Books of the Dead (3 page)

Her mind and body finally gave in, but it was not easy to fool the twisted dreams. Merly had the same nightmare. She sat exhausted and suppressed her cries. She switched on the lights, but unlike the other nights, her friend was not there to comfort her. Merly turned her head to find that her friend was missing from her bed.

“Nora! Nora!” she called, but received no answer, so she decided to check for herself. Merly walked out of the room and to her utter astonishment found her friend reading one of the books that provided an aid to conjure spirits from the dead. She also noticed that Nora was uttering the same chants she heard her say earlier in the evening.

Merly snatched the book from her friend’s hand and threw it away in despair. With a petrified and sad look in her eyes, Merly could not believe that her friend was unwittingly adding to her misery.

“Merly, what is wrong with you?” Nora said.

“How could you?” was all Merly managed to say. “I asked you not to go through these books, why is it so difficult to understand?” she added.

Merly was being abstruse and Nora could see that. For the first time since Nora had been friends with Merly, she saw her act impulsively.

“Merly, I couldn’t sleep so I decided to read one of the books.” Nora hoped this explanation would calm her friend down.

Merly found it hard to believe her friend. “I heard you sleeping soundly right before I drifted off, so don’t lie.”

“No, you drifted off as soon as you hit the bed and I was wide awake. This is all in your mind.” Nora paused before adding, “And I was merely reading one of these criminology books and not the one you are referring too, so just relax.”

“You are acting very creepy today. Are you sure you are all right?” Nora said with concern, but Merly’s behavior also obviously angered her to an extent.

“But I saw you reading one of those chants! You can’t deny that, can you?”

Nora looked exasperated. “No, I wasn’t!” she argued back. “It is all in your head.”

Merly didn’t have the energy to retort back. It was only the first day of classes and she was already out of energy, and the day’s events ruined her mood.

She wanted to say something to Nora, but knew that would just make things worse. So she merely apologized to her friend for the second time in the night, and went off to bed.

If only sleep could come so easily. Merly noticed a beam of light peeking underneath the door. She wanted to look away, but her eyes were drawn towards it. Nora was still in the sitting area reading one of those books.

Merly knew Nora lied, but she couldn’t figure out the reason for it. This was not the friend she knew. Nora was kind and compassionate and always listened to Merly’s continual whimpering. She was also the first to befriend Merly at the university. She was grateful to Nora for being by her side almost all the time. Merly didn’t want to doubt Nora’s integrity, but there are times when the mind controls the heart and puts relationships to the test.

Merly didn’t want to spoil her relationship with Nora, plus she already had enough for the day. The clock showed 3:30 a.m. and Merly slowly drifted off to sleep hoping that her dreams wouldn’t come back.

Thursday morning was as usual and neither of the friends discussed anything. It was like nothing happened the previous day. The books were left in the corner of the sitting room. Although Merly decided against giving them to the library for the time being, she was determined to investigate the mystery of the sender of the package.

As soon as Mr. Summers left after the first class, Merly excused herself and went straight to the counselor to ask about the details of the package. However, that was of no avail. Merly was directed to contact the local post office since the contents of the package were not illegal or offensive.

Merly finally decided to keep the criminology books and donate the rest to the university library the following day. Nothing unusual happened that day, no screech in the corridor, no nervous Mr. Stevenson and the clock was working fine as well.

On their way back to the dorm in the evening, Merly informed Nora of her decision to donate some of the books to the university library, and if it did not want them, then she would donate them to the local branch of the state library.

Nora did not seem to be bothered or care about the news and simply nodded in agreement.

“Do you care for a walk today as well?” Nora asked.

“No, I’ll just head back to the dorm. Moreover, I need to pack those books for tomorrow,” Merly replied.

There was nothing out of place when they entered their room except the books on criminology were missing from the corner leaving the books on evocation and others.

