Mysterious Adventure

It was summer of 1997. The sun was floating above the earth, shining down onto the land below it. Grayson received his paycheck of twenty thousand after a month of working. “Can you buy me something dad?” his son asked.

Grayson looked at him “Just because I received a paycheck does not mean we can spend it all at once.”

His son started to get upset, “but we can still get stuff! We have all this money! And you never give me any!”

He stomped off. “Chase! Get back here!” Grayson yelled at him from across the room. “Chase Benjamin Dylon!” He stomped after him; Chase was sitting in the kitchen with his hands covering his face. “For heaven’s sake, Chase, you’re twelve now! Quit acting like you’re still ten!”

Chase started sobbing, “I- I’m sorry” he tried looking away, “I just miss mom.”

Grayson stood there looking at him with guilt filling his eyes. “I know, so do I.” He sat beside his son, but Chase still wouldn’t look at him.

“I wish it never happened, I wish that everything was okay again”.

Grayson’s eyes started to tear up to the words in his son’s sentence, He slowly pulled his son into a hug. “I’m sorry, Chase, I promise to be a good father just as your mother wanted me to be”.

“That’s the thing! You promise, but you never do it!” Chase raised his voice, filling his words with anger and sadness.

Grayson looked at his son with despair, “I try...I guess I could lend you some”.

Chase looked up at him. “Really?” he said as he wiped his tears away.

Grayson nodded and handed him five, twenty dollar bills, “This is all you will get, so be sure to spend it wisely.”

Chase smiled, “Thank you”. He got up from his chair. “Um, can I use it now?”

“It’s your money now, isn’t it?” Grayson motioned his head towards the door. “Go use it.” Chase smiled and gave him a hug. “But be careful!” he yelled as Chase exited the door, “and bring your friend with you to make sure you’re safe!”

Chase went over to his neighbor’s house after hearing what his father said. Knock, knock, knock. He knocked on the door as loud as he could until a woman who appears to be in her mid-thirties opened it. “Hello, Chase,” she put on a smile

“Hi, Mrs. Williams, can I ask Michael something?” He smiled back at her.

“Of course, he’s in the living room” She moved out of the way to allow him to walk in.

“Thank you Mrs. Williams”. She nodded

In the living room sat a thin, young, fifteen year old boy with brown hair and brown eyes.“Michael!” Chase called out to him.

Michael turned to look at him. “Hey, Chase, anything going on?” He rested his arm on the couch.

“Not really, dad just wants me to take you with me to keep me safe.”

Michael looked at him, “Why can’t he just take you there himself? I don’t have anything against bringing you there with me, just confused.”

Chase looked around to make sure Michael’s parents weren’t listening. “I think he’s obsessed with money and doesn’t want to risk losing it,” he whispered into his ear.

“Really?” He laughed. “We all know that”, he got up from his seat and looked back at him. “I’ll take you there,” he put his jacket over his shoulders. “You uh, need to borrow one?” He started to grab another coat.

“No, thanks, I’ll be fine,” Chase started towards the door. “Come on!” He opened the door then walked out as soon as he could.

“That kid’s going to get himself in trouble one of these days,” Michael sighed.

“Hmm what should I buy?” Chase said while staring down at the twenty dollar bill in his hand, he put it in his pocket and started towards the grocery store with Michael trailing along behind him.

As soon as he walked in people glared. “Aren’t you a bit too young to be entering the store by yourself young man?” asked the cashier.

Michael walked in behind him. “He’s with me. I’m sure he won’t do any harm to your store” He looked at Chase “Right?” Chase glanced at Michael then back at the cashier, and nodded.

“I’m sorry but you’re both too young to come into this store without your parents”.

Michael looked around and leaned on the counter. “Look, buddy, listen. This kid’s father is the CEO. Do you really think you would want to mess with him?”

The cashier kept glaring at him, “If you do not give me proof I have the right to..”

“Grayson Dylon, ever heard of that name before?” Michael interrupted him and looked at the cashier’s nametag, “Connor”.

He glared at Michael, “Do you have any pictures with you?”, Michael glanced over at Chase. “Do you?” He whispered to him. Chase brought out his phone, and showed Connor a picture of him with his dad.

“My apologies,” Connor motioned his arm towards the inside of the store, “You may look around.”

Micheal smiled, “Come on, Chase.” He followed closely behind him. “Why does that always work?”

“Because no one wants to mess with your dad. Do you know how important he is?”. Chase shook his head, “He’s the CEO -- even one bad look towards him and they’ll be put in jail.”

Chase shuddered at the thought. “Why?”

Michael stopped in his tracks, “You will understand when you’re older”. He looked around. “What do you want to get?”

Chase looked around as well “I’m not sure. but I like reading and writing. so maybe we can look at the books?”

