Bad Omens

“In today's edition of the newspaper, we will talk about the various strange apparitions that have been lurking around the small and peaceful town of Non Cicury City. Now, we will turn the talk over to our reporter, Mayse Killerham, who is in the vicinity of where the last sightings were recorded. Mayse, it’s your line.”

“Good morning, Donna. Good morning to the viewers who follow the newspaper on this sunny and fresh morning. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for this small town behind me. In recent days, residents have been following a wave of attacks at night, the city has already been the scene of several disappearances that still remain unresolved, this time, some people reported that their cell phones simply turned off and after a few seconds they started working again, as if nothing had happened, at first, they thought it was a simple technical problem, but in community conversations, it was found that more than 30 incidents happened at the same time within two minutes of each other. The other reports take place in the opening of craters in the ground, experts have previously been to the city to investigate the situation and they found that there was no natural event that could have caused the craters.”

“And this only gets worse as time passes, doesn’t it?”

“That's right, Donna. According to residents, power outages and fluctuations in the city are constant. They can't say what is happening and many are afraid of what is to come. Donna, the word is…”

“HE IS COMING. EVIL IS COMING BACK. CONVERT YOURSELF!”

“Damn, what a crazy man.” Grace spoke as she watched a man of average height invade the report and shout crazy things into the microphone and into the camera. It had been almost two days since she had picked up the diary, at the moment, she was still in the process of restoring the pages, unfolding some and trying to put together some others that had been torn apart by the action of time and previous use.

Grace could say that she was quite relaxed now, her training with Elisa had started the day before and she was quite happy with her initial development, she wasn't a total disappointment and Viktor even said that she was still better than him in trying reflexes. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet been able to do the initiation ritual as the book wasn't ready and Elisa didn't have the certification to be able to perform the ritual with her, so she would have to do it alone.

Furthermore, when consulting Mother Mortis about whether she could perform the ritual, the lady had informed them that the Valefar family's magic was different, they had to use the family's original rite so that their magic would not refuse or not be released in its entirety. What was highly dangerous for a beginner, if the magic had to be released, it couldn't be just a portion, it had to be all of it.

Another thing that had made Grace radiant these last two days was the opportunity she had gotten to buy herself a new cell phone. On the day of the library, before they could leave the place, Pierre approached her and gave her the month's payment in hand and a little extra, assuring her that she would not need to reimburse him later and wishing her good luck in the end.

Now with a new phone, she could surf the internet and contact Elisa and Viktor more easily. At the end of that day, she could also go to her house and pick up some of her things, clothes, work materials and other things to definitely stay at Viktor's house until everything was sorted out, according to him, she wouldn't be left alone in that dark and ugly house, which made Elisa laugh out loud, a warm flame lit up in her heart, finding the concern that the older man was having for her pleasant.

Returning to watching the news, Elisa realized that the article about the strange appearances in Cicury had already ended and now something was being shown about the weather in England, which was no surprise as it was mostly cloudy and rainy for a good part of the time. She turned her thoughts to everything that was happening in Cicury, the apparitions, the energy fluctuations, something that she herself had witnessed, the cracks and the fear that the population was feeling.

For a brief period, Grace felt guilty about everything that was happening, she was in the middle of it all, she was the pivot and she was the one who would have to make it end. Now the responsibility was falling on her shoulders and she wasn't very happy about it.

His thoughts were discarded after he heard the sound of his cell phone notification, notifying him of a new notification. Turning on the device, she can see that she received a message from Elisa.

“Do you think you can finish the book today? I don’t think you need to put it back together again, just try to organize it.”

Before Grace could respond, another message arrived.

“I say that because I won't be able to be there today, anyway, I couldn't do much. If possible, try to set up and perform the ritual with Viktor. He knows how an initiation rite works and he will be able to help you.”

Grace frowned a little. She hadn't yet thought about just fitting the pages together, a book was difficult to just organize, as it had two sides that needed to be analyzed simultaneously in order to make sense. But she already had some ideas in her head.

"Good morning. I think I can do it. I will do everything to have the book and ritual ready today.”

The conversation ended when Grace realized that Elisa had read it but hadn't responded. She still needed to get used to Elisa's behavior, not that it was a problem, but it was something that sometimes made her uncomfortable since the blonde didn't seem to care much about people.

Those messages sounded like a gunshot and she knew that she would need to get back to work as soon as possible if she wanted to have the book ready today.

——————————

Grace had already been sitting on the stool that Viktor had arranged for her for a few hours. Since they started this project of fixing the book, she had stayed in her room for hours, using a desk and some things inside to help with the process. Her organization was something she always prioritized when she was on a project, since she had started her training with Pierre himself, he taught her that organization was the key to everything, with an organized space, her progress flows wonderfully.

Already knowing that she would have to do all the work at Viktor's house, Grace took all the materials she had in her house and would not be able to replace them, such as her press or the high-hold glue. Carrying out restorations was an art that required details and exceptional precision to avoid making any mistakes during final assembly. She remembers it as if it were yesterday when she glued the end cover wrong and the book didn't have a good opening, having to force it to open at a comfortable angle for reading.

Fortunately that had been a test and was not a commission.

Since she started working on the diary, Grace had discovered several things that had gone unnoticed in her initial assessment. One of the things that caught his attention the most were Ezden's notes, they changed, becoming more like scribbles than the impeccable handwriting that filled the first pages.

Grace could tell it would be at that point where Ezren was cursed. Having lost his composure and fear began to seep into the core of him and his family.

