Page 74 of The Little Shop of Curiosities Cursed Object 1, The Music Box

Sam settles his hands once again on my shoulders. “There are days even now when the world is too loud, too bright…too everything, and I feel like I’m drowning.”

I grasp his hand and turn to look over my shoulder.

His dark eyes trace over the spilling tears. “I’m guessing you know what I’m talking about. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? And lonely. There aren’t many people, other than maybe Tristan, who understand the weight we carry.”

I rise slowly to my feet, feeling strangely light now that the pain is all but gone. Turning so I face him, I stare into the dark depths of his eyes as he lifts his hands to cup my cheeks and uses the pads of his thumbs to wipe away my tears.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I whisper.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he says quietly. “I like you, Prickles, and I want to get to know you.” He breathes in. “And because I feel like maybe you would get it, what it feels like to move through a world of people who have no idea what’s really there.”

My heart pounds. I do get exactly how he feels, and more surprisingly, he understands what it’s like to be me.

With that realisation comes a sense of surprise. Maybe I’m not as alone in the world as I thought.

“Sam,” I murmur, and lean towards him, unable to help myself. He’s like a black hole. I’m drawn into his gravity well, not knowing what lies on the other side but powerless to stop myself falling.

He shifts forward, his soft-looking lips millimetres from mine. I so desperately want to kiss him, to know how he feels against me, to know how he tastes. He watches me, his fingers tightening slightly on my face, a slight tremble running through his hands.

He wants this as much as I do, I think wonderingly.

Our lips barely graze when we’re startled apart by the sudden blaring of my phone in the still room.

Sam chokes back a laugh at the song playing loudly.

I wince. “That’ll be Tristan.”

“You set his personal ringtone to the Ghostbusters theme song?”

“It was that or The Exorcist. At least this is more upbeat than the sheer creepiness of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.”

“Prickles,” he says admiringly, “you are a man of many layers. Should I ask what my ringtone is?”

“No,” I say flatly. Turning away, I wipe the tear tracks from my face and take a calming breath in an effort to push the almost kiss to the back of my mind and focus.

Once I’ve settled a bit, I pick up the phone, which is still ringing determinedly, and greet Tristan with a polite, “Hello, Tristan. What can I do for you?”

“Hey, Harrison, a lot’s been going on. I thought I’d bring you up to date.”

“Sure, go ahead.” I once again resume my seat at the workbench and sip my barely lukewarm tea.

“Okay.” He blows out a breath. “So, Madame Viv is living with me and Danny for a while. The creepy chaos entity in the bookshop is making it impossible for her to remain there. On the way out, she gave me a whole box of papers, which look as if they’re all written by Cornelius Crawshanks.”

I perk up in interest. “What sort of papers?”

“All sorts of things. It’s a bit hard to make sense of at the moment, but I think some of them are journal entries and others are notes that didn’t make it into his published edition of his Guide to the Recently Departed. There may be some letters in there as well.”

“I’d love to go through them for you, if you’d like,” I offer, and not altogether altruistically. Even though the others don’t know it yet, Cornelius is my family, and I’d like any chance to study the man.

“I’d kind of like to go through them myself, but you can come and help me if you like,” he offers, speaking loud enough that I’m almost certain Sam can hear too. “After we’ve averted this potential apocalypse though.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“Oh my god, so much information. I don’t even know where to start, but the short version is that the magic doorway in Madame Viv’s bookshop is the crux of this whole fiasco.”

“You mean the portal?”

“Didn’t I just say that?” I can hear the frown in his voice. “Anyway, as you know, Death’s twin or counterpart, Chaos, is on the other side, trying to break through into our world, and he is nowhere as well behaved as his brother Death. If he manages to get to our side, he’ll bring all kinds of chaos, the really bad kind. Hence, potential apocalypse. Even Death is kinda worried about it, and the guy’s facial muscles barely work. I’d have thought he’d been Botoxed to within an inch of his life if he hadn’t actually smiled after his and Chan’s date.”