“We will only know if we ask her, or we can ask her if she heard anything about this from some of her other friends.”
“Books cannot just walk away on their own, can they? Someone was here in our room while we were out and took them away. I am confident about it, and this makes me concerned. I will find out who did it,” Merly said with an affirmed tone.
Nora did not argue back, but seemed to go along with her plan. Zoë took some time to open the door after Merly knocked twice. Zoë looked grim when she opened the door and Merly immediately regretted disturbing her since she was clearly resting in bed. Upon inquiring how Zoë was, Merly decided to ask her directly about the disappearance of the books.
“Hi Zoë,” Merly said. “Have you been in bed all day today?”
Zoë nodded in agreement, then sensing that Nora and Merly wanted to ask her something, she popped the question herself. “Do you want to know something?”
Merly did not want to disturb Zoë any longer than necessary, so quickly said, “We are sorry to disturb you when you are sick, but some unusual and strange things have been happening lately and we want to get to the bottom of it.”
Nora stood quietly beside Merly and did not utter a word. Zoë looked once from Merly to Nora and then back at Merly again.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We had a parcel delivered to us yesterday with some books on criminology and necromancy with no identity of the sender. We made a decision to donate the books on necromancy to the library, but when we returned back to the dorm, some of the books were missing,” Merly said and waited for Zoë’s reaction.
Zoë seemed a bit taken aback and said, “But do you believe in necromancy or evocation?”
“No,” replied Merly.
“So if they are missing, then it should not bother you,” Zoë stated matter-of-factually.
“There is the problem, it is not the books on necromancy that are missing, but the ones on criminology,” Merly said.
“Someone sent you a set of books on criminology and necromancy and then someone else took some of them away. Did you try to find something about the sender?” Zoë asked.
“I did, but that was of no avail. Maybe I will contact the local post office during the weekend,” Merly said sensing that Zoë was side-stepping her initial question.
“So did you see anything unusual happen?” Merly asked again.
“I was in bed over the last few days, so I have little or no knowledge of things going around.
“When did you say you last saw those books, again?” Zoë asked.
“This morning just before we left for classes, they were right there lying in the corner of our sitting room. Nora and I didn’t take them, so where did they go?” Merly responded.
“Was anything else missing?” Zoë asked.
“Nothing else that we know of. Everything seems to be in their normal place except those books on criminology that I mentioned,” Nora said.
“Of all things, now we have to deal with a thief, as if things were not already bad enough,” Zoë said under her breadth.
“Is something bothering you Zoë? What is bad enough?” Merly asked.
“It’s nothing, I just cannot fathom why anyone would take away those books on criminology.” Zoë said.
“Those books were quite rare and some were even special editions, if you care to know,” Nora said.
“Do you know if anyone practices necromancy here at the university? That person might have come for those and left with the criminology ones instead,” Merly said, but quickly added, “I must sound paranoid right now, but this is bothering me too much for me to be at peace. Please, Zoë, can you help me?”
Zoë had known Nora and Merly for a long time, but was closer to Nora for her outgoing nature. She shared a student apartment with Kelly, but often engaged in long hours of gossip with Nora while Kelly was out to attend classes.
“Kelly might be able to help you since she has been in and out a lot today. She went out around 11:00 a.m., then came back at 12:00 noon because she forgot something in the room. She went out again about 15 minutes later, then came back at around 2:30 p.m. to get her gym shoes and left a few minutes later. She came back at around 4:30 p.m. to see how I was and left again soon afterward. So if someone did enter your room, then she may have heard or seen something. She should be back any minute now, so you can ask her directly.”
Zoë looked up expectantly at both her friends and hoped that her answer would provide them with some relief. The three of them sat quietly for some time before Merly rose up and patted Zoë’s back.
“Sorry to bother you. Please call us when Kelly is back,” saying this she went out of the room. Nora stayed back. Merly knew that both of them were pretty close friends, and therefore, did not ponder what they might be discussing, although she felt a little stupid for being overly suspicious of things. She heard a knock on the door after some time and saw that it was Nora.
“Still no news about Kelly?” Merly asked.
“Would you like some coffee?” Nora questioned instead.
Why is she so reluctant? Merly thought. Doesn’t she see the threat?
Merly felt her head throbbing and decided to have the coffee after all. The lovely aroma and the bitter flavor of the coffee titillated her taste buds and she secretly thanked Nora, but didn’t say it out loud. Sitting back in her chair, Merly tracked back the events of the last two days and tried to connect the loose ends. She wasn’t sure why Nora was acting the way she was, and was confused about who she saw in the library the previous evening and about the missing books in her room.
Merly didn’t want to suspect anyone of directly stealing from her student apartment. She also knew that once the news reached the dean, it would cause a whole lot of drama and might trivialize the actual issue. She wished that Kelly might be able to shed some light on the situation. She sighed and slumped down in her chair again. She found herself checking her watch now and then, and last time she checked the watch showed 9:30 p.m.
