WITH ONLY one day left to Halloween, the people of Cape Cod were already setting into the mood of the Oktoberfest event. House yards were filled with spooky figures like white cloths to represent ghosts and the jack-o'-lanterns of course.
Jake had stashed the book inside a compartment in his room, hoping the degenerate creatures of the dark would not find it. Certainly, there had to be a way to destroy all of them with the book and not just lifting it up in front of them when they showed up.
Standing before the compartment, Jake stared at it for a while before deciding to open it.
He took out the book and observed the upside-down pentacle again. There were small weird markings around the circle this time. It was like the book was evolving. He flipped open the cover and his eyes set on the markings all over the first two pages. What kind of language was that?
He had even done some research the previous night about ancient languages like Mesopotamian and Mayan but nothing resembled that of the book.
Jake set the book on his bed and moved towards the window.
He could see all the spooky decorations of the other houses and three kids, wearing masks that looked like howling ghosts with the eyes and mouth elongated vertically, crossed a road.
So lame!
Jake was moving away from the window when he saw one of the kids turn away from the others and slowly raise his head at him. He raised an arm, pointing a finger at him. Jake saw his mask begin to droop like melting wax, making the eyes and mouth even more elongated. Jake began to feel a strange compulsion and could not look away from the window.
The kid's mask continued to droop as Jake felt a dizziness when suddenly, a sharp sound came from the window, pulling Jake out of that weird trance.
Jake gasped when he saw a black figure on the window. It was a raven, its beak lodged into the glass and flattering its black wings madly. It was trapped.
Jake fell back on the bed and was reaching out for the book when the raven began to caw until it started to sound like a human being screaming. With one last scream, Jake watched the bird explode into a mound of blood, spattering the entire window red.
"Fuck!"
Jake didn't make a move, his eyes still on the window. That was not the end of it of course as the blood on the window began to slowly move in a gradual spiralling motion until it formed a perfect circle.
The already rising sun cast light through the window, making the blood stain translucent.
Jake turned from the window to the floor where a pale red circular patch had formed from the sunlight.
He could also see that reflection from the full length mirror that stood in front of him against the wall.
It was probably his third eye acting up again but what did this mean?
His eyes, still fixated on the mirror, moved from the patch on the floor to the bed where he noticed something about the book. He stood up, approaching the mirror and that's when he saw it.
The mirror gave a reflection of the book, showing it in reverse imaging thus Jake could see the pentacle in its upright position in the mirror.
He turned away from the mirror to the book and grabbed it, slowly turning it the other way as the pentacle now appeared in its original position in the upright form.
The moment he had done that. The symbol began to glow followed by the book suddenly opening itself and the pages flipping madly until up to the first page, which was initially the last page.
"Woah..." Jake took a seat on the bed after realising the book had written itself again.
The text was in English this time.
The first page had a big title written in cursive font: Power of the Mind
Jake quickly read through the first page and the writing seemed first hand-not printed, like someone had actually been writing on that book a very long time ago.
Jake noticed the chapter was very detailed in giving aspects of the 'forces of the earth, air, water and fire' or as the writer termed them-'elements' and how the mind was activated to channel this forces through the eye.
At first, Jake didn't get what the writer was talking about after he or she further added sketches of what appeared to be the Eye of Horus.
Look at that, Mr. Henry was right all along!
The writer must have been compiling protective symbols in the book, with the Eye of Horus probably symbolizing Jake's third eye or maybe that was just another way of looking at it.
Immediately after the first chapter, the next page had a section of untitled text, which went on to reveal more sketches. Sketches of the human brain?
Jake read on and at one point, the writer gave a connotation about how the mind concentrates its power through the eye to control the will.
Of course, Jake did not get any of this until towards the bottom of the page, the writer had formed some kind of language-a language that Jake recognized this time.
Latin.
'submittere vis in testamento meo'
Jake had taken some time to study the language but only for a while.
'It's not like magic books with Latin appeared everyday!'
"Submit!"
At least he knew the first word.
Setting the book down, Jake rushed to his laptop and keyed in the statement.
It took less than a second until the translation popped up on the screen.
"Submit under the force of my will," he read out loud.
What did that mean?
Jake returned to the book and studied the statement again after which he noticed a small inscription right towards the crease separating the pages in the center of the book.
Hypnosis
Leaning back, Jake gave a thought about the first chapter.
Power of the Mind...
'Could it be...?"
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey, you up?" it was his dad, "running a little late for school now, are we?"
"Oh, I'm just...freshening up in here!" Jake responded, having forgotten about school.
His parents had just left when he got out of his room after which he bumped into his brother, who stepped on him(on purpose of course) heading to the living room.
"Would you mind to watch where you're going?" Jake frowned after him right before another thought passed by him.
He looked back at his room then to the living room.
"Hey, Ryan!"
"What?"
"I just got this Xbox video game from a friend of mine and I think you know how to use it better than me."
"Where is it?" Ryan called, still in the living room.
"You think I'm gonna come all that way to bring it to you?"
Jake smiled a little when he heard his brother's fast approaching footsteps.
If there was one thing his brother loved other than pulling pranks on him, it was video games.
"Ok, where is it?" Ryan asked again, standing in front of Jake.
"Actually, I..."
"What? You don't have..."
"submittere vis in testamento meo!" Jake suddenly blurted out.
For a moment, nothing happened except that his brother had stopped talking immediately after hearing those words.
"Ryan?" Jake called.
"Yes," he responded in a monotonous voice, like he was in some sort of trance.
"Would you mind...would you mind hitting yourself in the face?" Jake asked, narrowing his eyes at him.
To his surprise, his brother actually raised a hand and smacked himself right across the face.
'Holy shit! Did I just hypnotise him?'
Jake wanted to so much at that moment but he had to get to school.
"Okay, how does this work? Go to school!"
His brother turned around, paced to the living room, grabbed his bag and left the house without another word.
"That was awesome!" Jake laughed before going back to his room and getting his bag.
He stashed the black book in it and hurried off to school and could not wait to tell the others what had just happened.