“It can’t be!” Merly shrieked aloud and went towards the stack of books and frantically began searching for the books on criminology. However, more than the books being gone, she was aghast as who would have taken them. She was concerned that someone had been in their room while they were not there. Then her mind turned towards Nora. She looked her at sharply and said, “Have you taken them anywhere? I saw them stacked in the corner this morning and was going to pack them away...” then left her sentence unfinished.

“I was with you all morning and came back with you. And where would I possibly keep them? Are you implying that I had something to do with this, Merly?” Nora queried clearly looking offended.

And it was the third time in two days when Merly had nothing to say, but to apologize profusely.

“Then someone must have been in our room. Are you not at least concerned about that?” Merly asked.

“There seems to be no sign of forced entry,” Nora said with an eerie calmness that stirred an unsettling feeling in Merly. She could not put a finger as to why she was feeling like this.

“Have you by any chance stored some of the books away and completely forgotten about them?” asked Nora. After a pause, she added, “Let’s go and ask Zoë about it. I heard she is sick and has been in the room all day. She probably heard some noises if someone came into our room.”

Zoë’s room was next to the one shared by Merly and Nora. She was a friend. Both the girls set out to ask her if she noticed something unusual while they were gone during the day. Zoë had not left her room for a couple of days, because of sickness, hence the girls assumed that if someone had broken into their room, then she may have heard something. Nora was hesitant though, “Zoë is sick. Do you assume she’ll know if someone was in our room?” she asked.

“We will only know if we ask her, or we can ask her if she heard anything about this from some of her other friends.”

“Books cannot just walk away on their own, can they? Someone was here in our room while we were out and took them away. I am confident about it, and this makes me concerned. I will find out who did it,” Merly said with an affirmed tone.

Nora did not argue back, but seemed to go along with her plan. Zoë took some time to open the door after Merly knocked twice. Zoë looked grim when she opened the door and Merly immediately regretted disturbing her since she was clearly resting in bed. Upon inquiring how Zoë was, Merly decided to ask her directly about the disappearance of the books.

“Hi Zoë,” Merly said. “Have you been in bed all day today?”

Zoë nodded in agreement, then sensing that Nora and Merly wanted to ask her something, she popped the question herself. “Do you want to know something?”

Merly did not want to disturb Zoë any longer than necessary, so quickly said, “We are sorry to disturb you when you are sick, but some unusual and strange things have been happening lately and we want to get to the bottom of it.”

Nora stood quietly beside Merly and did not utter a word. Zoë looked once from Merly to Nora and then back at Merly again.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“We had a parcel delivered to us yesterday with some books on criminology and necromancy with no identity of the sender. We made a decision to donate the books on necromancy to the library, but when we returned back to the dorm, some of the books were missing,” Merly said and waited for Zoë’s reaction.

Zoë seemed a bit taken aback and said, “But do you believe in necromancy or evocation?”

“No,” replied Merly.

“So if they are missing, then it should not bother you,” Zoë stated matter-of-factually.

“There is the problem, it is not the books on necromancy that are missing, but the ones on criminology,” Merly said.

“Someone sent you a set of books on criminology and necromancy and then someone else took some of them away. Did you try to find something about the sender?” Zoë asked.

“I did, but that was of no avail. Maybe I will contact the local post office during the weekend,” Merly said sensing that Zoë was side-stepping her initial question.

“So did you see anything unusual happen?” Merly asked again.

“I was in bed over the last few days, so I have little or no knowledge of things going around.

“When did you say you last saw those books, again?” Zoë asked.

“This morning just before we left for classes, they were right there lying in the corner of our sitting room. Nora and I didn’t take them, so where did they go?” Merly responded.

“Was anything else missing?” Zoë asked.

“Nothing else that we know of. Everything seems to be in their normal place except those books on criminology that I mentioned,” Nora said.

“Of all things, now we have to deal with a thief, as if things were not already bad enough,” Zoë said under her breadth.

“Is something bothering you Zoë? What is bad enough?” Merly asked.

“It’s nothing, I just cannot fathom why anyone would take away those books on criminology.” Zoë said.

