Back at the house, Jayden stared at the object in Raiden's hand.
'Classy book.' He commented, 'what is it?'
'Dunno,' Raiden replied, scanning the book herself, 'its written "Tantabulum" but I don't know what that means.'
'Let's look it up in the library tomorrow. The teachers won't hold that many classes because 99% of the students will end up with a hangover tomorrow. We can look it up then.'
'What do you mean "we"?'
'Well, I did save your ass by not handing you over to Alejandro. I wanna know what's in that book, I think the best you can do is let the four of us see what is in it together.'
Raiden nodded at the idea.
***
Raiden could not fall asleep that night.
The book with its strange name had indeed intrigued her. Not wanting to open the book without showing it to the others, she just tossed and turned in her bed as curiosity bubbled in her stomach. All she had wanted was to open the book, but the least she could do for Jayden for not turning her in was that she could wait for him as requested.
'You look like shit,' Aaron commented the next as he saw Raiden reach for the coffee maker.
Raiden just nodded in approval. Lack of sleep had indeed made her like a zombie and had taken a toll on her. Her eyes were very close to closing, every muscle in her body begged for rest and her head throbbed.
I have a worse condition than a hangover.
'Did you go back to the party and get drunk?'
Raiden nodded in a movement, Aaron took as a no.
'Then how in the world do you look like someone who just returned from a highly wild frat party.'
Even in her exhausted state, Raiden gave Aaron such a glare Aaron decided not to ask any more question.
'Morning!' Jennifer's chirpy voice was heard as Raiden internally groaned. Loud voices were pretty much the last thing she needed with her head aching like crazy.
'Oh Raiden, you're already here,' she stopped short in her tracks, seeing her condition, 'you did seem to have a pretty wild night I suppose.'
Raiden didn't feel like replying, even the smallest movement made her headache multiply by a hundredfold.
Jennifer gave Aaron a "what's the deal with her" look which was only returned by a shrug.
'I'm just gonna go to my room to get ready,' Raiden mumbled as she kept sipping on her coffee. On the way, she met Jayden, who like her, was in the same "worse than hangover" condition, perhaps worse, with dark bags under his eyes. Both of them shared a mutual glance before both of them continued their work.
Aaron and Jennifer exchanged glances.
'You get what happened, Jennie?'
'Not a single thing,'
'I'll tell you two after class,' Jayden said as he grabbed his coffee and left the dining room.
***
'Geez, Raiden what the hell happened after I dropped you at the dorm?' Zane asked as he saw Raiden rubbing her temples, waiting for their first class. Luckily, Jennifer and Aaron did not share the same class with her on Mondays; she did not have the energy to answer their avalanche of questions, not yet in the least. Zane, on the other hand, was a person whose questions she could answer.
'It's a long story.' She just mumbled as she rested her head on the table wishing she could just disappear.
'You know, most of the students are still hung-over and they are not attending a class today. You could have just done the same, no one was gonna tell you anything. Did you guys have some sort of drinking party after I dropped you?'
Raiden just shook her head, not bothering to lift it from the table.
'Then what happened?'
Raiden told Zane everything that had happened last night. However, her discretion made her skip the part where she had found the book. Already three people would know about her wandering out late into the night, and even though Zane was one of her good friends, it was better not to include one more person in the list.
'So...' Zane began at length, 'you saw a shadow that you thought was Jennifer and followed her. But then she disappeared. You sure you were not dreaming?'
'No, I definitely was not!' Raiden snapped. Sleeplessness took a toll even on her behavior.
Zane raised his hands in surrender; he had known Raiden well enough in two months not to push her when she had snapped. Or to push any girl when she had snapped once.
'Fine, you did not dream, I'll say you were lucky Jayden didn't hand you in, I guess. As far as I know, there isn't a guy on this campus who follows the rules as strictly as he does. If I wasn't already on probation and if you probably didn't like him, I would have ruined that pretty face of his a long time back. He fucking pisses me off.'
'I do not like Jayden, and I have said that almost a million times in the last two months alone.' She groaned.
'Denial is the first step of acceptance, baby,' Zane teased.
Raiden hit Zane in the shoulder as the both of them chuckled.
***
At the end of class just as she had expected, Jayden, Aaron, and Jennifer were standing in front of the library entrance waiting for her. Luckily, Raiden's horrible state had vanished, thanks to Zane trying to cheer her up and providing her continuously with cans of warm or cold coffee [whatever he could get at that moment] which helped her clear her mind a lot.
'Jayden texted us to meet here.' Aaron explained as Raiden approached them, 'What exactly happened last night? Tell us, we're confused.'
Raiden was now aware of the presence of the strange book in her bag as she glanced at Jayden. He gave her an approving nod as she turned to the two of them.
'Let's sit inside; we have plenty of time for questions.'
***
'Explain.' Jennifer said as the four of them sat down. Aaron and Jennifer sat together, opposite Jayden and Raiden, facing them. It wasn't a request, it was an order.
Raiden and Jayden glanced at each other and sighed.
It's your fault we are here in this situation. His expression said.
My fault? It's you who wanted them to know. Her expression countered back.
'Ahem,' Jennifer's impatient voice brought them back to reality, 'if you two are done, would you mind telling us what happened yesterday? And why the hell did you two seem like zombies in the morning.'
Raiden and Jayden exchanged glances. Aaron widened his eyes.
'Don't tell me,' he gasped, 'that last night, you two...' he trailed off without completely.
'NO!' both of them shouted; their faces pretty red, so loudly that they were pretty sure they had disturbed pretty much everyone in the library, not that there were many at the moment.
'Geez don't shout like that you two,' Jennifer complained, 'you two make it seem like you actually did something. Now stop dilly-dallying and spit out what happened last night, I haven't got all day and neither does this dumbass.'
'Hey!'
Raiden sighed. Guess there is no way I can get out of this now.
Little by little, making sure Jennifer and Aaron understood everything, taking note of their expressions every now and then. They seemed masters of poker faces and if the four of them ever had a competition about it, Jennifer and Aaron would definitely be tied for first place.
'So you mean to say you found this book instead of actually being able to catch the shadow you thought was me?' Jennifer said after a long pause. She looked skeptically at the two of them. Raiden could guess Jennifer and Aaron hadn't bought the story at all.
'That's what she said and that's the story she's willing to stick to.' Jayden shrugged.
'That's the fucking truth.' Raiden mumbled under her breath.
'Anyways,' Aaron as usual tried to change the topic of discussion, though not fully, 'where is this "book" you two are talking about? You do know that we need to see it before we actually believe your story.
Or we'll simply just stick to the theory that you two hooked up last night. Not gonna lie, if you two did, you guys were pretty quiet, it's a hell of a noise when Sarah and Travis do it. It's a pain in the ears, no one is interested to hear porn, especially at the time they're supposed to sleep.'
Raiden mentally face palmed as she brought out the heavy book from her bag. The strange title embossed in gold on the leather cover.
TANTABULUM OF
THE SCHATTEN GARDIEN
KEEPERS OF THE GATE TO THE KINGDOM OF SCHATTEN AND LICHT
'Interesting name' Aaron commented as he examined the title, 'I'm sorry Raiden, I believe your story now. Though I would have liked it if you two actually hooked up. You two would actually look good together.'
'I support Zane and Raiden though.' Jennifer remarked.
What the fuck? These people are trying to set me up?
'Shall we get to the matter at hand please?' Jayden said gruffly, 'we have much better jobs than shipping Raiden with random.'
'Just admit you're jealous,' Aaron mumbled, 'Anyways, shall we open the book? Since we don't see anything interesting on the cover?'