by John Stone
Was it due to the nightmares? Had I finally worried myself sick?
She tried calling out to her friend, but her voice seemed to make no sound at all. She tried to yell, but it quivered in her throat. Emily was getting desperate and disoriented. She braced herself against the chair and stood up slowly. She felt weak and feeble. The clock showed somewhere around two thirty a.m., but her eyesight was blurred and hazy. She slowly walked towards her room where Grace was sleeping soundly. She wondered why Grace just left her to doze off in the chair so many hours ago. Emily felt like her whole body was on fire and she staggered closer to her bed.
Grace didn’t wake up. Emily frantically tried looking for the emergency kit of medicine that they kept in the drawers of the bedside table, but she couldn’t find it. She felt a wave of nausea surging up her body and headed towards the bathroom door. She could feel her legs collapsing under her weight and fell down with a loud bang. Grace finally woke up and came running in to help Emily. She propped the blonde-haired girl up to a sitting position and felt her forehead.
“You are burning with fever,” Grace said. “Did you take the medicine? Why didn’t you call me?” She looked afraid.
“I tried, but I couldn’t find my voice,” Emily said very slowly.
“What are you saying? Did you take the medicine?” Grace asked again.
“I couldn’t find them, they’re not over there,” Emily said in a sickly tone, pointing to the bedside chest of drawers.
Grace laid her friend down and went straight towards the bedside drawer. She took the brown medicine bottle and ran towards her friend. “Can you get up? Do you need to go the bathroom?” she asked.
“Please, help me up, Grace,” Emily pleaded.
Grace helped Emily up and took her towards the bed, then laid her down and showed her the bottle of brown medicine. “Emily, it was right there, didn’t you see?” she asked.
“It was not there a minute ago, I swear” Emily pleaded.
“It’s all right, relax and take this,” Grace coaxed, handing Emily one pill instead of the liquid. “Do you want me to call the nurse?”
“No, just stay here for a few minutes and I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll get a wet cloth for you,” Grace said.
She came back with a wet piece of cloth and began pressing it onto Emily’s forehead. It felt like an eternity before the temperature came down. All Grace could do was shake her head back and forth.
Emily made a small whimpering sound before asking Grace, “What about Keisha? Is she back?”
“Forget about it and try to relax for now. This is not doing you any good. You are over exerting yourself and losing your mind,” Grace said a bit angrily.
“I am not losing my mind, Grace. Don’t tell me that,” Emily said trying to justify herself.
“Denise didn’t call me back, and I didn’t bother her,” Grace said in a hushed tone.
Emily was too tired to fight or argue back, and therefore, closed her eyes in a dejected fashion. She started to drift off as the pill took effect. Perhaps Grace was right. Maybe she was losing her mind at this point. All of the nightmares were bound to have some effect on her physically, and this fever was probably her body’s way of bringing this whole situation to a halt.
“Do you want anything else?” her friend asked after a pause.
Grace‘s question woke Emily back up. Emily could plainly see that her friend was doing so much to help her. There was no way that she could stay angry anymore. Emily drifted off to a deep slumber and didn’t wake up for the rest of the night.
In the morning, a growling stomach woke Emily up. The weather was mostly clear with only a hint of chill in the air. Emily realized that she hadn’t eaten a thing in nearly half a day’s time.
She called out to her friend twice, but there were no answer from Grace. She got up slowly and felt a little dizzy, but managed to get out of the room and into the living room. On the table was her breakfast. A small note was attached to it. Emily opened it, but the breakfast looked too tempting to ignore. She set the note aside to satisfy her hunger and determined that the note could wait. After gulping down four spoons of oatmeal, Emily opened up the note and was surprised by what she read.
“I am leaving for a few days, I already received permission and this is important. Don’t wait up for me.” In the next line, she read, “Rest and I hope to see you healthy when I get back.” Grace‘s name was scribbled in a hurry.
Emily lost her appetite and didn’t feel all that hungry anymore. For all the years that she had known Grace, this never happened before. Grace was a social butterfly and didn’t go on wild journeys by herself. Emily wasn’t sure if Grace went alone or with someone she wasn’t aware of. Moreover, their semester just started and Emily couldn’t figure out why Grace would leave all of a sudden. She pushed the bowl of oatmeal aside and realized that she still felt weak. The fever was gone, but the dizziness was still mildly there.
Skipping classes that day seemed like a welcoming idea. Thus, she laid down in her bed thinking about her friend and why she went off without telling her where she was going.
Where did she go and who did she go with?
These questions bothered her for hours. She felt ill at ease about the situation, but couldn’t do much about it in her present condition. Emily didn’t even bother about missing her classes so early in the semester either. She still had plenty of time to make up any work that was missed. She lay on her bed quietly, staring up at the ceiling. There was also the case of the missing books that she needed to deal with, but she was sick and now even Grace was gone.
“Am I that difficult to live with?” Emily considered for a moment.
