Unexpected!

Adger spent the rest of the day leisurely moving around the manor like a sloth. He had made the decision of leaving for the location shown on the diary cover the next day.

For safety, he had decided to take a small hand gun with him. The said gun was pretty easy to get his hands on, it was a gun his father had left behind. It did not have any ammo but Adger had once found a few bullets in the manor basement and had hidden them.

"To think that they would come in handy this soon. Although, I have quite literally no experience with guns." Adger chuckled at the humour of the situation. He was going to use a gun in a possible dangerous situation without having any prior knowledge of using one.

Soon, the day ended and the morning sun rose the next day in the horizon.

Adger was prepared, he dressed himself in some clothes and wore a long brown over-coat. He put some bullets in the gun cylinder and carefully placed it in one of his inner coat pockets after making sure the safety was on.

'Huu... Here goes nothing.' Adger let out a mouthful of air as he looked down at the diary.

He was not going to travel with a full diary with him. It would be too inconvenient to look at the map while holding the entire diary in his hand.

'Only one thing to do.' Adger slowly tore the pages of the diary and placed them in his desk. Locking the desk and placing the key in his pocket, he observed the diary cover in his hand.

The mysterious symbols still displayed the map of the city of Dusk.

"Now this looks like an actual map." Adger remarked as he closely held it in his hand.

His plan of escape from the manor was pretty simple, he was just going to tell anyone he met that he was going on a walk. How would they know where he was actually going?

Adger casually strolled through the manor hallways as he made his way to the exit, to his surprise no one had confronted him.

'Lucky...'

Adger, rushed out without looking back even once.

'I might not return back.' As such thoughts suddenly entered his mind, his heart skipped a beat.

"No! This is what I have chosen for myself. Fate has presented me with an opportunity that many would kill for. I have to supress my weak thoughts, only a cold heart can strive for perfection and greatness!" Adger said to himself, dismissing all thoughts that surfaced in his mind. With a resolute gaze, he looked ahead, having determination to tackle all obstacles.

Adger walked a few metres before he saw a taxi, boarding it, he quickly gave the taxi driver the adress of the location he was headed to.

He wasn't foolish enough to give the driver the actual adress, Adger only gave him the location of the general area, hiding any details.

He wanted to be careful, even though it may have seemed a little paranoid.

Adger patiently waited for 30 minutes before he arrived at his desired location. He handed the the taxi driver some notes allowing him to keep the change.

He alighted the taxi and waited for it to drive until it was no longer visible from his eyes.

Only then did Adger turn back and headed in another direction.

He took slight glances at the map in his hand as he walked around the streets. He looked just like a foreigner finding his way around the city.

The streets of the central area of Dusk were crowded. People from all sorts of professions were headed towards their respective jobs.

Adger took turns, left and right, following instructions from the map.

Soon, he arrived before a wide building that looked like a church of sorts. It had a cream colour over its cemented walls giving a holy feel to it.

Adger looked at the map a couple of times, making sure he wasn't at a wrong place.

'The swirling symbols signal his place to be where that Stephen has hid the 'book of secrets'. But I wonder why he hid it in this place. It doesn't look any special.' Adger made a judgement based on the appearance of the church looking building.

"Here I go." Adger pushed open the steel door of the building which to his surprise was left unlocked.

He cautiously walked inside while stealing glances at the map in his hand.

Soon, he appeared before the door of the building. Adger took in a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Once, twice, thrice, he knocked a lot of times but no one came to open the door.

'What was I thinking? This is supposed to be a secret place, how would anyone be here?' He shook his head in self depreciation.

He tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside.

"Sigh~ Fate really wants me to be a theif huh."

Adger walked around the building to a nearby window.

He looked around and saw a crowbar near the wall. Picking that up, he smashed the glass of the window into pieces.

The glass shards flew into the building. Adger looked at the scene in shame, he really wasn't used to such things.

Adger thoroughly broke all the pieces of the window and slid inside without causing any injuries to himself.

Even though he rarely went out of the home, Adger had kept his body in a pretty fit shape. His physique allowed him to perform some maneuvers quite skillfully.

"Finally inside."

Adger looked at the diary in his hand and a look of amazement flashed through his face.

The symbols that showed the map of the city distorted and soon formed an image of the building interior. Not far away, in one of the room corners, the symbols swirled around pointing out the location of the 'book of secrets'.

'So, this is how it works. The symbols will change to show the corresponding location of the person and the swirling symbols show the location of the 'book of secrets'.' Adger a little stunned made the presumption.

Without wasting any time, Adger took out the gun from his pocket. He lifted the safety and cautiously walked towards the location of the 'book of secrets'.

The building lacked a lot of furniture. It was right to say, only a few things were kept inside, like a few tables, chairs and cupboards. Everything else was non-existent.

Adger ignored the minute details and arrived before the location of the 'book of secrets'.

It was a wooden cupboard, a normal looking wooden cupboard.

'Is it inside?' Adger slowly opened the cupboard door.

However, instead of the 'book of secrets', his gaze was met with a terrifying darkness vaster and darker than the even the vast and dark space.

"Wha-" Before he could even react, Adger felt a suction force of unimaginable magnitude pull him inside.

In a blink, Adger vanished from the place he stood in, leaving nothing but air behind.

The cupboard door soon closed by itself with a creaking sound that eerily reverberated in the lonely building.