Valerie nearly fell backwards in surprise! It was happening again.
She squinted to see the words since she didn't have Sophie's magnifying glass with her and she could just about read what it said.
"In...nemi ix dim...dime...dimenos" she stammered as she tried to make out the words. "Oh" she said with a soft chuckle "weird words, innemi ix dimenos? Who talks like that?"
Suddenly, her room started fading, and fast!
"What the..?" She murmured, feeling dizzy, everything was fading into white inexistence, her curtains, her bed, the walls, everything! The book disappeared from her front and soon it was just her and the hardwood floor, the white was eating it's way to her in big chunks.
Speechless, Valerie stared at the small piece of wood she was standing on, before she could think about stepping backwards, the white swallowed it and she fell with the shrillest scream that had ever come out of her mouth.
She was falling through millions of colors and the fact that there was nothing solid to hold was absolutely freaking her out.
It was like a dream almost everyone had; a dream about falling from a height only to crash into...
Clouds?
The millions of colors had disappeared and now there were only clouds. Angry, grey clouds that spat lightening and roared with thunder.
Still screaming at the top of her voice, Valerie fell from the stormy sky, lightening flashed dangerously close to her and nearly singed off her wine colored hoodie. "Oh my God! Someone heeeelp!!" She screamed, spitting out rain water from her mouth. The rain was beating on her so heavily it was actually painful.
Wiping her face, she only had time to glance down at where she was to land before she let out another scream and plummeted into the vividly green ocean!
The cold was unbearable as Valerie was completely submerged into the water.
She desperately swam up for air and managed to gasp in a breath before a giant wave crashed on her and pushed her deep into the green-black water.
This was the worst nightmare she had ever experienced! It was so messed up! She was trapped in an angry ocean with kilometers of water everywhere she looked.
She couldn't possibly get out of here alive.
Thunder boomed loudly as she struggled to stay afloat, she would kill to be anywhere but here, the water was a green so dark it was impossible to see what was under there, who knew what kind of beasts were lurking in this kind of water.
And in what part of the world was the water dark green?!
When the lightening flashed, she spotted something in the brief moment of illumination. It was a black log!
Immediately, Valerie swam against the waves and grabbed onto it for her dear sweet life. "Jeez this is crazy" she whispered, her heart beat was erratic and she was shivering from the cold.
Thankfully, the log stayed afloat no matter what, hopefully the storm would pass and she won't freeze to death like Jack from Titanic.
That was a really sad way to die.
"Someone, anyone get me out of here" she whispered, wiping her face and pushing her hair out of her view. She spotted something in the corner of her eyes when a huge streak of lightening flashed, she knew the thunder following that one would be....
BOOM!!!
With a whimper, Valerie put one hand over her head, it sounded so loud and too close, she even the water must have viberated.
Anyways, back to that thing she spotted at the corner of her eye. Valerie turned to her left and indeed, something small and white was floating on the water, riding the waves like the log she was holding.
She went for it without exactly knowing why, but it made sense to know what the white, suspicious item floating on the water was, and if she found a ghost....well.... curiosity did kill the cat.
Seriously, if she had found a ghost or the arm of a dead body, it would have made more sense to Valerie, but instead she found the book.
The Maorouka or whatever was inscribed on the front!
The worst part is, it was completely dry! Still in mint condition as it floated in this creepy green ocean.
"Now I'm sure I'm dreaming" Valerie said aloud, she squinted as she looked upwards, lightening flashed and thunder boomed again, the rain poured heavily on her face and the waves kept tossing her up and down violently. Ok maybe she wasn't dreaming.
She made up her mind then. She was going to flow with the crazy.
Valerie grabbed the book and opened its unbelievably dry pages, it was completely blank like she never even painted anything in it before, that was until she came across a page that had bold words inscribed in black on it.
If a bunch of strange words brought her here, a bunch of strange words would definitely take her back.
"Ennemi ix dimenos!" She said and the effect was immediate.
It felt like she was being vacuumed out of there, wind blew at her face, strong enough to splay her wet floppy hair in all directions.
Suddenly, she was zooming through millions of colors, so fast she couldn't even make a sound. She landed in her reading chair so hard she toppled over backwards!
"Whoa" she whispered and passed out.
➿➿➿
Nicole met Valerie passed out on the floor at about 10pm when she had eaten her dinner and freshened up. She thought it'd be a good idea to know what her daughter was up to.
"Wake up!" Valerie heard her say.
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
"Valerie...!"
"I'm awake Nicole, I was just looking at the back of my eyelids" Valerie groaned and sat up "oh...my head is on fire"
"Looking at the back of your...." Nicole murmured in confusion, "oh my goodness!" She exclaimed suddenly!
