《Book of Fate》


 Prologue

    I don''t care much about anything.


    This is what I''ve realized about myself one day. In my head I tried to refute that statement and I attempted to convince myself that I do care about others and so much more. But as life continued on by I started to come to the conclusion that my own self assessment was correct and I couldn''t help but feel bad about myself that this was the truth.


    When I found this about myself I put in an effort to rectify this part of me. Thankfully I''ve made a huge headway towards this, but for that I have to thank my parents. If it wasn''t for them I would''ve probably been a huge indifferent douche to everybody in my life. Of course even though I have been acting better I still don''t care much.


    There are only 3 main things I care about which are me, my family, and books. This is what I found out about myself, but just because this is true it doesn''t give me the right to ignore everything else around me. I think I already thought this but my parents were the ones to drive this home when I revealed my dilemma to them.


    In reality I haven''t changed much from back then the only difference is that I know how toactbetter and be kinder to others. Inside I wish that I didn''t have to do this whole shebang, but I promised myself and my parents to try and become something better. My parents already think I accomplished this goal since the way I was before and how I act right now are like night and day. I didn''t have the heart to tell them that I was only acting my whole betterment as a person.


    I couldn''t stop myself from feeling disgusted at my own behavior since I''m essentially lying to everyone I meet about who I truly am. This also supports the fact that I''m nothing but a hypocrite disguising myself as a good person. The only really good thing about this is that I at least don''t treat everyone coldly, ignore everyone around me, being a total douchebag about every single thing, and taking everything out at other people.


    I at least felt bad of what I''ve did in that time, so that is a step in the right direction. Sadly I was like this for a whole year so everyone in school treats me like I''m invisible due to my past actions. My classmates do know that I am not being horrible this year unlike the last one, but they only think that I''m acting or something of that nature in which to their credit that is true.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The only problem with that is I won''t become a honest to god good person at this rate. To solve this I need to talk with them even if their first reaction would be to ignore me or lash out. I already tried to do this and I approached my classmates, but the only thing that I could do was stammer like a idiot in front of them. For some reason I develop a bit of social anxiety when I try to talk with my classmates which is bad since it is a roadblock in my goal.


    At this point I didn''t know what to do to get past my problem and at this point I might revert to my past self. Maybe I should just st¡ª*THUNK*


    "Ah! Fu¡ªI mean fudge what the heck was that." I started rubbing my head in which I saw I walked into a lighting pole in my absent-mindedness. Good thing I am one of the few people who walks in this sidewalk or else it would have been very embarrassing to be watched by many people.


    As I side-stepped the lighting pole my foot found purchase to an unknown object below causing me to go unbalanced and slip. "No, not again you son of¡ª." *THUD*


    My cursing got cut short as my body landed in a spectacular fashion towards the pavement floor. I raised myself groggily up from the ground only getting minor injuries from my slip. I looked around below me to see on what I slipped on and the only thing I found was a book lying close to me.


    I picked it up and began to curiously examine it as it only had an empty brown front and back cover. As I continued to examine it I found out that it was a really weird book because it didn''t have any type of summary, title, description, and there were only random words littered throughout all the pages. The only clue that I had was a name inscribed in the spine of the book spelling out [Aaron Lawton] in cursive.


    I would''ve left it where I found it but to me it seemed that no one else was going to pick it up and the book already looked old and tattered, so it looks like the owner wasn''t coming any time soon to pick it up. Plus to be honest I am curious if the random words inside mean anything, maybe like a secret code? Though most likely it is purely gibberish and I''m picking up trash from the ground.


    "What the hell might as well take it, there''s nothing bad about doing this anyway." I mumbled to myself as I put the book under my armpit close to my chest and I started to walk back towards my home.


    I didn''t know it at the time but that book changed my whole life and this is where my story began.

 Chapter 1

    After taking the strange book with me I promptly arrived at home in which I could only describe it as simple and normal. The house was only one floor and to others the house itself might seem small to live in, but it had enough space since only me and my parents lived here. You could also see that there was a lone window to the left side covered completely by the blinds which by the way was where my room resided.


    Before I got carried away describing my house I continued walking towards my home on the gravel path because my mom didn''t like it when I tried to take a shortcut through the grass stating that it was improper to do so. To me it was kind of irritating to follow this rule, but she was right and if I couldn''t do such a small thing then that would be pretty pathetic of me. After all in order to become a better person you first start off with the small things and then you move on to the much bigger things once you are ready.


    Once I got out of my head I noticed that I was already in front of the door and I was thankful that I didn''t knocked myself to the door like I did the lighting pole. Using the hand that wasn''t carrying my book which was my right I began to fish into my pant''s pockets to get out my keys, but after some time doing this I came to the conclusion that I lost my keys.


    I let out a deep sigh about this for I am sure that I lost them when I slipped back then. Fortunately that was only a few minutes away from my house when that happened so with that thought in mind I turned around in which I accidentally took a glance at my watch. My eyes widened a bit when that happened to make sure I brought my right hand up to where my watch was transfixed to and saw that it was already 7:05 PM. That was a new record for me spending a little bit more than a hour on my self-reflection walk since it usually took about 15 to 30 minutes before I get home.


    I imagine that my parents would be worried in how long I spent walking around and are waiting for me inside. I guess my keys could wait for later it is time for me to try and pacify my parents. With my decision made I pressed the doorbell and waited a few seconds in which immediately after my mom opened the door for me. I strutted my way in hoping that she got the message from my gait that nothing bad happened to me and that I was fine.


