Book of Flames Ch. 01

Keira Dawn sighed as the bookstore became quiet and empty again. Reorganizing books that have been left on tables, Keira's mind wandered as she looked outside. Her bookstore was like an old relic, standing alone along all the new aged stores and electronics. It stood out from all the smooth concrete and bold advertising logos. It was an old brownstone building, a store front on the bottom and an apartment above it.

The store was simply named 'Pops', for the man that used to run it. When Keira was in high school she had come to the book store every day. Over time she had struck up a friendship with the owner, Pops. He was a kindly old man, knowledgeable, always with a warm smile on his face. He hired Keira to help run the store as his health started to decline.

Cancer, he told her one night. The soft glow of the reading lamp warming his face, showing her how tired he really was. His pale green eyes met her brown ones. His only family was his daughter, who he hadn't seen since his wife left him, many years ago. Reaching into his vest pocket, he opened up a piece of paper titled 'Will and Testament' and handed it over to her. She would be the only benefactor to all his possessions and the store would be signed over to her at the time of his death.

Tears fell from both faces that night as they held hands tightly. Months went past in a blur, Keira graduated high school with full honors, Pop standing there in the crowd, holding onto his cane, a new addition. He was smiling as proud as ever of her achievements, although looking more tired and pale, having to sit down after a short time. He was there when she bought her first car too, getting her license, she was able to take him to his treatments. He opened his door to a crying Keira one dark night, note in hand from her mother, stating she left with some guy of the week, the latest John in a long line of street work, and she took everything with her, leaving just Keira's clothes and books. She wouldn't be coming back and the apartment lease was up. It was Keira's eighteenth birthday.

He made a space for her in his apartment. He had her move things out of the small office in front and bought her a bed and dresser, letting her fill a bookcase with books, organize her clothes into her wardrobe, and got her a few new items to make her feel more at home. He listened to her cry some nights as she was huddled in a ball at the bay window, bringing her tea and tissues. Sometimes she'd just weep into his chest, inhaling his cologne as he pat her back gently. She had never known her father, and right now he was the closest thing to it she had.

Soon it was hard for him to go down the stairs everyday. He had her set up a room in the back of the bookstore for him. An old army cot, small TV still with rabbit ears and a silver pail. He had started throwing up from the chemo. His light brown hair, streaked with gray had slowly turned thin, coming out in patches. His straight back curved over in pain. He had clung onto his cane more often, the head of a lion carved at the top.

One day, after Keira had finished feeding him some broth, all that he was able to hold down anymore, he asked her to go upstairs to his former bedroom and retrieve a bag that was in his dresser. Keira headed up and opened the door. She had never been in his room, and only had saw glimpses of it.

A four poster dark wood bed greeted her. The comforter a dark green color that matched him perfectly, for he wore dark green colors quite often. He had matching book cases on either side of his window and a desk between them, all dark wood like his bed. Next to the closet was his dresser. Kneeling down she opened the bottom drawer and grabbed the duffel bag. It looked old and worn. it had 'U.S ARMY' stamped on it with a serial number printed on the rough canvas.

Returning back to him she opened it as he requested. Inside was something rectangular and heavy. It felt like a book. Underneath that was a file stamped with faded red, marked 'CONFIDENTIAL', and under that a small print reading 'Copy of file' and elegant scrawl that read:

-Richard, you don't know how hard this was to obtain, you owe me a beer. B.

After that, was a manila folder that held pictures. Handing the rest over to him, Keira looked over the pictures. One was of a family, a younger looking Pops pushing a small girl on a swing. Another was of him and a really beautiful woman, she assumed his wife, in a vintage car. They both looked happy. One of them was of him in the army, he was sitting with two other guys and on the back of the photo it read 'Sgt. Richard "Pops" Harkins, First Class, Beta Echo Zero, Sammy Boy, and B'. There were a handful more, drawing a smile to her face. The last was odd. It looked like it wasn't developed right, the subject was a blur, it looked like a person but the eyes were bigger. On the white border of the picture it was simply titled 'Subject One'.

"I was selected to be apart of an underground mission," Pops began, "I was stationed in Germany, where a UFO had crashed. Now, this was common and well known at the time." He looked at Keira's surprised face and let out a weak chuckle. "How do you think we got all this fancy technology so fast? They brought it to us. In little bits at a time, the government is like a child it always wants the whole piece instead of a bite."

"So you were sent to get an actual UFO?" she repeated, trying to wrap her head around it. "How come it isn't common knowledge that other life exists?"

"Oh, it is, at least in the right circles. The higher ups decided that if they let the common Joe know, the world would slip into chaos. Life besides our self seems to be a hard pill for people to swallow, even if it makes the most sense."

Keira nodded in agreement looking at Subject One's photo again. Pops motioned to it. "We found the craft on a beachfront, the being inside wasn't alive but it was carrying this," he said unwrapping the item revealing a brown leather book. On the cover it looked like flames, or some sort of fire, pressed into the leather. There was a weird looking lock on it almost like the spine of a human, with small points sticking out, keeping it closed.

"They were never able to get this open no matter what they did to it. Fire it seemed actually repair it. They could never figure it out." He said, waving his hand dismissively.

"How did you get it?" she asked looking at the book and then through the file he handed to her. Inside were a bunch of blacked out files and a picture of Hitler with the book.

"He stole it. I won't go into details, but he tried to use the book unsuccessfully, resulting in us being able to take the bastard down once and for all. My good friend B, all he was known as for his name was hard to say, let alone spell, got it out of the bunker it was hidden in, unknown to both German and American governments and gave it to me to keep, and now I'm giving it to you.

"Why?" she asked as he handed it over. It felt warm in her hands, a tingling sensation that went straight to her gut. Her fingers traced over the symbol on the front, and it slightly glowed red, startling her. Pop didn't noticed as he spoke, "It holds great power, anyone near it can feel that, and a thing like this shouldn't be in the wrong hands. They all thought it was lost in the wreckage, somehow finally destroyed, much to the dismay of the leaders at the time."

As he continued on, her fingers wandered over the spine and she felt a prick. "Ouch!" she cried, as the symbol on the book glowed brightly and the lock popped open startling both of them.

"Never in my life!" Pop said speechless, "Open it up girl, whats inside it?"

Timidly, Keira looked at Pop, he was sitting straighter than he had ever been in these last few months, peering at the book with such an intensity it scared her a bit. Slowly as if the wrong move would end her life, she opened the book, breathing out as she realized she was holding her breath.

The book was blank.