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It was almost midnight,in the outskirts of the city. Wencetown, California.
In the street of No.15 Presslane was habitable but almost empty, almost everyone lay in their suburban homes, barely cars passed by the slant road that started from the beginning of the street to the end.
At a point the street became completely empty and the wind came by and the trees swayed from side to side and the gray clouds gave way for the full moon at the top of the sky and it's moonlight shown in the tiled rooftops of the houses.
At the sidewalk at the middle of the street.
A man on a black coat standing beside a working lamplight as if waiting for someone, his eyes watched the house infront of him across the street unblinkingly.
He had a blank face and was young, he had black greasy hair with two thin bangs that slightly covers his eyes and had a grim look.
Later, where he stood he felt a presence, behind him was a grove of trees and someone seemed to have appeared out of thin air there.
It was coming towards him,as she drew nearer the light from the lamp revealed her appearance, from her red high heels to her red leather jacket to her whole body.
Her presence looked unwelcoming in the street not because of what she wore,not because of the large sun hat she wore on her head but because she was something out of the ordinary, she was a vampire.
She had white long bushy hair and chalk white skin and fangs and was young. The man did not react nor look at her,he stood with his eyes transfixed at the house before he finally said "I don't see why you had to wear a hat in the middle of the night."
"What? Earth's time is very confusing,i just came from libertia central in a hot afternoon and you know people like me don't get along with daylight," she adjusted her hat with a weak smile " and besides, I like this hat."
Then car zoomed pasted them.
"So you aren't troubled by the fact someone might see you?" he asked.
"No I'm not, Mr serious all the time, chill out, besides there is no one here," she made a distinct face,she had a point, everywhere was empty and silent.
The man glanced at his sides suddenly realizing something "why is everywhere empty?"
The woman was shocked "are you serious, don't you know it's almost new year--human?"teased the woman.
"Oh, that makes more sense since it is a suburb street nobody gets across often. I lost track of time I've been so busy lately and it has been long I've been on earth," he cleared his throat, the woman smiled and shook her head.
"Did you get the bookskap?" he asked.
"Yes I did," she rummaged through her pockets "who is it for?" she asked.
The man pointed at a window and behind it was a woman with a baby nestled in her arms.
The woman stopped searching her pockets and raised her eyebrows "what,a baby, is this a joke?".
The man did not answer but just shook his head.
"This doesn't make sense, I came all the way from cor centuria by your message just to give a highly confidential message to a baby?" she was confused.
"Apollo says he's exceptional,other reasons I don't know," said the man earnestly.
They could no longer see the woman nor the child at the window.
"What could he see in a baby who can't even walk or talk?" she asked.
"I'm surprised myself, this were meant for people of age, just like me when I was in san francisco as a kid and they gave me a bookskap to school in the mystery world. I still remember the words, in realms unseen where shadows play...but I know Apollo,he has a reason for doing it," said the man.
"Okay it's their rules," she rolled her eyes.
"Soon,in time to come, everything will be revealed to him," he spoke barely more than a whisper.
"What will happen if the parents see the message behind the bookskap?" asked the woman.
" They wouldn't know how to open it but the father of the boy is likely to keep it,he rises early in the morning to collect the newspaper in his doorstep so we'll keep the bookskap there, he is a sentimental man, he will keep it until it's time, by then Cor Centuria will know what to do about it," the man replied.
Then it now took a while before the woman spoke "One minute till new year," the woman brought out a little canister and selected a jellybean gum."What is that?" he asked, staring at it.
" It has been very long i had this,the last time I did take it I was a little kid, reckon I just take one," she carefully selected one " I'm a little scared of this one," she smiled and ate and her ears started glowing.
The man casted his eyes away. The woman noticed and said "you want some-"
"No thank you, I don't want ,that thing gave me a long tongue," he said in a low tone, the woman widened her eyes surprised and amused "That is quite a secret from a man that is high profile."
"That was a long time ago," he said.
"Don't worry, your secrets are safe with me,"The woman stood still "sometimes I wish you will loosen up a little, at least take a day off and enjoy the new year in kelper, I know many parties you can get invited," she said.
The man looked down "I'm not a fan of parties but I'll think about it."
The man let out his hand and she gave him the bookskap, a furnished wooden frog with sliver wings.
They crossed the street and kept it at the doorstep of the house.
"Now we are done let's go, I have a lot of things to catch up on," the woman grinned and walked to entrance of the house and turned to see the man still staring at the bookskap.
"What's still in your mind?" she asked.
"No nothing it's just, nevermind," he concluded.