After all, it was all because of her that Grace was sleep deprived every night. She wasn’t much fun lately, so maybe Grace just needed a break. Emily’s thoughts drifted back to her sudden illness. She couldn’t understand why she got so severally sick the previous night and tried to recall if she had any odd food the previous day. She couldn’t think of anything.
I must have caught the flu from Denise, Emily assured herself.
She shook her head and tried to rest. Staying alone in the room made her feel vulnerable, angry and depressed. It triggered a surge of emotions that made her want to cry, but she managed to control herself. Sobbing wouldn’t solve anything.
She picked up her phone from the pillow and decided to call her mother. After a few seconds, the automated voice on the other end informed her that the line couldn’t be connected. She slammed the phone down and cursed under her breath. The last three days had been absolutely hellish and she was unable to get things straight. It wasn’t long before she became stir crazy. Emily decided there was no point being there in bed and vacillated between feelings of unbridled motivation and disheartened gloominess. She got up and strode out of the room in her pajamas. It was already eight a.m. and she knew she would find Keisha in her room.
Emily knocked three times before Denise opened the door. She looked bright and happy-faced with all sings of her illness gone. To Emily’s surprise, it seemed that her sickness had magically disappeared.
“Is Keisha back?” she asked.
“Yes,” Denise quickly replied, “she was, but it was already late so I forgot to call you guys.”
“Is she here now?”
“I’m sorry, but she left again early this morning. She said that she was going somewhere for a few days. She already got permission from the dean, too.”
“Was Grace with her? Did they go out together? Where did they go?” Emily asked all three questions without pausing.
“I don’t know,” responded Denise. A look of concern crossed her features. “I didn’t ask her. You know Keisha; she is kind of like that, goes off without telling me anything. Did Grace go out, too?” Denise asked.
“Grace left a note saying she was going off someplace. She didn’t tell me when she’d be back.” Emily turned to go away then paused and added, “Did you get to speak to Keisha about
yesterday?”
“I was too tired, and I couldn’t speak last night. I had fever and had this choking sensation. I noticed she came in, but was unable to say a thing. But I can ask her if she calls me back,” she said and offered a smile.
Emily was visibly sick, but Denise didn’t bother to ask her how she felt. She just stood there in the doorway blinking her big, bright blue eyes at Emily. Then, she shouldered her backpack and closed the door behind her. She was heading out for class. Denise started walking down the hall, but stopped midway and turned back around.
“Hey, Emily!” Denise called loudly, and then walked towards her. “You’re not interested in those books about evocation and necromancy, right? I don't think the library will take them either, so why don’t you give them to one of Keisha’s friends. Keisha told me the other day that there is this one girl named Mia, and she is really into that sort of thing. She’ll probably give you a good price for them.” Denise waited for an answer, but none came. “Tell me if you decide to,” she added. “I always love to help a friend.” She winked at Emily and went on her way.
Who would want to practice something like necromancy by choice? Emily asked herself, but the idea of selling the books didn’t seem all that bad. The books are indeed of no use to me, so I might as well gain something out of them, she thought.
Emily made her way back to her dorm room and closed the door behind her. The books were still sitting on one corner stacked on top of each other. The package was still there, as well as the brown and gold embossed wrapper. Emily ignored them for a time and walked away. Now that she was contemplating getting rid of the whole lot, she came back shortly afterwards. She sat down by the books and started idly turning the pages.
What harm would they bring just by looking at them?
She took one of the books in her hand and looked at the cover for a long time. There was something creepy about it. The title of the manuscript and the writer's name were written over the red velvet cover. It was a book of chants to call on spirits, so initially Emily flipped over the yellow pages. Yet something caught her eye amidst the black lettering in the book. She whipped open the pages and saw that the chant Grace was uttering was boldly underlined. The instructions that were written alongside the spell explained that uttering the chant three times on a cloudless and starry night could bring a loved one back from the dead. Emily immediately closed the book.
Last night was indeed cloudless, she recalled.
She remembered the evening quite clearly. She was sure she heard Grace saying the chant twice, and hoped that her friend wouldn’t utter it three times. Then, Emily scoffed and shook her head.
“What am I thinking? I don’t believe in this stuff.” Emily scolded herself.
But then why did Grace take off so suddenly yesterday without telling me?
Emily also remembered her friend being exceptionally quiet when she asked Denise all those questions the other day. They were both acting strange about the disappearance of the criminology books. Then, for some reason she and Keisha were off to God knows where.
“This can't be the reason they left,” Emily assured herself again.
Then, she flipped through some more pages. There were scripts and prayers that seemed so strange to her. She barely recognized what she was reading. The pictures and symbols within the book frightened her. Emily had to remind herself that she was a person of logic and it was pointless to get unnerved by some cryptic images.
Emily saw a book that had a bright blue velvet cover, but couldn’t understand the writing on it. There was a small lock attached to its side. She tugged on it a little, and to her surprise it opened. She turned the first page and saw that the book was addressed to someone named “R. Keaton.” It was dated 19th July 1973 from G. Keaton.
Now who could that be?
