2 The Book

Clara woke up almost together with the sunrise on that Saturday morning. Usually, she is the type of person that wakes up early on weekends, but that was too much even for her standards. She didn't know why but for some reason she couldn't sleep anymore. She felt restless as if there was something wrong about to happen. Ignoring the feeling she slowly dragged herself out of bed. She put her flip-flops and yawning she opened her windows as usual.

"Strange," she thought, "he is already awake?"

Paying no other thought to Ben's light she proceeds to her normal routine, running a few laps around the block. Being the third place in rugby was a big deal for Clara. The first time she saw rugby she fell in love and since then she tried to practice it dearly. It didn't help that her best friends were also in the team and with one of them as second place for that matter, "I must win next time against Susan," she murmured to herself putting her running clothes and shoes.

Forty minutes later and sweating profusely she got back home.

"Sweetie, do you want some waffles? You're early today," her mom said already on the kitchen ready to start preparing the breakfast.

"Two and with OJ," she said running up the stairs.

"Wanna invite Ben again today for breakfast?" her mother said, "the poor thing must be feeling lonely these past few days."

"I'll get Ben in a few minutes," Clara yelled from her room, "he would starve without our help," she said with a smile on her lips.

After a brief cold shower, she went to call Ben. "Sleepyhead," she said opening her windows and throwing a small rock from the 'collection' of rocks she kept under the windows for that specific purpose.

A few seconds later Ben opened the windows almost falling to the floor.

"What happened to you?" she said looking at the bags under his eyes and the zombie appearance of her friend.

"Why do you never use our phone?" he stared at her for a few seconds, "anyway, this book is amazing," he said with a bit too much of enthusiasm, "I'm dying but I wanna continue reading it," he gave a faint smile.

"Oh no, Ben. I don't like when you get that obsessed," she looked at him wrinkling her eyebrows, "remember last time? You forgot to eat for two days."

"This time is different," he said with a gesture, "I think this book is real."

Turning her eyes Clara looked deeply at him. "Sure thing. Anyway, my mom is calling you for breakfast."

Ben always felt misunderstood, for him it was like people didn't really care about the wonderful things that he liked. Even Clara was like that. Always bothering him to pay more attention when walking as if the things he was looking or thinking weren't as important as not falling on the street. He sighed remembering the past while going to Clara's house.

"Good morning miss Renault," Ben said entering the kitchen.

"Oh Ben," she said with worry in her eyes, "you need to sleep better, you're still growing. You're just 15, when you get older you don't want to still be shorter than Clara, right?"

Already used to the sermon, Ben just shook his head and got a pancake for him. From time to time he could feel Clara's eyes upon himself with concern. "I'm ok," he mentally reassured her.

A few minutes later Ben and Clara were into her bedroom.

"You should sleep here," Clara said after a while, "I don't like that your parents are so absent from time to time."

"Don't worry. They will come back next week. This time it isn't work, just a small vacation," he said.

Creasing her mouth and without knowing what to say Clara gave up, "at least sleep here. It's been a while since we don't do it."

Ben felt a bit strange about that idea, but he didn't know quite why. They always slept together and made their adventures. Usually Ben talking about some made-up story of his. But despite the embarrassing feeling he accepted.

"Oh! The book, Clara," he said standing up from her bed and slightly hitting his head with his hand, "I almost forgot. It is real. Do you understand?"

"What do you mean?" she said laying down in bed and giving a long sigh, "what is real this time?"

"This is not like my ghost hypothesis, this time I can prove it," he said leaving the bedroom and going to his house to collect his book. "She will go crazy," he thought to himself going back to Clara's house.

Putting the book on the bed and opening in one of the first pages he read it to her.

'When God created the world he laid hidden underneath everything that exists a secret code. A code that if one discovers one can use powers on equal grounding to God himself. Albeit complicated, men slowly was able to build a small repertoire of sacred words. A small society was created which they called themselves the Qiameth.

The grandmaster of the Qiameth was reponsable of passing down the knowledge from generation to generation of the words that have been discovered--'

"--So," Clara said sitting back on the bed, "you're saying you believe this story? And what's up with the weird name for their society?"

"Of course I didn't believe at the first time I read," Ben said fixing his glasses, "but I had to at least try one of the words they teach."

"And why would you try that?"

"Well..." he said scratching his cheeks, "I always try these things, even with cartoons. Anyway, it worked!" he smiled showing our his white teeth.

"And what happened?"

"I was able to make my lights blink a little," he said in an almost inaudible voice.

"Just that?" she laughed a little bit, "Ben, that could be anything."

"But it happened, I'm sure of it!" he said standing up and holding dearly the book.

"Show me then," she said.

No matter what Ben tried, he couldn't reproduce the effects he last saw in the previous night. He tried to recite the words slowly, loudly, and many other combinations but nothing happened. Clara had her belly hurting from laughing at her gullible friend. Ben finally gave up and went to his house a bit depressed.

Without giving up Ben tried all afternoon for something but he still wasn't able to do the simplest thing the book showed. Clara spent her afternoon with Susan and talking about some strategies for the next game. Although they are good, their opponents were too good to take lightly. One should never take it easy when dealing with finalists.

Clara was still talking to Susan when Ben barged in. "It worked!" he said triumphantly to her, "I think I found the problem."

"Ben!" Clara said a bit too loud, "not again. Last time we lost half an hour of you saying strange words. We are in the middle of an important discussion."

Ben finally noticed Susan, she gave him a shy smile under those freckles and Ben smiled slightly towards her. After a few seconds, he shook his head and went down to business. He opened his book and started to recite the same words as the previous afternoon.

Clara shook her head and thought, "why he is always like that?"

Contrary to Clara's low expectations, something indeed happened. The lights started to flicker, just like in a ghost movie.

"What's happening?" Susan said with her eyes bulging from her face.

"It's my magic," Bend said closing his book.

"What trick this time you have done with the lights?" Clara said putting her hands on her hips.

Ben explained his new findings. Apparently, the 'magic' in the book only works after it gets dark. He was only able to make it work after the sunset a few minutes before coming to Clara's house. The secret phrase he was trying to use before, if he understood the vague explanation in the book, was to leave the path of the light. "In other words," Ben said finalizing his deductions, "to change and make the lights flicker."

"Are you sure that's the correct interpretation?" Clara said, "those words seems suspicious."

"I'm a 100% sure," Ben said smiling, "now you believe me?"

Clara and Susan looked at each other. Clara could feel that Susan was scared. The poor girl was the best in the team and fierce in the field, but she was too shy and didn't like to put attention to herself. It was like she transformed herself when playing, a completely different person.

Even though the lights stopped flickering after a minute or so, the atmosphere in the bedroom was changed drastically. No one knew if it was because of the fear, but it seemed colder and eerie now.

"Don't worry," Ben tried to reassure Susan, "this book is not an evil thing."

"How do you know that?" Susan said.

"Oh, because of the book's name," he said flipping the book to the first page.

The book cover had no name, but its name could be read on the first page.

"The book of life?" Susan said in a soft voice reading the name Ben was pointing with his finger.