Chapter 2

Masques of Martyrs

Alex stared through the blackness of his room, the guest bedroom study at his friend's house. For the past few hours he had tried to fall asleep but something about the book in his jacket kept him awake, an odd sensation, like the blank pages were pulling his very mind into them from their spot where they laid over his heart. Once again he pulled the book out and scanned the first line expecting there to be something more but finding nothing, just like he had every time before when he checked. He tossed the book to the floor in the middle of the room hoping distance with it would allow him to slumber.

Several hours later Alex woke up again in the murky darkness of the room. Oddly he felt more at home in the small study where he'd been living for only a week or so than his room in his parents house where he had lodged for the past several years. A slight wave of panic washed over him and he stalled it by pushing his hand beneath the firm pillow at his head, allowing his hand to trace the shapes of four distinct objects, which returned the feeling of comfort. His hand stopped and wrapped around each object as it often did. The first was a small diamond ring, the significance had been lost years ago, but Alex still held on to the ring always trying to remember where and why he got it. The second was a small steel lighter, Alex rarely used the lighter outside of camping but he still kept it close as a constant reminder. Next his hand stopped on the hard oblong surface of his pocketknife. In the end his hand came to rest upon the handle of the ceremonial African rite-knife he had purchased on his two weeks to the jungle country of the Cameroon only several months prior. The knife puzzled him almost as much as the ring, neither held any significance really, but for some reason he simply felt more himself when they were near. He moved his hand out from under the pillow and reached for his headphones knowing they were coupled to his MP3 player. With a soft click he turned the device on and the touch LED screen lit up giving Alex a sense of time. "What the hell, its only 3:20 am." He thought he tossed aside the cans and the portable music device and tried once again to fall asleep without any success for the next 40 or so minutes.

Around 4 am Alex gave up on trying to fall back asleep and walked out into the dark living room where his room connected to the rest of the house. Even thought he had only lived there a short time he was familiar with the layout and worked his way across the house to the kitchen, all the while attempting to make the least noise possible lest he wake Ellie, the resident 3 year old. He put a pot of water on the stove to boil and began rummaging through the pantry for the small bag of Maté that he had brought with him. Alex never really minded the bitter taste and the caffeine helped him very often to wake up in the mornings. He turned to get ready for school when the thought passed his mind that it was Saturday, almost a week after the man had come into Ashley's bookstore with the bizarre book that still plagued him and was ruining his sleep schedule.

He tried to think back to what had happened that week but nothing seemed to come to mind, almost like he just skipped the whole week. He poured his tea and stopped suddenly noticing the faint light sneaking into the kitchen from beneath the heavy curtain in front of the sliding glass door. "What the hell." he said aloud accidentally.

"Hello again brother," the response came suddenly and Alex jumped at the sound of the voice. "I see you've made no progress whatsoever reading my book."

"Just stay quiet and hide in the shadows," Alex thought to himself.

"That wont work, I've already seen you, the shadows cannot hide you." A pause, "You see Alex, that book is the start of it all, since you opened it I've been quite busy and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the current state of affairs replacing your utterly boring life."

"What are you talking about?" Alex called in the direction of the faint light.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the voice laughed. "Just wait till sunrise and you'll see the hell I've created especially for you." The light began to fade and Alex called after it, but there was no response. He heard a soft whine to his right and instantly shot back to reality. "Shit, Ellie." Was the first thing that passed through his mind.