Mr. Graham's words hung in the air like dust suspended in light — heavy, unmoving, and suffocating. Tyler and I just sat there, staring at him. Neither of us knew what to say. The air felt colder, and the faint smell of old paper and ink had turned sharp, like iron.
Finally, Tyler spoke, his voice low.
"Uncle… do you think this one is the same book? I mean, there's no way, right? It's been three hundred years. That's impossible."
Mr. Graham didn't answer right away. He stood up, walked toward the window, and looked outside. The light from the street seeped into the library in thin orange lines, cutting across his face.
"Some things don't follow time the way we do," he said at last. "Objects can carry more than what we see — memory, energy, curses, whatever name you give it. But Zoriton… this isn't an object. It's a doorway."
I frowned. "A doorway to what?"
He turned, eyes grave.
"Something that was never meant to be opened again."
The silence that followed felt endless. I could hear my heartbeat — a slow, uneven thud in my ears.
Tyler tried to laugh, but it came out nervous. "You're not saying this thing's alive or something, right?"
Mr. Graham didn't smile.
"Alive? No. Aware? Maybe. The book feeds on attention. Curiosity. Every person who touches it adds something of themselves to it. That's how it survived centuries. People give it what it wants without even realizing it."
He looked straight at me.
"And you, Ethan… you've already given it enough."
My stomach twisted.
"What do you mean?"
"You brought it home. You opened it. It saw you."
His voice cracked just slightly on that last word, and that made it worse — it wasn't drama or exaggeration. It was fear.
Tyler shifted uneasily beside me. "Uncle, that's— That's insane. It's just a book! We could burn it or throw it away, right?"
Mr. Graham's reaction was immediate.
"No!" he snapped, louder than he intended. His shout echoed through the high ceiling of the library.
Then, quieter, he said, "You don't burn it. Fire won't work. People tried. The flames only feed it. The last time someone tried to destroy Zoriton, an entire building went down. It was… unnatural."
The library felt darker now, like the lights had dimmed on their own. My throat was dry.
"Listen carefully," he said, lowering his voice. "You must not read it again. Don't open it. Don't even touch it if you can avoid it. Keep it closed. Hidden. The book finds strength in curiosity. The more you think about it, the stronger it becomes."
I nodded slowly, though I wasn't sure I believed him. It sounded too unreal — like a story meant to scare kids.
But then, I remembered last night. The call. The voice.
The writing that appeared on its own.
Mr. Graham noticed my silence. "What happened?" he asked.
I hesitated, glancing at Tyler. "Something weird, last night. I got a call from Phoebe's number, but… it wasn't her. It was something else. And when I looked at the book, it had writing on it — strange symbols, and at the bottom, a sentence: I am waiting for you."
The color drained from Mr. Graham's face. His hands tightened on the edge of the table.
"You've already been marked," he said softly. "It knows you now."
Tyler and I exchanged a glance. My pulse hammered in my chest.
"Marked? What does that even mean?" I asked.
"It means," he said, "that it won't stop until you return."
"Return where?" Tyler whispered.
"To where it came from."
The words struck me like a blow. The memory of the forest flashed in my mind — the flickering lights, the mist, that strange feeling near the investigation site.
"The pond," I muttered without thinking.
Mr. Graham's eyes widened. "You've already been near it?"
I nodded. "That's where we found the man who gave me the book."
He closed his eyes for a moment, then exhaled slowly.
"That wasn't a coincidence. That place… it's a crossing point. A reflection of what once was. If Zoriton has returned through it, that means the barrier is thinning again."
"The barrier?" Tyler asked.
"Between worlds," Mr. Graham said. "Between what we know… and what we shouldn't."
He reached behind him and pulled out another book — an enormous, dust-covered volume with a cracked spine. It looked centuries old.
He flipped through the yellowed pages until he found a drawing — a circular diagram with symbols similar to the ones I had seen in Zoriton.
At the center was a black mark shaped like an eye.
"That," he said, pointing at the mark, "is what connects the two realms. The eye represents the watcher — the one who waits in the dark, the being that feeds on the living world's fear and fascination. It's what the book serves."
Tyler shook his head. "You're saying the monster in those legends — it's real?"
Mr. Graham looked at him grimly.
"Real enough to destroy a city three centuries ago."
I felt a chill crawl down my arms. The room felt smaller, as if the air itself was closing in.
"Go home," he said finally. "Don't speak of this to anyone else. Keep that book sealed. And Ethan—"
He looked at me with eyes that seemed to carry centuries of worry.
"Whatever you do, don't go near that pond again. If it calls to you, resist it. Once you return there, there will be no coming back."
We left soon after. The drive back was silent — even Tyler didn't try to speak. The sky had gone gray, and the rain started falling in soft, cold sheets. Each drop against the windshield sounded like a whisper.
When we reached my house, I stepped out and looked up at the clouds. They hung low, heavy, almost bruised in color. Somewhere behind them, lightning flickered faintly — white for a second, then gone.
I didn't know what to believe anymore. But when I opened the door to my room, I froze.
The book was open.
I hadn't left it that way.
And on the page — the same one that had been blank before — new words had appeared, written in that same strange ink that shimmered faintly in the dark.
You cannot hide from what is already awake.
My breath caught. The room suddenly felt colder, quieter, alive.
Then, from the far corner — just behind my desk — something moved.
Slowly. Deliberately.
And I realized, it wasn't the wind.
Would you like me to continue this same night in the next chapter — the first direct supernatural encounter — or switch to the next morning, where Ethan starts realizing the book has begun influencing the world around him?