Michael laughed “You were always the nerd type”.

“Hey! I just enjoy them, alright?”

Michael rolled his eyes at him and pushed him into the book section. Chase started walking up and down the section in hopes that he could find a book that seems interesting to him. He stopped in front of a small black book.

“There’s no cover,” he said to himself. He looked in the book -- no words on the pages either. He looked on the back -- no description. “Uh, Michael, come look at this.” Michael walked over to him and he handed over the book.

Michael started flipping through the pages, “Maybe it’s some sort of journal?”

Chase shook his head, “No, it’s shaped like a normal book, but you could be right.”

“Quit being so paranoid,” he hit him on the head with it. “Since you read so many books and write in journals, you should’ve known what it is.” He looked at it, “but look at this, the cover is metallic.”

“That’s what I was trying to say!” Chase shouted at him.

Michael put his finger on his lips “Shh, we don’t want to draw attention.” He looked around, “let’s see if we can write in it.” He started walking over to the cashier. Michael sat the book on the counter, “We would like to buy this please.”

Chase started pacing back and forth, “but-” his mouth was covered by Michael’s hand.

“Don’t listen to him.” Connor stared at the both of them then scanned the book.

“That will be ten dollars, please,” Connor said with a stern voice.

Michael and Chase looked at each other, “Ten dollars just for one book?” Chase whispered. He looked up at Connor, “Why is it so expensive?”

Connor looked at the book, “I don’t know. It’s probably because of the cover."

Chase’s eye lit up as he ran to grab candy. “Get one for me too!” Michael shouted. Chase came back with two handfuls of candy and chocolate, sat them on the counter, and smiled.

“Eighteen dollars, please.”

Chase nodded and handed him the twenty dollars. “Thank you!” Chase walked out of the door with a bag of candy and the book.

Michael sighed and waved to Connor as he was walking out. He grabbed the book out of the bag and held it up. “Do you want to try it, kid?”

Chase glared at him, “Stop calling me ‘kid’. I know I’m younger than you, but by only 3 years!”

Michael opened the book and took out a pen from his pocket. “Any idea of what we should write?”

Chase put his thumb and finger on his chin, “I’m not sure, maybe anything you can think about? A story?”. Michael nodded at him and started writing.

“Hm, what am I thinking? It’s probably just a normal book,” he stopped writing and handed it over to Chase, “You can take it home and write in it. I’m not as much of a writer as you are.”

Chase nodded and walked over to his house. What should I write? He asked himself the same question over and over until he came up with an idea. Chase took both day and night to create the story that he had written. Once he was done he placed it on his nightstand and went to sleep.

The next morning he woke up and stretched as he did every morning. He looked around the room, something about it felt wrong to him. “Dad?” Chase ran down the stairs. His dad would normally be making breakfast at that time. “Dad?” he looked around, “Maybe he’s still asleep?”

He ran to his dad’s room, knocked on the door and opened it. The room was empty, there was no bed, dresser, or TV anywhere. Chase quickly ran to his living room phone to call Michael.

“Michael!” He yelled into the phone -- all he heard was static. He put up the phone, breathing heavily and sweating. “What’s happening?”

He ran back to his room to find the book glowing a bright white color. He walked to it and held it in his hands. He opened it to see that everything was the same, the story he wrote was still there.

He sat it down and sat on his bed. “I’m alone,” he whispered, “I’ve never been alone before”. Tears streamed down his cheeks and onto his pillow as he laid down, He put his blanket over his head. “I need to find out why,” he said while sobbing. He got up and looked back at the book, gazing at its black cover like it called for him.

He grabbed it and threw it out of his window, “I can just find another book”. He turned to walk out of his room but found it laying on the floor; he looked at it confused. It had come back. “Um, that’s weird,” he picked it back up. He looked inside it, flipping through the pages expecting to find nothing. As soon as he got to the 100th page he found something.

It was a dark bird feather, along with the words “Welcome to my world.” Chase didn’t know what exactly that meant until he heard walking coming up the stairs. He grabbed his baseball bat and stood next to the door, holding his breath, hoping not to make a noise. His door creaked open and in came a tall man. His fingers reached around the door and motioned Chase to follow.

Chase didn’t know what to do, whether to follow or to stay. The man did it again and this time Chase followed. “Who are you?” he asked the man. The man stayed quiet. The man wore a long trench coat and boots, he also wore a hat that covered his face.

He walked to the front door, putting his hand on the knob and waited for Chase to catch up. As soon as Chase got there, the man opened the door. The outside was pitch black, yet filled with buildings and static surroundings. The man pushed him out of the door, Chase turned around and the door disappeared.

In the distance he could hear cries from unknown beings. It was his turn to fight.