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Chapter I* * *
Long ago, when the earth was still young... Eons before the first signs of humans... There were only animals, plants, and the old man...Magister Mundi. Magister Mundi looked like a human, but he really wasn't. He was an immortal. An immortal who ruled the world that was peaceful until peace was disrupted. And he always carried around a thick book with green leather casing.
* * *
The sun had long returned to its hiding below the distant horizon. The miniscule stars gleamed with all their might in the vast and dark midnight blue sky. The night was nearly silent with the exception of the call of an owl.
Ethus slowly treaded across the grassy field looking in the direction of the rocky bluffs. There was an odd-looking rock that jutted out from a hill. From where Ethus was, it was a mere shadow darker than the dark night around it. As he approached the part of the hill, the proximity gave him the ability to see this portion of the hill. Seeing the shape of this, Ethus could see that this part of the hill was very round. It didn't look like it was done by nature, but there were no signs of markings left by humans or their tools.
* * *
Everyday, Magister Mundi would sit next to the animals, talking to them, and always holding the green-leather-cased book. Then, the peaceful world that Magister Mundi once knew began to change. Animals were killed, not for survival, but for joy, for pride, for a sense of power. The secrets of the great power of fire were unlocked. There was hatred. Murder. Envy. Greed. Disaster. Man was dominating the world.
When man began dominating the world and these new things began appearing like war, disaster, and famine, Magister Mundi felt that the future of the world was in mortal danger. Magister Mundi hid the green-leather-cased book in a safe place guarded by Earth herself, and then Magister Mundi hid within the thick stone walls of the outer tower in the Cretia realm.
* * *
Ethus continued examining the cave with his little flashlight until he suddenly stopped and realized something. The round, rocky part of the hill that jutted out was in the shape of a turtle's head. And the rest of the hill was in the shape of a turtle. Suddenly, something caught his eye.
Ethus thought he just saw the tip of the small beak of the turtle glow for a fraction of a second. He stood there bewildered. Then he repeated to himself that there was no glow until the tip of the beak glowed again. Ethus cautiously stepped towards the beak. He examined the small beak and then extended his arm out toward the beak. Ethus's hand moved toward the beak until he finally touched it.
Suddenly there was a large noise that sounded like something large and heavy moving. Then Ethus realized that the rock was split and opening up. The mouth of the stone turtle was opening. When the rocks finally stopped moving, he noticed a stairway that led down below. Ethus began to walk down the stairs. The mouth of the turtle closed.
* * *
Over the years, more and more people began to move into the area. After the suburban city grew, there was a growing demand for running water and electricity. There were plans for the construction of water pipes, telephone lines, and power lines underground. But after countless incidents of tumbling rock crushing construction workers, construction was halted. These things were built above the ground instead. Once there were plans for a new highway. They were going to cut through the rocky bluffs. But oddly enough, the highway kept collapsing.
An old man said that it was a supernatural force and that the bluffs and the underground were somehow sacred and not to be bothered. The people of the city thought he was crazy and banished him from the city. Accidents kept occurring whenever the city tried to build anything underground or near the bluffs. The people of the city eventually stopped trying and never built underground or near the bluffs ever again.
* * *
Ethus reached the foot of the stairway. Every step he made echoes all over the cave. He continued walking down the large stone hall. Then he stopped. A bit of light was visible. It came from around the corner.
Ethus moved on down the hall and then turned right at the end of the hall. He moved down the small hall that led to the source of light. There was a circular room with a pedestal in the middle. On the pedestal sat a green-leather-cased book. Where the light came from, he didn't know. But that didn't matter. Ethus stared at the book with wide eyes. Then he began to reach for it.
* * *
There was another thing that the old man had with the book. It was a feather pen. A quill. He placed that with the book too when he hid it.
The quill was meant to be used for writing in the book. No other writing utensil could be used to write in the book. If somebody tried, no markings would appear on the pages.
What was the feather pen for though? Why would anybody write in this book? Well, this thick book was originally blank. Every single page was blank. Before the first humans appeared, Magister Mundi began to write in the book. Whatever he wrote in the book would justify the history of mankind. If he wrote that there would be a war, there would be a war. If he wrote that somebody was going to do something great, he would write that in too. Magister Mundi wrote the history of mankind up to two milleniums. Then mankind appeared and he hid the book, the pen, and himself.
* * *
Ethus reached over and touched the leathery green book. He tried to gently lift the book, but it was too heavy. So Ethus raised the book with both hands. He slowly tilted the book toward himself to get a better look at the cover. At the right angle, the inscribed words on the cover of the book flashed from the reflection of the green light. "The Chronicles of Time." Ethus stared at the cover in admiration. The shiny words on the dark, green cover looked beautiful. Then he saw the feather pen.
