The Journal

                I quietly step away from the alley, hoping to not attract the rat-eating boy’s attention. I run back to Hannah after I think I’m out of earshot. When I reach Hannah, I must look terrified because she worriedly asks, “Piper, what’s wrong?”
                I’m about to tell her what I saw when I realize that any normal person would never believe me. If I tell her, she might think I’m trying to sabotage her date or at least think that I’m insane. I want her to be safe and not go to the homecoming dance with Emmett, but how can I tell her that she shouldn’t go to the dance with him? The only way that I can help to keep her safe is to go to the homecoming dance and watch her back. I don’t want to go the dance, but it’s something I have to do to protect my friend.
                “Oh, uh, nothing,” I say, forcing a smile to my face to hide away my terrified look, “I just wanted to tell you that I’ve decided to go to the dance.”
                A grin spreads across her face and she jumps to her feet. “That’s great, Piper! We have to find you a date!”
                Going to the dance to protect Hannah from a rat-eating guy is already terrible enough and going to the dance with a boy I barely know would just make things worse for me. “I don’t want a date. I’ll just go to the dance without one.”
                Her cheerful smile turns into a nervous smile. “Oh…”
                I wonder why she feels nervous when I suddenly realize that she thinks I’m going to tag along with her and Emmett. No matter how much I want to be with Hannah to keep her safe, I know that I can’t be with her and Emmett during the dance. She wouldn’t like it and I’m sure that Emmett would know I’d be up to something. I’ll have to watch them from the sidelines.
                “I’m just going by myself. Don’t worry, Hannah. I won’t come with you and Emmett.”
                Her nervous smile returns to being cheerful. “Thanks, Piper. By the way, what dress are you going to wear?”
                I hadn’t thought about wearing a dress until now. I don’t think I even have one. “I’ll just get one out of my closet,” I say, brushing the subject off. I don’t want to go dress shopping now. I need to find a way to protect Hannah from her dangerous date instead.
                “Then I guess we should go home now, huh?”
                I nod in agreement. I never thought the thought of going home would be so appealing as it is now. After hours of roaming the town in search for a date for Hannah and Hannah ending up with an abnormal date, I feel more exhausted and worried than I ever have before.
                The bus eventually arrives and the two of us climb into it. We take our seats and Hannah begins to excitedly talk about her date again as the bus drives away from the town. The more she continues to compliment Emmett, the more worry settles on my shoulders. She thinks Emmett is an amazing person when in reality he’s not even human.
                The bus finally arrives at the bus stop with the broken bench. “See you at homecoming!” Hannah beams as I leave the bus. I wave her goodbye before the doors to the bus close and it drives away.
                A sigh of misery escapes my lips when I’m alone. What do I do? I wonder, How can I protect her? I ponder these questions as I walk down the dirt trail towards my house. No matter how hard I think about ways to solve this problem, I can’t find a solution that would work.
                Okay, what if I just left early with Hannah? Would she even leave early? More importantly, would she leave without Emmett? She wouldn’t, would she? I’m suddenly pulled out of my thoughts when I accidently kick something hard.
                I look down to see a black journal in leather lying on the ground. The binding of the journal is beginning to tear. A black string is tied around the journal to keep it closed.
                What is this? I curiously wonder. I bend down and I pick up the lightweight journal. I untie the string and I open the journal to its first page. The page has The Property of written across the page in black ink with the name of the journal’s owner scribbled out.
                I flip to the next page to see Golemns written across the top of the page. Underneath the title is a drawing of a creature made out of stones. Underneath the picture is information about golemns. My eyes widen in amazement as I skim through the information that the journal provides about golemns. It has how they’re made, their weaknesses, strengths, abilities, and looks written into the journal.
                I turn to the next page to see Night Elves written across the top of the page with a picture of a boy with pointy ears and a crescent moon on his forehead drawn below the title.
                No way, I think, holding my breath, Is this a journal about paranormal stuff?
                I excitedly flip through the pages of the journal, reading every title, to find that the journal has information on paranormal species ranging from mermaids to banshees. I stop flipping through the journal’s pages when my eyes land on a page titled Vampires. A boy with a set of fangs for teeth is drawn beneath the title. The picture of the vampire looks almost exactly like Emmett.
                Is Hannah dating a vampire? I wonder. It sounds like a sappy cliché, but all signs point to it as the truth.
                With my heart pounding against my chest in fear, hoping that Hannah dating a vampire can’t possibly be true, I begin to read the information about vampires that the journal has. “Vampires are reanimated corpses with either a full set of fangs or two large fangs,” I say, reading aloud the text, “Their teeth can change from a human’s set of teeth into fangs. It is guessed that their gums hide their set of fangs and can release them, but it has not been proven correct yet. Unlike folklore, vampires can withstand light. Vampires have lanky hair, extremely pale skin, and dark circles under their eyes when they’re on the verge of starvation.”
                A shiver runs down my spine. I remember Emmett having lanky hair and dark circles under his eyes. He also had deathly pale skin. “Be careful when they look like this! They usually eat animals, but they will eat humans if they’re beginning to not get enough nutrients from animals. Vampires are usually sociable creatures. They are good at tricking people into believing they are kindhearted creatures before they suck their blood and eat them. Be aware that they are not what they seem!”
                There’s no doubt about it now. Emmett has to be a vampire. The book perfectly described him with his lanky hair, pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, a full set of fangs, and eating animals. He tricked Hannah and is probably deciding how to eat her right now. How can I prevent that? How do I get rid of a vampire? I wonder.
                I continue to read from the journal. “Vampires can be killed by being either burned or beheading them.” I turn the page, hoping to find more information about their weaknesses, but the journal begins to talk about poltergeists instead.