    When I looked at her she had a small frown in her face and just asked me, "Andrew you got us worried there for a second and why did you ring the bell, don''t you have your own keys?". I simply responded with, "Mom relax sure I might have taken longer on getting back from my walk, but thats because I got a bunch of self-reflection done today." with that I showed my mom what I thought to be a shining smile.


    She looked at me dubiously as she plainly said ,"That is nice to hear son, but you still haven''t answered my question about the keys." after I heard that I immediately responded, "Ah! about the keys... I might have lost them on my walk...". I sheepishly rubbed my head in a abashed manner hoping that my act would calm her down and stop that frown on her face.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    My tactic worked as seeing how I was acting my mom wryly smiled at me saying, "So that''s what happened you don''t have to wo¡ª" before she could finish I interrupted her, "Mom I think I know where my keys are I just came here to make sure you don''t worry about me due to my long walk, and where''s Dad by the way shouldn''t he be here?".


    My mom answered back, "Andrew he''s sleeping right now you know how tiring his work is, and does that mean you''re going back out there to find your keys?". I nodded my head towards her and began walking towards my room, but before I could get inside my mom confusedly said, "Andrew didn''t you say that you were going to go search for your keys, so why are you walking towards your room?".


    At that statement I blinked owlishly at her since she was right on what she said, so why was I going back to my room? I felt a niggling thought in the back of my head trying to make me remember something, but for the life of me I didn''t know what it was. I knew that it had to deal with something that happened recently, but the only thing that I remember was losing my keys and tripping on my walk. There was something strange about my previous thought, but I couldn''t find anything wrong with it so I uncertainly said "Uhhh... well I wanted to get my phone this time... just in case of an emergency?".


    My mom stared at me and she only nodded with understanding as she sat down on her couch, turned on the tv, and left me to my own devices. With that out of the way I enter my room which wasn''t grandiose at all only having a bed, a closet, three little cabinets spread in different locations in my room, and my own personal work desk. My phone was connected to a charger and was lying down to my little cabinet that was right next to my bed, so I went there, checked my phone, it had a 100%, and I disconnected it with my right hand. When I tried to pick up my phone with my left hand that is when I noticed that it was clenching something with it.


    Focusing my vision on this object which I didn''t even know my left hand was carrying I tried to define the features of this object, but it was just all blurred so I couldn''t see much. I squinted my eyes as much as possible hoping that the blurriness would go away and after a few seconds it did and all I saw was a brown-covered book.


    A book... wait a minute... didn''t I pick this up when I tripped on it in my walk? Now that I think about it why did I just belatedly realized that my left hand was still carrying this thing, and was this the reason why I wanted to go to my room? Also my mom didn''t comment anything about it... maybe she didn''t notice it? Man, my memory must be shoddier than I thought if I forgot about this book that I got literally a few minutes ago. I put the book on top of my cabinet and then I got the phone and put it on my left pant pocket.


    With all of that done I left my room, my mom gave her compulsory "Come back soon" motif, I left the house, walked down the gravel path, and finally I jogged back to the place where I tripped and fell to get back my keys. When I arrived there I saw a peculiar sight which was a person frantically looking around the ground having only black-clothed clothes. Maybe the person was also looking for something like me around this location?


    I stepped forward not knowing what I was about to get into.

 Chapter 2

    Taking a closer look at the person I realized that it was a ''she'' and that she looked to be about 15~18 years old which was about the same age as me. Before I could continue to observe more she heard my steps and suddenly turned around to face me in which I saw something surprising on her face.


    There were definitively tear marks on it with her eyes being slightly reddened, but before I could do anything else she quickly got in front of me and glared threateningly. I stood there wriggling uncomfortably for a minute or so until she finally backed off, but she still kept her glare on me. Also if I observed correctly I''m pretty sure her hand went to her pocket as if she was going to take something out but then decided against it.


    She for some unconceivable reason was in a fighting stance facing me like if a fight was about to start. Of course that was far from true the only thing I wanted to do was run away from her and not get caught in any type of trouble. In the first place I don''t know why she is acting like this the only thing I did was seeing the evidence of her crying.


    I know seeing a complete stranger that noticed you were crying can be embarrassing but do you have to go this far even expecting me to fight!? Plus now that I know you have something in your pocket I can''t help my paranoia to go out of control thinking if it was a knife, pepper spray, a phone, or something else!?


    Meanwhile, through all of this I was still standing still just blinking my eyes rapidly, sweat starting to form in my forehead, my heart was beating like crazy in my chest, and I was all around befuddled by the situation in front of me. Taking time to calm myself I realized that I was taking this matter out of proportion and that the girl in front of me was probably misunderstanding something.


    In order to clarify the situation I spoke up "Ah... u-um excuse me, can I help you with something?", is what I asked but why did I have sound so meek about it? The girl in front of me slightly flinched when I said those words and instead of answering squinted at me and then she widened her eyes before returning normal. Her body that was tensed, relaxed and she shifted to a normal stance with her face becoming emotionless as her glare disappeared.


    The change in gap of  ''You killed someone important to me and I''ll take revenge'' to something like ''Completely Uninterested'' was so swift that I felt some backlash from it. Who the heck even changes their attitude so drastically like this? Then I heard her speak, "What are you doing here?", heck even her voice sounds emotionless.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    I responded with, "Well... I only came here to get my keys, have you seen them?", as I''m saying this my eyes started to sweep all over the ground to see if they were there. That is when I heard a metallic dangling sound near me which I turned to look and the girl had my keys holding its chain from her hand and questioned, "Were these the keys you were looking for?".


