Prologue
“He should have known better, now the cops knew where to find him”, I thought when I woke up and found the book lying at the side of my hospital bed. I picked it up and began to read it, my memories were a little cloudy, I didn't have to read much before I remembered. Reese and Jude had been friends long before I came into the picture. We had known each other for seven years, but it wasn't until high school that we became close. I knew those boys like the back of my hand, but never would I have guessed our friendship would be ended by some hot head jock with a sharp temper…
         I was never much of a popular kid during grade school, or high school. Out of all the social groups, I was clearly in one of the lowest. I was one of those art kids in grade school that could only draw one or two things, and got made fun of by the more popular kids for it. When I got to high school, things changed for the better. I got close to Reese and Jude, two guys I had gone to grade school with, but didn't talk too much. They were known as the “weird kids”, whatever that means... I thought they were pretty cool. While Reese had a passion for writing and occasionally drawing, Jude had a passion for being social, and trying to be friends with everyone. Reese was tall and thin, with wavy brown hair that always covered his dark, abyss like eyes, while he scribbled down ideas on scraps of paper he would often find lying around. The best thing about him was the fact that he never stopped smiling. Jude had short blonde hair with crazy blue eyes. I say crazy blue, because they were so light that they almost looked white. My favorite thing about him was his rude, but humorous jokes. Both boys, despite their strange appearances, were the best friends I ever had.
         One day, both boys left school early, I walked out of school alone, the smell of the cold air, dead leaves and mold hit me like a wall. I stopped and looked around, the trees were fiery shades of oranges, yellows and reds. When the wind blew, it looked like the trees were a mass inferno. The day was so beautiful, so I decided I would take a detour to the library before walking home. Reading was one of my favorite pass times next to drawing. Now, I can't do either without thinking about what happened…
For some reason, I was drawn to the back of the library. I had only ever been back there a few times to find books that I needed for a research project. Everything back there was dark, and it smelled like old records and newspaper. When I reached the very back row, a pale light above my head flickered, giving the area a dark, ominous feeling. Back then, I had no fear that anything like what was about to happen, would actually happen, so when I pulled a strange dark green book off the shelf that had no title or author, and the flickering light exploded above my head, you can bet that it scared the absolute s*** out of me.
I heard the Librarian yell from the front of the library. I decided that I didn't want to be the victim of his blind rage, since not a month before, I had brought Reese and Jude with me and they broke a lamp. The librarian already hated us for that, and now it would be even worse if I got caught. I grabbed the dark green book I had dropped when the light shattered, and ran as fast as I could down the road. The wind stung my skin like a thousand tiny bees, and it became hard for me to bend my fingers. Finally, I made it to our hide out. It was a small forested area just beyond a local park. It was hard to access from most point, unless you found our hidden trail that lead to a huge evergreen. It blocked out wind, rain and snow, it was a lucky find for us. When I got there, I wasn’t surprised to find Jude and Reese there leaving food out for a stray cat that often followed us there.
    The Beginning Of A Tragedy
         I quickly told them the story about how I got the hideous green book, and how the light had exploded and the librarian’s blind rage. After I was finished, in unison, the boys began to mock me and my excitement about the story. I rolled my eyes and pushed them playfully.
         “So Mayson, How was history today without me there?” Jude said, “I bet it was terrible!”
         “Actually, scumbag, it was fantastic! So peaceful, and it didn’t smell like corndogs!” I joked.
         Reese laughed and pointed as the stray cat came creeping towards the ham they had left for her. She sniffed at it before taking it and running back into the undergrowth.
         “Uhh, Mayson? There are no words in this book.” Jude said. flipping through the pages.
         “Shut up, you’re joking!” I said. Walking over to where he stood to take a look for myself.
         Sure enough, every single page was blank.
         “So you stole a blank book; nice!” Reese joked.
         “Oh shut it, I didn’t mean to steal it, I just ran.” I said, taking the book from Reese who had taken it from Jude.
         After we spent a bit more time removing fallen branches out from under the pine tree, we went back to Jude’s house, where we raided his fridge. Around eight o’clock, Reese’s dad came to pick us up and take us home, it wasn’t until the next morning that I realized I had left the book on Jude’s kitchen table. I shot him a text, telling him to bring it to school and that I would meet him by his locker as usual. When I walked out to my car, I took a deep breath of the frigid air, it burned my lungs, the same way smoking does. I made my way to school, parked my car in my usual spot, and walked to Jude’s locker, the same place I met him every morning. Usually, Jude was here before me, so when I got there before he was, I sent him another text.
         “Is everything alright?” I sent.
         “No, but I’ll be there shortly.” he responded.
         I tapped my fingers on the locker behind me as I waited nervously for him to show up. Five minutes passed before he finally showed, but it felt like 20. When he walked up, he was clearly beaten. His face was bruised, his lip was bleeding and he was limping slightly.
         “What happened?” I called to him.
         “Jason Conner thought it would be cool to try and beat the crap out of me after he falsely accused me of giving his brother a life threatening concussion. Here’s your book by the way.” He said, shoving the book into my chest.
         Jude walked away, and I knew better to go after him. Even though he was one of my best friends, he could still get snappy when he was upset or in pain. I looked down at my book instead, and noticed a small bloodstain in the top left corner. Gross, I thought, as I walked to my first hour. It wasn’t until my fourth hour that I finally got the chance to use my new sketchbook. When I opened it up, my jaw dropped. The seemingly blank book now had words printed onto the pages. Curious and confused, I began to read. My eyes widened with disbelief as I realized that this book was about Jason and Jude’s fight! I read on, until I got to the last blank page. The most terrifying part about that book, was how I watched the words being typed onto the page by an unseen magic. I continued to read, and soon realized that Jude was in danger. Jason was even more enraged now, not only had Jude allegedly “Given his brother a life threatening concussion” but he had also beaten the crap out of Jason when he tried to confront him and fight him about it.
Earlier that month, Jason's little brother, Riley, thought it would be cool to try and pick a fight with Jude. Jude didn't want to fight, I could tell by the look in his eyes, but when Riley hit him, Jude lost it. He had kicked Riley in the head, and given him a mild concussion, nothing he wouldn't recover from. Jason was clearly embarrassed and disappointed by his brothers defeat, and was trying to redeem both him and his brother, but Jude had beat him just as easily.