UNINVITED

UNINVITED Part 5

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know." Miss Larson explained, rubbing her hand which thankfully appeared undamaged to me. "I touched that ugly statue holding the books up and felt a strange tingling sensation. It surprised me is all."

"Did it hurt?"

"No."

"Probably shocked you from the lightning outside. The bookend looks like it's made out of metal."

"There wasn't any lightning when I touched it. It felt magical. Nash, what does it mean?"

"It means don't touch that thing again." I joked.

Ignoring my jest, Miss Larson went on questioning me. "What are you looking for anyways?"

"The secret."

"What secret?"

"The bookcase." I explained as I peered behind the piece of furniture and reexamined the front. "Bookcases always have secrets."

"They do?"

Sometimes.

"Sure." I absentmindedly answered.

"Do you see one?" Miss Larson asked skeptically.

"Well, no." I answered. "However, sometimes... There!"

"What?"

"There! That space! See it? The space between the shelves and where the drawer should be and the first shelf. It's too big."

"So?"

"There's a secret compartment or something there. We only need to discover how to open it. See it now?"

"Yeah. I guess."

Fascinated, Miss Larson assisted me in searching for the hidden catch to open the secret compartment, careful to avoid the brass bookend which had shocked her moments earlier. After several minutes of touching the bookcase and moving books around, I began to second-guess my speculation the wooden cabinet held a secret compartment. As I resigned myself to admit I had made a mistake about a secret concealed somewhere in the bookcase, Miss Larson pressed a button hidden in the scrollwork carved at the top corners of the bookcase.

CLICK.

As Miss Larson inadvertently pressed the secret catch, an audible click announced the opening of a hidden shelf.

I knew it! It's always in the bookcase.

Inside the expertly concealed alcove, I found a single square item wrapped in a silk cloth. Miss Larson and I exchanged skeptical glances before I picked up the object and unwrapped it. Inside the dusty cloth, I found an old book, bound in cracked leather and frail with age. The title, written on the cover in both Greek and English, read, "The Tome of Valmiki."

"The Tome of Valmiki? Is this the 'tome' Roger wrote about in his dream journal?" Miss Larson asked me as if I had some inside knowledge she didn't.

Of course it is.

"I'm not sure." I replied as I carefully opened the fragile book and began skimming the pages. Written in Greek on one page and English on the other, the book appeared to chronicle the procedures to leave one's body based upon ancient, and forbidden, teachings.

As I read further, I found what appeared to be instructions on how to enter and return from a place where a person could project their consciousness referred to as the "Dream Realm" or sometimes as the "Dreamlands". As I read, I realized the writing on the paper I examined earlier in front of Roger's body, written in a language which I couldn't initially recognize, was written in Greek. Included along with the ritual instructions in the book for entering the "Dream Realm" while awake, I also found diagrams depicting spiral shapes drawn on a human body. I recognized the symbols as the same ones I noticed drawn on Roger's chest.

Roger Price was killed performing the rituals described in this book!

As I read the ancient text, Miss Larson said something next to me.

"What?"

"Nash, the storm stopped."

"What?" I asked again, continuing to read the ritual instructions, explanations and warnings written in the book.

"The storm. You know. The rain. The lightning. Outside. It stopped."

Yeah, it's about time.

"Thanks." I mumbled in response, continuing to read the book in both wonder and dread.

Because I held the book so lightly, due to its aged condition, I accidentally dropped it as Miss Larson screamed in my ear and pointed behind us in horror.