A Thousand Painful Deaths

Chapter Two: Legends

*WARNING* Slight cursing, immense cheesiness, and very short chapter. I apologize!
........................................

I woke with a start when my phone started singing "Some Nights" in my ear. I looked at the clock, and realized I had less than an hour until work. I was still sitting at my desk, an almost complete letter written before me. I grabbed my stuff and took a quick shower. I grabbed my work clothes off the chair in my room and threw them on. I grabbed my coat, my keys, my wallet, and hurried out of the apartment.

It took about twenty minutes to walk to work, but I ran today. I showed up with one minutes to spare. "Merlin! Where the hell were you? You're always ten minutes early." My manager, Ally, said pulling me into the back room. "I overslept, sorry." I mumbled in reply. "Well, wake up. You're training today." She led me out of the back room and to the customer service desk in the centre of the store.

"Jennifer, this is Merlin. He'll be helping you today." Ally said, gesturing to me. Jennifer turned around, smiled, and stuck out her hand. For a split second, I wasn't in the book store. I was back in Camelot, talking to Guinevere. I shook my head, and smiled quickly, shaking Jennifer's hand. She looked exactly like how I remember Guinevere. Her long, dark hair tied back in a bun, and her smile. "Merlin?" She asked, shaking my arm slightly. "Are you awake?" she asked with a laugh. She even sounded like Gwen. "Y-yeah, sorry." She continued smiling, and released my arm. "Are you always like this?" "Oh, no. I just...couldn't sleep last night." She nodded, and looked around awkwardly.

"So, uh, yeah. Training. They have me working in the reference/history books first. So...yeah." I said, and started walking towards the history books, with her following closely behind. "So, usually, you'll be assigned to about two or three different sections during a normal work shift." I explained. "And, what all do we do?" she asked, looking at the books. "Mainly just make sure they're all in order, and if there's new arrivals, which there are today, we either put them on display or on the shelves." She nodded, and stopped in front of the medieval literature books.

"The best thing about working here is the employee discount." I reminded her. She smiled again, "Good. Because most of my paycheck will be spent here." She pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through the pages, "I love reading the Arthurian legends. The stories are simply stunning." Her finger landed on a section in the book, talking about Arthur and his knights. I myself had looked through that particular book, and found it to be mostly inaccurate. That was another hobby of mine, collecting books on the Arthurian legends, and correcting them.

"Do you read much?" she asked, putting the book back on the shelf. "Not really." I lied. "Did you know you share the name of Arthur's wizard?" she asked. I nodded, and walked back to the stock room. I heard her follow quickly, "Do you have something against medieval literature, Merlin?" She asked with a small laugh. I shook my head, and found the boxes of new books. I handed one to her, and picked the other one up myself.

I started walking back to the books and noticed that they had cleared a display table for the new books. "You alright, Merlin?" she asked. I nodded, "You go check through the books, make sure they're all correct, and in proper order. I'll get started on this." I told her, and started placing the books on the table. Jennifer had a slightly hurt look on her face, but nodded and turned around to start. "And Jennifer," I began, she turned back, "Yes, Merlin?" I smiled a little, "I'd hurry, we open in ten."