-Poisonous-
(continued)
“Yes,” she whispered reassuringly. They shared a sneaky smile as Alex Reaber took the key. He mouthed a ‘thank you’ as he walked towards the fantasy adventure section of the library. Jaiden was confused on how the librarian knew what Mr. Reaber was talking about with as little information as ‘the book.’
“Why are we here?” Jaiden asked as Mr. Reaber ran his finger across every spine in the aisle, searching the authors of books.
“There is a letter between G and H that does not exist in our world, but another… Aha!” Mr.Reaber moved aside the last book in the ‘G’ Section and the first book in the ‘H’ section.
“Come on, you can do the honors,” Mr. Reaber beckoned Jaiden with a swat of his hand and gave him the key. It was much heavier than what Jaiden expected. He peered between the two books but all he saw was a slightly off-colored wood panel at the back of the shelf. Alex reached in and slid the panel to the side, revealing the coin-shaped hole made with the same material as the key.
“What the…” Jaiden whispered to himself. The bizarreness of a secret hidden in a high school library seemed to be so normal to Mr. Reaber; it made Jaiden wonder how much his freshman P.E teacher knew that others didn’t. Jaiden slowly entered the key in its perfect slot and turned it until it clicked.
He looked back to Mr. Reaber whose smile reached an impossible size. Jaiden pulled the key gently to the side, dragging another wood panel with it.
Hidden away in the shelves of his school’s library a tattered book was kept. It was rather ‘The Book.’ With both hands, Jaiden pulled it from where it lay and dusted it off in a way he had seen explorers in adventure movies do. The weight of the book made his arms slightly drop down when he took it out of the shelf. Its cover was made of an old worn out fabric that had pieces abraded, although the binding still held together. The spine was decorated with weaved golden and bronze ribbon and the bound was of strips of leather. Small shards of crystals and gems lined the sides in a pattern of garnet, lapis lazuli, peridot, and obsidian.
Notes and bookmarks stuck out from the sides of every other page. Right below the bronze carven title was the same sinister symbol in the center. Instead of it being painted or sewn, the symbol was polished metal.
“See!? It’s the same symbol! I knew I’ve seen it before,” Mr.Reaber put the cloth next to the book and compared the two.
He was right, it was a spitting image. At a loss for words, all Jaiden could do was open to the first page. Cards and folded up notebook papers were taped on the inside.
“What is all this?” Jaiden asked as he took out one of the notes; it was titled ‘The Other World.’
“When I attended this school, I found this book in this very compartment. It was written in some other language that never existed in any culture. Not on Earth anyways. Throughout the book, I found that there were 30 letters in their alphabet. I spent all of freshman and sophomore year trying to translate it… But I uh… I never finished,” Mr. Reaber took out some of the taped notes and started to read them. Jaiden closed the book and set it back on the shelf, perplexed.
“Mr. Reaber, this is really cool and all, but what does this have to do with helping Rune?” Mr. Reaber looked to him as he continued, “All you’ve proven to me so far is that symbol is the same, other than that, this book is useless to us since it’s not even translated.”
“Whoa there, Jaid! I said it wasn't completely translated. The thing that confused me about this book is that there was also some English, but it was written with these letters… It’s just hard to find the few passages.” Jaiden looked at Mr.Reaber, unconvinced. Alex picked up the book and flipped it to the third page where a drawing of a waterfall was depicted in the corner.
“I didn’t want to write on the pages. That's what these notes are for,” Alex took the paper that Jaiden was holding and unfolded it to its full size. He straightened his stance and cleared his throat.
“Look at the page and follow along… ‘The Other World,’ Page 3. 236 words. 92 translated. ‘Off the way of a warmly colored welcome, a path to this place lays. So close to the closest river, can be found by the end of day. You will never hear its running water until you’ve learned its flow. Make one wrong step or one wrong turn, its reflection you’ll never know. Any unworthy or ill at heart that tries to make this trek is risking the chance of their own life or someone else's death. For the dwellers from this foreign cast have been taught of all their dreaded past.’ The rest of it was in the other language but there was still some other words and phrases I was able to translate,” Mr.Reaber turned to the middle of the book and started again, “‘Thy greatest sorrows embrace those who cross our greatest enemy.’ Oh, that one was one of the more cryptic ones. Let’s see-“
“What am I supposed to do with this? What does it mean?” Jaiden shuffled his hat and swept his hand across his forehead. Mr. Reaber on the other hand still had a twinkle in his eye.
“Jaiden, don’t you see? ‘The Other World!’ This… this nonexisting language! The symbols! This book! All of it is telling you how to get to the Other World and save your friend! I tried to find it when I was a kid… But I was just too dumb to figure it out…” Alex Reaber handed Jaiden all of the notes and gestured to the book, “But you can!”
With his hands full, Jaiden sneered in a disapproving way.
“Do you know how insane you sound? I mean really? Do you really think… do you really…” Jaiden recalled the look that the campus officer gave him when he said Ms. Crodsfer poisoned Rune and realized he was making the same dead glare at Alex Reaber. Reluctantly, he looked at the cloth, the key, the book, and finally back at the bright P.E teacher. Altogether, there was just enough proof for him.
“Oh my god! This is crazy!” Jaiden gasped.
“Yeah!”
“If that page with the waterfall was real, if all of this is real then that means…”
“Yeah!?”
“That means Ms. Crodsfer is from the ‘Other World!’” Jaiden dropped all the old papers and was now holding his hat as everything he was saying overwhelmed him.“I’ve gotta use these to figure out how the hell I’m gonna get to this place!” He said, losing his composure as he frantically gathered the notes.
“Whoa! Wait, Jaid, just take pictures!” Mr. Reaber tried to calm Jaiden down and took back the loose papers. “Take a picture of the waterfall, too.” Alex opened the book back on the page with the waterfall as Jaiden took out his phone.
“When should we leave? After school? Now? No, we should pack first,” Jaiden declared as he took pictures of each page of notes. Alex Reaber looked as though he was about to go on about this glorious adventure but he stopped himself. He sighed and let his shoulders fall to a sorrowful slouch.
“Sorry Jaid, but I can’t go with you. And you should hurry back to class when you’re done with the pictures.”
“I thought you-”
“I will make sure you're excused for however long you’re gone, but I have too many responsibilities here. I’m sure you can figure out the clues. I can tell you that the ‘Warm Welcome’ is the ‘Welcome to Ollen’ sign, but that's all I was able to figure out… I know you can do it, Jaid…”
Jaiden hesitated once more before taking another picture. He wondered how dangerous it would be or if this path was even a good idea to venture down. He knew it would be better if Mr. Reaber went with him but everything that had just happened was sprung about on both of them. Having doubts about it was not helping his drive. If Rune was there instead, they would have accepted the quest, no questions asked. Whether it was with Mr. Reaber, Jaiden, or alone, Rune was always impulsive like that.
“Okay,” Jaiden said at last. He took the final pictures of the notes and of the mysterious waterfall in which he had to find.
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