The Presage

Part 1

He stared at the shiny surface of her weapon before falling to his knees."You don't have to do this."Tears flowed down her eyes as she forced out a heavy breath,aiming the gun at his head."if only that was true."

There was a split second of indecision in her eyes before she pulled the trigger.The gun went off  with a bang.

Tom woke  up with a start,God it was just a dream,a dream... he kept chanting in his mind.But it had  felt so real,the loud bang as the gun went off  still resonated in his head.But worst of all was the expression on the woman's face as she shot him.It was a face he had grown up loving,his own mother....But the expression he saw there was nothing like he had known so far,for the look that had been directed at him was one of utter revulsion and fear. He took a shuddering breath to calm himself,to slow down his rapid heart beats.The overhead fan had stopped working again and the nightmare had left him drenched in sweat.These dreams..he had been seeing a lot of them lately and each time he woke up when his mother pulled the trigger.He quickly kicked off the sheets,refusing to dwell on the disturbing memory any longer.It was just dawn outside the window and he knew without checking the clock that it was around five in the morning.The same time he always woke up drenched in sweat for the past few days.It had now become a routine that he no longer bothered setting the alarm any more.

Taking a long shower with the icy cold water to clear his head,he quickly got ready ,before heading to one of the local libraries. Mrs Calvin,the librarian was a queer old woman who had taken an immediate liking to Tom and always welcomed him in, no matter what time it was.The library itself was an ancient building, one you could easily picture in one of those scary movies,some thing about the air of chilly calm surrounding it made one believe in all sorts of superstitions and walking into the  dilapidated structure had always given him the creeps.In the previous occasions he had written off this eerie feeling as  the effect of the ambiance on his highly impressionable mind,as his mom had often called it.But he always kept coming back to this library as it had many archaic books,some which weren't even  in print any more. The dust motes he stirred up while exploring these,made him feel like he was about to unearth some kooky secrets which had been buried under the layers of time.Tom had never been a nerd, in fact he had scarcely read a book in his entire life,but this place seemed to have its hooks deep in him and like the prey which was always lured to the trap,it was hard for him to stay away.

He had started frequenting this place while working on one of his science projects,the teacher had asked them to write a paper on any of the topics in psychology and while scouring  the web for a suitable subject,Tom came up on an entire branch of psychology called para psychology which had piqued his interest.The research paper he had submitted had won the highest marks and the teacher had personally complimented him for his thorough research work.But that had been a month ago,but he still continued his research.Right now he was reading up on lucid dreaming and astral projections.Astral projection or the out of body experiences was a field of unlimited opportunities, in fact he had been trying hard to have his own out of body experiences.

He browsed through the stacks of moth eaten books ,most of them didn't have a name any more and one had to peruse their contents to get any idea about them. It didn't worry him that he was the only person in the entire building expect  for Mrs Calvin,of course.He was so lost in his perusal that he didn't notice that he had gone further from the main reading area into a tunnel of sorts,this was further than he had ever ventured in his previous visits.Tom felt as if he were waking up from another one of his dreams because he had absolutely no recollection of making his way to these extremely darkened recesses.He quickly reached for his phone and cursed when he found that the battery had died down even though he had just taken it off the charger,when he left home.Feeling his way along the unpolished stone wall he was relieved when he finally made his way back to known territories.

He glanced at his watch,it was about time to reach school so he quickly got his book issued.He thanked Mrs Calvin and made his way to the bus stop.He went through the book while he was waiting for his ride.Compared to some of the unrecognizable works he had seen at the library,this book seemed to be well preserved.It's red binding  was still shiny at some places and  from the chipped of gold embossed letters along its spine,he could still make out some of the letters that read :  re....of astra..travel ......cult. There wasn't any title page inside and he was surprised to see that the pages where hand written.It seemed to be a journal of some sorts as  all the entries were dated,the first entry being dated around 1840s. He trembled,this looked like something which was stolen from one of the historical museums,if this was not a forgery then this book would be priceless.Tom for a moment considered handing it over to one of the museums but then quickly changed his mind for fear of being caught in the mystery surrounding the book.

He boarded the bus quickly zipping  the book inside his bag pack.He couldn't wait for the classes to be over and done with.He  looked out the window,lost in  contemplation of his latest find until  his best friend, Sara took the seat beside him,filling the rest of the ride with her idle chatter.They had been friends from kindergarten,the years past only serving to strengthen their bond.The classes were literally a blur for Tom, as he felt himself getting lost in his own mind.At one point he swore that he felt himself being shifted out of his own body.Could it be that he had  made his first astral projection just then? His first out of body experience? May be the boring drones of their teachers had finally helped him with his astral projection.None of the books he had read on astral travel said that it would be something he would have no control over,actually  they had emphasized the importance of concentration  to astral project.Then what was it that he had felt?May be the book he had found will provide some of the answers to his questions.