Moon Creek Adventures: The Shadow Journal

Chapter 3

The next morning I woke up with bags under my eyes and lazily got dressed. I walked out of the bathroom wearing a cookie monster shirt, knee high shorts, blue converse and a clip that pulled my bangs up. After grabbing my phone off the charger I went to breakfast. Ivy and Melissa were waiting for me and I guessed that it took Logan and Blake a longer time because they live in cave all the way by the waterfall. Once they arrived we all got food and sat down. Blake and Logan both got raw bacon strips, Ivy got cheesy eggs (because she loves cheese), Melissa got dried kelp strips (seasoned with sea salt) and I got cereal.

                The day continued on and I had a hard time concentrating on school work. When sixth period finally arrived I met up with Ivy, Logan, and Blake. We decided to read some of the journal and inform Melissa of the information we collected.

                To ensure that we had privacy, we went down to the beach to read the journal. I slowly opened the book as I quickly scanned my surroundings, then I began to read:

                Ever since I found this journal my life has been put in danger. I have come face to face multiple times with creatures that are quite mysterious. I call them shadows because I can never see their faces when they attack.These creatures are extremely dangerous and I am sorry to say that if you are holding this book.............. They’re after you.

                “Wow.” Melissa whispered as she read the passage. “I know right?” Ivy replied. “Does this mean we’re all in danger?” Melissa asked. “I hate to say it but yes,” Logan replied. We all sat quietly and then Blake broke the silence, “We need to read more.” Nobody replied or even moved. “I guess that’s a no,” Blake mumbled. “I think we should return the book. We obviously shouldn’t be reading it in the first place,” I said. He just nodded with a sad look in his eyes.

                After dinner, I was walking home in the dark, by myself. It was really cold out and I had wished that I had brought a jacket. On the way to my dorm I could hear noises in the bushes. “Is anyone there?” I asked, but there was no answer. After a while, I was starting to hear whispering in a language I couldn’t understand. I started running to my dorm and didn’t stop until I was inside and the door was locked. That night those voices haunted my dreams.

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                “Last night I was walking home and I swear there were people in the bushes. Whispering to each other, but I couldn’t understand them.”

                “I think you’re just paranoid,” Ivy said.

                “Yeah,” Melissa added, “Nobody else had this problem.”

                “I guess you’re right.” The bell rang and me, Blake and Melissa headed to science.

When I sat down Mrs. Petal flew in and said, “Guess what kids? We’re going to learn about magical plants. You better listen up because at the end of the week you will have to write a five paragraph essay on one of the plants. Ok, enough chatter. Please open your textbooks to page 56.”  The plants we learned about were chrome daisies, moon crystals, lily mists, platinum berries, and electric roses. When the bell rang, I shut my textbook and ran to science with Blake and Melissa. We met up with Ivy and Logan and went inside.

Mrs. Scale droned on and on about angles and I wanted to jump out a window just to get out of the classroom. It was too bad that the next period was as boring as the previous one. When I finally escaped the torture of learning about Transylvania, I went to Spell 101.

We learned an awesome new spell that allows a person to walk through walls. I used the spell to walk through classrooms instead of going through the hallways.

Sword fighting was tiring because I had to work hard to raise my ranking. I knocked one kid out on accident. Fortunately, he was ok.

At lunch, I bought a delicious personal pan pizza with pepperoni. We sat down at a table in a dark corner which people claimed to be “haunted.” Everybody avoided that area so we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone spotting our book. “I don’t know if we should read this.”

“Don’t be a chicken!” Blake exclaimed.

“You didn’t see what we saw.” I replied. He looked at me with a pleading look in his eye. “Fine.” I opened it and a moldy smell came from it. I pinched my nose, “Gross, why didn’t we notice this before?”

“Anticipation?” Ivy said. Everyone shrugged, “Just read already!” Blake yelled. Some kids stared, “Keep it down!” I replied in a whisper. Then, I began to read.

I have continued my research on these creatures through study or combat. I have now come to a conclusion that the reason I could not see these creatures’ faces is because they are shadows. These creatures are built like humans but are completely black. They have high stamina and strength; it took me and my crew of three to fight off one. I have also captured a smaller and weaker one. Through him, I have started to learn their ways by conducting tests on him. Their blood is mercury and they breathe through their nose and mouth like we do. As far as I know, they have never been discovered. They have a thin layer of skin that is almost transparent, but since it is black, you must examine closely to find this. I have not been able to translate their language because it is not a language known to man. One thing you must know about these creatures is………

“What do we need to know?” Melissa asked.

“I can’t understand it. It’s either erased or was never written.” I replied. The bell rang and Melissa ran out of the cafeteria. “We have a whole period to do nothing. What do you want to do?” Ivy asked. “Why don’t we try to figure out what the end of the sentence it?” Logan suggested. I shrugged, “Fine, but we are going to need the right equipment.”

I knocked on the old wooden door and the old librarian opened the door. “Hello kiddies! The library is closed right now but…”

“Can we borrow your book restoration equipment?” I asked.

“Sure, let me just pull it out.” She walked over to a bookcase and pulled out a leather briefcase. It was filled with all kinds of strange tools that I didn’t know the names of. “What is it that you want to restore?” She asked. My eyes widened, not wanting to give away our secret I quickly turned to my friends. Ivy quickly said, “I brought a book from home that’s really old and some of the words are faded.” The librarian smiled and nodded, buying into our lies. She handed us some magnifying glasses and something that looked to be like a flashlight. Along with those items, she also handed us pencils with special lead. “Make sure to return them when you’re done!” She yelled as we walked out the door.

We dashed to the creek and sat on the grass. I flipped the switch on the “flashlight”, only to find that it shone very brightly. Flipping it off, I realized that if I shone the light through the page you could see if print had been faded. Now, we could see that there was something written on the page.  I asked Ivy to hold the flashlight as I put a magnifying glass over the print. Then I began to trace out the letters, as steadily as I could. When it was done, I stared at my work, the words were now clearly printed on the page, but they were so hard to take in. One thing you must know about these creatures is that they don’t die.