The white, soft feather pen was tightly fit into a small penholder connected to a golden strap lock that prevented Ethus from opening the book. Ethus scoured the front and back of the book for a lock and a key, but he could find neither. After several minutes of this, Ethus got tired of searching and just put the book back on the stone pedestal. He stood there in bewilderment staring at the book. Then Ethus slowly reached for the feather pen. He pulled it out. Then there was soft and sudden click.
Ethus gently moved his hand across the cover and then slowly turned it open. On the inside of the cover, there were words in English. It was like the English in the Bible, making it sound very old and divine.
"Huh. And I expected Latin or Old English or something," Ethus said to himself. Then he noticed something. There was a message that talked about the book. "So this book automatically updates the language every few centuries. Maybe it uses English because it was chosen as the international language." Ethus read on. Then he suddenly gasped.
"I can choose the course of history? By writing in this book?" Ethus laughed. It also said that if the history wasn't written with enough detail, then the book would think up the rest and add it in itself. "HA! A thinking book!" He didn't believe any of it. "Whoever set up this joke did it well." He opened up the book to the first blank page he saw and sarcastically wrote himself an enormous chunk of chocolate to somehow end up on the kitchen table. He loved chocolate. Then Ethus closed the book, locked it with the pen, and was about to walk out. Suddenly...
There was a sliding noise. It made Ethus jump. It took a while before Ethus realized what the sound was. The doors were closing on him. He ran and ran. But the doors were closed. Then, he heard footsteps. Someone was descending the stairs!
Ethus ran and ran fervently around the maze-like cave, scouring for an exit. He couldn't find one. He was trapped. Ethus began to panic. The footsteps were getting nearer. Ethus noticed that one of the stone candleholders on the wall was at an angle slightly different from the others. Ethus pulled it. It began to open. Ethus could hear voices now.
Ethus frantically ran through the small tunnel that led directly out of the cave. The way the tunnel was designed made it look like an emergency escape route. But like Ethus cared. He was too frightened to care. He ran and ran and ran all the way back home.
By the time he neared his home, Ethus had calmed down. When he approached his house, he saw his mom running after a truck that speeded away. She was hysterically waving and shouting in anger. She turned and looked at him when he neared her.
"What's wrong, Mom?" Ethus asked. It took Ethus's mom a while to calm down.
"There was this crazy delivery man who delivered a large package we didn't ask for. He said that we won it. Right." She was now looking in the direction in which the truck had speeded away, still looking mad. "And he just dumped it on the kitchen table and left." For a few moments, Ethus was silent. Then he asked.
"What was it?" She turned to Ethus.
"Chocolate."
"What?!?" Ethus shrieked.
"I said - "
"I meant it as a rhetorical question," Ethus interrupted as he stepped into the kitchen. And sure enough, on the table was chocolate - twenty pounds of chocolate. He stood there appalled.
Chapter II
* * *
"Twenty pounds of chocolate???" Ethus thought to himself as he stared at a wall in his bedroom. "Could that have been a mere coincidence?" Ethus got up into a sitting position on his bed. He stared into the space of his room in bewilderment. "Well, this is just a bad dream. None if this ever happened. I never read about the myth of this book. I never discovered that cave. I never wrote in the book and wrote myself chocolate." But this didn't calm Ethus down. It only made him feel sicker from all that chocolate. "This never, never, never..."
Ethus caught sight of the book that sat on his desk. The book. "The Chronicles of Time."
This seemed like something from a fantasy book, something from a fairy tale. But this was reality. This could never happen in reality. But Ethus's curiosity tempted him to go back to the book. Back to the writing. He yearned to write history again.
"No," Ethus thought to himself. "This is wrong. Manipulating the history of mankind. It was wrong. Just wrong, wrong, wrong..." Ethus walked over to his desk and sat down. He just stared at the book. He stared and stared at the book. For minutes, there was dead silence. Just the steady breathing of Ethus. Then, his hand reached for the feather pen.
Ethus seemed to be in a dream. He didn't know what he was doing or what was happening. It was like a trance. Suddenly, Ethus realized that he was writing in the book.
"NO!!" Ethus screamed. He had just finished writing. He read his writing. There was a boy from school named Moe who constantly picked on Ethus. Ethus wrote that Moe would get hit by a truck. "What am I doing? This is wrong. What has happened to me?" But deep down inside, Ethus wanted Moe to suffer for all the years of suffering that Moe bestowed on him. Ethus sat there, stunned. The process was irreversible. All he could do was write that Moe would survive. And he did just that.
* * *
All Ethus could hear were the footsteps. They were after him. But what, he didn't know. He just ran and ran in trepidation, like prey fleeing from a predator. They almost had him. They were gaining! But Ethus still did not know what was after him. And then, and then...
"AHHHH!!!!!!"
