The Chrion Legend: The Voice

I didn't know that my life was empty.  I didn't even know that I was missing something.  On the other hand perhaps I did.  Maybe everyone has a small part of themselves that feels hollow, ready to be filled.  It might be possible that every man, woman, and child can feel the depravity of their emptiness.  However, it was on that day that I discovered the remedy.  It was on that day I was... revived.

I was young.  Not too young, but not too old either.  I was walking casually down the lane that lay between my house and the small office that I worked at each day from five o'clock in the morning to six o'clock in the afternoon with a one hour lunch break somewhere in the middle.  It was Friday.  I remember that because I had just received my meager monthly pay from the boss.  If I had known what was going to happen due to using that money, I doubt my walk towards home would have been quite as calm.

It was during my walk to my home, where I had planned to eat a light supper, listen to the radio for a short bit, and then turn in for the night, that I saw what I had always seen during that walk for the past eight months.  It wasn't anything special, or so I thought.  It was a book store.  The sign read Mulligan's.  While none of this slipped my attention, these were not the detail that drew me into the shop that night.  It was the voice.

Soft and soothing were its words.

"Hello?"  I called out.  "Is anyone there?"

The only response I received was a funny look from the shopkeeper, who was getting ready to close up for the night.  I slowly and cautiously walked towards the old store.  Nothing particularly frightening about it.  I had almost convinced myself that there had not been a voice until heard it again.

The shopkeeper started to swing the door shut, to be locked for the night.  My mind told me to head back home, return to my normal routine, to eat supper, listen to the radio, and go to bed, but my curiosity and, dare I say it, my heart, demanded that I keep on going.  The door was almost shut.  I had to make a decision now.

My foot shot out, as if of its own accord, and forced its way between the door and the frame.

Now I was committed.