Emiko slowly walked between the stacks of dusty tomes, supposedly arcane items, and other assorted creepy and decorative items. Her knee length coat softly swished as she walked and her luminous green eyes flicked this way and that as she perused the items scattered throughout the store, looking for something that might help spark her creativity. Her career as a freelance comic book artist usually went swimmingly, and then she would occasionally run into the mother of all creative blocks, much like she did today. After trying and failing half a dozen times to finish even a single page frame without throwing it out, she got up and left her home, coming here in the hopes that she could find something to prove an inspiration. So far, that idea had worked about as well as her day’s work. Monkey’s paw, been done; an old and dusty book with the word Liponomicon barely visible on the spine, something felt familiar about that to Emiko, but she shook her head and moved along; a crystal ball with what appeared to be a puff of black smoke forever shifting and flowing through the interior, that held a possibility but Emiko eventually passed, keeping it in mind though; an odd looking coin with rough etchings of what appeared to be a man and woman facing each other and holding round swollen stomachs, Emiko almost thought that it looked like they were both pregnant, the thought of a male pregnancy helped dissuade her, and a quiet whispering that distracted her as she looked around for the source finished it when she set the coin down and continued walking.
Emiko was just about to give up and head out to see if anywhere else might stir her imagination when her eyes alighted on a golden amulet resting on one of the shelves. Six bluish/pinkish jewels were arrayed around what appeared to be a ruby carved into the shape of a small x in the center, and the attached chain was thin but strong gold as well. Holding it up to the light, Emiko didn’t feel much inspiration from the amulet, but something about it was seemingly calling to her, she had to have it. Setting a quicker pace towards the back of the store, she inwardly groaned as she saw the person sitting behind the counter; Alexandra had always been a bit of a lazy and unambitious person, and she had only gotten worse since she had gotten pregnant months before. Every time that Emiko had seen her, she had always felt her pulse quicken, seeing that pale orb of her stomach stretching out of clothes definitely not meant for a pregnant woman. After taking a moment to cool off, Emiko moved closer. Alexandra barely looked up from the magazine she had spread across the counter, and only dimly acknowledged Emiko. On her face was a glum expression that was there so often, that it could have been painted on in the thick layers of makeup.
“Hey, Alexandra, how much for this thing?” Emiko asked, putting on as cheerful a face as she could to hide her frustration. “There’s no tag on it.”
Even her speaking had gotten slower, and that was saying quite a bit, as Alexandra slowly and lowly murmured, “That thing, I think the boss meant to mark it as twenty dollars.”
Emiko hemmed and hawed a bit, thinking that it was a bit more than she wanted to spend on a trinket. Alexandra seemed to perk up a tiny fraction though, sensing that there was the possibility of a sale.
“Some woman brought it in a little while back, wanting to sell it. She said that it was magic and would allow the wearer to transfer pregnancies, right.” Emiko felt her breath quicken a bit again as she heard that, even as Alexandra let out a mirthless laugh. “‘All you have to do is hold It up and think about the baby or babies moving to or fro and the amulet will transfer the children into your target, into you, or even into the amulet,’ she said. She even told me to try it out, and I did, but it didn’t get rid of this little girl at all,” she said, reaching down to touch the smooth orb of her womb.
Despite Alexandra’s denial of anything happening, Emiko still felt drawn to the amulet for some reason. Even if the pregnancy transference part didn’t work out, the amulet still looked pretty nice, and it might be something that Tara would like. Making her mind up, Emiko paid the twenty dollars, before spinning on her heel and walking towards the front of the store. Along the way, she slipped the chain over her head, and felt the amulet settle against her tanned skin. It felt oddly warm, and holding it up to the light made it almost seem as there was a glow within the various jewels dotted across the front. She stopped just inside the door, lacy curtains were across drawn to darken the inside of the store, but still allow some visibility outside. Emiko now felt her pulse quicken as she saw a woman walking along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, slowly making her way despite the bulge of what appeared to be a triplet-laden belly beneath the tent-like sundress. Looking back, Emiko could also see Alexandra still seated at the counter, back to reading the magazine before her. Now looking down at the amulet, the Asian-American woman was overcome with the desire to go ahead and try out this supposedly magical trinket and see if she could fulfill her deepest fantasy of being pregnant. Holding the amulet up, she pointed it and imagined the pregnancy of her target being moved into her; and she continued to concentrate on…  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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