"What?" Valerie asked looking up at her mother who had her hands clasped over her mouth.
"You're doing Weed now, Valerie?!" Nicole yelled. "I knew it! I knew something like this would happen sooner or later and now it's going to be too late to stop you...!"
"Nicole! I'm not..." Valerie said getting up from the floor, she noticed her clothes were wet like she didn't take them off before going.... swimming....
Her eyes darted behind a ranting Nicole to her reading table where the book was seated in all its evil glory.
"...and Mrs. Turdine said so too and..." Nicole continued
Valerie snorted a laugh which made Nicole pause "You have a friend who's surname is Turdine?"
"What is funny about that?" Nicole asked in irritation.
Valerie burst out laughing "it's like a cross between dog poop and sardines!"
"That's not the point!"Nicole said angrily "you're all wet and I met you passed out on the floor after your weed-y high!"
"Yes Mom that's definitely fishy" Valerie said with a giggle.
"Valerie, this isn't the time for jokes" Nicole said, although her angry farcade was fighting with a smile.
"Oh, so you did sea what I did there?" Valerie said with a grin.
"Valerie, one more fish pun and I'll ground you for a month!" Nicole said.
Valerie zipped her mouth shut. Then she let out a soft sigh "mom, I don't do weed I promise, I mean, did you sea weed anywhere around me?" She said with a straight face.
"Valerie, that was a fish pun" Nicole said, her face was turning red, Valerie wasn't sure if that was because she was mad or because she was holding back laughter, probably both.
"Are you shore?" Valerie asked putting on a confused expression.
"You're testing the waters here, Valerie" Nicole said.
"Haha! Good one!" Valerie laughed and Nicole stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her with steam rolling out her ears.
Now that she was taken care of...
Valerie turned to the book and looked closely at her painting.
All the laughter and humor drained out of her as her face paled.
The angry grey clouds, the green ocean, the lightening, the wickedly high waves, even the tiny mistake that looked like a floating black log, she had experienced it all...
"I was in the painting" she whispered as she staggered backwards and away from the book, she squeezed the edge of her hoodie and water seeped out of it, it was green!
"Oh my goodness..." She whispered again, putting her hand over her chest "I was in the painting!"
She glanced at the book once more and the waves seemed to move, taunting her.
That book had to go.
🌅🌅🌅
She went to school early the next day, she couldn't sleep well and thankfully, she was almost immune to cold so she only sniffed a few times that morning.
Valerie grabbed the book as soon as she was ready to go, tossed it in her backpack like it burned and raced out of the house.
She didn't even look out for TJ that morning, yet she made it to the orange door of Mr. Knight's class.
"Mr. Knight?" Valerie called as she stepped into the classroom where the teacher was seated behind an easel drawing a cliché basket of fruits.
He looked up and as soon as he spotted Valerie, he groaned "oh come on I don't think I'm taking your class today"
"Good morning to you too, David" Valerie said and rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to get to the point" she said.
"Praise Jesus" the teacher murmured.
"I would like to return this book to you, I don't want it anymore" Valerie said holding out the book with her thumb and index finger "I'll keep the other things, just not this one" she added and Mr. Knight just shrugged.
"Why don't you want it?" He asked
"Because it a magical book that makes you experience whatever you paint in it" Valerie answered honestly.
"Haha" Mr. Knight said dryly not even sparing her a glance.
"Impossible, I know right?" Valerie asked with a dry chuckle.
"I'm quite sure you already know that whether you want the book or not is not my problem, Miss Reece." He said and he looked up from his art to look at her with his hazel eyes "so why bring it to me?"
Valerie thought about his question before shrugging "I guess I just wanted to see your beautiful face today"
"Miss Reece?"
"Yes David?"
"Please leave me alone"
"You know I won't..."
"Out with you!"
"Bye!"
Valerie grinned as she went off to class. He loves me, she thought.
She was having physics first that morning, so before she went to her seat, she tossed the book into the trash can in front of the class and waited patiently for the other students to come in.
After a few minutes, the bell rang and students started filing in, quietly. Before whatever happened happened, Halsburg high was lively and the students were more interesting than this, people would come into the class talking about the awesome party that went on last night and how that unfortunate person was so high they ran around naked.
Now all they ever talked about was the news, like who watched the news anyways?
The boring physics teacher cleared his throat "Alright students, open your text books to page 53 and...."
Valerie opened her bag thinking about Sophie and why she was late for class today and then suddenly...
"Aaah!" Valerie screamed before slamming her hands over her mouth at her outburst.
The entire class looked at her and the teacher, Mr. Lane, raised his eyebrows.
"Can we help you, Reece?" He asked and Valerie shrank in her seat.