    I dumbly responded with a quick "Yes" and rushed over to her. but before I took them I asked her "Hey... um... thanks for finding my keys and could you tell me your name? Since you went through this path you''re probably new and live around here. We''ll most likely stumble to each other a lot so... your name please?". I went a little long winded there but if I could at least get to know one person that doesn''t despise me due to what I did in the past, then that would be great even if she looks uninterested that''s better than nothing. She looked at me and muttered "No need, you won''t remember me anyway so it doesn''t matter.", before I could decipher anything from that statement she thrust the keys to my hand.


    When her hand made contact with mine my head started to hurt and darkness was starting to creep out of the edges of my vision. Prior to them covering completely my vision I could only observe her emotionless brown eyes and lavishly black hair flowing down to the middle of her back as I blacked out.


    I blinked my eyes open staring intently at the keys at my hand like if they did something incredibly wrong. They hadn''t but I still felt a little bit pissed that I somehow didn''t notice them fall out of my pocket throughout my walk, so I stared at them with hateful eyes for some minutes now. I of course was now satisfied with my actions, so I scurried back to my home arriving there pretty quickly and I couldn''t help but admire the bright white walls of our humble house.


    This time with my keys I unlocked the door and stepped right in to my home where my mom was sitting down in the couch watching the tv as always. She noticed me and said, "Andrew you took a while, did something happen?", I put my hands in front of them shaking them a little replying with, "Nah, I was... mad that I dropped my keys so I was doing some contemplating that''s it.".


    My mom nodded back at me in understanding and started watching the tv again while I went back to my room placing my phone on the desk, as I went to my backpack to finish my homework leftover. I was unoccupied for the rest of that day as it only took me a hour to finish my homework, so I read my web-novels, ate some snacks, took a bath, and went to bed by 11:00 PM.


    This was probably the last time I could sleep without a care of the world and do so peacefully.

 Chapter 3

    *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*


    Hearing the continuous beeping near me I roused myself from sleep, and I proceeded to reach out with my hand to stop the alarm. I floundered for a while until I successfully was able to press the button that stopped the annoying alarm noise. I turned to look what time it was and it showed 6:45 AM like it should.


    I let out a sigh but I did need to get out of my bed, so I stared at the ceiling for a couple of seconds contemplating if I should go back to sleep a little longer. I didn''t want to leave the comfortable covers of my bed, but today was Friday and if I didn''t start preparing then there might be a chance of me arriving late at school which I didn''t want. With gargantuan effort I sat myself up and removed the covers of my bed moving my body towards the bedside.


    I reached towards my black mechanical watch on top of the cabinet and put it on my right wrist with ease. Although the watch felt a bit loose since it was a size too big it still felt comfortable and I personally liked how it looked. After a few seconds of admiring my watch I stood up and slip on the classic clogs that I planted near my bedside the night before and went to my room to change into my school uniform. After that I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, comb my hair, put some deodorant, and splash water on my face to be more awake.


    After finishing all of that I went to wake up my parents which were of course reluctant to leave the bed so early even though they were already used to waking about this time every day. They only gave me some grumbling words which I couldn''t hear clearly, but I could guess that they were complaining about how early they had to wake up and the unfairness of it all.


    Leaving them to their devices I went to the kitchen and got some things out of the refrigerator, so that I could make myself two sandwiches. One would be egg while the other would be a PB&J which was enough to satisfy me at lunch in school though my parents probably think that I should eat a little bit more than that. A little later of preparing my sandwiches my parents were already dressed and prepared which wasn''t much of a surprise to me since they were really quick at getting ready.


    Looking at them I always get reminded of how I really don''t look like my parents at all. The only characteristics I share with my parents are their dark brown eyes and black hair, but other than that there is nothing else that matches. My dad is stocky with an oval face that shows off his soft, rounded facial features making him look quite amiable. While my mom is more chubby with a rounded face that represents her facial features in such an endearing way that it makes her look so kind and nice. Then there is me in which my face is triangular in shape having rigid, sharp features and it also doesn''t help that most of the time I have blank look on my face unlike the more expressive, emotional faces that my parents have.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "Andrew are you fine?" I heard my dad concernedly asked which snapped me out of my reverie as I answered "Yeah I''m fine Dad just lost in thought no need for you to worry." He looked relieved with my answer and said "Well I better get ahead and start the car we''ll be waiting for you okay." I nodded and my parents went outside the door of the house in which I proceeded to my room to change out my classic clogs to proper shoes and get my backpack. But when I was doing this I couldn''t stop feeling like I was forgetting something else vitally important and it was nagging at me.


    While feeling like this I tried putting on my shoes but somehow my foot pathetically missed and landed on the classic clogs that I put aside which in turn slid forward stretching my leg out too far and making me lose my balance. As I fell forward I wondered why this was happening to me so many times recently because I''m sure that I didn''t deserve any of this at all currently. I quickly put out my hands and luckily they grasped the top of the cabinet stopping myself from falling on it. Supporting myself up I realized that my hand had grasped on something on which taking a closer look it was a brown covered book.