By then they heard faint sounds of people counting down before colourful fireworks were shot into the air and gave the night sky a new look before they now heard muffled cheers.
The man turned back and the woman smiling "happy new year," she whispered,the man smiled weakly.
They went a distance where they vanished completely.
The baby boy never knew he was one of the few humans in the world to encounter the mystery world.
The bookskap was kept for the boy, Elliot Comet, son of Mr James and Mrs Jasmine Comet.
Mr James had brown hair and barely any facial hair while Mrs Jasmine is a blonde woman with a pointed nose.
Mr James works as a manager of a commercial farm named Mapleleaf while Mrs Jasmine works as a receptionist in a business facility.
Elliot Comet grew up and lived in No.15 Presslane all his life and since then, he was not known to be like the others in fact, he always found himself in things unexpected.
It was noticed one time when Elliot could crawl.
Mr James was babysitting when Mrs Jasmine left for work. One day, he kept Elliot down for barely a minute, he saw that he was on the edge of the tiled roof and fell when Mr James was about to catch him, but miraculously wasn't hurt as Mr James looked down to see him in horror.
That gave Mr James a heart attack that day and from that day on, he always kept him in the baby carrier with him always.
In kindergarten, the teachers noticed burnt holes on the walls and ceilings but couldn't find who was behind it, Elliot on the other hand was clueless in the things he did in kindergarten.
Later,Elliot schooled in Bedrock institute.
On his first day, Elliot had gym class and that that day he got the interest of Jeff Miller the biggest bully in his grade who was stupid looking and big for his age, he called Elliot fresh meat since he refused to give him lunch money and called him a knuckle head as he walked out on him in their first encounter.
When gym class was over.
He threw Elliot a dodge ball really hard on the head, Elliot was furious, he glared at the sniggering Jeff and his gang who were the most feared in grade until everyone left gym.
Elliot felt like he was fuming until, he didn't know, the fire hydrant turned on and he was blamed and taken to the principal's office on his first day.
That wasn't the only weird thing he had done or found himself in, he'd often found himself on high places ,exploded something or made things vibrate.
Elliot parents always got angry letters from the school to an extent it was almost flooding Mr James table.
Another thing about Elliot was his unique blue eyes which none of his relatives have and this was one of Jeff's favorite teases about him saying he is adopted.
"Why don't you have normal eyes like your parents? It's bad you aren't normal yourself."
Elliot's life and under the influence of Jeff, others, his letters and attention from teachers made people to regarded him as weird and he had no friends except for Liam Aniebo, a foreign exchange student from Africa, his only friend and best friend.
As the years passes by, anything extraordinarily unusual happens, Elliot is in the the room, even if it was not his fault or didn't look anyway like his doing, people will still stick it to him.
Like the time a science experiment exploded on the science teachers face, Mrs Emillia. People did not know how that happened, some thought it was a mistake of the teacher, some people were calling Elliot's name.
Elliot was in the front desk of the class because Mrs Emillia told him to, to keep an eye on him, even teachers joined in the suspicion of Elliot though at least did not require teasing or bullying but all the attention was focused on him and it was not a good one.
Elliot thought it was partly him because he stared at the glass and it started bubbling upon she mixed the solution since five minutes ago.
From that day on, Mrs Emillia had green hair for a while.
Years passed in his stay at the school, his reputation grew more and spread to the neighbouring schools mostly because one time he was given the greatest crash of all time by the students.
Elliot was ask to climb a ladder to fix something but the ladder almost fell with him and he was levitating oft the ground to a great height and landed in the middle on the union of schools, he got the greatest laughs.
Elliot's life became worse and he wished he will just change town, even city, possibly country to have a fresh start.
Only his soccer coach witnessed him flying.
Another time he was walking out of school, Jeff came with his usual attitude and teasing, it pissed Elliot off and he pushed Jeff over a hotdog cart really hard.
Jeff broke his wrist, he started crying.
After some hollering from the cart owner, his parents were called to pay for damages.
The school got the news and gave him detention instead of suspension because it happened outside the school premises and his parents apologized greatly to Jeff's parents and on top of that his parents grounded him for a month even though he claimed it was just a mild push.
That incident spread round quick, he bullied a bully.
At least people started keeping their distance from him, at least that was great for him.
Elliot hated that place, it was a nightmare,the only thing keeping him sane and willing to stay in the school was his only friend, Liam who he promised to be by his side in bedrock institute, besides he was the only person that understands him.
He tried telling his parents about it but they didn't take it that serious because they didn't really understand what he went through. They were always busy and they didn't know what was really happening.