"I wish" she murmured staring into her bag, the book was in her bag! Why was the book in her bag?! She thought she had chucked it in the trash can!
"She just hates Physics and wants to give an excuse so she can get out of it" Marina Ferry, who unfortunately shared physics period and many other periods with her said. "Because she's so dumb" she added with a smirk.
Valerie turned in her seat to face her with a glare "thith ith how your bratheths make you thound!!" She said in her most annoying manner, everyone laughed. Marina turned a deep, ugly shade of red.
"Miss. Reece, you will have detention if you do not take this class seriously" Mr. Lane said.
"I know" Valerie murmured and sank in her seat. She stared at the book in her bag, right next to her physics text book and glanced at the empty trash can in front of the class.
This was really weird.
After physics class, she tossed the book in the messy trashcan at the back of the school and ran off to class.
"Phew" she sighed "now I'm sure I really threw it away" she sank in her seat with a small smile.
But when she opened her bag it was still there, brand new and shiny and clean. IN HER BAG!
Valerie pushed her bag to the floor and put one hand over her racing heart to calm herself down. She would not freak out.
And God did she really want to freak out!
The friggin' book was following her everywhere! What the heck had she gotten herself into?
✳️✳️✳️
She stopped trying to get rid of the book. For a while.
That was only because she had a bigger plan. She knew the dump truck came to pick up trash after school hours everyday so all she had to do was throw the book in the main trash can and run home free.
And that is what Valerie did. She put it in the trash can and waited for the dumpster guys to come. She watched as the lad who looked like he'll rather be playing Mortal Kombat on his sad little PS1 came to carry his burden and empty it in the truck to her satisfaction.
"Ah..." She sighed in relief and just to be sure, she opened her bag to check if the evil item was there.
"The coast is clear" she said happily and did a little twirl "I'm freeeeeee!" She squealed and skipped half a metre before she realized she was acting like Sophie.
"I should call Sophie" Valerie said to herself and decided to do that immediately she got home.
She had found some money in Nicole's old bag near the front door that morning and Valerie being the nice, obedient, kind, little daughter she was had taken it and put it in her backpack.
So she stopped by The Right Direction restaurant (cheesy name but cool place really) and bought an extra large pizza with extra cheese (no pun intended) and stuffed crust!
She could barely wait to eat the delicious food as she walked up to her room. Kicking her door open, she munched on her pizza and savored the wonderful taste, but then she spotted a brown book with gold inscriptions on the cover, sitting on her reading table like it never left in the first place and the half chewed pizza came out of her mouth and landed on the rug.
Tossing the pizza box somewhere, she screamed higher than that one time she found a dead wall gecko in her tomato sandwich and jumped on her bed.
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!" Valerie screamed, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, she retreated to a safe corner of the bed, reached for her phone and with her eyes still on the book, she dialed Sophie's number.
The call went to voicemail right away.
"It's following me" she whispered, rocking back and forth "it's following me, it's following me, it's. Following. Me" she chanted.
She was there for a long time, finally, hunger overcame her fear and she edged slowly to her hard earned pizza, taking a bite as she kept her eyes on the book.
She didn't know what to do now, for crying out loud that book was probably Annabelle's and it was possessed or something.
Still, she ate her pizza in silence and once she was full, decided to do something about this.
She snuck around her table and went to her father's box which she had kept in a corner of her room and searched for that white transparent paint brush. She wanted to use it for prodding. Literally.
Sure it wasn't anywhere near as long as a ten foot pole but it would work.
Maintaining a good distance near her bathroom door, she reached out and poked the book with the paintbrush. Immediately, like a scared cat, she ran into her bathroom and shut the door.
"Ok" she whispered when everything still appeared the same and opened the door.
She moved a little bit closer and poked the book again, half expecting it to grow arms and legs and attack her. But it was just a book, and it layed still just like good books should.
"Hmm" she said and went to sit in front of it, pushing her light brown hair behind her ears.
"What the hell are you?" She whispered and lifted the cover open with the tip of the paint brush.
Nothing happened. She sighed.
Of course nothing happened. She had happily held the book in both hands yesterday and had drawn in it comfortably, maybe it wasn't evil, maybe it only let one experience exactly what they drew.
"Ok" she said aloud going to take out her new paint and her palette "I'm going to paint in you okay? So you.... you just stay still like a normal, non-living and inanimate object that you are okay?"
The book stayed still in response.
"Very good" Valerie said and turned to a fresh page "this might tickle" she warned and started to draw strokes and curves with a bright green, then blue, then red and yellow and white.
She spent an hour or so, paying careful attention to her creation.
🔊🔊🔊
Please don't forget to vote! Thanks for reading.
Rhodes.