    An immense headache came and I could sense my forgotten memories coming in a rush to my head in which I let out a huge gasp after remembering everything. I was pretty shaken up and when I saw the book in my hand I had trepidation against it because it wasn''t normal to lose memories in the time it takes for someone to snap their fingers. Heck I even forgot my meeting with the girl yesterday and by its indications I''m sure that the girl isn''t normal at all. Cold sweat was forming on my head and shivers were going down my spine and I had to freaking wonder on what the heck was I getting myself involved in.


    I may have been overreacting on this issue but objectively speaking what happened to me wasn''t natural at all and its plain freaky that I can remember how I lost my memories and how I acted without those memories. Thinking about this if I left this book right now or threw it way somewhere I would probably forget all about this wouldn''t I? Then I could go on with my life without a care in the world because hell if I know what this book is about and my intuition is telling me that getting involved in this could bring great consequences.


    The safest choice would be to get rid of it and never see it again... but thinking about this calmly was it truly coincidence that I was able to stumble upon this book? In the first place the only reason I remembered about this book was because I accidentally grasped it right now when I fell and that''s even how I got this book for the first time at all.


    Ruminating over this I decided to throw the book away to a random direction in my room because even though this situation was quite fishy I wanted to test if I would truly accidentally find the book like the other times. Finally to me this was dreadfully fascinating because something out of the ordinary was happening personally to me, and damn me if I wasn''t curious about what was going on.


    In the end after throwing the book some moments later I forgot everything about it and went outside towards the car to get to school without knowing anything that happened prior.

 Chapter 4

    Going to school was a huge drag to me. It wasn''t because school was boring on the contrary after I calmed myself down in my bad behavior I learnt how to appreciate the knowledge that the teacher gave us in their classes. Which thanks to that I''m currently passing all my classes with high A''s unlike last year in 9th grade when I barely passed everything by the seat of my pants. No, the reason school always feels like a drag is due to the classmates around me in which I can tell they all despise me or at least don''t want to talk to me.


    Which is understandable since the entire time when I was a freshman at this school I acted like a total cold bastard to everyone else. Plus at the time I did pretty much say a lot of mean and insulting things to my classmates that made me be a social outcast. Even though I have changed over the summer break thanks to my parents wake up call and began taking steps to rectify my bad behavior my classmates obviously aren''t giving me a chance.


    Its been about 2 months since school started and right now we''re at the first week of November, but my classmates have been steering clear of me since day 1 and think I''m faking my kind, calm persona I have right now. In a way they aren''t wrong since I am mostly acting and repressing my spikes of anger or bad that I so want to do to my classmates. I wish to stand from my seat and shout at every single one of them calling them ''fuckers'', ''shitbags'', ''dicks'', and beat them so black and blu¡ª. I mean, I shouldn''t do that at all.


    Honestly speaking I get annoyed at myself for those intrusive thoughts that sometimes come into my head because it feels natural to think like this, but I won''t be able to become a better person through those thoughts. I looked around me and saw that many of the students were still taking the Geometry quiz that the teacher gave us which I had already finished and gave to the teacher. Glancing around the classroom I saw many textbooks and books scattered around presumably about math in which for some reason every time I looked at them it made my head hurt slightly. This also has happened to me in other classrooms it felt like I was trying to remember something but I couldn''t no matter how hard I tried. Though I did have to wonder why I must feel discomforted by seeing books since they are like the only things I love to have because it gives me the opportunity to read something which is my hobby.


    I hoped that this discomfort that I was feeling in my head will fade away or else I wouldn''t be able to re¡ª.


    *BRRRING*


    My thoughts were interrupted by the school bell which indicated that the last period of class was already over and I saw that all my classmates were already finished with their quiz. They were just getting their backpacks and leaving the classroom with due haste which reminded me that I also needed to go as well. So I got my backpack and fast-walked myself out of the classroom heading directly towards the school buses which fortunately was close to the location my classroom was in. On my way towards the buses I could see that many of the students were steering clear of me, heck even the supervisors and teachers of the school who were outside were avoiding getting closer to me.


    When I saw this my thoughts began to become darker and angrier... until I promptly squashed those bad thoughts and suppressed them to the corner of my mind. I couldn''t afford to cause anymore trouble or else I''ll be most likely expelled from the school since I''m hanging by a thread due to all the stuff I did last year. Honestly the only reason I somehow was not expelled last year was because of my parents influence on the matter. Through some way they convinced the faculty of the school to not expel me and to give me a chance for me to become better in the future.  The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Unfortunately I''m pretty sure that everyone in school knows of the bad reputation I had last year which wasn''t that hard to spread because Leack High School only has about 500 students in total and rumors spread like wildfire around here. While in the middle of my contemplation I had arrived in front of the bus in which I went inside and sat myself on the nearest empty seat. I saw many come inside the bus but no one dared to sit next or even near me and when the bus started to move itself I stared outside the window since there was nothing else to do.


    In the end the ride was uneventful with the bus finally stopping near my house and me getting off  saying thank you to the bus driver and I walked in the path that lead to my house. After reaching my house I took out my keys and opened it up easily as I strolled inside my house where I noticed that the lights were off and my parents were nowhere in sight which was expected since they were still at work. Taking a glance at my watch it showed me that it was 5:08PM and they usually arrived here at about 6:00PM, so it wouldn''t be that long until they arrived.


    Seeing that there wasn''t anything in particular to do I went to my room and put my backpack down in the ground in a corner where it wouldn''t disturb me that much. I decided to lie down in my bed and take a short nap because frankly I felt tired from school especially my classmates who still kept their distance and scrutinized me the whole day. If I could only not hold back and just wreck havoc to them that would be nice... but that would only put me back to square one and erase my whole progression of me becoming better.


