Jayden walked towards the room. What he sees is really weird. There is no one in the room. But he can still hear the whispers. There is also something strange about the room. It seems to be darker than usual. But again, he never came to this room after midnight. Suddenly someone grabs him from behind. His mouth is covered and he cannot scream. That someone is really powerful and it whispers softly in his ear-
"Go back Jayden! I said you to be careful." It is the spirit boy. But his voice is laced with alarm and anger. It is not the warm voice he always heard. The grip loosens and Jayden tiptoes his way back to his room, back to bed, and tries to sleep.
Jayden had a very disturbed night. He dreams of the spirit boy scolding him and then he suddenly turns into a cobra, biting his head off, saying he is dead but safe! At long last, the night comes to an end and another day starts. Jayden feels really heavy due to the lack of proper sleep. He drags his feet to the kitchen where he yawns almost every second.
"Didn't you sleep last night?" Jane asks him and he shakes his head. "What were you doing?" she asked sternly.
"Reading." He mumbled. "Can I sleep after breakfast? Just once and never again," he added in a much stronger voice.
"Alright, you can sleep. But only after you have completed all your chores. We have to go out after lunch. So prepare for it, take a shower and sleep for an hour or two." Jane said, laying a lot of rules. Jayden agreed and stuffed his mouth with blueberry pancakes.
***********
Braylan knew at once that his brother was not reading but it was something else. He texted in the group chat regarding this and decided he will discuss it with Jayden whenever he gets a chance. After breakfast, Jayden started doing his chores while Braylan started completing his. He got a chance to speak with Jayden. But Jayden said he was too sleepy and he will tell him once he gets up.
Their parents were both working parents so most of the day, they would be alone or in school and by lunch their mom would return and their dad was most likely to return an hour after that. So Braylan was all alone. Jayden was sleeping. He had nothing to do. He thought he should go and sit in Jayden's bedroom. But thought that it would look creepy so instead he would just peep I'm the room every 10 minutes or so. Braylan had completed the book by Lewis Harris. It had explained a lot about the curses and possessions. Braylon had come up with a theory that the curse on the necklace was really strong. Jayden might have touched it as he said his left pinky hurted once. As the curse was strong, Jacob was able to see the creepy old dude and nothing else. But the spirits couldn't actually come near Jayden to possess him was because he barely touched it . For fraction of second. He also had a feeling that they will try to force Jayden to touch the necklace. He had shared his theory with his project-mates and they seem to agree as they didn't have any other explanation.
Jacob's book was about possessions and how to identify it. It had some censored details, while Samuel's book was a compilation of many exorcists and their cases. The next book that was on list was written by a doctor. He wrote about how some psychological disorders are termed as possessions. Well, Jayden was visiting a psychiatrist. So if there is some medical solution, they will get to thta point. With this thought, he decided to skip this book and go for another one.
***********
Jayden was standing in the spare room. There was a beautiful box on the table. It was really beautiful and it seemed to be radiating light. Someone whispered him to take it. He wanted to take it and sneak a peek. He was curious. He took a step and the whole room came down on him. He was suffocating. His lungs were filled with debris. He tried to move out from the rubble but it was impossible. Someone was strangling him.
He woke up with a cry. He was in his room. Hr was safe and it was just a dream. He was panting. He tried to sleep again but it was difficult. He couldn't sleep. He checked his alarm clock. He had slept for over an hour. He tried to sleep but then gave up and walked out of his room. He found Braylan in his room. He was sitting, doing something on his phone. He glanced at him and-
"You are up! It's too early." He said, keeping his phone beside him.
"Yeah! I had a funny dream." He replied.
"Wanna share?" He asked politely. So Jayden started telling him all about the dream.
"Maybe it has something to do with your present scenario. Like you are feeling trapped and stuff." Braylan said wisely.
"Yeah I think so."
Anyway, are you ready for tomorrow? It's your first day in High school." Braylan said with a smile and Jayden smacked his own head.
"I forgot. Thanks for reminding." He said, standing.
"I'll come with you. I am bored." Braylan said, standing.
While Jayden was readying his dress, shoes and bag for the next day, Braylan observed him carefully. He seemed to be preoccupied. First he tried to take a pair of mismatched socks, then he dropped most of his stationary. He seemed to have forgotten that Braylan was there too.
"What are you hiding from me, Jayden?" He asked in a stern voice. Even though he was younger than Jayden, it didn't mean that Jayden could hide important stuff from everyone. Jayden yelped, and dropped the bundle of notebooks he was carrying, proving he was actually in some mental dilemma.
"Nothing. I said you everything." he said after sometime.
"So what happened last night when you up?" Braylan just said a random sentence so that he could get Jayden speak. The effect of this small sentence was huge. Jayden gaped at him, his mouth hanging open.
"What else do you know?" he asked after recovering from the shock.
"So something happened and you were hiding it."
"Yeah I was thirsty so I went down to drink water. When I was coming back, I heard Whispers. I wanted to see who it was.I started walking towards the whisperers but the spirt boy stopped me. So I came back and didn't sleep the rest of the night." He lied. He somehow knew that the room encounter was supposed to be a secret and he will never share it. It was bad that he had slowly started making a cover around himself and stopped mentioning important points with others. It would cause them all a great difficulty.
Jayden was done readying his stuff when there was a crash and Jayden fell on all fours. He was shaking uncontrollably and some of his veins on his forehead were popping out.