Chapter One

"Alright, the party's over!" Jason yelled over the loud music. He sighed inwardly as he thought of the amount of rules the college students were breaking. "Cut it off!" He shined his flashlight, which did nothing over the rave lights they brought with them.

"Dispatch, I might need a little help out here!" He yelled into the radio on his chest.

"Come on honey, don't be like that!" A young college student in a skimpy dress slurred as she held a red cup of beer in her hand. She hugged him for a moment, pressing her chest against him. "Join us! You'll have fun, I promise." She yelled seductively in his ear. Jason could smell the foul stench of alcohol coating her breath from having drunk her weight in beer tonight.

"Officer Reese," dispatch called back through the radio. "Units two through seven enroute to your coordinates. ETA ten mikes."

Jason released himself from the young woman's embrace and pressed the button for the radio. "That's a good copy, dispatch." He sighed in relief while looking at the thirty people swaying to the music.

The young woman overheard dispatch. Her carefree attitude filled with an icy cold dread. "I can't be seen out here, my daddy would kill me!" She said as she dropped her drink. "Party's over guys! Pigs are on the way!"

The lights cut instantly. The beer suppliers hurriedly carried the kegs back to their pickups while others loaded up the lights. Jason watched as they all loaded up in five trucks and peeled out of the woodline.

"Come on guys." Jason whined as he saw the tire tracks in the grass. "Why did you have to make my job harder?"

Looking at the beer cups and snack wrappers which littered the ground, he estimated at least two hours of work in his future.

"Dispatch, this is Officer Reese." He called into the radio. "Tell the units to be on the lookout for five pickups exiting the park grounds. They have alcohol in the hatches."

"Ten-four." The feminine voice replied in seconds.

Sighing, Jason went to his jeep and grabbed a roll of trash bags. He began throwing empty cups away while questioning his life choices.

It wasn't a bad job most days. He was the groundskeeper for the East Grand state park. His grandfather happened to be the owner of the park, giving him a very modest wage, as well as free room and board.

Most days, it wasn't much of a headache. Whenever students of East Grand University graduated, the grounds became party central.

His job was easy. He mowed the lawn in the fields and picked up any trash he found on his rounds. Since he was the groundskeeper, he was on salary instead of getting paid per hour.

"Maybe I should have applied for college." Jason thought as he picked up a half empty cup of beer.

It wasn't as if he wasn't smart enough for college. He maintained a three point five throughout high school while also taking care of the park. He just didn't see a career path that suited him.

Whether he went to school or not, his future was already covered by his grandfather. He had started living in the state park on his own at age fourteen. The old man became his guardian when his parents met an unfortunate end in a head on collision with a drunk driver. Since then, his grandfather had pounded in the value of a dollar, that way he could take over as owner of the park after he passed in the future.

Finally finished bagging up the cups and other trash, Jason did a quick inspection of the area.

In the clearing, his eyes rested on an old book. "Someone's going to have a fairly large library fee in the future." He rolled his eyes as he went to the clearing.

Looking down at the book, he felt as though it was something out of this time. It was a faded brown leather bound book with pages breaking out of the spine. "Looks like you belong in a museum." He said as he flipped the book over to look at the title.

'Mage's Academy' was illustrated in big gold lettering, taking up the cover. The book itself weighed a ton. "Someone left their dungeons and dragons book behind I guess." He sighed as he walked back to his jeep.

Making a mental note of where the party was located, Jason decided to come back in the morning to see what damage the tires from the trucks had done. "Can't order new grass seedlings this late at night anyway." He jumped into the driver's side and put his key in the ignition, rolling the engine over.

The state park was so large, Jason had at least a thirty minute drive on a winding gravel trail to look forward to. His high beams bounced off of the treeline on either side. He diligently searched on either side for any signs of disturbance.

"Officer Reese, this is dispatch." His radio screeched on Jason's shoulder.

Sighing, he pressed the button to the mic and spoke. "Send it."

"The trucks were apprehended at the entrance to the park, please stand by at your home for Officer Trusky to collect your statement." The feminine voice concluded.

"That's a good copy, I'll be there in ten mikes." Jason smiled casually as he concluded his business.

The female on the radio's name was Nadine. She was around his age and fairly good looking. He had been summoning up enough courage to ask her out sometime, but he wasn't sure whether she would accept.

