The Ghosts of Melbrew [1/12]

Chapter 24) Bloody Hearts

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[ Tuesday, February 14th, 2017 ]

          February 14th felt like any other Valentine's day I'd ever seen, and for the most part, it was. Kids decorated the lockers of their partners with cheesy sayings and way too over-the-top affection. Suppose that's what happens when you're young and think the guy you've been dating for a week is going to end up being your husband because you don't know what real relationships feel like.

          Among the lockers that were covered with paper hearts, some were innocent, while others were so inappropriate I was wondering why the school allowed them to stay up. Then there were the ones that were sabotaged and vandalized with rumors and scribbles by those who were jealous, or just didn't like the person for whatever dumb high school drama reason.

          Apparently Veronica's two school friends got into a giant fight over liking the same dude and are no longer friends. That caused a lot of drama in biology, and I'm immensely glad I got paired with Veronica instead of one of them. None of the three talk anymore, and people are beginning to spread rumors on Veronica since she very clearly hangs with us now. There are some weird ones, less weird ones, and then the conspiracies. Hopefully nothing makes it back to the Melbrew family.

          Most of the time I'm glad I'm not with the "popular" crowd, but other times I wish I was. Not for a desire to be popular, but for one to be "normal". Maybe then I wouldn't be so concerned with dying, and my biggest worry would be kids talking behind my back which, let's be honest, already happens, anyways.

          Speaking of dying... why does no one seem to care about the murders and disappearances around town? Especially when there are so many police officers around! In fact, Why ARE there so many police in this town? And why do they have creepy tunnels underground just like the old cult has? And what the HELL is up with Victor Melbrew?!

          But those were questions for another time. I was still trying to process a load of information that was given to me, even more so now that I started reading through Jane's book myself. And before you yell at us and ask why that wasn't one of the very first things we did, I can explain! The book is literally almost a thousand pages long, and written like a textbook! My procrastination became stronger than my desire to learn.

          Cameron could barely even get through the first two pages before becoming uninterested, and that's coming from Cameron! Obviously he's not a big reader in the first place, but one would think he'd be excited to read what is basically forbidden knowledge to us humans. The contents of the book may be extremely interesting, but wow, Jane really needs to use more exciting language! At least the book that Veronica read to us was actually fun to read, and the author didn't treat it like a serious textbook! I need to tell Mr. Marshall to tell his Fiancée to stop writing like a formal school history book. No one likes those. Why do you think people fall asleep in class?

          Afterschool my friends and I all met up at the park, as we liked to do from time to time. We chatted about school, home life, theories, and some old history, which is what prompted Veronica to reminisce on a piece of it.

          "You know, every Valentine's day I can't help but think about the Munaurels." She said, "They were an influential family who vanished during the fires of 40 thousand... though I suppose burned would be a more correct word to use. It was the dimension that vanished."

          "Oh? How were they influential?" I asked in intrigue.

          "Well, simply because of what they stood for. We obviously don't know a whole lot about them, but what we do know is a bittersweet tale. I remember seeing one of Evelyn Munaurel's books down in that gore tunnel. She was a writer, who would write novels, but she was also a linguist and an educator. She wrote in multiple languages, and would challenge herself. She wrote textbooks, and taught language classes. It's said that she had a total of 324 books published, but we only know eight of them, which are mostly language textbooks. One of the eight is about the Shadow-Light divide, and the other was an autobiography about her and her family.