Merly woke up with a dry throat and her entire being was shivering to the core. She touched her forehead and felt it was abnormally hot and was covered in sweat. She tried to stand up, but collapsed back into the chair. She knew she had a fever, but was too weakened due to her nightmare. She tried calling out to her friend, but her voice seemed to make no sound at all. She tried to yell, but it quivered. Merly got desperate and stood up slowly, she felt weak and feeble. The clock showed somewhere around 2:30 a.m., but her eyesight was blurred. She slowly walked towards her room, Nora was sleeping soundly. Merly sensed that her body was on fire.
Nora didn’t wake up. Merly frantically tried looking for the emergency strip of medicine that she keeps in the drawers of her bedside table, but she couldn’t find them. She felt nausea surging up and headed towards the bathroom door. She could feel her legs collapse under her weight and fell down with a loud bang. Nora came running in, and helped Merly on her lap, felt her forehead.
“You are burning with fever. Did you take the medicine? Why didn’t you call me?” She looked afraid.
“I tried, but I couldn’t find my voice,” Merly said very slowly.
“What are you saying? Did you take the medicine?” Nora asked again.
“I couldn’t find them, they are not over there,” Merly said in a sickly tone.
Nora laid her friend down and went straight towards the bedside drawer. She took the brown medicine bottle and ran towards her friend. “Can you get up? Do you need to go the bathroom?” she asked.
“Please, help me up, Nora,” Merly pleaded.
Nora helped Merly up and took her towards the bed then laid her down and showed her the bottle of brown medicine. “Merly, it was right there, didn’t you see?” she asked.
“It was not there a minute ago, I swear” Merly pleaded.
“It is all right, relax and take this,” Nora handed Merly one pill and then asked her if it was necessary to call the nurse.
“No, ju
st stay here for a few minutes and I’ll be fine.”
“I will get a wet cloth for you,” Nora said. She came back with a wet piece of cloth and began pressing it on Merly’s forehead. It felt like an eternity for the temperature to fall down. Merly made a small whimpering sound before asking Nora, “What about Kelly? Is she back?”
“Forget about it and try to relax for now. This is not doing you any good. You are over exerting yourself and losing your mind,” Nora said a bit angrily.
“I am not losing my mind, Nora. Don’t tell me that,” Merly said trying to justify herself.
“Zoë didn’t call me back, and I didn’t bother her,” Nora said in a hushed tone. Merly was too tired to fight or argue back, and therefore, closed her eyes in a dejected spirit.
“Do you want anything else?” Nora‘s question woke her up. Merly could see her friend was doing so much for her that she couldn’t stay angry anymore.
Merly drifted off to a deep slumber and didn’t wake up for the rest of the night.
A growling stomach woke Merly up. The weather was mostly clear with only a hint of chill in the air. Merly realized that she was so hungry. She called out to her friend twice, but there were no answer from her. She got up slowly, and felt a little dizzy, but managed to get out of the room and into the living room. On the table was her breakfast. A small note was attached to it. Merly opened it, but the breakfast looked too tempting, so she set it aside to quench her hunger and then would read the note meant for her. After gulping down four spoons, Merly opened up the note and was surprised by what she read. “I am leaving for a few days, I already received permission and this is important. Don’t wait up for me.” In the next line, she read, “Rest and I hope to see you healthy when I get back.” Nora‘s name was scribbled in a hurry.
Merly did not feel all that hungry anymore. For all the years that she has known Nora, this never happened before. Nora did not go on wild journeys by herself or alone. Merly was not sure if Nora went alone or with someone about whom she was not aware of. Moreover, their semester just started and Merly could not figure out why Nora would leave all of a sudden. She pushed the bowl of cereal aside and realized that she still felt weak. The fever was gone, but the dizziness was still mildly there.
Skipping classes that day seemed like a welcoming idea. Thus she laid down in her bed thinking about her friend and why did she went off without telling her a thing. Where did she go or who did she go with? These questions bothered her. She felt ill at ease. Merly didn’t even bother about missing her classes so early in the semester. She laid on her bed quietly. There was the case of the missing books that she needed to deal with, she was sick and now Nora was gone.
“Am I difficult to be with?” Merly considered for a moment, it was after all because of her that Nora was sleep deprived every night. She couldn’t understand why she got so severally sick the previous night and tried to recall if she had any odd food the previous day, but couldn’t think of anything. I must have caught the flu from Zoë, Merly assured herself. Staying alone in the room made her vulnerable, angry and depressed triggering a surge of emotion that made her want to cry, but she controlled herself.
She took her phone from against the pillow and decided to call her mother. The voice on the other end informed her that the line couldn’t be connected. She slammed the phone down. It was three days in a row and she was unable get things straight. Merly decided there was no point being there in bed and vacillated between feeling motivated and disheartened. She got up and strode out of the room. It was already 8:00 a.m. and she knew she would find Kelly in her room.
Merly knocked three times before Zoë opened the door. She looked bright and happy-faced with all her illness gone, and to Merly, it seemed that it had magically disappeared.
“Is Kelly back?” she asked.