He was pretty well off since he had the same salary since he was fourteen. Every other week, another two thousand dollars would drop into his account. He only had the insurance on his jeep, a phone bill and his gaming to pay for at the end of each month. He never spent more than two hundred dollars for himself out of each check, so his savings had grown at a rapid rate over the past five years.

"Maybe a nice dinner sometime." He mused with a cheeky smile.

The rest of the trip home was less than eventful. He turned into the driveway of his two floor house just at the entrance of the park.

Parking, he took the keys from the ignition and waved at the patrol car parked on the side of the road. Officer Trusky waved back as he got out of the driver's seat. "Busy night?" The man smiled as he walked to the jeep. Trusky was always one of his favorite people to work with. Though he was in his 30's, it felt like the man truly worked with him. Other officers might put on the air of professionalism, saying nothing but what was required.

"You could say that." Jason returned his smile. "Dumb kids never follow the rules, huh?"

"Which rule is it this time, kid?" The officer relaxed at the hood of the jeep.

"Rule number one." Jason raised his index finger. "People are stupid."

The officer chuckled. "You know you fall under the same age bracket, right?"

"Don't put me in the same category as those idiots." He retorted as he got an incident report from the passenger seat. "I filled it out after chasing them out." He said as he handed the sheet of paper to Trusky.

"You going to throw those bags away tomorrow?" Trusky shined his light on the black bags of trash in the back of the jeep. "Wouldn't want that trash to spoil the inside of your jeep. Why don't you let me take them?"

"Thanks." Jason wasn't looking forward to trash duty tomorrow. "That would help a lot."

Officer Trusky went to the back and unloaded one of the bags, replacing it in his patrol car. "It must be a pain to clean after so many grown adults." He said as he threw the second bag in the back. "Is that it?"

"I think there's one more on the passenger side." Jason said as he went to the front of the car. "I can grab it for you."

As he grabbed the bag, officer Trusky caught a glimpse of the book. "Is that something else from the party?" If he didn't know any better, Jason could have sworn the officer's eyes went wide for a moment.

"It's nothing, just a book I borrowed from the library." He didn't know why he lied, it felt as if the words slipped out of his mouth before he could catch them. He grabbed the book from the seat and smiled at officer Trusky. "Thank you for your help, this saved me around twenty minutes and I'm already beat."

Jason walked to the front of the house and waved at Trusky. "It's always a pleasure to see you."

"Stay out of trouble, Jason." Trusky got back into his car and left the driveway.

Jason shut the door behind him and heaved a relieved sigh. "All that for this?" He looked at the battered old leather book. "You had better be a page turner."

Going to the fridge in the kitchen, Jason grabbed a soda before heading to his room.

Plopping down on the bed, he flipped the leather cover open and noticed a red thumb print on the old weathered page right under the illustration. "The librarian would have a fit if this were returned with a ketchup stain." He wet his finger and rubbed it on the red spot.

"Ow!" He picked up his finger and noticed it was bleeding slightly. "What the hell?" He sucked on his finger, a taste of copper pennies assaulted his taste buds. He looked down at the few drops of blood that fell on the page. "I guess it wasn't ketchup." He said as he tried to carefully remove the blood stain. Before his hand could make it to the page though, his blood sank into it without a trace of it having ever been there.

Jason lifted the page and turned it over, yet there was no sign of blood visible. Returning to the previous page, Jason's eyes widened. Where the blood was recently, a new word had shown. 'Accepted.'

"That wasn't there a moment ago." He was shocked. The new word glowed with a brilliant emerald light which soon enveloped the entire room.

"Agh!" Jason helped as he was temporarily blinded. He jumped off the bed with a start and shielded his eyes. "What the hell?"

As the light subsided, Jason squinted at the bed where the book had been laying, but it was gone. "What the hell?" He repeated as he tried to make sense of what happened.

"Ding!" His phone sounded from the bed. The light had finally gone completely out, and he saw his phone light up with a notification.

Jason cautiously moved back to the bed, trying to avoid the place where the book had just rested. He wanted to get his phone to call Officer Trusky back to the house.

Picking up his phone, he noticed an app on his screen that wasn't there before. The art for the app looked just like the old parchment of the book, and sure enough, the name of the app was 'Mage's Academy.' "Seriously," Jason said as he stared at the odd app. "What the hell?"