    With that in mind I closed my eyes and fell asleep on my dandy bed... or I would if it wasn''t for a small pulsing in the back of my head that was trying to remind of me of something. What that something was I couldn''t even fathom and I could ignore this pulsing if I wanted to...  but my intuition told me that this was something important. Though I didn''t want to leave my bed I stood up and began to mindlessly search my own room hoping to find whatever I forgot about.


    After a few minutes of this I was tempted to stop and go back to my bed until I caught sight of my backpack noticing something about it. Looking at my backpack and examining it closely I felt that it was off somehow... but I couldn''t put my finger on it. I stared at it for a few seconds until I realized that it was freaking levitating from the floor a few inches up! Like what the fuck!? I rubbed my eyes and I looked again but it was definitively levitating. How did I not notice that before!?


    This... this shouldn''t be possible at all!? Incredulously I reached out towards the empty space below my backpack where I grasped something and without thinking I yanked it out. The backpack fell and slumped down towards the ground. I looked down to my hand which for some reason was grasping a book of all things.


    Before I could question it my mind was hit like a sledgehammer in which in succession my forgotten memories came back to me. For a few moments I stood there letting out quick heavy breathes as I tried to calm myself down and normalize my breathing. This book was definitively out of this world without doubt and I never imagined that I would be embroiled in something like this. In the first place I hardly knew what I was dealing with and the relation it had towards the book I had.


    It was time for me to learn and experiment with this book in hand.

 Chapter 5

    This book was truly strange.


    I know that my recent experiences already pointed towards that but I feel like I need to reiterate this again. I spent the first hour just checking and messing with the book to see if I could find anything new about it, but I was so entranced with it that I didn''t even notice my parents coming inside the house. At first I was apprehensive with them wondering if I should reveal what I found since they were my parents, but in the end that didn''t even matter.


    Apparently they couldn''t see the book that I was holding judging from their reactions and when I tried to shift their attention towards the book in my hand they still saw nothing. I also tried to prod them with the book or make them touch it to see what would happen and the result was astonishing to say the least. The book literally phased through them as if it was intangible and I did this several times to make sure that I didn''t imagine it the first time. My parents though did give me weird looks when I was doing this and I somehow convinced them that I was trying to mess with them and just wanted to see their reactions.


    After that I chatted with them for a while until they left me alone in the room in which I proceeded to continue my investigation on the book. With what happened in mind I started to prod everything around me with the book, but nothing spectacular happened which was disappointing. I guess I can only assume that the book can only phase and become intangible at least towards humans, but I don''t know if this also includes other animals such as dogs.


    Another thing to test I suppose... but now that I think about it if what I thought is true then how the heck did I come into contact with this book? I''m sure I slipt on it and then I was able to see it yet that should been impossible if the book was truly intangible. Realizing this I could feel a headache starting to form because trying to figure something out with only assumptions and by myself was going to be freaking hard.


    There was also the fact that there were other mysteries that I wouldn''t be able to solve currently such as who was this Aaron Lawton person whose name was inscribed in the spine of the book. There is also that girl whom I met that erased my memories of her and I only got them back due to the book. I''m also sure that she is connected to this whole mess I am in and knows a lot more than me seeing how she carried herself. She could probably explain what the deal is with this book, but fat chance that I will meet her again. Even if I saw her would it be a wise choice to let her know that I have this book?


    I don''t have enough information to make a proper choice or decision on what would be the right thing to do. I really do need to learn more about this book. Continuing on with my research I flipped through the pages of the book and I just found random words written in them which I really couldn''t find anything of why those specific words were left inside this book. But after constantly seeing the pages I saw that there some words that repeated themselves on the pages which were ''soul'', ''vision'', ''eyes'', ''view'', ''perceive'', ''see'', ''observe'', and ''watch''.


    These words just made me more confused because why would these repeat multiple times on each page instead of the other random words that I found? More questions than answers, but at least I found some correlation between some words which is better than nothing. Actually it would probably be better if I record all my findings somewhere because once I let go of this book I''ll forget everything, and if I put my notes somewhere easy for me to find then I can just write down the location of the book, find it again, and bam get my memories back.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Although... I do have a sneaking suspicion that I don''t need to do this, after all I found the book every single time through sheer chance but it all seemed so contrived to me. Looking at this objectively the probability of me finding the book this consecutively is impossible especially in how it was done. The slips that happened to me and the placement of my backpack are the glaring things that made me bring up this suspicion. I know that I''m not clumsy enough to fall from a slip and seeing how these recent slips made me somehow grab the book it seems weird. There is also the fact that I coincidentally put my backpack on top of the book in which the chances of that happening is so low that I can''t help but smell something fishy about that.


    But I digress it is still better for me to write this somewhere since it would give me more certainty and assuming that I could always find the book is too risky for me to believe on since if this turns out to be false then I''ll be screwed. I quickly get a mini memo notebook and a pencil from my desk as I start to write all my discoveries about the book and started thinking on the location of where to put the book. That is until I saw that my pencil was writing nothing or to be more exact it wasn''t even touching the paper. I tried to push my pencil down with all my might but it didn''t budge an inch so I let it go and it fell on top of the memo notebook. I picked it up and tried again but still no dice in which I could only lean back in my chair and sigh in frustration.