Ethus shot up from his bed, soaked in sweat. Ethus stared at the book. It suddenly brought back very vivid memories of the dream he had just had. Ethus shook his head as if to shake the thoughts out of his head. He knew he had been dreaming of the night that he found the book. Ethus got up and sat on his bed; his eyes were still filled with sleepiness. Suddenly, he realized the time.
"Ahhh!!!! I'm late!"
Ethus grabbed his backpack and fled down the stairs to the kitchen, grabbing a tangerine and a V8 juice can. He ran and he ran and he ran... He missed the bus.
Ethus was terrified. His first period teacher was his English teacher Mr. Kholber, and he was hostile when it came to tardiness. Ethus knew that he would be in a whole lot of trouble today because there was a test. Suddenly, Ethus ran back to his house. He came out with something thick and heavy with a rectangular in his hands. It was the book.
Holding the book with his left hand, Ethus grabbed the pen and began writing, following the format already used.
The fiftieth minute of the seventh hour of the first of May. Year 2000, AD. A stretched chariot of the present doth come. Thy chariot shall bring forth comfort to disciple Ethus, and shall bring him to master Kholber of Audacity High.
Ethus closed the book. He was hoping that this would work. His eyes shut. When he opened his eyes, he saw a sleek, white stretched limousine turning around the corner. It stopped at the curb right next to Ethus, and then the driver came out and opened the door. Shocked and excited, Ethus entered the limo and sat down.
As the limo drove to school, Ethus looked at the inside of the car. It must have been one of the most luxurious limousines in the world. There were two medium-sized television sets, a mini-bar with snacks and beverages, a small, white refrigerator packed with food of all sorts, a phone equipped with a fax machine and an answering machine, and a computer. The limo driver abruptly interrupted Ethus's state of astonishment.
"We're here," the limo driver said as he opened the door. Ethus stepped out and thanked him, paying the fee with some money he found in the limo. He saw kids walking into the school. The first bell had just rung. He made it on time. He was saved.
* * *
As soon as the last bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Ethus took a cab home instead. During the afternoon, Moe had been hit by a truck, and everybody at school had been talking about it all day. Moe only suffered minor cuts and bruises, but he no longer bullied or harassed anyone because of the trauma from the incident. All day, Ethus waited for the last bell so that he hurry away from school as quickly as possible. He couldn't bear hearing about it over and over again knowing that it was his fault. So he just called a passing-by taxi and went home.
At home, Ethus sat in his bedroom thinking about the incident. He thought to himself. Well it wasn't my fault. I mean, HE went on the road to throw a duckling down a manhole. It's not my fault. But I wrote it in the book. It happened. Ethus began sobbing. He couldn't bear it. He had never done anything harmful to anyone before. But self-denial wasn't going to get him. It was HIS fault. And besides, he's not tantalizing anyone anymore. And with that, Ethus stopped worrying.
That afternoon, Ethus wrote himself bushels and bushels of junk food for dinner. He skipped the routine family dinner and ate greedily in his room. All evening, Ethus wrote himself many forms of entertainment like free video games, free videos, et cetera. He wrote on and on into the night.
Chapter III
* * *
Ethus woke up the next morning seeing a whole pile of toys, electronics, spoiling food, and candy. He was once again late for school, but this time the clock showed 10:02. Ethus ran down the stairs and suddenly stopped halfway. He laughed.
"What am I doing?" he laughed to himself. "I don't have to go to school." He laughed out a cruel laugh and ran back up the stairs, fetching the book and writing in it.
The fourth minute of the tenth hour of the second of May. Year 2000, AD. A plague pervades among the people of Audacity High. The pestilence shall bring pain and suffering.
Ethus put the pen down and smiled. He then went back to bed and quickly fell sound asleep.
* * *
"Thanks Mom, but you didn't have to drive me. I could've run."
"But you were already late for school. And driving is much faster. Now hurry. You're already late for school."
"Thanks. Bye Mom!"
The car door shut and the silver Ford Mercury drove away. Gradus arrived at the concrete steps of Audacity High and looked around. "Boy it's quiet." He turned his around the corner of the wall and saw nobody there. He looked in the nearby parking lot. No cars. Even the doors of the school were locked. Gradus stared hard into midair trying to figure out what had happened. Suddenly the trance was broken and Gradus ran over to the public phone he had just spotted. He took a couple quarters out of his pocket and popped them into the slot.
BOOP BEEP BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP BEEP...RINGGGG...RINGGGG...RIN-
"He...he...ha...h...ACHOO!...ugh...I'm sorry, who is this?"
"It's Gradus. I was wondering where everyone is." There was no answer. "Mr. Robins?" Gradus could suddenly hear violent vomiting on the other end. He quickly hung up and ran home.
* * *
Ethus was enjoying his day, playing games on his new Sony Playstation 2 that he had just stolen from a closed shop whose door was left open by a the very sick salesclerk who ran out early in the morning. "Ah. What a day. I wonder if Borders is open. Maybe I can grab a few DVD's. Dude, that'd be sweet!"
