Merrick could count the times that he had seen the bookstore closed during business hours on one hand. He would not even need to use any fingers. It had never happened. Without fail, the bookstore was always open from eight in the morning until eight at night. Sometimes Merrick had been the one to open or close the bookstore at his bosses request. However, he was certain that today was not one of the days he was supposed to open the shop.
The door was locked and Merrick had a key, but it did not feel right to open it now. There had to be a reason for the closure. He had his boss's personal number but he was only supposed to call it during an emergency. After a moment's thought, Merrick realized that he felt less intrusive calling his boss than he did unlocking the door and heading in.
Two rings was all it took for his boss to pick up. It was barely enough time for Merrick to dial on his end and bring the phone up to his ear.
"Hello, Merrick." His boss answered the phone warmly, "I hope that all is well."
"Mr. Abernathy, hello. I just got to the shop for my shift and I know that I'm late but… why are we closed?"
"Oh…" Mr. Abernathy sighed, "I am sorry. I forgot to let you know. I decided to close the shop for the afternoon. I hope it was not too much of a bother for you."
"It's alright. Is everything okay?"
After a moment of hesitation, Mr. Abernathy finally answered. "I should have been the one to ask you that, Merrick. You have been working hard and putting in some astonishing hours since you started but… over the last few months, I can't help but notice that you seem distracted."
Merrick nodded along as his boss indicted his behavior.
Mr. Abernathy continued, "You've been focused heavily on that game of yours. There is nothing wrong with that. Usually I would not even mind, but you've missed a few shifts without notice. Between that and the trauma you went through. I decided it might be worth bringing in another helper. That is where I am now… interviewing someone."
"Trauma?" Merrick asked.
"The robbery." Mr. Abernathy said matter of factly. "When you found your friend bleeding to death. I think that counts as trauma even if you were not the one shot."
"Oh…" A second passed as the rest of his boss's words processed in his brain. Merrick finally asked, "Are you hiring a replacement for me?"
Mr. Abernathy laughed, "Oh no! Hades no. Merrick, you are not being fired or replaced. I know that you wanted this job to help get on your feet after graduating while waiting for something better to come along. You can stay here as long as you want. This new helper… they'll serve a different purpose."
"Okay…" Merrick knew the words should have reassured him. They might later, but for now, it felt like he was being fired slowly. "Since I'm here, do you need me to do anything?"
"No." Mr. Abernathy answered quickly, "Not until I've brought in the new helper."
Merrick cleared his throat, "That… makes it sound like I am being replaced."
Mr. Abernathy let out the world's deepest sigh, "Merrick, you are not. I cannot explain much over the phone, but I know about your new abilities and that you met my former apprentice Alex."
Merrick's mind froze for a moment, he was unable to think as soon as he heard Alex's name.
Mr. Abernathy followed up with, "I am sending you an address. Meet me at the top in one week. That shouldn't be too hard for one with your new skills."
Before Merrick could respond, Mr. Abernathy hung up. Merrick stood frozen with his phone to the side of his head looking into his reflection in the darkened glass windows of the bookstore. He stood like that until his phone received a text.
It was an address, clicking on it pulled up his map. After a few seconds of attention to the map, Merrick turned and looked to the North. He could barely make out the building up the hill, at the address. It was an ancient looking building on the side of the hill with a large clocktower sticking out from the center. The map marker on his phone noted that it was a historical site: "Old Library with Clocktower". It sounded more like the name of a painting than an actual place.
His boss's words reverberated in his head: Meet me at the top.
An hour later, Merrick was sitting at one of the library computers on Campus. Work was canceled for the day and he surprised himself by not hurrying right back home to delve more into Dungeons Below. Instead, his brain leaped back to what he used to do every day. He pulled up historical records, purchase orders, and found seemingly lost threads that tied them together.
Merrick was one of the best research students that the University had ever seen. His classmates had pressed him for help with assignments and even some professors had paid him as a contractor to verify strange facts. That led to his first research grant with the University and even though it seemed to go well, it was only renewed once.
Without the University's resources, Merrick had already tied the address to a historical building. With the resources, however, Merrick was able to figure out more than just the historical plaque attached to the map marker on his phone. The "Old Library with Clocktower" was actually "The Hilltop Gallery and Atheneum". As soon as he read the name, Merrick instantly thought of Mouseion, the company behind Dungeons Below, but he was not sure why.
The Hilltop was a library-of-sorts that was solely owned by Horace Abernathy, Merrick's boss. The more information that Merrick found, the less it made sense. Mr. Abernathy had owned the building for longer than conventionally possible. Merrick found a purchase order for when his boss bought The Hilltop from its original owner and building. The date on that purchase order was over a hundred years ago.
Conventional logic, the kind that Merrick relied on to do research, told him that Horace Abernathy was more than one person: a sort of Dread Pirate Roberts. However, when Merrick pulled more and more records. He found more and more evidence that Horace Abernathy was the same now as he was then.
A picture in an old Town Ledger showed the grand reopening ceremony for The Hilltop after Mr. Abernathy bought it. Despite the fact that it looked like he was trying to hide from the photo by turning toward the building, Merrick recognized his boss. A hundred year old photograph but Mr. Abernathy looked like he had only aged a decade at most.
That was nearly all the definitive records that Merrick could find. According to the most extensive set of research documents and records, the University's Library, Mr. Abernathy was only three things. First, he was the owner of an antique bookstore that taught elective-only classes at the University. Second, he was the owner of The Hilltop Gallery and Atheneum. Lastly, he had to be over a hundred years old at least.
The last thing that Merrick looked into before leaving was the strange connection between his boss and Alex. His boss had mentioned on the phone that she was his apprentice. Then Mouseion was the first thing that Merrick thought of when he found the proper name for the "Old Library with Clocktower".
He wondered if there was a connection between the mysterious old man and the megacorporation that ran most of the City's entertainment. The only tie that bound them together, however, was Alex.
For five years, while she was going through schooling at the University, Alex Drea listed Horace Abernathy as her sole employer. She also listed her job as "Apprentice". Reading that, Merrick felt less important about his own title of "Shopkeeper's Assistant."
After graduating, Alex left her employment as Merrick's boss's Apprentice and went to work for Mouseion Entertainment. She was now, and had been, operating as the Head of Research and Development for something called Project KLEIO. The University, and the internet, had nothing on Project KLEIO outside of the fact that Alex had listed it on one form a few years ago.
On the subway home, Merrick fell into a thought spiral so deep that he missed his stop and had to ride along until the car made the return trip. The thought spiral focused on what he had learned, what his boss had said, the connection to Alex, but mostly it focused on what his boss meant when he said "shouldn't be too hard for one with your new skills."
Once he made it home, Merrick logged back into Dungeons Below.