It was two weeks before Christmas and Rick was trying to find a dress that his niece wanted. He had been to almost all the stores looking for it but without any luck. There was one more store that might have it, at least he hoped that they would have it.
Coming around a curve on the outskirts of town he hit a patch of ice and slid into a ditch. He got out to see if he'd be able to drive out of it. He noticed that he wouldn't be able to get out and what was worse was his cell phone just died.
'This is just great' thought Rick. 'Now how am I going to get out of this ditch?'
Just then he saw a truck coming which stopped and a guy got out.
"Well" the guy said, "it looks like you could use some help."
"Yes I could" Rick said.
"Well I have a chain and I can pull you out" the guy said.
"Thank you" Rick said.
After the guy pulled Rick's car out of the ditch Rick said to the guy "Thanks again. I really appreciate it."
"It's no problem" the guy said. "I'm just glad I could help."
The guy got back into his truck and left. Rick was about to get back in his car when he spotted something shining in the ditch.
'Whats that?' Rick thought as he went over to it and picked it up. 'It's some sort of medallion and it looks really old. I wonder if someone lost it. Oh well I'll take it and see if anybody puts an ad in the paper. I wonder what this picture on the front is. Probably some ancient winged deity.'
He put the medallion in his coat pocket and went on his way.
He arrived at the last store that he hoped had the dress his niece wanted. Once inside he went up to a sales lady working in the girls department.
"Excuse me" he said, "I'm looking for a dress for my niece."
"Is there a specific dress you're looking for?" she asked.
"Yes" Rick said. He then told the sales lady the dress he was looking for.
"I'm sorry" she said "but we don't have any of those dresses in. We sold the last one just five minutes ago."
"Just my luck" Rick said.
"Can I help you find a different dress?" the sales lady asked.
"Thank you but I'll just browse through the dresses and see if I can't find one she'll like" Rick said.
"If you need help just ask" the sales lady said.
"Thanks, I will" Rick said.
'If I hadn't of gone into that ditch I would have been here in plenty of time to get that dress' Rick thought as he was browsing through the dresses.
Just then a guy came running through the department and knocked Rick into the rack of dresses he was browsing through. He fell down along with the dresses.
'This is just great' Rick thought. 'Can things get any worse?'
Little did Rick know that things were about to get worse.
Rick went to pick himself up and he placed his hand on a dress and the medallion which had fallen out of his coat pocket onto the dress.
When he placed his hand on the medallion and dress he felt a jolt run through his body and his vision blurred.
'What was that?' he thought when his vision cleared.
His body was tingling slightly but he ignored it. He started to get back up but then the tingling in his body grew stronger. It grew so strong that he fell back down again.
Another sales lady came up to him and asked "Are you alright? Where are your parents?"
Rick was about to say that he was alright and that the sales lady didn't need to know where his parents were. Before he could say anything though he noticed that he felt strange and then he caught sight of himself in a mirror.
He saw that he was now...