She laughed at the irony of the parcel being delivered to her on the nineteen of July. Only the year was different. Moreover, if it was addressed to someone name R. Keaton, then why was the book sent to her? The questions troubled her. She tried looking for more clues within the book and found an old, distorted photograph of a young girl that looked barely five years old. She turned the photograph over and on it was written 19th July 1953. Emily assumed that 19th July must have been an important date or even possibly someone’s birthday. She looked at the photograph again and saw it was not the image of just a baby girl, but there was a young boy of about nine years beside her, which Emily thought she missed when she viewed the image for the first time. Emily looked at the image intently. It was merely an old photograph, but the image of the little girl reminded her of someone. She brought the image close to her eyes, but the image was too badly faded. She couldn’t make out the young boy in the image properly.
Who could this be? R. Keaton maybe?
Then she turned over the photograph and saw that in very faint pencil lines the name R. Keaton was inscribed. Nothing made sense to her anymore.
Maybe, I should talk to the dean about this, she thought resolutely.
She got up, but then decided not to go to the dean’s office. She was still feeling under the weather and on top of that, she didn’t have any answers of her own. She had confidence in her own investigative skills, but felt somewhat embarrassed that she didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.
It might just be a coincidence, she told herself, the dates…the books…all of it. Wouldn’t that be funny?
Every two seconds Emily vacillated between assuring herself that this was nothing to worry about and totally losing her cool. No matter how she felt about it, there was still a pile of books that sat on the side of the counter. She wondered what secrets they held. Her curiosity got the better of her and she started rapidly flipping through each book. There were images, diagrams and designs, which made no sense to Emily, yet she kept looking. After a few hours, she closed the last book shut. Out of habit, she got up to speak to Grace, and then it struck her that her best friend wasn’t there.
Emily grabbed her phone and frantically tried calling Grace. At first, the line went dead, and then it started ringing louder and louder. Emily thought she heard the sound of the ringing inside her head until she realized it was coming from her own bedroom. She walked up to Grace’s table, and opened her drawer with the spare key. There in her drawer, the phone lay emitting a neon blue ray of light every time it rang. Emily picked up the phone and sat on Grace’s bed in despair.
Why did you leave your phone behind, Grace? What have you got to hide from your best friend?
How she wished her mother or Mrs. Hampton was there to comfort her or put her out of her misery. She covered her eyes with her hands and gave into her tears. She sobbed quietly. At that moment, she wanted to throw the books out the apartment window. In all her years away from home and the four years here at the university, she never felt so much despair.
Not even the familiar ambiance of her room provided much comfort. The walls felt as if they were gradually closing in on her, but who could she tell about her anguish? Who would give her story more than a cursory consideration?
Suddenly, she turned her head and saw her phone ringing. Her mother's face appeared on the phone and Emily nearly leapt out of her skin. She fumbled with the phone, but eventually managed to catch her mother’s call.
“Mother!” Emily said after picking up the phone.
The young girl poured out her heart, but only told her mother a few details about what had transpired over the last few days. Emily’s face fell because her mother sounded worried. Emily knew that her mother was aware of her psychological issues and was constantly concerned about her. Her mother asked her a few questions straight away, wanting to know what could have possibly prompted her daughter to be so distraught. It was only three days after the university reopened and she was already near her breaking point. Emily didn’t want to make her more anxious than she already was and burden her with even more problems.
“It's just a cold, Mother. I am all right.”
Her moth
er sounded unconvinced. “But why were you sobbing? I heard you clearly. Please tell me if anything is wrong,” she pleaded.
For a moment, Emily wanted to tell her mother everything, but stopped short of spilling everything. “Mother, believe me, I was out the other day in the park, so I must have caught a cold. Even Denise, the girl in the next room, was down for a whole week, too. Mother, I will be fine, I promise. Just take care of Father for me,” Emily said in an assuring manner.
Emily’s mother gave some air kisses over the phone. If anything, her mother was probably overprotective and unduly anxious. She said she would pray for her daughter to be okay and then told her to call back if she needed anything.
The conversation with her mother made Emily a little more comfortable, but still felt a little feverish and decided to get up and take the medicine. That moment, she heard three knocks on the door and Emily dragged herself towards the door. It was Denise. Emily looked a little surprised. Someone was with Denise, but Emily didn’t recognize the girl.
“How are you feeling now?” Denise asked.
Emily didn’t reply, but asked instead, “Who is this?” pointing towards the girl standing beside Denise with jet black hair and purple fingernail polish.
“Oh, this is Mia, the girl I told you about this morning. She is Keisha’s friend and I told her about your books. She wants to look at them. Would you mind if we joined you?”
Emily wasn’t feeling too good, but couldn’t turn away her friends. So she invited them in hesitantly. Emily never remembered seeing Mia before, which was odd because they had many of the same friends. She noticed that Mia was a girl in her twenties and was wearing a smart brown jacket with fitted jeans. She had a deep cut on her forehead, but it seemed old. She also noticed that the pinky finger on the girl's left arm was bandaged.