    Well... shoot another possible venue closed how many countermeasures does this book have to hide its existence? With that question I tried other methods such as voice recording, drawing, writing it in code, and any other methods that I could think of even the silly or weird ones. All of them failed miserably because every time I thought about the book or hinting about it my actions for every method was physically stopped. It was terrifying that I couldn''t let out a single sound out of my mouth when trying to voice record about the book, and as expected I couldn''t even move the pencil towards the paper even if it was by drawing or trying to write in code.


    The other methods were also fucking useless and I spent most of my time failing which brought me down into a bad mood since I essentially wasted my time. I really wish to cuss and beat someone into submission in order to get rid of this mood, but that would be wrong plus I still have more opportunities to learn more about the book. I still don''t like that I am so easily able to bring back my bad side by mere frustration, but at least I''m making progress which is good.


    Calming myself down I see that it''s almost close to 11:00PM which is my bedtime panicking I hurried out of my room,went to the bathroom to take a quick shower, brushed my teeth, said goodnight to my parents, and threw myself towards the bed to sleep. I decidedly laid in the bed with the book in hand since that was the only way I could think of not losing my memories about it. Although it will look strange to carry this book everywhere with me since to other people it would seem that I''m gripping an non-existent object, but I have to do this because there is no other choice. I would have liked to study it more, but that would have made me needlessly tired especially with my weird insomnia condition that only happens shortly after 11:00PM.


    With that last thought I drifted off into sleep as I curled up into my sheets embracing the book as tightly as I could towards me.

 Chapter 6

    Today I woke up early in my bed at 7:00 AM wishing that I could sleep only a little bit more.


    But I knew I couldn''t go back to sleep because my body insisted that it had enough rest. I''ve tried to do so many times in the past but it only resulted in me staring at the wall or ceiling pointlessly for many straight minutes without falling asleep. Right now I was actually glad that I woke up this early since it gave me more time to test the book that I had. I checked if my parents were still in the house and I found their bed to already be neat and tidy. I felt pity for my parents because if they left this early then it meant that they had a lot of work ahead of them today.


    It worked in my favor though because now I could freely test the book with no problems and my parents won''t think I''m crazy due to me staring at something invisible since they are not here. Before I could go and test the book I soon thought of a problem of going through this course of action. The thing is that I didn''t know what more to test about this book because I pretty much finished doing everything I wanted to do yesterday. I did want to test the durability of the book but it was a too risky move to do that because whatever power this book possessed might disappear if I damage it.


    Of course there was always a chance that the book may turn invulnerable when it is about to get damaged but its dangerous to assume that because I have no idea what is the full capability that the book has. So... what else can I test about it because I''m drawing a blank here. I have time to think about it although I do wish that I can think of something quick or else it will be all wasted. Hmmmmmmm... I still have some mysteries I could try to solve from yesterday but I already know that they are impossible to solve for me right now. There is still those repeated words I found which thinking about it now I''m sure that there is something in common between them.


    Trying to remember all those words by memory alone was impossible for me so I flipped through the book again in which I figured out the words: ''soul'', ''vision'', ''eyes'', ''view'', ''perceive'', ''see'', ''observe'', and ''watch''. I sincerely wished that I could write all of these words down so that I could analyze them better because trying to cross-reference them only in my head was difficult. Shortly after complaining about this the words began to settle down in my head and it became easier to analyse them. I still don''t know why these specific words repeated so much in the book, but I think I found the relation that they have with each other. I should have probably noticed this sooner since it now seemed fairly obvious but I had a lot in my mind yesterday so I can cut myself some slack.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The relation between these words is that they have something to do with seeing things or something synonymous to it, but the thing that left me confused was the word ''soul'' since it didn''t seem to fit with the theme that I came up with. No... pondering it more deeply it does fit the theme because isn''t there a saying that said the eyes are windows to the soul? But if that is what the word is trying to convey then why is it the only one that gets to connect with the other words with a phrase? After all the rest of the words get to relate to each other just by having the same meaning but what makes the word ''soul'' the exception?


    Upon thinking about this I felt a small tingling sensation on the back of my head which implored me to say something or do anything. The problem was that I didn''t know what it wanted me to say or do and I was also mystified on why I was feeling this sensation. I chalked this up as another mystery to solve and tried to ignore it, but then the tingling intensified which knocked me to the ground as I suffered an intense headache. At this point I barely had the strength to keep the book in my hand and the only thing I wanted was to stop the pain in my head.


    I need to say something! What do I need to do!? Just make the pain stop! Fuck the pain keeps intensifying! What the shit do I need to make this stop! These thoughts began to cycle in my mind as I writhed on the floor, and then suddenly something clicked within my mind in which I murmured, "The eyes are the windows of the soul."


    The pain in my mind stopped which I was grateful for, but then the book in my hand started to trembled violently. Before I could do anything a translucent force came out the book which sent me rolling away from it and when I looked back the book was floating in mid air.


    *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*


    The pages were somehow flipping intensely by themselves and it seemed neverending until it abruptly halted and was left in its opened state. I gaped at the book in front in me not knowing what to do until I saw words forming above the book.


    [Individual detected. Identifying the individual. Checking requirements for a new owner. Individual meets the requirements. Proceeding to make a new link towards the individual. Connection fails. Use old link to connect towards the individual. Connection is successful. You are now the owner of this Book of Fate.]


