Reaper

Reaper: Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The Ancient Book

     As he rides up to his front door, Alex sees a figure in his downstairs window. It resembled the one he'd seen in class, but its robe's color and material were different. Alex paused for a moment staring, staring at it. But it vanished, leaving nothing but a puff of wispy onyx colored smoke in its wake. Alex then slowly walked over to the door, he hesitated before opening it because he was unsure of what he'd just seen. He had thought about the mysterious figures as being docile.

"Hello. I'm not going to hurt you guys. I just want to get something out of my attic." Alex shouted sounding as calm as possible.

     Then Alex began to think to himself, you coldn't hurt one of hem even if you tried, your at there mercy. Alex, being as vigilant as possible, slowly headed up the stairs. He stealthily turned the corner to find himself facing yet another creature. This figure had a cape and Alex was petrified by the sight of its face. It was blank, the 'thing' had no face. Alex stood frozen with fear, the figure was pointing a long crooked finger to the entrance of the attic. Alex in a trance began to slowly walk to the attic, but everything in his body was telling him not to. Halfway to the attic entrance, Alex came to a halt. He broke out of the trance, and headed for the front door. He leaped over the stairs, and just as he was 'home-free' another tall figure appeared in front of him. Alex then turned to find himself surrounded, on all sides by four grangly, lanky, tall figures. Each had something different on its face. One had a mouth, his robe was blue and had a hood, another had a mouth, he wore a red robe, the next had a nose, his robe was black, and the tallest of the four had no facial features at all, his robe was white. In unison all they touched Alex's head. In an instant he was halfway in the attic. Alex submissively walked into the attic, showing not an ounce of fear. But on the inside he was breaking down mentally.

    The figures moved things around with the point of a thier fingers. Alex saw things float past him from centuries ago. Relics, old antiques, ancient objects, and things he didn't think ever existed. Then solid blocks of gold, that resembled puzzle pieces, formed an arc. The faceless figure pulled out a small knife resembling a letter opener, and pricked Alex's finger. Then the drop of blood floated into the middle of the arch, and it flashed. A thin layer of blue light appeared within the arch. Then the figures all seemed to stare at him, as if they were waiting for him to leave.

"What you're not gonna... steal my soul, or probe me, or harvest my organs?" Alex said chuckling nervously.Then in unison they all pointed to the arch, without turning away from Alex. Alex carefully examined the arch, and saw Latin was inscribed in the top of the arch.

"Portam?" Alex said in a puzzled tone. He then pulled out his phone and translated it. "oh, gateway. This is some kinda multi-dimensional portal?" Alex said reassured with safety.  He knew the four figures wouldn't let him go so he dashed straight through. Getting out was a struggle, Alex had to push through what felt like several layers of Saran wrap. He found himself in a well light library.

     In front of him he saw two spiral stair cases, one to his left the other to his right. The walls were bookcases filled with hundreds of thousands of books, all were in Latin. Alex was in a state of curiosity so he picked up several of the books trying to guess what they were about. He strolled through the entire library but no books seemed to catch his interest. But one book stood out to Alex, the book he'd seen the faceless figure holding in Calculus. He immediately ran to it. He picked it up.

"Liber Antiquus de Monstra?" , he read aloud. Then he heard a familiar voice that came from a balcony above him."This library has more than one floor?", he whispered to himself.

He looked to see who the voice belonged to, his Dad walked down the stairs. His father's forehead had lines of concern. Despite the state of unrest his father looked like he was in, there was a smile on his thin, pale lips. His face and body language showed that he had very mixed emotions. His light brown eyes were serious, while his broad shoulders were hung lazily. The man of forty or so still looked as if he was in his 'prime', but his graying facial hair and eyebrows showed otherwise.

"That means Ancient Book of Monsters." his dad said in a serious tone.

Alex immediately ran over to his dad and grabbed him, like a scared child grabs a stuffed animal. Alex could smell the smoke on his fathers clothes and the liquor on his breath. Alex knew he was in for some bad news because his dad only drank or smoked when he was going through something tough.

"DAD!", Alex shouted with a voice of relief and happiness. Even though Alex knew his Father's name was Felix, and his dad did'nt mind being called by his name, Alex knew he'd never grow out of calling him 'dad'.

"You wouldn't believe what happened at the house, wait, how did you...get...here". Alex's voice grew distant and curious.

"Its a long story, and it will be hard to believe, whether you believe it or not is completely up to you. Do you understand?" his Dad said. The tension in the room was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Alex sat down, he was expecting to hear that he was an alien or something, all he could do at this point was prepare to hear the worst. His dad took a deep breath and then began talking.