“Yes, she was, but it was already late and I am sorry, but she left early this morning. She said that she was going somewhere for few days and already acquired permission for it.”
“Was Nora with her? Did they go out together? Where did they go?” Merly asked all three questions without pausing.
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask her. You know Kelly; she is kind of like that, goes off without telling me anything. Did Nora go out, too?” Zoë asked.
“Nora left a note saying she was going off to someplace. Didn’t tell me when she’d be back.” Merly turned to go away then paused and added, “Did you get to speak to Kelly about yesterday?”
“I was too tired, I couldn’t speak last night. I had fever and had this choking sensation. I noticed she came in, but was unable to say a thing. But I can ask her if she calls me back,” and offered a smile.
Merly was visibly sick, but Zoe didn’t ask her how she felt. Zoe started walking down the hall, but stopped midway and turned back.
“Hey, Merly!” Zoë walked towards her. “You are not interested in those books about evocation and necromancy. I don’t think the library will take them either, so why don’t you give them to one of Kelly’s friends. Kelly told me the other day that there is this one girl named Camilla, and she is into these things and will give you a good price for these.”
Zoë waited for an answer. “Tell me if you decide to. I always love to help a friend.” She winked and went on her way.
Who would want to practice things like these by choice? Merly asked herself, but the idea wasn’t all that bad. The books were indeed no use to her, so she might as well gain something out of them, she thought.
Merly closed the door behind her. The books were still sitting on one corner stacked on top of each other. The package was still there, as well as the brown and the gold embossed wrapper. Merly ignored them and walked away, but came back shortly, sat down by the books and started turning the pages. What harm would they bring just by looking at them? She took one of the books in her hand and looked at the cover for a long time. There was something creepy about the cover. The title and the writer’s name were written over the red velvet cover. It was a book of chants to call on spirits, so initially Merly flipped over the yellow pages, but something caught her eye amidst the black lettering in the book. She whipped open the page and saw the chant that she heard Nora utter was boldly underlined, and it was written that uttering the chant three times on a cloudless and starry night can bring some beloved one back from the dead.
Merly closed the book. The night before was indeed cloudless. She remembered it clearly. She was sure she heard Nora say the chant twice, and hoped that her friend would not utter it three times.
“What am I thinking? I don’t believe in this stuff.” Merly scolded herself.
But then why did Nora take off so suddenly yesterday without telling me? Merly also remembered her friend being exceptionally quiet when she asked all the questions to Zoë the other day.
“This can’t be the reason they left,” Merly assured herself again. Then she flipped through some more pages. There were scripts and prayers that seemed strange to her. The pictures within the book seemed to intimidate her. Merly reasoned that she was a person of logic and it was pointless to get unnerved by some cryptic images.
Merly saw a book that was bright blue velvet, but couldn’t understand the writing on it. There was a small lock attached to its side. She tugged on it a little, and it was open. She turned the first page and saw that the book was addressed to someone named “R. Keaton.” It was dated 19th July 1973 from G. Keaton. Now who could that be? She laughed at the irony of the parcel being delivered to her on 19th July for only the year was different. Moreover, if it was addressed to someone else, then why was the book with her? The questions troubled her. She tried looking for more clues within the book and found an old and distorted photograph of a young girl that looked barely five years old. She turned the photograph back and on it was written 19th July 1953. Merly assumed that 19th July must have been an important date or someone’s birthday. She looked at the photograph again and saw it was not the image of just a baby girl, but there was a young boy
of about nine years beside her, which Merly thought she missed when she viewed the image for the first time.
Merly looked at the image intently, it was merely an old photograph, but the image of the little girl reminded her of someone. She brought the image close to her eyes, but the image was faded too much, so she couldn’t make out properly. Who could this be?” R. Keaton maybe? Then she turned over the photograph and saw that in very faint pencil lines the name, “R. Keaton,” was inscribed. Nothing made sense to her anymore. Maybe, I should talk to the dean about this. She got up, but then decided not to. Might just be a coincidence. Merly was going between assuring herself and then losing her cool every two seconds.
There were still a pile of books that sat on the side of the counter; she wondered what secret they held. Her curiosity got the better of her and she started flipping through each book rapidly. There were images, diagrams and designs, which made no sense to Merly, yet she kept looking. She closed the last book shut. Out of habit, she got up to call Nora, and then it struck her that her friend was not there.
Merly grabbed her phone and frantically tried calling Nora. At first, the line went dead, then it started ringing and it grew louder. Merly thought she heard the sound of the ringing inside her head until she realized it was in their own room. Merly walked up to Nora’s table, opened her drawer with the spare key which she knew where Nora kept, and there in her drawer the phone lay emitting a blue ray every time it rang.
Merly picked up the phone and sat on Nora’s bed in despair. Why did you leave your phone behind, Nora? What have you got to hide from your best friend? How she wished her mother or Mrs. Nigela was there to comfort her or put her out of her misery. She covered her eyes and gave into her tears, sobbing quietly. At that moment, she wanted to throw the books away from the apartment. In her years away from home and the university, she never felt so much despair.
Books of the Dead Page 3