    Before I could comprehend the words that I read they just disappeared into thin air and the book closed itself floating down towards me. I absentmindedly reached out and grabbed the book out of the air which it instantaneously flashed a bright light for a moment. Once my vision came back to me I inspected the book to see if there were any changes. Looking thoroughly there was only two noticeable changes that I could find which were that all the pages inside the book were now empty and no words could be found anymore. The final change would be that the cover of the book now had a title which was [Book of Fate: Sight] shown in a fancy cursive style.


    At this point of time I was left to wonder on what the fuck happened right now.

 Chapter 7

    I belatedly realized that I was still on the ground so I proceeded to stand up and gave myself a moment to process everything that happened minutes before. I still couldn''t comprehend the extraordinary thing that happened right before my eyes especially the message that appeared above the book.


    It made me contemplate what the message could mean because I clearly read that the supposed new link formed somehow failed to connect towards me. In which instead the old link got connected to me, but is there any big significance towards that? This also brought another question, what did it mean by the link connecting to the individual or in this case me? I assumed it was what made me the new owner of the book, but what does that even entail?


    Now that I think about it the one who made that message seemed to be the book itself along with the other things that it did such as floating or flipping the pages. Doesn''t that mean that the book at least has sentience in it? If that is true then I could ask the book all the questions I have and know more about the situation I am in. This idea probably doesn''t have much of a chance to succeed, but I need to try everything because who knows it might just work.


    With that reasoning I began to talk towards the book, "Hey... book if you are listening then can you please tell me what being an owner means?". When I finished saying that I stood there for a few seconds staring at the book... there was no response. I felt kind of silly trying to talk towards a book because if I took more time to think I would have realized that even if it was sentient it didn''t mean that the book would respond back to me. Also another flaw would be how would the book even communicate to me? I''m really stupid for try¡ª.


    *SWISH*


    I looked towards the sound I heard and saw that the book in my hand somehow had its cover opened and it was currently on the first page. Then my eyes slightly widened as words started to form on the page in an eligible cursive handwriting.


    [Being an owner indicates your permanent possession of this book until the day of your death. You have special privileges as an owner which are: summoning of the book, ability to visit the Otherworld, channel the special powers given by the book, and relevant memories will never be forgotten from now on. These privileges may be revoked or limited depending on your state of being.]


    It actually answered my question... heck yeah! Ha! Who knew that a random idea of mine would actually work!? This makes everything so much easier for me. At least I won''t be stumbling around in the dark since I now have actual answers that relate to my situation. I was worried that I had to figure out everything by speculation, but at present I can base it off the answers that the book may have.


    I''m also curious about some of the things that I''ve read when it answered my question. Apparently I could now visit this Otherworld, whatever that was and more pressing was the fact that I could use powers granted by the book. If what I''m thinking is correct then I probably don''t have to worry about losing my memories since the privileges point that I will never forget about it. Finally if my hunch is correct then I''m pretty sure I know what the summoning book ability does since it is kind of self-explanatory.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    The question is how do I activate these abilities that I got? I should probably ask the book, "Hey, book how do I activate or use these privileges that you gave me?". Unlike last time where the book took some time to answer back it instantly responded to my question.


    [To activate them just think or say the privilege you want to use at the moment. These must be intentionally used. It can''t be activated accidentally by the owner]


    A smile crawls up to my face because this literally proves to me that I can now get my answers to some of the questions I have had before. But first let me test out these new abilities I have! This is probably the most excited I have ever been in my life is like one of the books I have read coming out to life in the real world. Though I do need to remember to not get carried away with this after all my knowledge on why or what''s happening is super limited.


    Okay... where was I? Ah! yeah testing out the powers of this book. Let''s see... Summon Book. When I thought this the book that I was holding disappeared from existence. I clenched my hand to make sure it didn''t turn invisible, but there was truly nothing there. Summon Book. This time the book appeared out of nowhere in between my clenched hand which was kind of strange. I would''ve of thought that it would appear in my other hand that was completely opened instead of my clenched one.


    I tested it multiple times, but for some reason the book would only be summoned to my left hand and I couldn''t manipulate it at all on where I wanted it to be summoned. It was a mild nuisance, but it wasn''t that much of a big deal though I do wonder what happens to the book when it disappears? Another question to ask the book later on I suppose.


    Next on my list would the ability to visit the Otherworld which I am immensely curious about. If I think about it literally wouldn''t this mean that I am actually visiting another world? That would be an interesting prospect... time''s a wastin'' as I stand here so Visit the Otherworld!


    Suddenly I felt a sense of wrongness within me, as something began to move from inside the center of my body. This... thing within then started to resist the movement as I felt it anchor itself to the center of my body not wanting to move at all.


    But then I sensed a force acting on this thing within me and then it just yanked it out of my body breaking the anchor. For a moment I felt all of my five senses being cut off... I couldn''t feel, hear, see, smell, or taste anything at all. It was like if everything except me stopped existing... or maybe it was the other way around?


    Then everything returned to normal and I looked around with deep breaths to calm myself down from the experience. I immediately noticed that I was still inside the house and my first thought was that the ability failed or that it was a dud. But when I looked closely I noticed that everything was greyed out around me and that below me in the ground there was gray clouds encasing someone or something.


    Wait... below me in the ground? I then noticed that I was indeed much more elevated in height than I was before and the reason for that was because I was freaking floating off the ground. The surprise didn''t end with that, as there was a much pressing fact to be addressed. I didn''t have any arms, legs, hands, feet, or for that matter I didn''t have any body parts at all.


    Instead I was a formless, mini black cloud.

 Chapter 8

    ...


