Well there goes their first impression of me. Wouldn't surprise me if they completely banned Nathalie from inviting me over.

Outside of her home it seemed like someone picked up Rudoslav's bike and placed it against the fountain in the front, because of course they had a fountain. Just as I was about to go down the stairs the front door suddenly opened. At first I thought it might have been Nathalie but it was Henry, with that friendly smile of his on his face.

"Did I forget something?", I smiled back, happy to see a face that wasn't mad at or worried about me.

"Yes, this."

He handed me a small dark blue book, one that I recognized from the pile on the coffee table. On a second look it seemed a bit older than the other ones, which meant it had to be REALLY old.

I glanced up at Henry: "Am I allowed to take this?"

"Hand it back to me next time you come over."

"So, that's a no.", I chuckled, not really concerned about taking it, but he still felt the need to explain himself.

"Take it as a thank you.", he said more quietly, almost like he was worried someone would hear him.

"For what?"

He looked back to check if someone was behind him before turning to me, stepping a step outside and continuing, with a bit more emotion in his voice than before.

"For standing up for Lady Nathalie. I know it may not seem like it but even she appreciates help, and she certainly appreciated it today.", he smiled again.

I didn't say anything back as he closed the front door, just slightly nodded. I wasn't sure what to say. Nathalie always struck me as someone that was a control freak, someone that wouldn't like getting help from others, but now, another misconception of mine has turned on its head.

Getting back to Philip's house I was greeted by something I should have expected, an upset Rudoslav. As soon as Philip and Rudoslav saw me their expression flipped from shock to relief to confusion so quickly I barely got off the bike when Rudoslav started shouting.

"You took my bike?!", he gasped.

I quickly corrected him as I gave it back: "I took a quick ride."

Philip glanced at the bike, the book in my hand and back at me, almost like an older brother trying to figure out what his annoying younger sibling has been up to. Although it seemed like he couldn't figure it out since he pretty quickly started questioning me: "Where were you?"

"At Nathalie's. She's helping me with my article."

"I didn't know they invited you...", Philip muttered.

I quickly tried changing the topic before he figured it out.

"I brought your bike back. So, it's not like I stole it.", I shrugged.

Both Philip and Rudoslav looked at me in disbelief before looking at each other and seemingly accepting my reasoning. They probably had better things to deal with than my antics.

"I'm going with Rudoslav to the book café, wanna come with us?"

He said it so nonchalantly that it almost didn't register to me what he actually said. Philip Evermore wants to hang out with me? It felt like ages since we went somewhere after what happened. Who would have thought tricking his parents into allowing him to go to a party would make him forgive me for being stupid.

I quickly tried to answer before making it awkward: "Sure! I need to do some reading myself.", although my voice cracked in the middle of my sentence it didn't seem like they noticed.

We already started walking to the book café, Rudoslav dragging his bike next to him.

"We aren't going there to read, though.", Philip clarified and Rudoslav pretty immediately sighed in frustration. Seemed like he didn't want to talk about what they were really there for.

Philip didn't let him off the hook, though. He lightly nudged Rudoslav on the arm and he regretfully explained: "Philip is helping me write the winter ball song."

"You finally accepted help?", I smiled.

Rudoslav quickly snapped back: "Finally?! What do you mean finally?! I already have the whole song written, I just need some input!"

Philip leaned over to me and whispered: "He only wrote the chorus."

"You know I can hear you, right?!"

Philip immediately started walking faster and I followed him. Before Rudoslav could get another word in, Philip noted, still loudly whispering: "Just keep walking."

"Hey!", Rudoslav called out as we got further away from him.

At the book café, Philip and Rudoslav sat at a round table and worked on the song while I made myself comfortable on the bean bag not too far away. That book was truly in no way better than the rest we tried to read before. It was extremely difficult to read and I had to guess some words.

I heard something buzz and I discreetly looked up to the guys. It was Philip's phone on the table. He swiftly turned it over and looked down on his phone. He seemed to read something for a few seconds before looking over to Rudoslav.

"I'll be right back. I need to help-"

"What's up with you and helping people? Can't you say no for once in your life?"

Damn, Rudoslav got really cranky when writing. Once again the question came up as to why Rudoslav even joined The News Club when he also struggled with writing. Philip smartly ignored his comment and just quickly left. Rudoslav suddenly made eye contact with me and I quickly hid my face behind my book. After a moment I looked his way once again. He had placed his head in his hands, it looked like he was having a bad headache or something.

Without thinking I quietly stood up and slowly walked over to him. I sat down on the chair Philip was sitting moments ago. Rudoslav only glanced my way before he tried focusing on his song. It didn't take long for him to crack and put his head down on the pages.

"I hate this.", he mumbled. His words were muffled by the pages covering his face. 

"Why are you in the News club if you hate writing?"

He turned his head to look at me, his head still on the table. Almost like he was too exhausted to even pick it up.

"Why did anyone join the News club?", he dramatically sighed.

"Philip said the sports club was already full."

"L.I.A.R. Philip joined because Nathalie asked him to. He can't say no to that girl. I joined because I didn't want to be alone in the sports club and Lola joined because she wanted to look smart. That only leaves you."

"All the other clubs were full. I had to join.", I shrugged.

