Foreword

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I didn't write this.

No, it's not that I stole it from somewhere. I didn't even plan to plagiarize this story. It's just that it was handed to me under strange circumstances and my idiot self decided that this was an adventure of a lifetime.

My name is Reigl and this is my story.

Everything started the way it usually did. If this was a random movie, the scene would show a girl in a hoodie walking towards school or towards a house. Or walking towards wherever, so long as it showed that a story was starting.

Well, for me, it was in my room. Pan camera. Lights check. Action.

Music blasted in my ears as my phone croaked out the songs in my playlist. The light was dim but I continued studying anyway. I've got a test in this subject and the professor wasn't exactly the best out there.

Rain slapped the glass of my windows, the sound enough to set me squirming with dread. With that downpour, it's going to be hell going to class tomorrow.

I sighed. The sky had turned dark long ago. The clock on my desk read 10:30. Ugh. So much to do, so little time.

That's when a spark of light flashed through my window. I shrugged. That's just lightning. Thunder would follow like it always did.

There was no thunder.

I frowned. Weird.

I groaned and massaged my temples. I should be focusing on the syllabus and not on the goddamn thunder.

Something thudded on my door. Oooookay. That was weirder. Was I in a horror film? I eyed the lights. No flickering.

Come on, whoever's looking at my life up there. If you're going to put me in a movie, put me in a fantasy world with magic and fluff! Real life was enough of a horror already!

Of course, like every idiot in a horror film that always died first, I got up and yanked the door open. Seated on the welcome mat was a box. Weirdest.

I should have just left it there. Looking back, I should have just closed the door and continued studying and living my normal, boring life.

Instead, I picked up the box and shut the door. I looked at the shipment details. There was no return address. There wasn't even an address to tell me where it's from.

I set it to a thud on my desk after shoving all my study guides to one side. Heavy. Whatever this was, it's a lot.

My trusty cutter, the one that got me out of several scrapes including stabbing someone's eraser, ran the length of the taped package. Now, why was I doing this? Answer—I didn't know.

Maybe it was curiosity. Or just the simple excitement of receiving something from online shopping.

God, I hope this wasn't anthrax.

What I found inside, in retrospect, was worse than anthrax.

Journals stacked on top of another. Not just your ordinary Cattleya journals. These looked like the ones you see in a sorcery movie that contained the secret to immortality or a hidden recipe for mass destruction.

Did I get any? No.

I picked the topmost journal. It was as big as my laptop and as thick, too, with a dried leather cover where strange symbols were either burned through or pressed into. Okay, things were definitely turning for the weirder.

I flipped to the first page and something dropped out. Oh. The secret to immortality.

No. No. Far from that.

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