Many people told his parents that there is something wrong with Elliot and at times Elliot felt the same way but his parents thought it was just a troubling nature he had.
They couldn't understand why unusual things happen to him but they couldn't help it.
Today, he was to go for a field trip before the summer starts and he will go off to middle school as well as the others because he was in the sixth grade.
In the morning, a boy with black wavy hair reaching his neck was laying asleep on his bed when he heard a knock on the door "Elliot wake up or you'll be late," said his mother's voice.
Elliot woke up with a start.
He was sleepy at first, it was six in the morning and he didn't hear his alarm clock but the thought of the trip struck him wide awake.
Elliot sprung up from his bed, brushed his teeth,took a bath, dressed.
He packed his bag early mostly with things he felt might make his day go by faster, his earpod, snacks and ipad "Three essential things to time travel," Elliot said happily.
He peered out the window to breath the morning air, he couldn't control the excitement to tear the school's poster he preserved until the day he was done with elementary school but he kept his cool.
Around seven, he came downstairs.
He saw his dad, Mr James reading a newspaper reclining on a sofa.
"Good morning," said Elliot and Mr James nodded.
"Elliot your breakfast is in the kitchen, hurry up the bus will be here any minute," Mrs Jasmine said in the kitchen.
"Good morning," said Elliot.
"Good morning," Mrs Jasmine looked at Elliot " I'm surprised,you dressed in time unlike other times I had to make you." She poured maple syrup on Elliot's pancakes.
"She's right,you must be excited to join your classmates," said Mr James."Yes,yes it is," Elliot smiled weakly.
"It's because of the trip that's why," Mrs Jasmine took her purse.
"There were other trips he went for and he wasn't excited," Mr James said and turned to Elliot.
"So what is great about the trip?" he asked.
"You know... the museum is great," said Elliot and went to the kitchen to eat breakfast and he sat on the dining chair.
Mrs Jasmine was going to work and brought out from her coat
from the coat rack and came to the kitchen and brought out money from her purse "this your lunch money--you have snacks don't you," she asked suspicious.
"Maybe," Elliot said reluctantly.
Mrs Jasmine raised her eyebrow in suspicion.
"yes I have," Elliot admitted.
She put the money back in her purse "one day when I'm less busy I'm coming for your snacks you can't be hoarding too much snacks it's unhealthy and you how junk eaters are like."
'whats the point when I don't gain weight or got sick in like forever' Elliot thought.
At least that was an abnormality that saved them cost of health because it was almost impossible for Elliot to get sick.
" I'm going to work,make sure you don't get into any trouble this trip I don't want to receive unnesessary phone calls okay sweetie," she said as she came to hug Elliot.
"I will not,maybe," Elliot sighed.
Mrs Jasmine took her purse and left for work.
Meanwhile, Mr James had a day off.
As Elliot was eating his pancakes.
"Yes!" exclaimed Mr James and started to search his pockets,normally he does that when he has opportunity to sell his fruits or crops in bulk to a business and he starts to look for his phone.
Mr James was on the stairs going up when Elliot said "isn't this your day off?" asked Elliot.
Mr James stopped "I just want to make a phone call," he said and ran upstairs.
Elliot finished his breakfast.
In no time the bus arrived, Elliot was about to run "Elliot don't forget your bag," Mr James said as he came down with his phone.
"Oh thanks dad," said Elliot and took the bag, left the house and entered the bus.
People were talking inside until Elliot came in and the mood in the bus changed and people stopped talking.
Elliot stood anxiously, the bus driver turned to look at him, Elliot could see his history teacher at the back of the bus and Jeff and his gang in the second to the last seat sneering at him.
The driver gave him a sign to sit.
Liam seating at the third row waved at Elliot and he slowly came to seat beside him,he heard small laughs,he slumped on his chair red-faced.
The bus began to move and it took a while before Elliot spoke.
"Do you know where we are going?" Elliot asked.
" Elliot you never listen to anything do you,we are going to the museum. I heard the museum has a new artifact they want to present to us," said liam.
" I know it was the museum,but i wanted to be sure, I could've listened but Mrs finn is conducting, yay," Elliot said sarcastically.
One thing about Mrs finn is that she is very boring, many people sleep in her class only the nerds or the strong minded will be awake.
" You know, I'm going out of the country back to south africa so today will be your last time seeing me so let's make today worth something," said liam in a low tone.
"oh," Elliot sounded disappointed and that message made him silent and Liam looked at him with concern.
Soon, they arrived at the Wencetown local Elliot put the earpod in his ear and concealed it with his hoody.
