8 The Letter

Laven straightaway went to his bedroom and threw himself on his cozy black bed. His arms and knees felt sore. The stomach that was growling like a grizzly bear from hour ago was no longer disturbing him. It probably knew that all of its efforts to make Laven eat were fruitless.

"I wonder what happened to Cloey. I hope she forgot her way and is safe in an unknown place, rather than getting kidnapped. What if she got kidnapped?" he was trying to find any possible reason that he could temporarily believe in to stay calm, though his worry was incessant.

The phone beeped, indicating that it was going to die any time soon. He reached for the drawer that wasn't located too far away from his bed.

The whole body felt sluggish as his mind was immersed in the thoughts of Cloey and Kim. A new one appeared when the other goes missing.

They accepted a total stranger as their friend! Not that he disliked him or thought of him as a nuisance in their group, just that it was blizzard. Kim's actions were unpredictable too, one second you can see him smiling sweetly and the next, you find him holding a knife, ready to stab someone. If it wasn't for Laven, neither Mrs Rosy nor Kim would have had a happy ending.

Kim's insane action would subsequent to Kim being killed by Danial first, followed by Laven and then finally Emma. That mounts up to a total of three gruesome deaths for him!

He's in a dilemma, should he tell the others about it or was it better kept as a secret? The most plausible way to explain it for now was that Kim got extremely worried and accidentally went to stab the woman as the result of an involuntary reflex action.

Just as the tip of Laven's fingers were about to touch the drawer, he lost his balance and slipped onto the floor.

"Aishhh!" he fell down after an accidental back flip. It was painful.

He used his hands to help him get up again but his head hit the underside of the bed.

A moan of pain came out from his lips. As he looked in front, something interesting came into view.

The parcel

"Oh, I almost forgot about that thing!" Laven pulled out the unknown item from his parents and kept it on the mini table. He was thinking about it in the car just now but got carried away , thinking about all the other problems he was facing now.

The parcel was wrapped with a white colour paper which had cute tiny panda pictures as the deco. Panda's were Laven's favourite animal. They are one of the cutest animal species on the planet. Cute but not weak!

A smile appeared on his face. Though he doesn't remember how his parents looked like or what they liked and disliked, Aunt Shelly had told him that they used to pamper their beloved son we with everything he liked, especially panda dolls. His liking for pandas existed since he was a baby.

Laven was about to open the wrapping but stopped on the spot when he suddenly remembered something crucial. There was a letter that came along with the parcel. According to Gerald, he has to read the letter first before opening the parcel. That weird scary man who used a knife and hammer to pick Laven's door lock because Aunt Shelly was worried, his face would remain carved in Laven's brain forever.

He bent down and took the letter that he had failed to notice earlier. While getting up, he accidentally bumped the bridge of his nose.

Perhaps, he was temporarily surrounded by bad luck.

The securely wrapped unknown item in front of Laven gave out some irregular vibes, the type that will draw someone closer to it. He brushed off the uneasy attraction force he felt and opened the letter.

It was neatly written, probably using a feather pen. The ancient look it gave off was pleasing to look at, but he knew that it was impossible for his parents to write the letter hundreds of years ago.

He read the letter out aloud:

"Dear Panda Boy,

If you are reading this letter, it is because either we have died, fell into coma or anything of that sort. We hope that you are and will saw always be happy, healthy and safe. Our blessings would always be with you dear.

This is the last gift that we'll be able to give, no one knows the content of it except for us and of course, you will find out what it it is soon. Promise us that no matter what happens, NO ONE should ever lay a finger on it besides you. In other words, you must be the first one to touch it!

Now, there are some procedures or steps or whatever you wish to call it, that you have to follow without skipping a single step in order to make sure everything goes smoothly before opening our gift:

Step 1: Go to our bedroom. We're waiting for you.... Just kidding. Make sure to bring the gift along with you."

Laven stopped reading for a while, letting a drop of tear slide down his cheek smoothly. His heart skipped a beat when the letter mentioned that his parents were waiting for him there before knowing that it was just a joke.

"Last gift," he mumbled to himself.

The fact that he would never be able to see them or hug them hurt him the most. He hadn't dared to enter their room or even look at their photos because he was always scared of the truth. It would cause him to break down.

He always hoped that they would be secretly alive somewhere and he the only way he wanted to look at his parents was through reality, not photos alone.

Slowly making his way out of the room and towards the end, Laven gulped looking at the door he never once touched or thought of exploring. It will just cause havoc to his mental stability. He wondered if they planned all of this knowing that he would act like such a baby.

The door was pushed open, revealing a massive king size bed with golden covered mattress, fancy black curtains, a water filter that has been resting for a long time beside the bed, a modern dressing table and an enormous rack which was most probably filled with hundreds of books.

The walls were painted light grey in colour. The room looked kempt. Anyone who sees the room wouldn't be able to even make a wild guess that it was actually abandoned for approximately 12 years! One glimpse of it was enough to make people gasp in awe.

'Oh my! I can't believe my eyes,' Laven praised internally.