“Those books were quite rare and some were even special editions, if you care to know,” Nora said.

“Do you know if anyone practices necromancy here at the university? That person might have come for those and left with the criminology ones instead,” Merly said, but quickly added, “I must sound paranoid right now, but this is bothering me too much for me to be at peace. Please, Zoë, can you help me?”

Zoë had known Nora and Merly for a long time, but was closer to Nora for her outgoing nature. She shared a student apartment with Kelly, but often engaged in long hours of gossip with Nora while Kelly was out to attend classes.

“Kelly might be able to help you since she has been in and out a lot today. She went out around 11:00 a.m., then came back at 12:00 noon because she forgot something in the room. She went out again about 15 minutes later, then came back at around 2:30 p.m. to get her gym shoes and left a few minutes later. She came back at around 4:30 p.m. to see how I was and left again soon afterward. So if someone did enter your room, then she may have heard or seen something. She should be back any minute now, so you can ask her directly.”

Zoë looked up expectantly at both her friends and hoped that her answer would provide them with some relief. The three of them sat quietly for some time before Merly rose up and patted Zoë’s back.

“Sorry to bother you. Please call us when Kelly is back,” saying this she went out of the room. Nora stayed back. Merly knew that both of them were pretty close friends, and therefore, did not ponder what they might be discussing, although she felt a little stupid for being overly suspicious of things. She heard a knock on the door after some time and saw that it was Nora.

“Still no news about Kelly?” Merly asked.

“Would you like some coffee?” Nora questioned instead.

Why is she so reluctant
? Merly thought.
Doesn’t she see the threat?

Merly felt her head throbbing and decided to have the coffee after all. The lovely aroma and the bitter flavor of the coffee titillated her taste buds and she secretly thanked Nora, but didn’t say it out loud. Sitting back in her chair, Merly tracked back the events of the last two days and tried to connect the loose ends. She wasn’t sure why Nora was acting the way she was, and was confused about who she saw in the library the previous evening and about the missing books in her room.

Merly didn’t want to suspect anyone of directly stealing from her student apartment. She also knew that once the news reached the dean, it would cause a whole lot of drama and might trivialize the actual issue. She wished that Kelly might be able to shed some light on the situation. She sighed and slumped down in her chair again. She found herself checking her watch now and then, and last time she checked the watch showed 9:30 p.m.

Merly woke up with a dry throat and her entire being was shivering to the core. She touched her forehead and felt it was abnormally hot and was covered in sweat. She tried to stand up, but collapsed back into the chair. She knew she had a fever, but was too weakened due to her nightmare. She tried calling out to her friend, but her voice seemed to make no sound at all. She tried to yell, but it quivered. Merly got desperate and stood up slowly, she felt weak and feeble. The clock showed somewhere around 2:30 a.m., but her eyesight was blurred. She slowly walked towards her room, Nora was sleeping soundly. Merly sensed that her body was on fire.

Nora didn’t wake up. Merly frantically tried looking for the emergency strip of medicine that she keeps in the drawers of her bedside table, but she couldn’t find them. She felt nausea surging up and headed towards the bathroom door. She could feel her legs collapse under her weight and fell down with a loud bang. Nora came running in, and helped Merly on her lap, felt her forehead.

“You are burning with fever. Did you take the medicine? Why didn’t you call me?” She looked afraid.

“I tried, but I couldn’t find my voice,” Merly said very slowly.

“What are you saying? Did you take the medicine?” Nora asked again.

“I couldn’t find them, they are not over there,” Merly said in a sickly tone.

Nora laid her friend down and went straight towards the bedside drawer. She took the brown medicine bottle and ran towards her friend. “Can you get up? Do you need to go the bathroom?” she asked.

“Please, help me up, Nora,” Merly pleaded.

Nora helped Merly up and took her towards the bed then laid her down and showed her the bottle of brown medicine. “Merly, it was right there, didn’t you see?” she asked.