Nathan closed the diary and put it back on the desk, sighed and sat down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.
The diary had definitely helped him a lot... but he felt a little bitter. He had read how a village was slowly falling apart because of that creature.
He didn't have to think twice, it was obvious that the being described in the diary was the boy. Maybe he couldn't understand the whole story from one point of view, but the diary was definitely helpful.
"His eyes are the key... his words call you... but under no circumstances should you look at him" Nathan repeated the last words he had read over and over again until they were engraved in his mind.
He had to start putting some dots together, but after a few minutes he came to a conclusion. Nathan sat down again and looked around the room in silence.
"So... if I don't look him in the eye... he can't do anything to me?"
It was a logical thing to think about, considering that Nathan was still alive and not lying dead in the middle of the square.
The first time the boy had spoken to him was in the house, he might not have felt it then, but the second time, when he had spoken to him from the stairs, he had definitely made Nathan look at him.
The third time was in the alley, but at that moment he met him face to face and looked at him from the beginning. The fourth time was when he had a premonition that he was going to cut out his heart and eat it.
At that moment he had looked at the boy and it had attacked and killed him. But when he tried a second time, Nathan didn't bother to look at him and, strangely, he was still alive.
When he finally reached the square, he didn't even look at him. Perhaps he was so frightened that his words had no effect, but thanks to that, Nathan was still alive.
At first, he had thought that the shadows had something to do with the boy not being able to hurt him, but obviously he had been wrong.
Finally, there was the meaning behind the boy's constant screaming earlier in the square.
"Look at me... at least look at me. That's what he said"
If what was written in the diary was true, then it all made sense. Nathan felt elated to understand the mystery behind this monster, but soon a grim expression appeared on his face.
"How do I get out of this realm?"
There was no mention of the realm in the journal... maybe because he didn't want to explain it or because a realm was something beyond the understanding of the person who wrote it.
Nathan wasn't sure, but he had to find a way to escape.
Suddenly his stomach growled wildly, making him grimace in annoyance.
Even though he had already quenched his thirst, the hunger was definitely killing him. So, he got up and left the room.
According to the diary... although it was explained in a very abstract way, the church was a safe place where the monster would not, or perhaps could not, dare to enter. Nathan didn't know, but he just waited until those words were real and he had time and, most importantly, a safe place to rest.
It took him only ten minutes to reach the church kitchen, his deduction that if there was water there would be food proved correct.
Nathan ran to the shelves and opened them with great anticipation, only to find them full of food and condiments.
His face lit up and his stomach rumbled again.
A few minutes later, Nathan was sitting at the kitchen table, a bored look on his face as he bit into a plain loaf of bread.
Seeing all the things he could eat, Nathan got excited, only to realize that he didn't know how to cook. He tried to eat things himself, but most of them tasted bad, so he had no choice but to eat bread.
"One day I'll learn to cook..."
After eating several whole loaves of bread, Nathan felt much better. Now all he needed was some sleep and he would be as good as new... but that was the problem, sleep.
Anyway, Nathan went back to his room, took off his shoes and lay down on the bed before covering himself with a blanket and closing his eyes.
Suddenly an idea popped into his head, and he opened his eyes abruptly.
"Of course, the writing on the walls!"
Nathan remembered how the rooms in the house before had words written on the walls. He might not have been able to read them before, but it was different now.
With the diary, he could translate by seeing which letters corresponded to which. With that solved, there were only two problems left.
The first problem was that Nathan had no idea how to get from the church to the house. He didn't know the layout of the village and hadn't really paid attention to the roads while he was running away from the boy.
The other problem was the boy... or the monster. If it was hard enough to find the house in the middle of the village, it would be worse with the boy chasing him.
Finding the house with his eyes closed was difficult, if not impossible.
He also needed time to translate the writing on the walls, and he didn't think the boy was kind enough to give him the time to do it without disturbing him.
"Ahh... how annoying"
Apart from that, there was one last problem. Nathan wasn't really sure, but he suspected that his premonition ability wouldn't work if his eyes were closed. After all, he had to see how he had died in order to prevent it, so if it turned out that closing his eyes wasn't the right way to deal with the boy, then Nathan could say goodbye to his life
His mind was already tired from so much thinking. He desperately needed to rest, so he decided to make a plan for the next day. In the meantime, Nathan would try to sleep as well as he could... maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have any nightmares.