Chapter 31: A Night in the Woods

"Rhys? Hello, Rhys?" I hear Rose's voice becoming louder by the second and I wake up in hallucination.

My vision tries to steady itself, "Huh, yes? Whut?" I yawn.

"I finally finished reading the book. I'm sorry to wake you up but you wanted it so badly, so here it is. It's pretty interesting and magical, too. But take care of yourself, okay? You should sleep properly in your bed."

I close my eyes because it seems to hurt, "Yes, mom. Thanks for the book." I answer while she puts the book in my hands.

"Wait, did you spend all night drawing this girl? This is awesome! Who is she?"

I look at my table and remember that I was drawing some drafts for my art project and all of a sudden fell asleep.

"She's so pretty, like a fairy—or a mermaid! Is she a mermaid?"

My hands go chaotic while trying to close the sketchpad and I stutter with random sounds.

"Well, whoever she is, I feel good about her."

My head shifted to her quickly when she says that. "She's just a model I saw on TV." I breathe and place my hand on her shoulder, "I'll read the book now. Time to go to bed."

Rose giggled while leaving my room, "You don't even know what time it is."

I never know what time it is any day. When she left, I glance at the drawing I made of Malinda. No, book first. I rip the drawing off. Malinda doesn't want to be exposed, so it's best that I try not to write any record of her. And also, that Rose doesn't get any other wrong ideas.

Now, let me just focus on this. I lay the medium heavy book to my table and decide to do some light reading for now.

"The Cave's Voice Phenomenon: Book Two."

Adrenaline rushed through my veins and I'm sure I'm truly awake now.

"This is Jacob Harrison continuing The Cave's Voice Phenomenon Research.

Haku is very submerged with our research before and is sharply recording information on the first book. Although, on recent days he has been abandoning his work and ignoring me, also. I haven't told him yet, but I'm secretly writing this second book behind his back. I think he is starting to lose interest of our project, but I will continue to find the true purpose behind this entire ordeal.

While Haku is busy looking at the scientific standard point of view, on this book, I will focus on folklores and mythology, pseudo-sciences and other foreign or cultural belief systems, and other undervalued topics. Using references from my university's library, I will tell everything relevant to what we both encountered."

Finally! Something different. Jacob really is a writer, figuring out he should look over some other stories. It makes sense why Rose was interested in this book; it really is full of different types of fictional and non-fictional events. I flip through the pages and there were a lot of tales. My body was aching for me to go lay on the bed so I figured I should just start reading again tomorrow. My head was starting to ache as well as I drop the book on the floor almost unconsciously. I really need to sleep.

When I was about to pick the book up, it was turned on a page with an entry titled "Magus?"

My eyes widen and my body started to not ache anymore. On the same page, there was a ripped paper attached to it. I check the date and hold on... this is the ripped paper from his personal diary! I read it carefully and there was only one crucial part of it all:

"26 July 2020

It has been a week since Malinda, and I talked so our conversation for today lasted for quite some time. Today, we shared some of our deepest secrets. After so much time of nudging her, she answered who the sculptor of the stones are! The ones from outside! She said his name was Magus, but she didn't tell me anything else"

And under the paper:

"I only now recalled about that journal entry and looked more into it. I could not translate what the name of Magus means nor where it originated, but I discovered something else. In one of the children's magical tales in the library I happen to stumble upon, there was a story about a man named Magus. It was a short legend. It says there, it is believed that there is one immortal sorcerer who travels the world. Usually, he would only try to help others as much as he could with his different abilities. But oftentimes, there are those who stand out from others, and he shovels greatly into that certain individual. Once he has found those persons, he carefully examines the pureness of their heart and soul. He decides to bestow whether they shall be blessed, or they shall be cursed. It has been rumored that his abilities can go as kind as giving the luckiest fortune for the rest of one's years, but can also fulfill upon an absolute, cruel death. The only proof of this legend is that in the 5th BCE, there was already word of Iranian priests named Magi. Some believe that there are several people who travel the world that practice and share their sorcery to others while others believe that there is only one."

I stand up in shock. So, I was wrong! Their parents could never hire a guy like that!

I pace around my room and back and forth. I try to connect all the pieces together and reclaim the thought I threw away earlier. The man, Magus, travels around the Earth at random and finds his special victim. The he carefully observes someone and test whether the person deserves good or bad luck. That means, he's more than just a wizard to Malinda. Maybe he isn't. But he also could be.

All in an instant, I have this urge to go to the cave and ask her about it. Or gloat off onto her entire face that I figured out information on my own. I grabbed my phone and quickly get out of the house by my window. It's late at night, so I seriously don't know what came over me. Probably because my head is still turning so I can't think straight right now.

Going to the dirt bike and riding quickly but quietly, I felt weirdly but excitingly suspicious.

I try to keep the engines silent while going down the hill, then immediately go faster once I reach the lower part of town. Even if it's summer, the nightly breeze can always still be so cold. It's been such a long time since I made this much good bad decisions and it feels fantastic. I think I finally got the hang of this dirt bike, too.

When I reach the forest while going at a limitless speed, I scream. And it feels fucking good.

As I do, the same old murder of crows flaunt up from the tall, dark contour of trees. And they're flying across the dead of the night sky, passing through the luminous yellow moon. It feels weird. That I find interest to small things like these. I've never been one to notice anything cool at all. But right now, I'm just feeling the wind brushing off my hair and I feel alive.

This entire escapade feels like something straight out of a coming-of-age movie where the main character does something stupid for no reason. And maybe it is stupid. But it also just feels right.

Abruptly stopping at the cliff, I run my way over through the valley in a flash. I reach the entrance, but then checked my phone first. It was 11:59pm. Looks like I visited her twice today.

As I enter, I imagined Malinda's face so surprised of seeing me once again.

Instead, I see a girl who's softly weeping.