Gary Wright

Few minutes later we arrived and my mother had prepared the launch, she kinda over did it. My stomach couldn't contain it all so I gave up and decided to go up to my room after answering questions that drained me of my beloved energy.

My room was a mess but who cares, I changed out of my clothes into more comfortable ones and lying thereI thought how I could complete this day probably sleep it out. I tried to sleep but to no avail I have slept throughout the day and I don't feel like sleeping now so what should I do?.

"Should I try and arrange my room, my mom has been making a fuss about it but I just feel tired, maybe try what's less energy draining" Ethan thought as he headed towards his book shelf.

"I have read all the interesting ones, the rest don't catch my eye. I should probably update my mystery novel collections" Ethan said as he headed towards his drawers and took out a picture of a man in it.

"I wish you were still here grandpa, you used to be my first and only friend and thought me mist if the things I know now" Ethan said as he took a key out the drawer.

"Maybe I should go explore where we spent our time the most, the basement that is" Ethan said as he headed downstairs.

My grandpa, the father of my father, was the only person I could say I got really close to and there was a reason for that, he understood me. We would play games and not just any games but mysteries games where he would make me solve puzzles and find clues and I admit it was really fun that my interest for mysteries grew like a frequently watered plant.

At time went on I started more time with him than the ones I spend with my peers or parents at first my parents thought that I was just attached to my grandpa but that was just half of the story I wasn't attached anything but mysteries, I started reading historical documentation at the age of ten and some of this works were not kids of my age are supposed to be reading, I was one day discovered and my grandpa was blamed. My parents decided to go on a vacation thinking that distancing me from grandpa would eventually make me get over my obsession with mysteries but they were clueless and so my quest for mystery solving continued and started finding interest in historical events and arts too.

The vacation was over and it was time to go home. I was the happiest knowing that I was going to see grandpa again but when we got there, grandpa was nowhere to be found. My father thought he must have gotten lonely and went out to get something and would eventually come back. I went to bed and the next and the first place I went was in the basement of our very own base but no one was there. I went to meet my parents who put on faces that made me feel fear and confusion.

"Where is grandpa", was the question I asked

but I got no reply.

Both of my parents just stood like statues and I could tell that something was wrong with grandpa at the center of it. The case was reported to police, days passed by, weeks, months, years and a decade ever since my grandpa went missing with no trace. It is still a mystery and no detective has been able to solve it. At some point the case was dropped and forgotten and so was my grandpa.

Getting over it was easy for everyone but me, I turned into a shell of myself controlled by fear and anxiety. I stayed locked up in my room and my parents became worried, they tried all sorts of things to get me up again but none worked. Things that could easily make a kid of age happy was seen as nothing by me, my grandpa may have pronounced dead but I still think he's alive somewhere and this made me more interested in mysteries with the hope that one day I would crack the mystery behind his disappearance.

*********************************************************

"Where are you off to Ethan?", Alexander asked before taking a sip of his coffee.

"The basement, I want to take something I just remembered I forgot there" Ethan said

"Why not join us for coffee Ethan, I made enough for all of us" Emily said smiling towards Ethan.

"Thanks, but I will pass," Ethan said as he headed through the alley leading towards the basement.

While going down to the basement, Ethan instincts kept telling him that something was off, something that usually happens for some reason didn't happen again. Anyway he waved the thought away as he got to the door.

"It's been long since I've been here", Ethan said as he opened the door and went inside.

Entering inside everything was covered in dust and cobwebs but the lights were still working so it was easy to avoid all the junks scattered across the room. Their special base has been turned into a junk space.

"Just maybe I could find a clue, just like the old times" Ethan said as he started searching the room full of junk and things he hadn't seen before that was strange.

Hours of searching and Ethan haven't found anything out the ordinary, he continued for another hour and eventually got tired and decided to leave but on his way out he bumped over a medium size box, looking at it Ethan was sure he had seen it before but somewhere with someone but gave up thinking and finally decided to check what was inside the box.

The box was locked but with the help of a crow bar he was able to crack it open and at that meeting he felt something but couldn't explain, his mind went blank for a moment and things started coming back and he saw himself writing on a piece of paper and the content was seems like I've reached my limits and would soon pay the price, I'm sorry Ethan. And he found himself back with the book in his hands.

"What was that, did I sleep here and what kind of dream was that", Ethan asked himself as he stood up

"In the dream I saw someone, someone like grandpa and he said my name it was like I was him at that moment" Ethan was confused and thought it was all in head a little sleep could cure as he went upstairs with the book.

On coming out he was surprised to see his parents still having tea and the question that they asked him shocked him the most.

"Oh Ethan, I thought you just went in, have you found what you were looking for?"Alexander asked as you sip his tea while reading the newspaper.

Ethan was speechless, he was sure that he had spent upto three hours there so what were his parents talking about, but checking the clock in the dinner proved that his parents were not joking.

"Am I the one going insane, Ethan asked himself" as he snapped out after a few seconds of spacing out.

"Yeah I did" Ethan lied trying to hide the book

As he was going up to his room the book suddenly fell out his hands tumbling back into where his parents were and they are the last people that he wants to see the book and worst case scenario it fell right in front of his father. Ethan was prepared to be called but nothing happened, he went downstairs and picked up the book off the ground and his father noticed him.

"What are you doing son?" Alexander asked, confused at what Ethan was bending down to pick.

"Umm…, it's nothing just a pebble", Ethan said, showing him a pebble while still holding the book in his hands and he isn't trying to hide it this time.

"What's it for?", Alexander asked

"Like I said it's nothing, the pebble was from my shoe and I don't want it to fall off like", Ethan lied and ran up to his room inorder to avoid further questions.

"Okay..", Alexander said, slowly sipping his coffee, still puzzled by Ethan's behavior.

"Dinner would be ready soon so don't stay up there too long okey", Emily shouted from the kitchen.

Ethan heard her but dinner was the least of his problems but whatever is in this book. Two strange things have already happened after coming out of that basement and Ethan isn't sure whether he will soon explore any deeper. After thinking it over he decided not to open afraid that he might get himself into something he can't come out from.

"It's just like in the movies where a teenager finds a strange object and while exploring it either dies or gets cursed, just that some are lucky to encounter ones that bless them instead", Ethan thought.

"What I'm thinking, I'm comparing fantasy to real deal, I was sure I stayed hours in that basement and the fact that dad can't see you tells me that I'm right this is not just an ordinary book", Ethan said looking at the book on his study desk.

"Nobody would believe if I told, not like I got anybody in the first", Ethan said and angrily kicked his desk and the book fell over, right beside it was a small paper

Ethan bent down, hesitated but reluctantly picked up the piece of paper and when he opened he saw those exact words from his dream. It seems like I've reached my limits and would soon pay the price. I'm sorry Ethan.

"What is going on" Ethan said surprised at what he was looking at but that wasn't all at the right hand corner was a name Gray Wright.