Chapter 1

A man and a women, with their 10-year-old son walk leisurely down the sidewalk.

"Taxi!" The father yells.

A car drives by them, and the father scoffs. The mother looks down and wraps her son in a hug from behind.

"George, will you hurry up, it's freezing."

"I'm trying, it's hard to get a decent cab in this town." George replies looking down the road, then at his wife.

"Here comes one." He says and waves his hand. "Taxi!"

The taxi cab slows down, and George opens the door. His wife and son pile into the back... He then gets in himself.

"Thank you, I thought we'd be here all night."

"Where you headed?" The driver asks.

"South Blossom Street, the uh...apartment complexes there."

The driver nods and starts to drive. George looks at his wife and smiles. She smiles back. Their son looks out the cab window.

"Hey, you guys ever visit the wishing well in the park."

"Been there lots of times, Nate loves throwing coins in it." George's wife responds.

"Is that so, like making wishes little man?"

Nate nods.

"Yes sir."

The driver smiles.

"Any of those wishes ever come true?"

Nate looks down.

"What if I said they could..."

Nate looks up. The cab stops abruptly. George's wife screams.

"Hey! What are you playing at Mister?" George shouts.

The cab driver turns around.

"I'm not playing." The driver then holds up a dried-up mummified monkey's paw."

George's wife screams loudly. The driver laughs.

"Hey...Hey stop it!" George shouts.

"Get it away from me!" His wife cries.

The driver laughs and holds it closer to her face. She screams again. Nate breathes heavily as he stares at them. There is a flash. Suddenly George, his wife, and son Nate are transported to a 19th century house, in 19th century attire. George holds his wife. She continues to cry, and she pulls Nate close to her.

"What happened?!" George trembles. "What's going on?!"

"Tell me Mr. White..." A voice is heard.

George and his family turn and see their cab driver in 19th century attire standing on a staircase.

"Mrs. White...and Hebert?"

Nate trembles and hugs his mother tightly.

"If you could wish for anything in the world, what would you wish for?"

Back at Curious Goods, the next morning Jack flips through a newspaper. Micki and Ryan walk down the stairs. Micki giggles. Jack looks up. Ryan tickles Micki's side.

"Ryan, stop!" Micki says with a laugh. Ryan laughs after her. Jack shakes his head and flicks the newspaper. He then presumes to hide behind it. Micki backs up into the desk, and Ryan touches her waist. Micki kisses him.

"Micki, Ryan, please!" Jack blurts out.

Micki turns around and clears her throat. Ryan continues to hold her around the waist from behind.

"Our apologizes Jack." Micki says softly. "It's just... things have really gotten serious between Ryan and I since we got married."

"Clearly." Jack tells her then looks back at the newspaper.

Ryan smiles and looks at Micki. She smiles back.

"You know what I think." Jack begins and takes off his glasses. "I think that you have a very bad case of the honeymoon stage."

"What are you talking about Jack?" Micki asks.

"I'm talking about the two of you, you can't keep your hands off each other. You don't realize it, but you are currently in the part of your relationship where everything still feels fresh and exciting. You're constantly learning new things about each other and having first experiences together. But there comes a point when suddenly you realize the flaws of the other person, you'll go back to annoying each other soon enough."

"I could never be annoyed by Micki."

Ryan smiles at her. Micki smiles at him and scrunches her nose up at him. Ryan scrunches his nose at her and nuzzles hers.

"When I said I didn't mind the two of you being a couple, I didn't expect this much distraction." Jack grumbles.

"Sorry Jack, we'll be good." Ryan tells him. "What's going on today?"

"I was looking at this story in the paper, a family of three gone missing."

"Again?" Micki questions. "That's the 3rd family this week." She then takes the newspaper from Jack and looks at it. Ryan cocks his head to the side as he looks over Micki's shoulder and stares at the newspaper.

"And I realized something interesting about it..."

Ryan looks up at Jack, as Micki silently reads the article to herself.

"All of these families contained a father, a mother and a son."

Micki looks at Ryan.

"What sort of cursed object would deal with a family of three, with a son?" Micki ponders. "And what would someone gain by that?"

"I don't know." Jack replies. "Could be a many number of things."

"You want us to walk around where the family disappeared maybe we could find something?" Ryan asks.

"Please do, I'll stay here and try to find out more about what sort of object it could be and what the curse might be."

Ryan nods and hands Micki her jacket.

Downtown our mysterious cab driver from before walks down the street with his hands in his jacket pockets. He walks across the street into an alley way. He takes the monkey's paw out of his pocket. The paw slowly opens up, and several coins fall from it. The man laughs and picks up the coins. A car door is heard shutting. The man gasps and looks up. Ryan and Micki exit the Mercedes and Ryan looks around.

"This is where they claim that family went missing." Micki says.

The man watches them from afar. He then looks back at the monkey's paw. The paw's fingers slowly move, and the paw makes a fist.

"Warren Jacobs..." A low voice grumbles from the paw. "I need 3 more souls...it must be theirs...and then all of your wishes will come true."

"Yes...Yes Master...I understand."

The man now known as Warren places the monkey's paw back in his pocket. Micki and Ryan walk toward the alley way. Warren walks toward the Mercedes and slowly opens the door in the back.

"I don't see anything... and we shouldn't've just jumped to conclusions...lots of people go missing every day." Ryan says and turns toward Micki.

"But all of these people are a family of three and with a son...not a daughter a son...and no other family members."

"Yeah." Ryan breathes. "Well, I don't see any leads here, let's get back to the store and see if Jack found out anything."

Micki nods and Micki and Ryan walk back to the car. Ryan gets in the driver's side, and Micki the passenger side.

"Ryan, what do think the object is?"

"I don't know, we just need to find it before another family goes missing."

Warren ducks down behind the seat and smirks. Upon arriving back at the shop, Jack greets them with news on the disappearances.