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“I was just asking myself the same thing.” I grab a book off one of the piles and wipe the dust off. The cover is a large smokey circle and a bunch of glyphs in the center. I open it up and the whole book is written the same but instead of horizontal rows of glyphs they are vertical. I flip through the pages for a moment and then place it down. I grabbed another and this one has pictures of different beasts. The book is written in another language but there are notes scrawled everywhere in the margins in English.
I look up to check with Noah. He’s shuffling through boxes pulling items wrapped in cloth out and placing them all on the ground. I turn back to the book and decide to place it outside the hole along with the first one so I can take it upstairs. Maybe it’ll will tell me what the fuck I’m being haunted by.
I go through some more books, a lot of them have English scribbled in the margins. I stack them all up next to the walkway. I turn back to Noah and see he has uncovered armor, so I walk over and sit down. I pull a piece into my lap and see it's some kind of very light metal. So thin it looks like it can bend if you blow on it the wrong way, so I tested it. Standing up I place one under my foot and push down. To my surprise it doesn’t even budge.
“What in the hell are you doing Dana?” Noah looks appalled.
“I wanted to test their durability and wouldn't you know, this tin foil is sturdy.” I shrug. “They looked like they were for decoration. I did it for science.” I wink. Noah shakes his head at me and goes back to pulling items out of the boxes and mumbles something about bratty women.
I picked up the piece I was stepping on and examined it. The metal is black and smooth; the edges of the piece have a scaled design. It’s a beautiful piece and I would be more excited if this didn't make me dread life more right now. I look at several more pieces before I get up and start opening boxes on the other side of this storage unit for psychos. I pull the first box down. It’s long and pretty thin. My brain knows what this is, if this happens to be a recurring theme.
A sword. I leave it in the box to examine it. Beautiful. Light weight. Feminine but not in a frilly, floral way. It is thin and has a scale design along the handle. There's a very interesting gem at the end of the pommel too. It’s a swirl of blues, teals and purples. Not like any gem I have ever seen. I pull the sword out and test its weight.
“Dana…”
I look around. It’s the same voice I've been hearing. I don't feel the need to panic but I am unsettled. Why can’t I see him? If it’s a ghost I should be able to see him right? I look over at Noah and it’s like he can feel my stare and turns to look at me.
“You okay Pumpkin?” He asks.
I snort, “Pumpkin?”
“Trying to see what works. Everyone says babe or baby. I want something that's just us.” That sweet talking farm boy. I swear. I shake my head and then turn back to the boxes.
I have to keep my head, I need to find some information, some clues, something to explain something. I look at the sword, the blade has some glyphs on it as well from pommel to tip. I set the sword back in the box and pull down another box. This box has more books. I put those and the sword out by the others I’m taking.
I keep going though the other boxes, most have more armor in them. Some have some gauzy clothing. I look around and my eyes catch on the ceiling. I walk farther towards the center of the room and shine the light in it. The ceiling is painted with triangles. I count them, altogether there are ten triangles painted within each other at different angles. The places in between the triangles have symbols. I look down and see the same thing but this one is slightly turned at a different angle than the one on the ceiling. I swipe my foot along the symbols trying to clear some dust.
Noah walks up next to me, looking up and then down again and again trying to take the weird triangle pentagram in. “What the fuck is this?” He almost looks like a dog following a piece of cheese.
“I couldn't tell you but I think I'm ready to go back upstairs and look through some of those books.” I gesture to the stack by the walkway. “Maybe make some dinner?”
“Do you want to stay here?” He asks curling his lip. “We can grab this stuff and take it to my house.” I nod and agree. “I just want you to be able to sleep tonight.”
“Yeah, that sounds great. Let me just take a picture of this and maybe we can find out what it is? A portal? Maybe a Ouija board of sorts?” I say stepping back to take a picture, “Maybe a way to summon Beelzebub?” I snap a few pictures and put my phone away. I turn around and start picking up the books. Noah grabs a couple pieces of armor and we head back upstairs. I walk straight to the truck and put the books in the cab before waiting for Noah as he puts the armor pieces in the bed of the truck.
When we get back down stairs everything looks the same but something feels off.
“Do you feel that Dana?”
“Yeah. Let’s grab this shit and go.” I run and grab the books and the sword. I look into the dark, open space past the hole we made and see smoke. Black smoke just dancing around on a phantom breeze. I stare at it for a moment, completely transfixed and horrified about what I'm seeing. Noah comes up behind me and pulls me back.
“Back away, run up those stairs and get in the truck now.” Noah pulls on my belt loop, tugging me backward. I can’t take my eyes off whatever I'm seeing. The smoke starts to take shape and Noah pulls me harder, shoving me up the stairs, running us through the house and out the front door. We get to the truck and yank the doors open. We both hop in and when I look over at him I start laughing, hysterically. He joins in the hysterics with his own laughter while he puts the truck in reverse and we get out of there. Our laughter subsides a moment later. The adrenaline rush is wearing down now.
“You could see the smoke just now?” I ask, rubbing my hands up and down my thighs. Trying to process everything. “And you could see the shadows.” I say more to myself.
“Yeah, I did. Do you think it’s the same thing from this morning?”
“Fuckin’ a cotton.” I lean my head against the window. “I don’t know if it makes me feel better that you saw it or not.” I scrub a hand down my face. “Let’s just get back home and go through these books.” I look over at him. Trying to judge his emotions.
“So, we have ghosts, which I can not see. Then, we have shadows, which I can see. What if your abilities are changing? With the ghosts I mean and the shadows just happen to be something from another world? Or realm. Whatever you want to call it.”
“That…is a lot to think about.” I sit up straight and look at him. “Another world?” I question him. “That doesn’t explain the ghost this morning though. Are my abilities changing and why would they?” I turn a little more towards him as he shifts into higher gears as we start getting out of town.
“I don’t know but watching that shadow appear in the same spot that image was. The triangle reminds me of portals you would read about in books. As for the ghosts,” he looks over to me, “I don't have the answers to that.” I didn’t know he read that much. Much less fantasies. Because that’s what this is a fantasy. There’s no way this is the reason behind the shadows.
But on the other hand, and I hate to say it, it makes sense. I internally weep at the thought. “I just, gods, that hurts my brain. Like when you sit and actually think about how vast space is. It’s mind boggling.” I mean, Noah has never seen the ghosts that I have when we are together. I have seen him walk through some without a thought. I know he doesn't see them.
I sit and stew on it until we hit the dirt road that heads to his house. It’s dark out now and past dinner. I didn’t realize how long we spent at my house. I guess we just got lost in finding bizarre and curious things that make no sense right now. I say that, like it will make sense at some point. I hope the books I grabbed are going to help but unless someone can explain the language in the books to me; I feel like we are just going to hit another dead end. Which is already frustrating me.