Unsure of himself, he felt as if he was being watched by someone. There was some kind of 'presence' there.

He continued reading the instructions.

"Step 2: Do you see the big book rack there. Push it aside...."

Laven got shocked, "Push it aside? But I don't even have a mini six pack!"

The rack was twice or maybe thrice the size of Laven. Pushing it seemed impossible, it was indeed impossible!

If he tried, he was too sure that he would break the bones of his hands and tear his muscles, which would cause him to end up in the hospital or more specifically, the ICU.

He scanned through Step 2 again.

"Step 2: .... Haha! Don't get too scared. Use your brainnn!"

"That's all!" things just got even more complexed. He has to use his brain! Was this whole thing supposed to be just a big joke?

As pointless as it sounds, Laven went to the side and took a deep breath in. His hands moved forward and applied pressure onto the rack. The gigantic rack stood poised, not even affected a bit by the force exerted.

Laven realised that the force he used was not even enough to flick a fly away. He began pushing it even harder, but it didn't work. His palms started hurting. Even with the help of his knees, the rack wouldn't even budge an inch.

"I knew this wouldn't work!" he punched the rack but ended hurting his knuckles instead. This was getting harder.

After thinking for a while, a thought came into Laven's mind. It made him hesitate at first, but he eventually gave in. The idea seemed kind of insane.

"Ok, here I go!" Laven shut his eyes tightly and pressed both of his forefingers against each side of his head. The nerves in his body were tensing up. With all his concentration, Laven tried to move the humongous the humongous object or teleport it to some unknown planet. His face turned red bull he still forced himself to continue.

A sharp pain was felt in his head. The teen immediately relaxed, not wanting to strain himself any further. He slowly opened his eyes and checked if he succeeded in doing what he planned, but that thing was still in the same position.

"What do they mean by 'Use your brain'? I don't think I'm born with teleportation or telekinesis powers," his gaze wandered over to the lonely books arranged neatly in the rack.

Looking at them helplessly, Laven scanned through the titles in search of any topic that seems intriguing. To his shock, a large portion of them were horror books. Did his parents love spooky scenes so much?

Reading the titles themselves sent terrifying chills down his spinal cord. There were some books of other genres as well, like fantasy, historical drama and many more.

Among the many books in the rack, one of them stood out prominently. The unique book had a golden cover that matched the mattress, the title was 'Laven's Guide To Not Be A Baby'.

"There's a book about not being a baby with my name on it! What a coincidence," Laven pulled out the book, eager to know its content.

On the cover, it stated who the author was. Baby Panda's Parents of Mystic. That was extremely odd to him.

Just as he was about to turn the cover of the book, a very strong moving motion from in front was felt. He looked up, opening his mouth wide enough for a whole family of mice to live in.

The rack split into two and separated into different directions, revealing a pitch black doorless entrance in between.

"Did my mental powers suddenly work?" he questioned himself in disbelief that he was able to do such a wonder. Pride filled in him.

If he knew he was capable of doing so earlier, he would have lifted himself high up in the sky and fly to school every day. Laven looked down at the book to close it. He managed to read the content of the first page:

"Congrats son! You have found the key to move the rack. What a brilliant boy you are!"

His mouth formed an 'O' shape. It was disappointing when he realised that he didn't have any powers, that was a fact he had to accept. With disappointment, he got back to reading the instructions.

"Step 3: Enter it. The torches will light up when they acknowledge your familiar young blood. But there's something you have to do first. In the top drawer of the dressing table, you will find an innocent pin that has been waiting so long for you. Take it. Before you enter, look down and you'll see a light glow of red. Pierce your finger with the pin until a drop of blood drops directly onto that spot. YOU MUST DO THIS BEFORE ENTERING THE PATHWAY! Then, without looking down, take a few steps forward straightaway. Look behind if you dare..... And trust me, there's nothing scary at all there. They will recognise the familiar young blood of yours, it should taste the same as mine. Do not open the curtains! Follow what I said and you shall be safe."

Laven panicked. He needs to enter that opening, where nothing inside was visible to the outside. This whole thing wasn't funny anymore. He knows that he isn't the brave type, so doing as stated in the letter was nerve-wracking. The view itself was spooky, it seemed like a black hole that would absorb and destroy everything that comes in its way. Furthermore, the room wasn't in a really bright state.

The lights weren't switched on and the sun would set soon, but it was still bright outside, enabling light to enter the room. However, the thick black curtains blocked out most of the light, added with the humongous book racks on the left and right that cast a big shadow in between.

"It's not scary..... Then why use 'If you dare'?" Laven whined to himself. His heart raced even faster with the thought of having to pierce blood out of his skin.

He had a choice, he could abandon everything and go back to his normal routine like nothing ever happened or proceed with the instructions given by his parents.

Guilt started to make his heart heavier. How could he not fulfill his parents request, that would be so inhuman of him.

Well, they didn't ask for anything much more serious like killing someone or burn down the house.

He stood there, carefully evaluating the choices he had. It was simple. Run or stay!

With a very heavy sigh, he chose to carry on with the 'Blood Quest' his parents had prepared.