The Key to Immortality

Chapter 2

Jaxon stayed up all night that night working on the paper for his psychology class. As much as he tried to focus, he couldn't get the journal out of his head. It was sitting right there on his desk and he kept stealing glances at it. Who did it belong to? How old was it? Had it been used? A million questions raced through his mind, distracting him from his work. He knew he needed to finish this assignment, and he cursed himself for not finishing it sooner. It was given to him a week ago and he had been putting it off in favor of hanging out with Ember, but he regretted that now. He didn't regret the time he spent with xem, just that he put off his assignment. He sighed.

"I've been working on this for hours," he muttered to himself, looking at the clock. It was one in the morning. "I guess I can take a break for a few minutes." Before he could stop himself, he reached over and grabbed the book, half expecting to be drowned in a wave of emotions like before. But there was nothing. Nothing extraordinary, nothing special. He carefully opened the journal and looked at the first page. The name 'Sam' was written. He turned to the next page. There was a journal entry there. Before he could start reading it, however, the timer on his phone went off. He groaned. It was time to get back to work. He was only about halfway finished with his paper. Jax yawned and rubbed his eyes. It was going to be a long night.

By the time he finished his paper, it was four o'clock in the morning. His class started at eight, and breakfast was at six-thirty. He trudged over to his bed and layed down, quickly falling asleep.

His alarm clock woke him up two hours later, at six. He rolled over and turned it off, reluctantly getting out of bed. He needed to meet Ember downstairs for breakfast. After getting dressed and putting his things into his bag, he left the room for breakfast.

After he had breakfast with Ember, Jaxon made his way to his first period class—psychology. When he entered the class, the professor noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

"Late night, Mr. Lewis?" Mr. James asked.

"Just working on this paper," Jax replied shortly as he handed in his paper. He hadn't meant to sound rude, it just came out that way. "I'm sorry, Professor, I didn't mean for it to come out that way." His professor only chuckled and smiled.

"No worries. You're tired, I understand," he said kindly. Jax went to his seat, feeling grateful that his teacher was so understanding. He really got lucky. He took out his laptop and opened up his notes document as class started.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe it was the journal, but Jaxon had a hard time focusing during class. His mind constantly wandered. By the time class was over, he had barely written anything. As he was leaving, Mr. James pulled him aside.

"Are you okay? I noticed you were distracted during my lecture. That's not like you. Is something going on?"

"I lost a bet with Ember and I had to spend time in the old asylum. I guess it just got to me," he admitted. Mr. James's face hardened.

"I wouldn't be involving myself with that place. It has a way of changing people. If I were you, I wouldn't go back." Jax nodded.

"Yes sir." He left the class, his professor's words echoing in his mind.

He went through a few more classes before he made it to lunch. Throughout those classes, his mind continued to wander back to the asylum. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about the journal. What about it made it so interesting? It was just a book, no different from any other. So why couldn't he stop thinking about it? So far, his day had not been very productive. He would definitely need to go back and watch the video lectures for his classes today. Maybe things would improve after lunch. His best friend had a way of making things better. He smiled when he thought about xem.

When the bell rang to end his last class of the morning, Jaxon raced to the dining hall, eager to see Ember. By the time he got to their table, xe were already sitting there, eating xyr food. Jax was panting, having ran all the way there.

"Looks like someone's eager," Ember commented with a smirk. Jax rubbed the back of his neck.

"I've been having an off day, I was hoping you could make it better," he muttered shyly. Xyr smirk softened into a smile.

"Of course I can. Go get your food and we can talk." He nodded.

Since he had gotten there early, the lines weren't as long. He managed to get his food and go back to the table in a timely manner. When he sat down, his friend looked at him expectantly.

"What's been going on?"

"I've had trouble concentrating in my classes. My mind keeps wandering and I can't get myself to focus."

"Well, I see you have some dark circles under your eyes, why is that?"

"I stayed up late to finish the psych paper." That wasn't a lie, technically. He had been working on the paper, but he also spent a lot of time looking through the journal. Ember frowned.

"And what else were you doing?" Xe could tell when something was up, xe could read him like a book. It was a pain sometimes. He sighed.

"Nothing else." Xe raised xyr eyebrows. "It's about the asylum, isn't it?" Jaxon looked at them, frowning slightly.

"No, it isn't."

"It totally is."

"Can we please just drop it, Em? I don't feel like talking about it right now," he asked. Ember shrugged.

"I guess. If you ever need anything, I'm always here." He smiled.

"Thanks, Em."