Grant My Wish

CHAPTER 3: VISIT WITH A GLOWING BOOK

Opening the door, I was greeted by my second older brother, Steven. Pecking the cheek of my second older brother, I urged him to go inside while I carried the groceries and other stuff that he had bought for me to the living room. Placing it on top of the table, he sat comfortably on the sofa and started his usual observing skills to look for any changes in my apartment.

“Your place is still the same. Same old neat and refreshing vibe. Anyways, how have you been?”

Brother Steven has the looks but also has the talent of managing a business properly, which our grandparents are really proud of. Hehe, they’ve been telling everyone they meet about it, of course. How can’t it be obvious enough? He always has that serious face which makes him charming in a way, but also makes it hard for people to approach him.

“I’m good. I heard you got another deal from a large company in another country. Congrats, my dear old brother”

He only smirked a little and nodded repeatedly.

Look at that, he is proud of his accomplishments. It’s really what makes him adorable though.

“ So, why did you suddenly decide to pay me a visit? I’m sure that I heard from Grandpa that you’ll be in Italy by now.”

“Well, about that. I asked them to delay my trip for a while. That’s actually the reason why I came here. Anne’s about to give birth soon. We’ll be throwing a party immediately tomorrow. I gotta’ need some help as it’s going to get real busy.”

I looked at him and was speechless by what he said.

Sure there is a reason why he came to me and asked for assistance but…never or ever since I started existing here in this world did I ever hear him ask someone for help.

It is a known fact within the family that he is a person who likes doing things on his own even if he ever gets into a difficult situation. We don’t know for sure if it’s pride or if he just doesn’t like others meddling with his personal matters. Still, that’s what makes me hold high respect for him since I was a child, because he really worked hard to accomplish his goals.

He always tries to accomplish the impossible and that’s just really admirable.

But then, it was when I suddenly realized what was happening around here.

“Is that so…pfftt.” I couldn’t help but laugh my ass out when I realized what made him suddenly come here and ask me for help.

Brother Steven only looked at me as if he would kill me.

“So YOU did get into a fight with my sister-in-law. Let me guess. Hmm…It’s because your schedule’s real tight, huh?”

Brother Steven just brushed me off, but in the end, I ended up zipping my mouth as he seemed he was already going to kill me anytime soon. We talked for some time and then I already found myself in front of my door seeing my brother out.

“Mother and Father said sorry because they couldn’t come to the event at your school last time. They said that they would make it up to you soon.”

I tried to hold on to my smile when my brother said that suddenly out of nowhere.

“Yeah, I’m sure they must’ve got a reason. Tell them it’s okay and not to mind it too much.”

Brother Steven looked at me for a moment before placing his head on mine.

“Alexandra, it’s okay to be mad or complain that you’re not okay with it at all. I already told you about that bad habit of yours.”

“Hmm…yes, brother.”

He sighed before kissing me on the forehead. “Call us anytime you want. You can also come over. Lately, my wife’s been feeling restless, so why not spend some of your time with her? She’s been asking me about you for a while now.”

Smiling, I nodded and pecked my brother on the cheek.

“Thank you, brother.”

“Hmm…goodbye. Take care.”

“Sure do. You too! Inform my sister-in-law that I might suddenly visit her sometime.”

After bidding farewell to my brother, I immediately ran after the suspicious thing that I’d been anxious about since earlier.

The book that the old lady I met on our field trip gave me suddenly appeared out of nowhere and it seemed to be…glowing.

As far as I know, it’s just a normal book and it doesn’t have any kind of special features or anything. In addition to that, it just suddenly opened just behind my brother and some crazy words appeared just above it in the air.

I kept on trying to get the attention of my brother countless times just so he wouldn’t turn his back and see something…really crazy. Grabbing a knife just in case, I was now slowly walking towards the back of the red, large sofa where my brother just sat a while ago.

What the heck is happening right now?

Am I going crazy? Or, maybe I just didn’t realize that I was crazy and overlooked the signs?

The f**k.

Clear black letters that looked like scribbles or something was floating in the air, but somehow I got the jinx. It's trying to form a sentence in a particular language I’m not familiar with. Moments later, after the words had been put into order, it glowed once again and began translating itself to our language.

Stepping closer, just two steps away from the strange phenomenon that was happening in front of my eyes, I tried to read what it said.

“T-The…Princess’s Journey and the Destruction?...”