    What... the... Fuck! Why the hell am I freaking black cloud! What happened to my body?! Why did this happen?! Okay... okay just calm yourself down... don''t turn yourself hysterical... I need to analyze what is happening right now... keep the anger inside don''t let it out... act like the person you need to be and don''t become the person you used to be.


    I kept repeating these thoughts inside my mind as I tried to keep myself in control which was absurdly hard since everything about me felt completely wrong. I didn''t have any limbs to move and I couldn''t feel myself breathing or my heart beating... it was a nightmare to me. Everything was so disorienting... I didn''t even know how this cloud body even works, and the way it functions was absolutely different from that of a human body.


    I need to reassure myself that I am not dying... I am still alive. No reason to panic that much... yes Andrew you are fine keep the act up. Okay then back to important matters and ignore these new and phantom sensations for now let me think before acting. From what I''ve gathered I somehow got transformed into this cloud thing when I went to this Otherworld which in hindsight I should have been more careful, and ask the book about the details of my abilities instead of just testing them out like this. Consider this a lesson learned from me.


    So if the reason I am like this is due to the Otherworld then me going back to my own world should revert me back to normal right? Visit the Otherworld...... Okay why isn''t the ability working? I am clearly thinking about it and I do want to use it so why isn''t it working!? Visit the Otherworld!...


    The fuck!? Why am I still in the same place!? It worked when I was using the Summon Book ability so why isn''t it working just like before!? Calm down.. calm down... there must be some explanation for this I can''t possibly be stuck here right? First of all I need to test if I actually lost the powers that the book granted me so... Summon Book. With that thought in mind I suddenly saw the book be summoned right in front of me, but before I could do anything in that moment I felt my body become significantly bigger and different.


    It was with startling realization that I noticed I now had a human body, and also that I was falling down due to no longer floating anymore  alongside the book which I instinctively grabbed. I was dropping into the grey clouds below me in the ground as I saw it open up revealing what it was encasing inside. I doubted my eyes but inside the grey clouds was me laying down on the ground, but before I could question it I landed right on top of my body and then I felt myself get sucked right inside.


    Everything got twisted for a second before it straightened out and it took me some time before I could process what happened. Looking around I concluded that I was back in my world mostly because things were no longer grayed out and the vibrancy of color was now back. I stood up from the ground and was relieved to find that I didn''t sense or feel anything strange with me.


    I did have one concern in which it was that I couldn''t find the book that I carried before dropping down... on top of my body? Yeah that is another question needing to be answered but let''s see if the book is alright, Summon Book. The book appeared in my left hand which I brought it closer to check if there were any changes to it and after examining it I found that nothing was wrong and the pages inside were also completely blank. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Huh... actually that tidbit of blank pages is kind of weird because previously it answered my questions in writing within those. Does that mean the writing inside these pages given by the book disappear after a certain time limit or do they disappear when I don''t need the writings anymore? I guess I need to tes¡ª I mean ask about that later on. There is no way I''m going to test stuff when it relates to this book anymore.


    Thinking better on it why the heck did I even experimented on the book''s abilities without asking the book on the details about them that was plain dumb for me to do. Moving on I do have some speculations on what happened when I visited the Otherworld, but why bother with that when I have my handy dandy answer book!


    "Book can you please give me further details on what the abilities I got do and if there are any special conditions I have to fulfill in order to use them?"


    [Please use the correct term these are not ''abilities'' but privileges that were given to you by the book. First, the ''Summon Book'' allows you to summon the book from an unknown dimension or send it back there. Note that it will only be summoned in a specific place near you and the location set is arbitrary so you won''t be able to change it at all. Second, ''Visit the Otherworld'' allows you to go in a parallel world that is entwined to yours. In order to do that the book takes out your soul from your body and gives it a physical manifestation to go to the Otherworld. The only way to return back to your world is to find where you left your soulless body and merge with it alongside this book or else it won''t work. Lastly I can''t give you anymore information about your last two privileges other than what''s already been given.]


    After reading all of this it took me a while to digest this new information because it gave me a lot of stuff to think about. I was especially surprised that the book corrected me in what I was calling them before answering my question. To me this confirmed undoubtedly that the book is truly sentient or else it wouldn''t correct my word usage or even provide it as a suggestion in the first place.


    Before I would''ve thought that this newfound information would be pointless since I could ask the book for this, but after what I''ve read I need to remove this viewpoint of mine. I had the misconception that the book could answer every question I had in mind for it, but seeing how it wouldn''t reveal more information about my last two privileges meant that the book couldn''t give me everything I wanted to know.


    Finally what made me kind of freaked out and shocked would be the details on my abi¡ª I mean my privileges. The Summon Book definitely has some mysteries to it especially this unknown dimension where the book comes from, but for now I''ll leave that alone. What made me truly worry was the privilege of Visiting the Otherworld because from its details I don''t think I want to use it ever again. This privilege literally takes my soul away from my body in order to use it and I feel iffy about this considering we are talking about my own freaking soul here.


    I also come to the chilling realization that if I haven''t gotten lucky in going back to my body at that moment on time in the Otherworld I could have potentially be stuck there forever roaming around with no chance of coming back. I shook in fear at this fact and I promised myself that I would never do something as stupid as that in the future.


    This won''t deter me because I want to figure out all the intricacies about this book no matter what. Of course this time when I am dealing with mystical shit as this I won''t experiment or test it so carelessly. Instead learning about it gradually and safely is the way to go.