Summoner: The Book of Dimension

63 Peter’s Desperate Persuasion And The Incoming Danger

Everyone was just watching as Peter panicked all alone.

“Ray, Zack, help me look around for Emma,” he said, his voice with authority as he looked around.

“What’s happening?” Ray asked as he stood up. “Is it urgent?”

He looked at his two friends and nodded. “Yeah. Emma is suspicious. I’ll tell you the details later after we search for her,” he said and unconsciously scratched his head. “Uh, I’ll search outside, you guys search for her at the first and second floor,” he instructed and the two nodded without any objection.

Ray chose to search on the second floor. On his way, he met the housemaid and she looked at her in surprise. “What are you doing here, sir? Do you need to see Sir Benedict?”

He shook his head with a smile. “I was wondering if you could allow me to search the second floor.”

She raised him an eyebrow and her eyebrows creased. “What do you mean, Sir? You’re not allowed, of course. Why do you need to search for the second floor?” she asked.

He gasped and embarrassingly chuckled. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I’m looking for someone but I know that’s not an excuse for you to let me search the second floor,” he said while laughing at how silly he sounded. “Instead, may I ask if Ms. Emma went here?”

She immediately shook her head with a small smile. “No, I just cleaned the whole second floor just now and never saw anyone in here aside from Sir Benedict, I’ve seen no one else.”

He nodded in understanding. “How about the bathroom?”

She shook her head. “Nope, no one’s there either. Why are you looking for her?”

He just smiled as an answer and patted her shoulder. “Let me know if you saw her around,” he nodded back when she nodded.

Zack searched the living room, the bathroom, kitchen, and all the other rooms on the second floor. He didn’t find any basement, so he didn’t have anywhere else to search. He came back to meet Ray in the lobby. “Did you find her?” he asked.

Ray shook his head. “She’s not there. Did Peter come back?”

“I just got here. He should still be outside,” Zack said. The two nodded and they went out to go to Peter.

Peter searched back to the backyard and by the swimming pool where he last saw her. If she wasn’t there, then there was one thing he could tell. She escaped for however, she could, and he knew it was something with the use of magic. By then, there was no way to deny that his hunch about Emma being connected to Josh’s death was right.

While he was looking outside the entrance of the mansion, he heard footsteps. He turned around and saw his two friends walking in his direction. He met them in the middle and placed his hands on his sides. “Did you find her?”

The two shook their heads.

“What’s happening?” Ray asked the same question he asked Peter earlier.

Peter sighed. “It’s a long story, but I’m suspecting Emma is plotting something,” he started. He wasn’t sure if he should tell because the two would probably demand concrete proof. He just hoped they will support him as his friends.

“How could you say that?” Zack asked in confusion. “She probably just left for some matters. She looked busy with her calls even from earlier,” Zack said. See? Even if he hadn’t said anything, Zack was already rejecting his suspicion.

Peter looked at Ray who was just waiting for him to tell what he knew. He sighed. “She left her briefcase, remember? If it was urgent and she wanted to leave, she should’ve just told us,” he said.

Ray nodded as he was understanding what Peter was saying.

“She left us all in here, and she seemed to be in an urgent. She said she just needed to go to the restroom. I insisted to escort her there because it was getting dark. But when I said I will check the bathroom, I turned around and she wasn’t there,” he said, almost sounded like he was rapping.

Peter looked at the sky and the sunset was just coming. The edge of the sky was getting dark and somehow the thought of it scared him.

“Are you sure about this? What if she comes back?” Ray asked.

“It would be great if she does. Then my suspicion will be lifted,” he said and looked back at the mansion. “We need to ask everyone to leave with Josh’s body. We should get out of here,” Peter said.

The two followed him, uncertain about what he was talking about.

He entered the lobby and heard everyone was laughing about some things they were talking about while they were gone. “Everyone,” he called with a voice to attract their attention.

Everyone looked at him and his two friends just stood by each at his sides. They chose to just stay there and not interrupt at whatever Peter had in his mind. “Everyone, I know I may sound crazy and at this moment, I already probably do, but we need to leave this place, right now,” he said.

Everyone looked at each other and started murmuring.

“I thought we’re told to stay here,” says one of them who was Josh’s friend back in middle school. “I thought, Josh, requested to stay here tomorrow until 6 in the morning? Why the change of mind?”

Peter didn’t know where to start because they needed to have a high level of understanding to process the things he should say. He scratched his head. “Don’t you think it’s quite weird that on Josh’s will, the request was too weirdly specific? Don’t you think it’s strange that he said that? If you know Josh, would he really request that? Because for me, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

One of them started laughing lightly. “But we’ve all seen the will, it was his handwriting, right?”

While he was listening to that one person, he heard faint whispers and it seemed like it came from afar. He looked at Ray and Zack, each of them didn’t seem to hear what he heard. He also felt shivers down his spine and his guts said something was to come.

“He must’ve lost his mind,” one of Josh’s friends murmured in sympathy but he never heard it.

One whispered back at that person, “We can’t blame him, he’s the closest one to Josh.”

He turned back at them. “You need to listen to me,” Peter started. “Emma, she must know something about josh’s death. She wasn’t as suspicious as to how she’d look but I know she’s plotting something.”

“How can you say that? Ms. Emma is Josh’s lawyer. You couldn’t accuse her without even knowing about her,” one of them argued.

He sighed. “We’ve met her before you guys do. I can’t tell you many details, but I’ll tell you all later when we get out of here.”

“She’d not even here,” one said. Ray and Zack just stood there. Although they felt bad he was explaining there all alone, they didn’t know what they’d say in his stead anyway.

“That’s the point, she’s not here? Why did she suddenly leave?” Peter argued.

“Because she went to the restroom,” one of them argued back as well.

“She said she would. What is this, she’s still in the restroom? Besides, I escorted her myself and she disappeared,” Peter said.

Ray grabbed his arm. “Pete, don’t make a scene. Where here because of Josh, remember? We can’t make a commotion on our friend’s wake,” he tried to calm him down.

“If you’re not going to help, just stay still and let me do my thing. I’m doing this to save us all from what’s coming,” Peter said, gently removing Ray’s hand from his arm.

“Saving us from what?” someone asked.

Peter didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know, I don’t really know. You don’t want to wait and know what it is, right?”

Suddenly, he felt heat behind his back. He remembered he still had his backpack over his shoulder. It was not the type of heat that could burn, it was just warm. He didn’t have anything else there but the Book of Dimensions and a set of clothes for a day. He immediately thought it was the book that was making a warm feeling.

As if it was telling him something. At that moment he even thought the possibility that the book must’ve been telling about Josh’s death when he was hearing those gibberish whispers days before he received the news from Emma.

“Are you telling the truth?” David suddenly asked. Peter was surprised but he nodded.

“Don’t tell me you’re believing him?” someone asked David in a ridiculing tone.

Everyone watched as David started collecting his things. “I’m going to get out of here,” he said and walked past Peter before he left the lobby.

Every one started murmuring at each other.

At least, he succeeded one to leave. But that doesn’t mean he would give up.

“Everybody, we have no time. We have to leave.”