Books Are Exciting

Walking to Beck's house gave me a good excuse to try out a Glyph I'd been curious about, the one that would somehow "enhance my sight", according to Lee. I'd tried it in the bookstore, but it was a small, well-lit place, and I hadn't noticed much of an improvement. Some of the books' covers seemed a little easier to read for a minute. Very meh.

I wandered out of my way into a rather dark alley, opened my Text, and barely managed to discern the squiggly lines about halfway through the book. I took a deep breath and spoke, declaring two brief syllables, and someone turned on the lights. So to speak.

Suddenly the shadowy alleyway was as clear to me as if someone had outlined everything in neon. The odd part was, nothing was bright or glowing. I couldn't see infrared or ultraviolet or whatever. I could just... see. The dumpster, the bits of trash, the cat staring back at me, were all still dark and colorless, but they stood out to me. And I realized I could discern fine detail at a very impressive distance, all the way down the alley and into the next street. 

I read the fine print on an eviction notice a hundred feet away for a moment. Awesome. Like most of the Glyphs, I couldn't immediately think of a situation in which this would be helpful, but it was cool anyway. Perhaps forty-five seconds passed before the alley went featureless again, and I chuckled. 

Very cool. I went back into the street, Read the spell again, and spent the rest of my walk checking out the night with an owl's eyes. You'd be amazed at how many little creatures and things are moving at night. The dark seems so still and silent, to a lumbering human, but it's just as active and fascinating as the day. Perhaps even more so. 

I wondered, as I watched a mouse scamper from tree to tree, if there was a way to make these effects last longer when I Read them. I had to refresh the spell seven or eight times before I got to Beck's, and it was sort of a pain having to find my page over and over, or else hold the book open while I walked, which was silly looking. Something to ask Lee, tomorrow.

*

There was a light on, on the first floor of Beck's two-story house, and I could discern movement of an excited sort. I walked up and knocked, a relic of the days when I'd been hesitant to ring the bell and alert her parents to my presence. Beck opened the door immediately, beaming.

"I'm so glad you're here! Oh my God, I'm so excited!"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that," I began, following her into the house, "I don't know if we're really ready to be-"

"Look!" she said, ignoring me, and held something a little too close to my face. "It's here!"

I took a small step back and focused on the object in Beck's quivering hands, and my stomach lurched. It was a small, slim book, the leather cover midnight blue and smooth, the pages rough and apparently hand-cut. A silver knot of twisted symbols was the only decoration.

A Text.

Already? Lee had made it sound like procuring one would take ages. Maybe someone had died. "That's... great, Beck! I'm really happy for you."

"Isn't it perfect?" she cooed, running a hand along the cover, tracing the Glyph-like symbol with a finger. "I was afraid it'd be all old and leathery like Lee's, but it's so pretty."

"It's very stylish."

"I've been waiting to try it, until you got here. I'm so glad you got out early. The FedEx guy got here like three hours ago, I didn't even know they worked that late." She sat at her kitchen table, trembling with anticipation. "I don't even know what to do first."

I sat down opposite her, wary. I didn't know why the sight of the Text... Beck's Text... should make me so uncomfortable. Changes, I thought. More changes. More adjustments. Everyone's place seems to be shifting.

I snapped out of it. "I just flipped through it until something popped out at me. That's sort of what I'm still doing." I drew my own Text from my coat, the sleek black shape feathered with various neon pink sticky notes. It looked like a gay raven. "You pick things up."

"Neat," she murmured, and opened the blue book. The terrible front page gleamed gently, and for a moment I thought Beck would start her Conclave career with the branding words, but she just kept on flipping pages. I watched her, remembering my own initial curiosity. It seemed so long ago that I'd figured the book was some useless foreign bestseller. Beck, of course, had the advantage of knowing what she was looking at.

"Here!' she exclaimed, jolting me out of another reverie, "I can read this! It says... it says..." She looked up at me. "Do you think I should do it?"

"Might as well."

"I'm glad you're here," she said sincerely, smiling at me. Then she looked down at the page, inhaled impressively, and basically shouted, "Asko Veronai!"

A blue-white flash lit the kitchen, and I was slammed backwards out of my seat, cracking my head painfully against the wall behind me. Intense, biting cold covered my entire body, and for a horrible second, I thought I'd been paralyzed or something.

