnished bronze handle. I started to ask him what was wrong when he swept his arm forward, beckoning me in. He was holding the door for me.

Blushing, I took a step into the darkened shop and sneezed. The sunlight streaming through the dingy front window showed a cloud of dust billowing around me with every step. I lifted my sweater over my nose and mouth, my eyes watering. I felt like I had stumbled into a crypt. Clearly nobody had been in this place in ages.

Something clattered behind me and I turned to see Riley pulling the door shut. Attached to the doorframe above his head was a set of chimes carved to look sort of like human rib bones, dangling from an unnervingly realistic skull. I turned away, creeped out by the hollow pits of its eyes staring down at me, and I tripped over a trunk hanging open in the aisle.

I shrieked and threw out my hands, but before I could smash to the floor, Riley’s strong arms wrapped around my middle and set me upright. For a moment we stood still, so close I could smell the salt of the sea on him and feel his chest rise and fall with each breath.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

His perfect fingers twisted through my hair and I felt my heart bursting in my chest. I wanted those fingers running down my face, around my cheeks, over my lips-–

“NEIL?” Riley turned, calling down the aisle. An empty shudder rolled through me as his saltwater scent faded.