The Italics indicate the beginning of the story as supplied as part of a practice essay for my school certificate (a statewide exam) the rest i'm proud to say is all my own work, hope you enjoy!

I only caught a glimpse through the window. The face was everything they said it would be- sunken eyes, cigarette stained broken teeth, and a puckered scar that compelled my gaze towards those thin, cruel lips. Yet this was the person I had to meet.

And if things went as I expected, meeting this man would be the least terrifying obstacle in the whole bloody mess I had lying in front of me. Not surprisingly, knowing this didn’t make me any more eager to enter the shop. I sighed, knowing that it didn’t matter what I wanted, I would do what I had to do.

I curled my hand around the brass doorknob of the old wooden door, turning it and flinching at the loud creak that action had elicited. As I entered the musky shop, brushing past the haphazard piles of books, I could see the man sitting behind the register. He acknowledged me with a smirk, pulling his lips taunt to expose the gums of his mouth.

I wanted to scream, to run away but at this point I knew that wasn’t an option. I squared my shoulders, trying to seem confident as I faced the man.

“Hello” I said, flinching as my voice broke the deathly silence the store seemed enveloped in, “I need help finding a book, if you don’t mind”.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and he scowled, frustrated by me so quickly

“We have all kinds of books here, but if you want to find one in particular, you’ll have to look by yourself”

“right, right,” I said, nodding, trying to ease my way into the mans good graces, “the thing is I don’t think you’ll have what I’m looking for.”

“We have all kinds of books here.” He repeated; the threat clear in his voice.

I decide to cut to the chase before the man decides that I’m not worth listening to “Claude sent me.”

The change in the man’s facial expression was sudden, dramatic and terrifying. His eyes went from patronising and impatient to fearful, and his mouth contorted in horror. He soon regained control, and his face was his again, but I had already seen enough. Enough to know I was as good as dead.

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