Unfortunately, she was unable to understand much of what was written in the texts, but she realized that the incantations and what they did were in clear and consistent writing, with no doubts about what was written there, unlike the personal passages he had written. Many of the enchantments were macabre things, evil magic, one of the worst she found, talked about magic imprisoning, granting the victim suffering pain and death.

“This enchantment must be handled carefully!”

That's what was written under the spell.

Along with all this, it was possible to catch some well-written passages from Ezden's daily life, probably at the beginning of everything, before he was cursed. He talked about his wife and daughter, travels, work and some chores that he thought were worth noting.

As I read and looked for a new junction of pages. By now she had already worked on more than half of the diary, there were around ten pages left to be organized and finally stitched together. Despite already having a good streak, sometimes she still needed to go back to add something more to what she had done previously.

It was work that required patience. And a lot.

“Grace?” Viktor and chamo.

Grace stopped the work she was doing and turned towards the door. Viktor was there, standing, watching her from where he was leaning against the doorframe. He had left early to go buy some more supplements that they would need, this time, Grace felt better about being able to help financially with the purchase of things.

“Oh, hi. You took a while.” Grace responded to his call.

Viktor entered the room, staying next to Grace as he looked at the sheets on the table. “I had to stop for gas and went to visit one of my old friends here in town.”

The boy took one of the pages and brought it to his face to read. Grace thought about that for a while and how little she knew about the other boy. She was curious about his life, whether or not, in terms of closeness, Viktor was still a complete stranger to her.

“Man, how can you understand anything here?”

Grace laughed softly. According to his memory, no one who was not a Valefar by blood would be able to read the passages in the diary. “You won’t be able to read it. Only a Valefar will be able to understand it in its entirety, for you it must be all messed up and meaningless.”

“Really” Viktor said to himself, realizing that what the woman had just told him was true.

Grace continued her work while Viktor watched her, leaning against the table. She didn't know what possessed him for him to be there, he wasn't very close and the action left Grace's curiosity piqued.

“Can I ask you something?” Grace began.

"Maybe yes. I just can’t guarantee I’ll respond.” The boy responded with a pleasant tone.

“Very funny you, haha.” Grace was amused too, but continued her question. “Whose clothes were I wearing?”

“Is that your question?” Viktor, in his serious manner, crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaving his biceps contracted and well marked, making Grace take her attention away from him so as not to make her blush noticeable.

“Is it forbidden to ask this question?” Grace shuffled through the papers, pretending to be interested in her work.

"Of course not. But I will answer, they were my sister’s.”

"They were?" Grace turned her gaze to him.

“Yes, they were. She was murdered 5 years ago.” Viktor replied, with a sad look on his face.

“Wow, I’m sorry. It was rude of me.” Grace felt bad. She had no idea that the clothes had such a sad past. She even felt bad about wearing the clothes and complaining that they weren't her style.

“No need to apologize, you didn’t know. But so, can I ask you a question too?”

"Of course. I don’t see a problem with that.” Grace shrugged.

“Why don’t you have any friends around here? No one from school, work…” Viktor went to great lengths to infiltrate Grace’s personal life.

It's a real give and take. She was curious about his personal life and he was now being curious about hers.

“Nobody wants to be friends with a weirdo.” Grace organized the papers again, deleting five more sheets of the ones that were missing. Getting closer to the end, things were getting easier than at the beginning, now with only five pages left.

“What do you mean by that?” Viktor asked, now a little more curious about what she meant by that.

“My parents committed suicide when I was still a child. Cicury being a small town and the children being bad people, they started saying that they died because I was very annoying and this lasted for years. I, grieving at the time, didn't have the strength to deny or fight with those who said these things. A few years later, already in high school, people still looked at me crookedly, and it got much worse after grandma died. So I never tried or wanted to be friends with them, there are people I know from working with them, but nothing worthy of saying that I am a friend, at most an acquaintance.”

This was a subject that still hurt Grace. Since she was little, she looked at the children on the playground, wondering why she couldn't have that, why her parents decided to do that, wondering if they didn't think of her when they put an end to it.

"I am really sorry." Viktor spoke.

"No problem. I've gotten used to not having friends or something like that. It’s not like I’m the most sociable person in the world.” Grace explained.

“You were quite open with me.”

“Ah, you’re easy to talk to. And he gave me a hand when I needed it most and he's doing it now. It would be very rude of me to simply ignore you just because I don’t like socializing.” Grace spoke in an amused tone.

"Really. Speaking of lending a hand, I saw the news at Caleb's house. Did you hear about the events here in Cicury?”

Grace remembered the news she had watched a few hours earlier.

“Oh, yes, I watched it. Do you think these are signs that Lazarus is coming?”

“I’m sure they are.” Viktor hesitated a little before continuing. “This friend of mine, Caleb, he specializes in apparitions, he has magical abilities to sense when spirits are close. He told me something very interesting and dangerous.”

“What did he say?” Grace asked, not paying much attention to what he was going to say, as she had managed to organize the last remaining pages. She was overjoyed at the prospect that she would finally be sewing the book in the next few hours and performing the ritual when it was close to midnight.

“He said he hasn’t felt the spirit of Lazarus for four days. The possibility of him having possessed someone is huge. Which is extremely dangerous since he can channel his magic and limit his influence in the midst of our real world.”

Grace was frightened by that prospect. These were not omens from Lazarus, they were statements that he was working on the slopes, hidden, waiting for the right moment to strike.

“Then we need to perform the ritual today.”