A plump woman came out of the bus first and turned to address the students still coming out, Elliot was about to come out when Jeff shoved him and he almost fell if he hadn't got a grip of himself.
"Before we begin, I will appreciate it if there is no side talks, just follow me, no noise and you can have the whole vacation to yourselves doing what you like," Mrs finn said strictly and took a breath "welcome to the excursion to the museum, after that you will have recreation and we are done, and Elliot Comet don't do anything that will burn the museum to the ground," she turned to Elliot, the students laughed especially Jeff and his gang, Elliot became red faced and bowed his face and Liam frowned.
"Cut it out and come on, it's not only you that wants a vacation," said Mrs finn.
They followed her to the entrance of the museum ,she talked with who seemed to be the owner of the museum and he looked at them with approval.
They followed her as she talked about artifacts and dinosaur bones, the students just went into their ipads but they were immediately seized by Mrs Finn.
She kept talking and talking
until they finally reached a section of the museum were they met the new artifact people waited keenly for.
It was an old leather book and a gold quill attached to it in a glass case on a stand, at least it looked better than the other artifacts but not what people expected.
Elliot removed his earpod to listen as well as the others.
" This is the new artifact called the diary of the unknown found in the depths of Wencetown by archeologists, according to scientists it's more than five hundred years old and in the book it says about many things, monsters, the past which contains technology we use up till now, societies we have never came across in history, some assume it's imagination but some say it's something we are yet to stumble upon, rumours say that the owner of the book had a time machine and saw a glimpse of the future to make the fiction written here, the gold quill is real gold, something of this technology the sixteenth century can create or imagine, that's why it's a mystery,"
said Mrs finn, as she talked, it arrested the interest of the students and they stayed quiet to stay attentive.
"But unfortunately it's going to be shipped to the national museum next week for further research."
The students sounded disappointed.
Elliot looked at it with curiosity till the time they left him to another place.
During their recreation they were outside taking their Elliot was sitting with Liam before he spoke.
" there something behind the book that is in my head," said Elliot.
"Oh really," replied Liam.
Just then Jeff and his gang passed him "Surprised you didn't explode the museum, I wonder the things you will do in your middle school,"Jeff sneered and his gang jeered at him and passed.
Elliot became cross.
"Don't listen to them, at least when you go to middle school you'll make new friends and meet your people," said Liam.
"It's not it, what if these unexpected things that happens to me follow me to middle school, everything will start over again. Why am I like this?" said Elliot dimly.
Liam looked concerned "why do you look down on yourself you are good the way you are, sure you had been in weird circumstances but who cares what the others think? As long it's not your fault," Liam held his shoulder "well you will meet at least a person that will be with you every step of the way."
Elliot nodded "we will be in touch in our email."
"Totally," said Liam.
After lunch, Elliot and the others went back home.
His dad was making dinner as Elliot came in.
"Elliot your back," said Mr James with his eyes on the dishes but Elliot went up the stairs without a word sadly.
Elliot went to his room, by then Mrs Jasmine came back from work
Elliot lay on his bed and thought about his day, he missed liam already,his only friend.
He stood up suddenly and checked his sac where he keeps his most cherished possessions.
He brought out a deck of small photos of him and Liam, one time they went to a photo booth but for some reason the photo slot went haywire.
Elliot missed those times, he kept it back and sat on his bed to ruminate about his day.
Elliot unknowingly drifted to sleep.
Elliot woke up suddenly and found himself in a deserted place, Elliot was shocked.
"Hello?" Elliot said but voice echoed. He looked around for anyone and a saw someone at a hillside.
Elliot ran to it hoping to find help.
Elliot ran up the hill "excuse me sir I wa--"he stopped, it turned out to be a statue of a young man on a top hat that looked extremely old Elliot stepped back,his heart raced, a raven flew past him, Elliot flinched before two...four...ten, hundreds of ravens flew past him and rounded him.
Elliot covered his face.
The ravens became too much that it ceiled every light around him.
Elliot found himself in pitch darkness.
Elliot turned, looked around "hello?" his voice echoed in the darkness.
Elliot heart leapt when he saw bright red eyes infront of him.
Elliot stepped back and it swiftly came closer to him and said "venio," in a deep scary voice.
Elliot woke up breathing fast,he looked around,he found himself in his room.
"Elliot time for dinner," said Mr James from downstairs.
Elliot shook his head, it was probably a bad dream.
Elliot rose up to go for dinner.
Elliot didn't know what the dream meant, Elliot didn't know what awaited him, little did he know that the book in the museum was stolen that day.