The Book

I took the book. It was a hardback book, the first page said-"form the grave".

Grandma had placed a marker near the middle of the book; I suppose that's where she left reading. There was an index of contents, a total of five chapters named-

1. No Idea

2. Faded Memory

3. Crystal Clear

4. The Present

5. Future Of The Story

First chapter consisted of his parent's marriage, his late sister, and his mother's death. The whole chapter was narrated as Ryan saw and heard from albums and relatives (from the second person's point of view).

The second chapter skipped to when Ryan was about 7-8 years old. It described his interest in writing. It was from both the first and second person's point of view. The chapter ended when he was about 14 years old.

Third chapter was at the end of his middle school, he wrote every detail as he remembered. This chapter ended after Richard died. This was the point where my grandma left reading.

Fourth chapter covered form where the third chapter left us. It ended in June of 2019. This chapter was more of how he published the book in early April and how he'll spend his holidays. He also wrote about how he had set up a grave for himself.

Now it got to me, so the grave was for Ryan when will die, i.e. 2021.

Last chapter was about how he'll organize a reunion for his family in February 2020, and they will die the next day, with same condition as his father. All other pages were blank, except the last one, which said, "You still have the card! You gotta be kidding me".

I completed the story before dinner, and then I searched for the card. (It was thrown into the fire by my grandpa.)

After my dinner, I went into my room and locked it from inside. I was thinking how Ryan knew when he'll die? It was very late. As I was wide awake, I went to the balcony of my room. Streets were quiet and cool breeze was flowing. After a few minutes, a bunch of huge looking cars moving on the street.

I felt someone was staring at me, there was a little puppy just below the balcony. He stood there staring, then barked loudly and ran into a bush on the other side of street. After a god five minutes of fresh air, I went to sleep, and woke up early. In the morning, I went for my toothbrush, and saw a card on the brush stand. That was Ryan's card.

As I examined it, it was pretty much the same card, this time; the back of the card had "YOU CAN'T LOSE ME" written with a marker. So someone entered my room at night, but the door was locked form inside. Then balcony, but that too was locked from inside when I woke up.

I opened my laptop, the CCTV app on it, but I found nothing. Just the puppy barking at me, then running away. My head felt heavy at breakfast table, maybe because of lack of sleep. Grandpa advised me to take a walk in the park.

The park felt empty, just few people. I took out the card from my pocket as wasn't getting any better there too. Then I heard someone say, "hey bro,you looking for me?" he was a young boy with blue eyes and blonde hair.

He said, "Yep, that's me, Ryan, R.Bretch. So tell me, grave or the old man?"

Subconsciously I said, "Both".

He started to giggle in a childish way, then laughed out loud, and collapsed. He was lying there unconscious. The park was getting more and more silent....