For Brandon Page, it was a good day. The sun was out, the birds were singing, it was a beautiful day. It was a good, perfect beautiful day.
As Brandon drove back to his home where he was staying for the summer, with his parents, he wondered if life could get any better.
What Brandon should have been wondering is if life could have gotten any weirder, and the answer to that, is about to be a resounding yes.
Brandon Page was twenty two, finishing up college going for his degree in engineering. He loved it, building things, designing things, watching them take shape and stability. It gave him a thrill he couldn't even describe.
As he stopped at the stop sign, flicking his turn signal to left, to head home like he's done a dozen times before during this summer back in his home town of Smallton, he noticed a large sign hanging from the stop sign:
GARAGE SALE. THE STRANGE AND MYSTERIOUS! TURN RIGHT.
"Ah, what the hell" Brandon thought to himself, turning the turn signal to the right instead of left, and executing the turn.
He drove down the road a little bit, music blaring on the radio, as he saw the sign that read "GARAGE SALE. HERE!".
He turned into the driveway, and was surprised to see a large number of people parked in front of what appeared to be a large plantation style house, which was odd since no houses like that existed in Smallton to his knowledge. Parking his car, he got out and surveyed the scene, with dozens of long wooden tables laid out of the fresh green yard of the house, scattered with bizarre looking objects.
Brandon moved amongst the crowd, looking at some of the strange objects on the table before him: Odd sinsister looking dummies, a monkey 's paw, odd books with titles like "Easy Spells 4 You", "Life Changing Spells" amongst other things. A large wooden box with no seems with what appeared to be Hebrew written on it, a map to a mysterious "Lost Island" in the middle of the pacific, a small hand mirror with the words "True Beauty Is Within" engraved on it.
This wasn't mystical. It was all junk.
As Brandon looked over the items, he was approached by a tall, gaunt, pale man, wearing a long black trench coat, a large black fedora, long black pants, and slick black shoes. Underneath the black trench coat, Brandon could see a thin black T-Shirt.
"Greetings. Welcome to my Garage Sale. I am Yaral. I have just moved here and am selling my things. Would you like to purchase my things?" Yaral said, his speaking manner was off, almost like someone was learning to speak it for the first time, slow and methodical.
"Uh, hi. I'm Brandon. Nice to meet you. I didn't know anyone lived down this way. I've lived in Smallton almost my whole life, and usually it's just a long forest path down here." Brandon said, looking over the stuff.
"I have just moved here, including my house. I have purchased this land and now I am selling my things to pay for it. Would you like to purchase my things?" Yaral said again in his strange manner.
"Well, what have you got?" Brandon says, looking back over the strange objects.
"I have things for the darkest corners of the Earth, where man and woman alike fear to step foot. Places where magics and monster still thrive in your - - - I mean our - - world. " Yaral said. Brandon noticed that ever since he had started talking to Yaral, Yaral hadn't blinked.
"Uh-huh. Well, I'll just look around some more" Brandon said. He poured over the tables while Yaral seemed to be watching him. On the table he saw a camera that supposedly saw the future, a "wishing stone", and some strange coin with two pregnant people on the front of it.
Flip Me Brandon a strange voice seemed to command Brandon.
Brandon picked up the coin, looked at it, gave it a flip, and looked at some random passerby at the garage sale.
Buy Me Brandon a strange voice told him.
"Meh" Brandon said putting the coin back on the table, and continued to look. Moments later, he was bumped into by someone who ran past him, holding their mouth, looking like they were about to be sick.
"Wonder what's there problem?" Brandon asked looking at the person who just ran past, before picking up some strange round amulet.
"Ah, an excellent choice." Yaral said to Brandon.
"What is it?" Brandon asked looking at the amulet. It was round with six round stones dotting along the edges of the amulet. Below each stone were the numbers 1 through 9. In the middle of the stones was a giant "X" that looked like it could be pressed. The top stone was odd. Half of it was colored blue, the other half was colored pink, and had the number 8 light up under the stone.
"This was supposedly a device that when used allowed a person to transfer a pregnancy from one person to another." Yaral explained.
"From one person to another? You mean from one woman to another." Brandon said, correcting Yaral's mistake.
"No. From one person to another, male or female." Yaral corrected Brandon's corrected.
"Oh come on." Brandon said, disbelief in his voice.
"You doubt this item? This item has a long history. Supposedly it was old when the world was young, it was used by those who possessed it to ease the burden of child-bearing. A husband could carry the child for his wife, or a mother for her daughter. It could be used to take a pregnancy away from a tavern wench who was bearing a royal heir and transfer it to another woman. Supposedly when the pregnancy is transferred, whomever it is transferred into, that child becomes there, in blood and in spirt. " Yaral explained.
"How does it work?" Brandon asked, his curiosity peaked. He's never heard of anything like this.
"I do not know. When I found it, it hadn't been used in ages. But as you see here, it looks like there are two children waiting for a new home" Yaral said, pointing at the pink/blue stone with his overly long, thin, boney finger.
"How is that even possible?" Brandon asked looking at the stone.
"They say once a pregnancy is taken from one, it awaits here in these stones, perfectly safe, waiting to be put into someone." Yaral said.
"Some said it's magic from a time where magic still ruled this world, other says it's technology that fell from the stars" Yaral finished.
"This thing is weird" Brandon said.
"This weird thing can be yours for just five dollars." Yaral said.
"Five bucks?" Brandon thought about it.
What would he even use this thing for? There's no possible way it could work. It's just some odd looking necklace with a bizarre story this guy cooked up. Still, Brandon was a lover of the strange and unusual, and it was only five bucks. He spent more money on worst things. I mean, it's just a necklace, there's no way that it could work...
"Ah, what the hell. Here" Brandon said, pulling out five dollars from his wallet and handing it to Yaral.
"Excellent choice young sir. I'm sure it will serve you well. Now before you go, take this" Yaral said, reaching into his pocket, pulling out a small thick book about the size of a paperback novel.
"What's this?" Brandon asked, grabbing the small hefty book.
"The instruction manual. I would be sure to read it over" Yaral said before walking off to other parts of the yard sale.
Brandon was standing there, mystical necklace in one hand, a small paperback novel of instruction in the other. He wondered what he just got himself into.
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