The Book That I Found

03. THE VIDEO

In the middle of the night, Grace opened her eyes, pulled out the book she kept under the pillow and slowly opened the zip of the tent and walked out into the pitch-dark forest. Stacy saw it, and tried to follow her. But the forest was so dense that she couldn't find the path. And also she's hearing some strange sounds through the woods which freaked her out, made her come back to the tent and fell asleep.

A while later someone struck against the tent and opened the zip. Stacy's startled for a moment. But It was

Grace. And she seems so frightened.

"Close that flap", said Grace.

STACY: What happened? GRACE: Close it. Please.

Stacy closed the flap and asked, "Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

GRACE: Nothing. Nothing.

And she slept covering herself with the blanket.

........

JENNIFER: That's it?

STACY: Yeah. That's how it all began. From that night Grace started acting weird.

JACOB: And the very morning we heard Bryan was killed.

JENNIFER: [with shock] By who?

EDWARD: Randy Walker. He was a co-player in our football team. They both fought and Randy pushed Bryan off the cliff accidentally, is what we heard.

JACOB: It's a confidential matter. Bryan was a kinda role model in our school. Nobody speaks about his death. That asshole Ben got bribed by Walker's father to keep everyone shut, everybody believes that it's just another meaningless high school gossip.

JENNIFER: Ben? You mean principal Benjamin Tuffin?

STACY: Yes.

JENNIFER: Okay maybe it's Randy then. Grace might have

witnessed the crime. So he had a real motif to,

JACOB: Even we considered that possibility. But no. There's another death which horrified everyone the most.

Jacob played a video on his laptop. In that video Randy was trembling with fear, pouring gasoline all over his body and saying,

"I.. I know what you are thinking. But I didn't kill Bryan.

It was not me. It's a book [showing the book] I don't know what this is but, it comes out of nowhere and disappears. It's literally haunting me. [Weepingly] I can't do this anymore.

No one believes me. Not even dad. I'm fucking tired of this. I'm so sorry." And he lit himself.

JENNIFER: Oh god. Where did you get this?

EDWARD: It's posted on Randy's account on the other day of both their deaths and it really went viral.

STACY: And was also deleted within an hour. Thanks to our hacker boy here, we were able to preserve the most relevant information safely.

JENNIFER: [Confused face] What?

JACOB: First we thought their suicides were out of guilt over Bryan's death. But this video changed everything.

JENNIFER: After Bryan died, didn't you ask Grace what exctly happened?

STACY: Some disturbances came up between us after Grace started dating Bryan. We tried to console her after what happened with McKay, but she showed no interest.

EDWARD: So, we thought, it's better if we give her the space she wanted. [Exhales] But now I think we shouldn't have done that.

STACY: [with grief] Yeah... She was my best friend. Everything happened so fast. We don't know who to trust. What to believe?

EDWARD: We even doubted you. I'm glad that we all are thinking alike. You brought us the most relevant thing that we've been searching for.

JENNIFER: Okay. But I'm a bit confused. What relevant thing? And I'm seeing no doors at all. We don't even have our last witness. Randy. 

STACY: We're talking about the book Jenny. [ holding the book] This book. You know how much we searched for this. Which means...

JENNIFER: [ giving a crazy look] Which means you believe that crazy shitty book haunting thingy Randy talked about is true?

STACY: No. Which means You are a lifesaver. Wait. What? EDWARD: Why? You don't believe it?

JENNIFER: Guys come on. People kill people. Sometimes animals kill people. Natural causes can kill people. But what on Earth makes you believe that a book killed someone. It doesn't make sense. That Randy guy must have gone crazy.. but we are not,

JACOB: Someone's disbelief can't just erase things from existing. Can it? Jenny.

JENNIFER: [with a stun face] That's intense. Augh, You guys sound just like my aunt Anna. It's such a waste of time.

[exhales] Ok I believe you. Prove it to me and I'm in.

JACOB: [Sighs] Fine. I'll take it.

JENNIFER: Okay then, 3 days from now on. If I believe the metaphor, you're saying is really true, we'll continue the process as you say. Or else you people are helping me with this, in my way.

JACOB: Totally accepted.