RING RING! Ethus picked up the phone.
"Y'ello."
"May I speak to Ethus please?"
"Gradus?"
"Ethus, are you sick? There seems to be some kind of epidemic going around."
"Sure I'm sick. I - COUGH!! Ahem. Sorry. I've come down with a real bad cold. Are you sick?"
"Uh...yeah. It's real bad. I should go take my medicine now. Bye!"
"Yeah, bye."
Gradus hung up the phone and kept his hand on it as he thought to himself. He sensed something strange about Ethus. He'd been calling many other people earlier, and they all had come down with a bad stomach flu and felt constant waves of nausea. But why had he not come down with this flu? He thought back to when he first woke up. He was late for school, and his mom drove him to school. No contact with anything outside until he arrived at school. And by then, everybody was back at home. Gradus walked to the den, dropped himself on the couch, and slumped on it. He seemed to fall into a trance as he wandered into deep thought. And then, he got it.
"THAT'S IT!" Gradus victoriously exclaimed standing up from the couch. Doubt suddenly filled Gradus's eyes. "Then again, that's not possible, or is it?" Gradus sat back on the couch. He thought about it again. Everybody had mysteriously come down with a bad stomach flu. Ethus got the cold. And that cough on the phone was definitely feigned, no doubt. Ethus was up to something. And he could be connected to the virus that had suddenly spread around. Gradus picked up the phone and pressed "Redial."
RING RING. RING RIN-
"Hello?"
"Um, may I speak to Ethus please?"
"Ethus's not here. He said he was going out to buy some DVD's. School was cancelled or something. Lucky Ethus. He would've gotten suspended from school for being late again. Who's calling by the way?"
"Br- ent. Brent Carver. May I ask you a couple questions?"
"Sure."
"First of all, has Ethus been doing anything...strange lately?
"No, not that I've noticed anyway."
"Oh. Well that pretty much eliminates the purpose of asking the rest of -"
"On second thought, I think I have noticed a new book that he's been a bit obsessed with lately. I think the book is...green. Dark. Leather, I think."
"Hmm. May I come over and see it?"
"You seem disturbingly nosy about Ethus's affairs. Is something wrong? I mean, is he doing drugs or -"
"No, no. It's just he seems so busy nowadays."
"Ah. Well, if you want to see the book, come on over."
"Thanks."
* * *
Gradus waited on the living room couch and looked at the family pictures all around him. He felt guilty for snooping around in Ethus's business, but it was a possible that Ethus started this epidemic somehow. Plus on the way to Ethus's house, he had heard many alarms go off in the distance. Mainly store alarms. Then Ethus's dad walked in the living room. In his arm, he had a thick, green book.
"This is the book?"
"Yessiree, Br- Brent Carver, was it? It's in mighty fine condition for a book looking so old too. It...well, promise not to tell anybody, alright? It's just that...I...this book gives me the creeps, you know? I mean, it's like there's some kind of supernatural force surrounding the book, and you can kinda feel it in the whole room, you know?"
"Okaaayy...," Gradus began in a disbelieving tone.
"It's very queer I tell ya. Promise not to tell anybody though. I could be pinned as a nutcase and get sent to some asylum or something. We wouldn't want that, would we? I mean, life in there would just be - "
"Um, sir? You're very interesting, but I'd really like to be alone for awhile. Is that okay with you, sir?"
"Sure. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen. I mean, I got lots of beer - no wait, you're too young. Forgot. Hee. Well, I can make great punch and lemonade and - "
"Sir?"
"Oh. Right." And with that, he disappeared into the kitchen. Gradus sat there for minutes staring at the book.
"'Chronicles of Time', huh?" Gradus said to himself breaking the silence. He slowly caressed the book cover and then gently lifted the cover. "Hmm. A feather pen." He picked it up and felt the soft quill. It was warm. Somebody must have used it not too long ago. Gradus began to quickly but gently flip through pages. "Must be some kind of history book written in fancy, mimicked Old English. Probably why it's called 'Chronicles of Time.'" Then he stopped flipping. The page on the right was blank, as were the pages afterwards. The page on the left was half filled. There was a writing in a different handwriting - a less elegant handwriting. Gradus's eyes widened as he read the words. His eyes aimed at the quill, the blank page, and then to the recent writing. He put two and two together and figured it out. His hand began to reach for the pen.
* * *
Ethus leaped over the wall at top speed and abruptly sat down breathing hard and trying to catch his breath. The distant sounds of dogs barking were fading away as the confused dogs slowly gave up. His evil grin seemed to almost complete a circle. He had dodged the police and the dogs. After he had calmed down, Ethus stood up, brushed himself with his hands, and walked over across the backyard to his bedroom window.
[not finished]