The Imaginary

Chapter 4: Wrong Ceilings Make Oblivion a Better World Part 3

THE IMAGINARY

CHAPTER FOUR: WRONG CEILINGS MAKE OBLIVION A BETTER WORLD

PART 3 (FINAL)

"You always give off the mystery sense." My hand was nearing the mirror, walking in the invisible pathway.

"Wait, Jake. Do not touch anything."

But he was too late. My hands had stuck on the mirror. Crack. Lightning lines materialized. It grew large, in graduals, and all conformed. In the climax, the center mirror shattered, bursting its shards. Others soon suffered the same fate.

"Page six, word thirty-three," I heard an eerie voice say.

Scenes flashed. I wasn’t watching them. I was doing them. I walked on the ceiling. Looked at strange symbols. Floated in the sunset of Moonsbane. And, fell with skyscrapers.

"Calm the soul." Silver woke me up.

Everything had turned calm. I looked at my normal reflection, inquiring, and my left hand on the center mirror. It was normal, like it was before.

"So it was the borrowed-thoughts ability." But why did this voice, hypothetically the Phantom’s, give me clues? "Silver, can you read the Runes? They’re the squares and the rectangles. Am I right?"

Silver’s face now looked more molded in shape. Actually, make that whole body.

"Yes." He was very proud. I didn’t know why. "I did tell you that they often go wild."

"Page six, word thirty-three. The Phantom told me, one of the thoughts is in there."

Silver and I returned to the sixth rectangle, the one outside the room. We found the square with the thirty-three Rune symbol. One of these days, I’d try to learn this. Lucas was already ahead of me.

"Are you certain this will tell us the location of the good stuff?" I only nodded in response. Then, I heard slithers, silent but deadly, from somewhere above. Did they come from the ceiling? "'The thought lies in page five.'"

There it was. On the top of the rectangle. A large Minus, twice as huge as the one Julia Skyshell destroyed. It was surveying Oblivion, eyes sparkling darkly, head swaying. I took a few steps back.

"Silver. Silver. It’s here. Hey." Whisper sounds. He didn’t budge, and only gave me a clueless look.

"What is it? You are acting odd."

"There. Up there. Above you."

"Above me, there is nothing." The Minus jumped. Silver drifted his eyes to it. It returned his eye contact. "Not a thing. Why, hello there, good monster. Jake, let us run!"

We both dashed, shouting panic chatters. We wanted to reach for that door by the other side. The doorknob trembled in resonation. Growl, creak, boom. I was in a different world now. Silver was nowhere to be seen.

Where was I? And, Silver, what had happened to him? In this foreign realm, it was raining hard, sky stained with dirty gloom. A boy was watching cartoons, as the two girls chatted.

Wait, this place was familiar. It was my own home. One of the girls was Sis. The other was Julia Skyshell, who was shivering. She had towels wrapped all over her body. That boy there was me. Say, this was abnormal.

They were talking about girly stuff. I didn’t understand them. And I wasn’t the eavesdropper-type, at least not if I didn’t find the topic interesting. So, if you were expecting some recorded conversation in my thoughts, then I apologize. My mind camera ran out of film.