I unlocked my front door and pushed it open with my hip. Once inside, I hooked my ankle around the bottom of the door and kicked it shut. I walked over to the kitchen table and set the box down. Taking off my coat, I tossed it on a chair with my bag. There was a light bulb flashing above my head and I quickly went back to the door to flip the deadbolt and the door lock. Feeling relatively safe now, I stood in front of the box. It was about eighteen inches square, and had old looking stickers plastered all over it. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a food container with last night's leftovers in it, popped it in the microwave and set the timer for five minutes. In my tiny kitchen, all I had to do was turn and open a drawer to pull out a knife. I slid the blade under the twine and lifted. The string fell away, and I used the tip of the knife to pry the staples loose. A strange sensation filled me when I lifted the flaps, something between fear and excitement. . I looked inside and saw several items wrapped in a strange material, something like a cross between paper and leather. I reached in and picked up the first thing I touched. It was oval in shape, about the size of a small loaf of French bread, also tied up with twine. I picked up the knife again and cut through it and unwrapped the object. Holding it in both hands, it looked like an ordinary river rock about eight inches long by four inches wide, except for the fact that it weighed about 3 ounces. I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. This rock should weigh at least a couple pounds. I set it down on the table next to the box. Lifting up the wrapping, I ran my fingers across it. It looked like paper, but the texture felt more like some kind of very thin leather. Smooth on one side, slightly rougher on the other, it was a medium grey color. I tried to tear the corner off, but it didn't rip. I stuck it in my mouth and tried to bite a piece off, hearing my mother's voice telling me to get that filthy thing out of my mouth. I left nothing but wet marks from my teeth. Now there's a puzzle, I thought. I shrugged to myself and tossed it back to the table. Next item. Wrapped in the same fabric, I opened it up. This was a crystal disc somewhat larger than the palm of my hand. It looked like a magnifying glass without a handle, concave on one side and convex on the other. Okay, this was relatively normal. I set it down and reached in again. Yes, I am an impatient person, On Christmas morning; I tear through everything shredding wrapping paper like a machine. And this was starting to feel like Christmas. I touched a long piece of string, and pulled on it. At the end of it was a tiny pouch. I unraveled the string and opened it up. Two small pink things fell out into my hand and I frowned at it. One looked like an earplug or possibly a hearing aid. The other looked like the old pink nose plugs for swimming, but without the cord. No treasure there, or so I thought. Setting it down, I went for the next thing. Let's see, it's square and heavy, a book! I was starting to play guessing games with myself. I was definitely going to shake the next thing I pulled out. I cut the twine again and shook off the leather paper. It was a book, a very old book from the looks of it. The cover was made from wood and covered in leather. It had metal rivets and hinges instead of any kind of modern binding. There were symbols on the front cover that looked like they had been branded into the leather. I suddenly felt a peculiar expanding feeling in my chest. I felt like I could take on the world and nothing could stop me, not even those two idiots that were hunting me down earlier. My shoulders felt a mile wide and I was standing above the entirety of humanity. I grinned to myself and let out a chuckle. I was going to beat the stars out of those bastards that threatened me. I laid the book on the table as well. And suddenly came back down to earth. I blinked in surprise. My eyebrows furrowed in concentration, trying to figure where that crazy notion came from. I reached back in and pulled out a large leather satchel, and as I promised, shook it up. It was heavy and jangled loudly. I tugged the leather strap out of the buckle and flipped open the top. It looked like coins, so I pushed everything back on the table and dumped the contents out. There were all kinds and shapes of coins! Most of them appeared to be of some kind of metal, while others almost looked like some kind of plastic. Some were square, some had holes, and they all looked alien to me. Not like any money found here, although some looked like ancient roman coins. With my hand, I scooped them all back into the satchel and set it aside as well. At the very bottom of the box there were two items left, a spiral notebook and a thick wooden board. I lifted up the box and dumped the rest of the contents onto the table, and dropped the box on the floor. The board I took a closer look at first. It was about eight inches by four, made of a dark wood. There were three columns of holes in it and the bottom hole had what looked like a diamond stuffed into it. I turned it on its side and realized that it wasn't just a board. There was a thin drawer along one edge, so I pulled on the latch and the drawer slid out. Inside the drawer was a round stone disc with what appeared to be ten gemstones set into it. One of the stones was faintly glowing. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the timer for the microwave went off. My nerves felt shot. I put the disc back into the drawer and slid it shut. I opened up the satchel again, and dumped the coins out. The box fit into the satchel with room to spare, so I decided to put everything inside. I slid the book in as well, then the rock and finally the pouch with the weird pink things. I took the fabric that had been wrapped around the book and piled the coins into it, and tied it up. I wedged it down in the side and closed the satchel up, buckling the strap up snugly. I got my food out of the microwave and set it on the counter. Opening the fridge, I pulled out a beer and popped it open. I picked everything up and went into the living to eat. I turned on my stereo, sat down and began to read the notebook. On the inside cover was a note addressed to me. "Dira, You have to help. There is no one else that can do this. Please! Read through this notebook, it has most of the information you'll need. Otherwise, your instincts will guide you. Dyfed" The hairs on the back of my neck were starting to rise. I was just getting used to a nice normal life with minimal to zero drama. I have a job, a nice enough place to live and a car. Wait, no I don't have a car. It's dead, back in the parking lot at work. I made a mental note to call the shop tomorrow, have it towed in to get a new battery installed in the damn thing. I flipped through the pages; it was a journal that Dyfed had apparently kept during some kind of trip. There were drawings and notes jotted down randomly throughout. I started thinking about him, I hadn't seen him in a couple years and suddenly I get a box from him full of bizarre arcane stuff. A loud crash outside my apartment startled me and I jumped up. I crossed the room to the front window, and tried to look out without moving the curtain. The unit across from mine had the porch light out, but I could see that the front window had been broken just enough to reach an arm in. I double checked my deadbolt and turned to grab the notebook. I flipped back a few pages where there were notes about the stone disc. "Rub the next stone to get the next piece, you will end up close to it, but you have to look for it within a few miles away. The locator seems vague." This was written along the binding lengthwise down the page. I had put the box into the satchel with the drawer facing up, so I pulled the drawer out slowly. The stone that had been glowing earlier was now getting very bright. I left it sitting there and jumped up. I went into the kitchen and took a box of energy bars out. I wasn't going anywhere without a bit of food. I pulled open my kitchen drawer and grabbed my flashlight out. You never know when a flashlight will come in handy. Then I saw a box of wooden matches and grabbed them too. I stepped back into the living room and was stuffing them down inside the satchel when my front window shattered. I jammed the notebook into the satchel and started rubbing on the next stone just like Aladdin rubbed his lamp. "Shit!" I thought to myself, nothing's happening. I watched as an arm reached in through the broken glass feeling around for the doorknob. I rubbed the stone harder, frantically. All of a sudden, my guts began to twist up. I dropped the disc back into the drawer and pushed it closed. I slung the strap over my shoulder and grasped my stomach as I bent over in pain. The last thing that crossed my mind was that the leftovers were just from last night; they couldn't have gone bad already. The there was a brilliant flash of light and I was knocked to my knees. Everything went black and I felt myself falling.

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