CARRIE

Chapter Thirty-Four

The room was filled with books, furniture and all sorts of old stuff. I walked around the room, checking the books for any sort of clue or anything related to rituals and demons. “Come on guys, don't just stand around, let's get what we came here for and leave this place,” I checked the shelves propped up against the walls. “Carrie check that other side, Leah you check the corner over there,” I said as I pointed out the areas to both of them. A few minutes later, Carrie called our attention to something, it was a note and a key. Same thing I received. I read the note out loud, “Behind the greatest explorer lies the answer to all secrets”. What does that even mean?

I stood still for a while, just thinking about what it meant. I know it's a code, that much is obvious, but deciphering it was the hard part. Who was the greatest explorer? There were lots of explorers so it could be anyone of them. I checked around the shelves and walls for a hint, I was too engrossed in what I was doing. I searched for a few minutes before finding a collection of paintings on the wall at the far corner of the room. I stood in front of the paintings and walked past them, looking at them as I walked. “The greatest explorer” I put my hand on my chin. After walking past all the paintings, I walked back, still looking at all of them. I stood in front of one and snapped my fingers, “Haha I found it. It must be this” I shouted as I smiled, obviously happy with myself. “What did you find,” Carrie asked as they ran to where I was. I pointed to the painting of Marco Polo in front of me, “The greatest explorer, it has to be this.” I looked around the painting and observed the painting with a flashlight. After looking at it for a while, I ripped out the painting. Carrie and Leah gasped at the same time, and I pointed the flashlight at the wall. There was a keyhole, I collected the key from Carrie and opened the door. It led to another room entirely. I found the switch and turned on the light as we entered the room. This room was different from the one we just came out from, there were books with stars, suns and eyes on them. They looked ancient and some had notes that were already falling off. “Looks like we found our answers” Carrie smiled at me and Leah.

“Let's do this the same way we did in the other room” I turned around and picked a spot to start checking from. Carrie and Leah picked theirs too. There were so many books with so many things just hidden away here, I checked the books one by one. “The Free 16, Summoning the underworld, The Afterlife” These were all books based on things happening or have happened, in fact, all the books here are based on things happening or that have already happened.

Carrie found another of Uncle Perry’s diaries. I went over to her and looked at the book, I flipped through the pages and was amazed at how much was going on that we were oblivious to all along. According to this diary, my Dad confronted him a lot of times and they argued a lot of times and my Uncle even tried using a possession spell on him, a demon possession spell. My Dad outsmarted him every time, I guess that's what made him hate my Dad so much. He bested him every time and was genuinely a better person. “A few pages are missing, like they were torn out” Leah noticed. She was right, someone has been here recently. It wasn't as dusty as the previous room which was weird, because for you to access this room you have to come through that room, except there was another entrance to the room. I brought it to their attention and Leah agreed while Carrie stayed silent. “What's wrong? What are you thinking about?” Leah asked her. "Maybe whoever came here just passed through the other room. If this room was their main target and they know what's in here, then there's no use spending much time in the other room. Maybe that's why it's that dusty" She explained. I thought about it for a while. “Besides, even if it was true, we don't have enough time to get into that right now” She added. "Let's just focus on other things and take the books we find useful" She put the book into her bag and we checked for other books we could take as well to find out more.