Hello everyone, this is my first attempt at writing a story and submitting it to literotica. I can't honestly say that everything in this story is my idea so please don't hate on the fact that I'm not completely original. For example, I got the idea of finding the girls in an antique shop, much like the story a keychain of girls which is quite good if you haven't read it already. But on to other things, I am thinking of making this into a series and I hope all of you readers will enjoy that as well. I would greatly appreciate constructive criticism, praise, and ideas that I could include in other installments. I hope that you readers will enjoy this reading this story as much as I enjoyed reading it.
(first time I can say this :D)
The author
Keyan88
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Eric calmly walked down the street. Seeming normal to any casual passerby, but to anyone who really looked it was obvious he was torn to shreds inside. It had been a month since he really slept. The pit inside of him kept him from doing anything else than stare at walls and scrape by, his grades had dropped from straight A's to C's and low B's, he had drifted away from his friends. The only thing that really kept him sane was hockey; he could get out most of his frustrations on the ice. The reason for his despair is because his parents and brother had just died. They were driving up to visit him at college and got crushed by a drunk driver who happened to be driving a semi on the wrong side of the road. They could hardly discern the bodies from the wreck after it was over.
He was walking down a random street that he didn't remember turning onto. He looked in the window of the store and saw himself reflected in the glass. His medium length brown hair was a mess; the bags under his mahogany eyes were deep and dark. His skin was paler than it usually was, but it still had a natural tan to it. He stood hunched over, appearing much shorter than his six-foot three frame normally was. He wasn't the strongest person around, but him playing a lot of hockey and kept him fit and strong.
"I wish mom were here, she'd tell me to get my shit together and look nice." He thought to himself, a twinge of sadness crept into him at the thought.
"One month since I've been alone." He took a step back and looked at the store. "Harland's Antiquities" the lettering on the window said.
"I have a few hours to kill, and mom used to love looking in these little stores."
He opened the door and stepped inside. The smell of old books and dust quickly assaulted his nostrils and he let out a loud sneeze.
"Oh! Do come in young man." a Jovial old voice said to him. He turned to his left and he saw an old man, slouched over and walking on a cane come shambling up to him. "Names Harland." he said extending his free hand, Eric took it and stared into the old man's eyes. They were grey, almost colorless, but seemed to look deep inside him. He quickly averted his gaze, uncomfortable with the feeling. The man reminded him of the happy old grandfather image, telling stories to the young ones in a family.
"Names Eric, I just want to browse." He said politely. "Oh please do." Harland replied his voice seemed suddenly saddened; maybe he really did look into him Eric thought. "He wouldn't really have to look deep.", he was once again thinking to himself.
He watched Harland turn, and shamble to the back of the shop, must be where his office is or something. He walked slowly up and down the aisles, filled with miscellaneous junk from all parts and times of the world. He was towards the back of the shop when a small wooden jewelry box caught his eye. He carefully reached out and lifted it out of the shelf, a strange warmth emanated from the box that brought a small smile to Eric's solemn face before being quickly smothered by his usual melancholic mask.
On the lid of the box three figures were dancing. The figures were very obviously feminine judging from the breasts they sported. The weird thing about them was that they weren't completely human. One of them was Human from the waist up, but had a snake's body for her lower half. Another had the ears and tail of a cat. And the third had two pairs of wings, one on her back, and one on her head, as well as a tail coming from her lower back.
He carefully lifted the lid and on the inside were three small jade figurines. Each one of them almost a copy of the drawing on the lid, they each were beautiful. They almost looked alive; the detail in them was astounding.
"I see you found the girls." The Harland's voice suddenly startled Eric and he almost dropped the box. "HeHeHe" the old man cackled "Be careful I don't think they'd like being dropped." Eric quickly closed the lid, and handed the box to Harland when he lifted his hand for it. Eric followed him to an old, 40's style cash register. "I think it's time to finally let them go, I've had them for a very long time."
Eric tried stammering out that he didn't want them, but the truth was he did, and he didn't know why. "Shush" the old man quickly said, "I can tell that you're very sad, it was obvious from the moment you came in here. You need them more than I do." Eric once again tried to reject the offer, but once again the old man interrupted him. "Just give me enough money for one last meal, and then go home and live again, please."
The sudden change in tone in the man's voice gave Eric pause; it went from a stern fatherly tone, to one of sad desperation in an instant. He quickly pulled out his wallet and handed the man everything that was inside, around 60 dollars.
"Thank you, now go home and sleep it's getting late." The old man said, with obvious relief, switching to a father tone again towards the end.
Eric took the box and quickly left the store. He turned around to ask the man some questions, but the shades had already been drawn and the sign turned to CLOSED.
He turned down the street, clutching the box close to his side, and hurried home.
It was 30 minutes later when he managed to get back to his off-campus apartment. It wasn't much, just a small kitchen, a tiny living room, and his bedroom. He quickly went into his bedroom and shut the door. He took the box out of the coast and started inspecting it again, the feeling of peace, happiness, and love once again emanated from the box. Eric clutched the box close to his heart, and reveled in the feeling. He hadn't felt it since the last time he visited his parents and younger brother, his mom would always insist on tucking him in and giving him a goodnight kiss. A tear slid quietly down his cheek, after drawing a path from his eyes to his chink, it dripped onto the box, It was quickly absorbed and a small glow came from the spot before going away, unbeknownst to Eric.
He wiped his face and placed the box on his nightstand. He opened it up and looked at the beautiful figurines again. He took them out of the box and inspected each one individually. "They're beautiful." he said out loud to the empty room, "I love them already, they'll make this crap of an apartment into a home, my little girls." He could have sworn he saw the cat girl figure mouth twitch in a smile when he said that. After closely inspecting all three once again, and finding no difference from what he saw earlier he set them down again.
Suddenly tired, he quickly stripped and crawled into bed, he usually slept naked, it felt good and since he lived alone no one would accidentally see him. It was a Friday so he had no classes tomorrow and he could sleep in, if he actually was able to sleep at all. He lazily moved his hand to rest on the nightstand near the figures. He closed his eyes when the feeling came back to him, and smiled contently as he drifted off to sleep. But before he was completely gone, he could have sworn he felt three hands gently grab hold of his, and then he was out.
When he woke up it was midday. He felt better rested than he had been for the past month. Sometime during the night he had flipped over so he was lying face down. He slowly started to push himself up.
"Look he's awake." Someone said in the most sensual voice he had ever heard.