Tilting my head, I looked at the book below and put the words stupid, crazy, and psycho into my dictionary.

“You…Are you trying to show me something? Answer me.” I said while I pointed the knife down in the direction of the book.

“........”

It stopped glowing for a second before it glowed once again but now brighter.

.

.

.

.

………

“You, am I going insane or you’re really just some real freaking glowing book that glows even without any lightbulb or something? Glow 2 times if yes, and 3 times if not.”

Holding the knife tightly in my right hand, I blocked my eyes with my hand but my fingers spread open just so I could see if it was really going to do what I said.

“...........”

Observing it closely, I screamed my lungs out when it glowed repeatedly three times.

I couldn’t help but make a mess of my sofa and started throwing the pillows all over my apartment.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!Crazy! Crazy! Really crazy!!!” I screamed and screamed and I ended up facepalming myself when my neighbor suddenly knocked at my apartment and repeatedly asked if I was OK. I tried to compose myself while I explained that I just got a perfect score on our math exam, and even congratulated myself.

It looks like my neighbor mistook that there was some intruder or something.

Woooh!

Keep calm, Alexandra. Compose yourself.

Asking the book for permission if it was okay for me to place ‘itself’ on top of the table while I seat on the sofa so we could ‘talk’ things out.

Don’t even try to ask me what I’m doing right now ‘cause I possibly don't know either. It’s just what my instincts told me so. And I’m really a person with good intuition, so…yep, confirmed, I’m insane.

I should’ve known earlier…Haha…I kinda’ of pity myself.

“Anyways, creepy strange glowing thing book that can understand what I’m saying, are you…after me?. Look, I’ve got a knife right here, so if you try anything stupid, or do something like letting out animals as they did in ‘Jumanji’, not that I can do anything about that but…I-I’ve got a knife right here, and it’s really pointy. In my left hand, I have a lighter, so…yeah. Prepare yourself for danger.”

____

“............”

In an instant, words floated in the air and I couldn’t help but look at them in disappointment.

I just realized something.

“Why do you just keep on glowing if you could just make words float in the air all this time?”

“It’s because you told me to glow, stupid human.”

HUH. The audacity of this strange, communicating, glowing book.

“You should’ve informed me from the beginning. I think I’ve really gone insane because of you. Nevermind, back to the topic. Why did you appear all of a sudden and just BEHIND my brother? Explain yourself, creepy book.”

I laid myself comfortably on the sofa while at the same time reading the strange words the book shows in the air.

And may I add, ‘ its handwriting sucks.

It looked like electrocuted letters with zigzag and all.

I didn’t know a book would ever have a terrible font.

“You should’ve just printed what you’re trying to say in our font and language ‘coz it’s really terrible.”

“Shut up, you stupid human. My power’s just limited in another world, so it’s like that. Now, understand properly what I’m trying to tell you, won't you?”

I’ve never seen a book as demanding as this one seriously.

So to summarize, the book says that it appeared all of a sudden because I'd made a wish earlier while I was talking to my brother. The old lady gave ‘itself’ to me because she knew that I was having trouble or difficulties in my current life.

What amazed me, even if it may make me seem crazy, is that ‘it’ could help me with just that. And it means changing the life or situation that I’m in right now. That is if I personally agree when ‘it’ asks me just as if he’s asking for my permission and with my own will. However, what happened afterward is out of his control and powers, which means I’ll really be held responsible for my own new life.

I then told ‘it’ that I needed some time to think about it, which he respected and it became a normal book once again, as if nothing had happened.

I never told my family about the things I have gone through since I was a child, even the troubles and difficulties I’ve been into. I was bullied when I was a kid, almost got into an accident multiple times, how one of my best friends before took advantage of my kindness, and a lot of other things, and the most traumatic one was when my classmates when I was in grade 8 locked me in the room behind the school and was able to go out in the afternoon the day after.

People look up to me because of my accomplishments, but because they say I was hella’ rich, they think that I always get a high grade, and all of my accomplishments are because I bribed the teachers and judges.

Pretty childish, but I got used to their actions at one point. After that incident, it was when I used the authority that I have and turned the school upside down. However, I made sure it didn’t reach the ears of my family as they'd probably send bulldozers to destroy the school, and took big measures towards those who had done me wrong.

It’ll only make things worse and cause a lot of rumors which will get me into trouble about meeting new people later on.