Rudoslav put his head up and leaned it on his hand, he gave me a long and thoughtful look.

“What do you mean full? None of our clubs are ever full. Did you see how small our school is?”

What? I mean, it made sense the more I thought about it. Our school is tiny, so why would a club be ever full? They are probably desperate for members. Which only left one question; Why did Mr Lamb sign me up for the News club?

Rudoslav seemed to realise I was lost in my thoughts, so he quickly decided to snap me out of it by asking: "Why are you carrying that book with you anyway?"

I glanced at the blue book still in my hands. I could have sworn I had left it on the bean bag when I walked over to Radoslav. I guess I was that zoned out that day. I placed it on the table in front of him and explained: "I got this book from Nathalie."

I quickly swung it open to a page I was reading to show him how it was written, his reaction was similar to mine when I first saw it.

"That's... barely readable.", he mumbled.

Rudoslav picked the book up to inspect it as I confidently said: "Duh, it's like a thousand years old."

He flipped it over and quickly commented: "It says on the back it's from 1993."

"That's basically a thousand years.", I ripped the book away from him. "And it says something about the Black Forest."

I placed the book back on the table in front of us and pointed at the section I was talking about. He stared at it for a moment, thinking about something before he asked: "Does this have anything to do with what we saw on Halloween?"

"You remember that?"

"Of course! I wasn't that drunk. I remember… some of it.", he mumbled before changing the topic: "What does it say?"

I shrugged. I could only decipher some of the text for obvious reasons. He turned his head to look at the page again. After a moment he sighed and pulled it closer to himself: "Let me see."

He squinted his eyes and intensely read the page as it was centimetres away from his face. After a long moment I actually started thinking he somehow was managing to read it, but after he read it out loud my disappointment was… well, overwhelming.

"Something, something, creature, something, something."

I stared at him for a moment thinking he would keep going but he didn’t.

"Creature? Like a monster?", I guessed. We both went silent for a while before I added: "We did hear a weird noise in the forest."

"Okay… I don't remember that.", he mumbled. His confidence about how not drunk he was seemed to fade.

"Lucky. It scared the life out of me. The popular kids didn't seem fazed, though."

Rudoslav scratched his chin, seemingly lost in his thoughts: "Do you think they're connected?"

"Well, they are definitely connected to the old factory, so they have to be connected to this too... somehow."

Suddenly that familiar bell above the door rang. We both looked up expecting Philip, and it was him but also with someone else. Nathalie.

"I cannot believe they wouldn't tell me anything. Aren't police reports supposed to be public-"

They stopped in their tracks as they saw me and Rudoslav. Nathalie smacked the papers in her hands before glancing down at the book on the table and noting: "I didn't know you were a thief, Fifi."

Before I could respond Rudoslav shimmed in: "Tell me about it."

Nathalie slightly smiled his way before turning to me: "Just don't damage it."

"Sure thing, Bats.", I smiled.

"Bats?", Philip whispered.

As they walked off I could hear her muffled sigh: "It's a dumb nickname she came up with. Just ignore it, that's what I've been doing."

"Oh.", Philip quickly snapped.

There was something else behind that “oh”. Something that once again I didn’t quite understand fully yet. Key word being yet.

It didn’t seem like either me or Rudoslav would get somewhere that day. Philip was more occupied with Nathalie than helping him while I still struggled reading that book, especially when I had to listen to Nathalie’s annoying little giggle at whatever Philip would say. So, we both left the cook cafe together. It was already dark, how long have we been trying to decode that book for? Rudolav was holding it and still trying to read it while I had to drag his bike next to me as we walked. The only thing preventing it from being completely quiet were the old lights ever so slightly buzzing as we walked passed by and the creaking of the bike’s tires. The quiet of the town still somehow creeped me out even after being there for a few months by then. Maybe it was the thought that if you truly stood still there, there would be nothing, no noise, no people, just an empty quiet town.

“Are witches… creatures?”, Rudoslav snapped me out of my thoughts.

“What?”

He looked back at the book and explained: “You know, you talked about cults, witchcraft and that stuff. This book can’t shut up about “andob” creatures.”

“Andob?”, I chuckled.

He gestured to the book and grunted: “You try to read it!”

He wasn’t exaggerating, it looked like a blob. I was surprised he could even get the “word” Andob out of it. Although that looked more like a u to me… and that o seemed like it was an e…

I looked up at Rudoslav and mumbled: “Undead creatures.”

We both stared at each other trying to figure out what that could have meant, when suddenly and rather loudly a crash came down the path behind us. We looked back, Rudoslav was the quietest I have ever seen him.

“Philip?”, I called out. There was silence, and after a moment I turned to Rudoslav: “Probably a fox.”

Just as we were about to turn around a figure suddenly appeared from the darkness. They were too far away to tell who they were, but even so that didn’t seem to bother me.

“Hey! Are you following us?!”, I called out.

Rudoslav immediately grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away. Just as I was about to tell him to let me go two other figures appeared next to the mystery person. All three seemed to pick up their pace. Maybe I could have fought off one drunk person, but three?

Me and Rudolav started to quickly walk away but when the silence of the town got interrupted by loud and fast footsteps behind us I knew we were in trouble.

I quickly jumped on the bike and yelled: “Get on!”