The 7th

Chapter 7

"So you knew right where to find this which likely means you know more than just where to find it?" Cami stated more than asked.

"Of course he does." Hetty smirked. "The professor here has read more books than anyone in the known world!"

Professor Scott chuckled softly at this praise. "I don't know how much truth there is in Ms. Hetty's statement but I can say with absolute certainty I have read that book there. Not particularly for it's relation to that symbol but for it's root in old English language."

"But you do know what the symbol means?" Cami continued.

"I know what the book says about it, which isn't much unfortunately. Only a couple of lines, rather cryptic ones at that." Professor Scott pointed to a few lines in italics just below the picture. He read them aloud.

"It is thought that this symbol was used in ritualistic magic involving transportation of a person or object from one place to another. The eye here is thought to represent the sight required to navigate through this passage. The coloring, red, is often used to represent present danger. And that's really all there is about the symbol. It goes on to talk about the different locations that these symbols have been found, two if you are curious, but after that nothing more is mentioned of it."

"You say there are two places mentioned that this symbol has ever been seen?" I asked while continuing to focus on the picture and the words I didn't understand.

"Yes that's right. Both in close proximity to one another located on a small island off the coast of Ireland." The professor answered looking up from the book.

"No chance of visiting one then I guess." I mumbled.

"What's this all about then? If I am allowed to ask." I glanced up at the professor as he spoke.

"It involves a case we started working on this morning. We found an individual who had suffered some type of assault." Cami said. "We found the individual located beneath that symbol."

"Assaulted? How so? Was he physically harmed?" The professor asked seeming to already know the answer as he continued before Cami or I had the chance to reply. "Or did it appear mental?"

"How'd you know?" I asked locking eyes with the professor.

"Because that's the only other mention of that symbol anywhere that I have ever seen it. There was an article in an old newspaper, thirty-five, forty years ago maybe, I can't recall exactly but it talked about a symbol describing it much like the one that you are looking at there in that book. I don't remember much from that article but I do remember them talking about the individual that they found near the symbol." Professor Scott paused. "My mothers brother was committed shortly after they found him. He would stare off into the distance for days on end and then mumble some incoherent babble about "there are more worlds than this" or "the same but different" was another thing he loved to say."

"Where was the symbol when they found him?" I asked feeling like we had gotten our first real lead.

"Just on a panel on the wall in his room. He likely had carved it himself. That's where I got the book. I was only ten at the time but when we were cleaning out his place I thought the cover was really cool so I asked if I could keep it." He said.

"Is there nothing else? Nothing came from that investigation?" Cami took the question out of my own mouth.

"What investigation?" He asked us.

"I assumed there would be an investigation since he was in such strange condition." Cami said.

He shook his head. "Not at all. It was assumed that he had finally lost his mind was all. He was never really the most stable of individuals to be honest."