I had to rub my eyes, which were stuck shut, and my fingers were stiff and numb. What the hell had just happened? I wiggled my toes, thought I could feel them moving, and managed to open one of my eyes.

A layer of ice and frost covered nearly everything in the kitchen. Nothing was left standing if it hadn't been nailed down, except the table, the Text upon it, and Beck herself, who was staring around with an expression of wonder.

"Ow," I groaned, brushing snow and ice chips from my coat, slowly standing up. "Nice blizzard, Beck."

"That was awesome!" she squealed, picking up a handful of rapidly melting snow from the kitchen counter, grinning ear to ear. "You're okay, right?"

"Oh, yeah," I grumbled, "I think the concussion is helping me ignore the broken ribs."

She laughed. She'd always been one of those girls who thinks it's cute to playfully punch, slap, poke, and shove their men around. Like we're supposed to like it. How adorable. "You're such a big baby. Oh, that was cool..."

I sighed. Frigid melt-water was running down my back. "Ice cold. Well, at least we know it works."

"Have you done that one before?"

"No," I replied, breaking an icicle off the sink. "I have a fire Glyph, but nothing quite as... room-clearing, as this. You could get a part time job as a Kegerator."

"Hm," she hummed, looking thoughtful as she stood up a variety of knocked-over knickknacks, "I wonder if it makes a difference who has what book."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your book was supposed to be mine, remember? If I'd read it, would I have your fire App instead? Or would I always have gotten this one first?"

"I guess there's no way to really know," I mused, standing my wet chair back up and sitting on my soggy coat. "Interesting thought, though." My head still hurt.

Beck plopped down into her chair happily, kitchen more or less put back together. "Wow. That was nothing like I expected."

"I'm with you there. How do you feel?"

She considered, suddenly gurgling in the midsection. "Hungry. Actually I'm starving, wow."

I nodded. "That'll happen. Especially with really big, powerful spells," I said, managing to sound as though I'd known that for more than two hours. "You should have a snack."

"Also..." she said, looking directly at me now, "Now that I think about it, I feel... horny."

"Oh?"

"Very."

I sat up a little straighter, attempting dignity. "That hasn't happened with me," I said very analytically, "Maybe it's a female thing. Or something to do with that Glyph, or your book."

"Maybe it's nothing to do with any of that," she purred. Oh boy.

"I'm really sore."

"I'll give you a rub," she said, rising from her chair. Her eyes were predatory.

"My head hurts," I attempted. Girls use that all the time.

"Head-related inquiries can be made," she whispered, very close to my ear, "during normal business hours." Her breath was warm. I think it melted some ice in my hair. I tried to focus on the cold shower my clothes were giving me, instead of Beck's soon-to-be-branded right hand, crawling like a spider up my thigh. 

She sat down, straddling my lap. "You'll feel better in a minute."

"Beck, listen, we ought to talk about this-"

"You don't want me to say I love you yet," she said, looking me straight in the eye. She was panting slightly. "So I'm not. You need your space. You need to go home soon. You need more sleep. Fine."

It's surprising how quickly guilt can break down a man's resistance. "I'm not trying to-"

"-You can take as much time as you need, to get your thoughts together. But I'm saying I want you, and there's nobody home. That used to be enough."

She licked her lips. That did it. "I'm feeling very good tonight. You should too. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. It doesn't have to mean any more. Now I'm going up to my room. You should come."

She stood up, pressing herself to me the whole way. She swayed away.

I went.

Yeah, I know. Don't judge me.

*

Reviews

[nuclearsubmarine]

"very meh"? seriously? oh well.

[EarthExile]

I get the impression you might be a f*****g idiot.

Are you saying you don't like my word choice? Are you saying you'd be more excited about a vision-enhancing spell than my protagonist was? What's going on here?

[nuclearsubmarine]

Forgive my bluntness, and allow me to rephrase: yes, I didn't like your word choice, probably because I'm one of those stubborn people who would prefer if such words as "meh" wouldn't ever be considered words, but ultimately it's the writer's choice. I was just expressing the way it stood out to me while reading. By the way, so far I really like your book. You could be less jumpy about idiots commenting on it though.. (it might not seem like it, but i'm trying to be constructive here)

[UponATyme]

Just like a man. Also, I think Beck killed somebody. Wouldn't put it past her.

[Ness]

I think the end of this chapter is true to men's nature :P good chapter, things are moving along. Can't wait to see whats gonna happen when Beck gets better at her text!