Justin's backpack was already heavy. The straps had made painful indentations in his thin shoulders. Unfortunately, for him, even though the backpack was heavy, it wasn't full.
He had room for one more book, but it had to be the right one. The problem was that he had scoured all the major bookstores in town and found their selections lacking. His only hope was to find the blink-and-you 'll-miss-it bookstore somewhere on 5th Street.
He'd been up and down 5th street numerous times in the past. In all those times, he'd never noticed any type of store with books in its window.
But the newspaper article he read this morning mentioned it in passing, and he was pretty sure reporters had to verify what they wrote, or they could get sued.
As he crossed the street, he fought against a crowd of people heading home after work. Home. That is where he should be. But, no! He never could turn down the chance to find another great book on mythical creatures. They were his passion. If he didn't love them so much, he would have picked something easier than Anthropology/Cultural Studies to get a degree in.
He was already made fun of mercilessly for knowing the mating rituals of the Kraken. Even if they didn't exist, they were still cool. He didn't care what others thought. But just once, he wished he could spout off a fact about a griffin and see interest on people's faces instead of pity or laughter. But this was his lot in life. He was destined to be a nerd with no friends forever.
With the weight of the backpack pulling him down and the crowd pushing him back, Justin was one shove away from giving up. The best thing he knew to do was to sit down and wait for the crowd to thin. It was a good thing he was literally carrying the perfect seat.
Struggling out of his backpack, he set it next to a dingy brick wall and slid down onto it. The books made his bony behind ache, but it was better than sitting directly on the ground.
As the crowd around him thickened, he was getting a lot of side eyes from people who nearly stepped on him. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, he thought, after getting yelled at by a man with blue sunglasses and a backwards baseball cap.
There was a real possibility that someone might step on him and land in his lap. He would never be able to live that down. No, he had to get off the street. It didn't matter if it wasn't the bookstore. He just needed to be inside.
Standing up, he shrugged his backpack back on without bothering to wipe it off. Walking the 4 feet to the nearest door, he gently pushed it open and hurried inside. The difference was startling. Even though it was after 5 p.m., it had been sunny and bright outside. In the store, however, the lights were more akin to a romantic restaurant in a movie. As his eyes adjusted, he realized that this was no restaurant. It was, in fact, a bookstore. It appeared to be rarely visited, if the layers of dust on the shelves were any indication. But dust on books wasn't a deterrent for him. He knew the value that even a dusty book could have.
With no one around, he lowered his backpack to the ground next to the window, rolled his sore shoulders, and walked further into the shadows.
"Where do I begin? You'd think there would be some kind of labeling system in here." His voice seemed to echo as he slowly ran his fingers on the spines of the books. Looking up, he was shocked to realize he couldn't actually see the ceiling. He had not noticed how tall the building was when he sat down next to it, but surely it wasn't more than a few stories. "Ha! A few stories. There were quite a few of those in here." He knew the joke was bad, but there wasn't anyone here to make fun of him, so he could joke all he wanted.
Looking sheepishly over his shoulder just to confirm he was alone, he decided the best way to start looking for a book was to go to the very back of the shelves and work forward. That way, he would wind up at the front of the store when he was done.
He had no idea when the bookstore closed. Hopefully, he would have at least an hour to scan the shelves. He had read all of his books on mythical creatures so far, and hated the thought of going home without one. But for all he knew, this bookstore might only contain books on gardening and yoga. He had to shiver at the thought of having to read a book on planting perennials. He would rather go back outside and let the work crowd walk all over him in cleats.
Slowing his breathing, Justin slowly walked to the last shelf and picked up the last book. Pulling it out, he snorted when he saw a detailed landscape scene on the cover with the title "Hiking in the Great Outdoors for Beginners." He quickly shoved the book back on the shelf. It wasn't as bad as a gardening book, but it was almost as bad. "If I were meant to be a hiker, I would have been born with stronger shoulders."
He had always had a bad habit of talking to no one as though it were normal. He knew it came from desperately wanting to have someone to listen to him and take what he had to say seriously. Even if only the spiders heard him, it was better than wandering around in the silence.
To save time, he began reading the titles off the spines without pulling them out to look at the covers. There were a few promising books on extinct animals, but they were about real animals, and he had no interest in them.
After 3 shelves of disappointing finds, his finger grazed between two books and slipped in the middle. As he started to pull his finger out, his eye caught something shiny behind the row of books. Scooting the two books out of the way, Justin reached further into the shelf and was shocked when his hand hit something pointy and round. It felt odd, but slightly familiar. Without thinking too much about it, he wrapped both hands around the entire object and pulled it off the shelf.
"A book?!" He said it in surprise, then silently kicked himself. "Of course, you found a book. You are in a bookstore, aren't you?" He had always gotten good grades in school, but every once in a while, his own stupidity surprised him.
When he got done feeling like an idiot, he noticed that, while it was most definitely a book, it was unlike any book he had ever seen. There appeared to be no title on the front or spine. In the very center of the cover, half sunken in, as though by magic, was a large red D20 dice. The cover was also a deep red, with black and gold etchings along the corners.
On the few occasions that he had tried to make friends with boys his own age, they had always wanted to do 1 of 3 things. Play video games, chase girls, or play a role-playing game. Justin had terrible hand-eye coordination, was terrified to talk to girls, and saw no real point in role-playing games. It was all made-up stuff anyway.
As he said those words, he realized how hypocritical he was being. He was going to college to get a degree in creatures who were entirely made up. In fact, he wanted to spend the rest of his life learning all he could about them.
He had a brief moment of regret for not taking the guys up on their offer to form a role-playing campaign, but he quickly pushed it aside. Since this book was probably on roleplaying games, he felt slightly obligated to at least look through it as penance for shunning his schoolmates.
Leaning against the oak bookshelf to support the heavy book, he blew off a thin layer of dust, shone up the D20, and opened the book. Before he could read the title, everything went black.