Chapter Four

I awoke just before dawn broke; I quietly get out of bed and slip on my slippers. I didn’t light my candle, as I don’t want anyone to know that someone is awake. Sneak towards my door and slightly open it to look around, I don’t see anything, nor do I hear anything, which meant everyone was asleep. I creep out my room and downstairs, as I do I have a look around to see if anyone could be awake, but all I saw was the dark abyss of the house, the house seemed so eery at night, like something somewhere was going reach out and grab you. I got to the bottom of the stairs without making a sound, I do another check and still nothing. So, I continued to creep towards the library, once I’m at the threshold of the library, I peer in, it too was dark. There was any light this time, so I entered, once I was inside, I thought on why I was even here, that’s when I realised, no one was awake, not even my Aunt. Curiosity then started digging at me, curious to find that book my Aunt was so intrigued in, so I headed in the direction of my Aunts area. It wasn’t as dark in the area, as the window above the wooden table had the moon light leaking through, it was bright enough for me to see my surroundings, which meant it was a full moon tonight. I head towards the wooden table, there were books every, some where in piles, some were just thrown on the table on top of each other. I glimpsed at every book that was on the table, until I saw it, there was another book on top of it, so I shifted it to the side. As soon as I did, the moon light hit the full moon on the cover of the book, it glowed a dull yellow. It wasn’t just a blue leather book, it was a deep blue leather book with brown and gold trimmings that surround the moon, written in the centre of the moon in black handwritten were, THE DEVIL’S GUIDE. It was held together with to golden clips, I unclipped them and slowly opened the book.

Before I could even read one word, I heard a noise, it seemed like someone was descending the stairs, I look towards the door and indeed someone is, I could see a dim candle light flickering, so I quickly closed it put the other book on top, afterwards I looked towards the door again and the dim light seemed to be getting brighter, so I looked around close to my Aunts area, that’s when I a bookcase sitting next to a table. It was only big enough to just hide me, so I crawled under the table and tried to blend in the dark as much as I could, it wasn’t enough to hide a hundred percent from any candlelight. Just after I got comfortable in the dark area, that candlelight was now in the library, and I could see the person who was holding it. It was Aunt Ce, but something seemed a bit different about her. She seemed to glide towards the wooden table, it was like she had no legs, or she was in a trance of some sort. It sent shivers down my spine; I watched her until she got to the table and places the candle on the table, then shifts books and grabs the book I just had in my hands a few seconds before. She stays standing while she flicked through the book, page after page. Every now and then I would mutter something, it wasn’t loud enough for me to hear. I didn’t dare to move an inch to hear her just in case I make a noise. I wondered on what she could be possible looking for in the book, I could tell she was getting a little frustrated as the page turning started to get rougher.

After a little, I started to feel a little numb, so I tried to shift a little to relieve it, but while I did there was a long bang that came from the other side of the library. My Aunt jumped and she didn’t grab the candle just peered around her, with it being too dark she could see anything, even though she was looking within the area I was hidden. I held my breathe hoping she couldn’t see me with the moon light shining through the window, but it seemed like she couldn’t and continued to look through the book. She seemed to get lost in the book again because she started talking again, but this time it was louder. “Where is it? She’s not going to be pleased if I don’t find it.” She slightly whispered in frustration, what is she searching for? Who is this she speaks of? I tried to think of the people my Aunt may know, but none came to mind, nobody really seems to want to walk all the way to my Aunts place. It must’ve been hours of me sitting there in the one spotting hiding thinking of what my Aunt was talking about, because before I knew it the moon light had shifted into the dull light, indicating that morning has arrived. I knew if I do not leave anytime soon, then my Aunt with foreshore see me and I will get a true scolding. I just hope she will just walk straight out, without looking at her surrounds as this dark hiding spot was starting to get smaller and smaller and the minutes ticked on. I could tell that it is about five-thirty in the morning from the position of the sunrise. After a few more minutes ticked over, my Aunt slammed the book closed, blew the candle out. I knew that there was a high chance that I could be spotted, but she seemed to casually walk pass me, I watched her every move. Just before she left the library, I spotted her dark chestnut brown eyes flick my way and a small smirk crossed her face. Then she just disappeared, walking away.

I waited a few more minutes, before I left my hiding spot and bolted upstairs and ran straight into my room. Once I knew I was safe inside, I tried to calm my nerves, and knew I couldn’t leave this room for the rest of the day and that’s what I did. Aunt didn’t seem to try fetch me for my meals, she just set them up. When night fell upon us, I went straight to bed and fell to sleep instantly, with the thoughts of the events that happened today.