                “What?” I mumble. I flip through the book in search of more information about vampires, but I don’t find any more information. “That can’t be it!” I don’t want to kill Emmett. I just want to save Hannah. Isn’t there some other way to stop Emmett besides killing him?
                The journal must not think so. There’s nothing else about vampires written in the book.
                “You’ve got to be kidding,” I mutter in disappointment.
                “Piper?”
                I jump in surprise at the sound of my name. I look over my shoulder to see Ezra standing behind me. My eyes widen astonishment at the sight of him. It’s been days since I’ve seen him. I thought I’d never see him again. I even began to think that our encounter wasn’t real.
                His eyes land on the leather journal in my hands. “What is that? Your diary or something?”
                The astonishment I have quickly vanishes. “No, it isn’t!” I tuck the journal under my arm in an attempt to hide it from him. I don’t need him to look through the journal and laugh at me for believing that the paranormal things in this journal are real.
                Wait, I think, Since Ezra is a paranormal species then doesn’t that mean that he has to believe the stuff in this journal?
                “What is it?” he curiously asks, taking a step closer to me. He reaches for the journal, but I hold it away from his reach. “Let me see it, Piper.”
                “No.” I want to keep the journal my secret. The journal makes me feel special and if he takes it away from me then that feeling will be gone.
                “Piper, give it to me!” He reaches for it again, but I pull it out of his reach. “That’s it!”
                In a long struggle of trying to take the journal from me, Ezra finally grabs the journal and he pulls it out of my hands. “Ha!” he shouts in triumph.
                “Give it back!” I whine as he opens the journal.
                “No way,” he says as he begins to flip through the pages. I watch his eyes widen in awe as he continues to turn the pages.
                He stops turning the pages when he comes to a page titled Nature Spirits. A picture of a girl with flowers ranging in sizes beside her is drawn below the nicely written title. He begins to carefully read what’s written in the journal about nature spirits.
                I raise an eyebrow in confusion. “What’s so interesting about nature spirits?” I curiously ask, wondering why he’s interested in the topic.
                It suddenly dawns on me that Ezra is a nature spirit.
                “I am one,” he says, confirming that he is a nature spirit. He continues to read, leaving me to wonder why he’s reading about nature spirits. What does he need to know about nature spirits since he is one? Shouldn’t he already know what information about nature spirits that the journal has?
                He turns the page, prepared to read more about nature spirits, but the topic has switched from nature spirits to boggarts. “Is that seriously it?” he says in disbelief. He quickly skims through the journal in search of more information about nature spirits, but he doesn’t find any more information about the topic to his disappointment.
                Before I can ask him why he wants to know about his own species, he asks me, “Where did you even find this?”
                “Here,” I reply.
                “Here?”
                “Here.”
                “Like, right here?”
                “Yeah, I literally just said that.”
                “That’s weird that someone just left it here.” He looks puzzled as if he’s trying to figure out why the journal was left here.
                “Maybe someone dropped it,” I suggest. I don’t understand why he’s making such a big deal out of how I found the book. The content of the journal is what is interesting, not how I found it.
                He turns the journal over to its backside. “No, if it was dropped then the back would be covered in dirt. The back cover isn’t dirty at all. Plus, even if someone did drop it by accident, wouldn’t they pick it up? They’d probably notice if something so important was missing.”
                I look at the leather cover and I notice its cleanliness. He might be right, but then why would the journal be left here? What other reason is there that someone left the journal here? “What are you trying to get at, Ezra?” I curiously ask. I can tell that he wants to tell me something. That something will probably not make me feel well.
                “I’m thinking that someone purposely left it here for you. I think someone wants you to have it,” he solemnly says.
                I gasp in astonishment. “Maybe I’m the Chosen One,” I marvel, feeling more special than I ever have before. If someone really wanted someone else to have this journal then why would it be me? I must have the journal for some reason. I feel like I’ve been chosen for some great adventure.
                “Yeah, chosen for misfortune,” he retorts, pulling me out of my good mood.
                I give him a small frown. “What do you mean by that?”
                “A lot of these things in here are things that can kill you. Do you really want to be the person who deals with them?”
                I remember watching Emmett eat a rat whole after sucking its blood. He can’t be the only creature out there that does something so revolting. There must be other creatures in this journal that are as dangerous or maybe even more dangerous.
                I begin to not feel as special anymore. I begin to not even want the journal. Although the journal is informative and interesting, I don’t want it to ruin my life by making me see things I don’t want to see. I’d rather turn a blind eye to these terrible things rather than see another creature like Emmett.
                “Oh,” I say, not sounding as enthusiastic as before, “Then you can keep the journal.” I don’t want the journal and I would gladly give it to Ezra. He seems interested in it. He can take on the burden of the journal.
                “No way,” he says, shaking his head in disapproval, “Even if I did want the journal, I don’t think I could take it. Someone left it here for you, Piper. It’s yours.” He holds out the journal for me to take.
                I take the journal from him. I begin to think that I’ll need it. I don’t think the paranormal creatures in the journal will come to me just because I have this journal. I think I’ll find them on my own and when I do, this journal will be helpful. I might even need it for tonight when I go to the homecoming dance where Emmett will be.
                “Looks like I’ll need this,” I sigh, “Especially for tonight.” The reminder of Emmett lowers my spirits. I still don’t know how I’m going to save Hannah from the vampire.
                “What for?” Ezra curiously asks, looking at me for an answer.
                “Well, there’s this homecoming dance tonight at my school,” I begin, glad to share my problems with someone who knows about the paranormal, “And my friend found a date to it, but her date turned out to be a vampire. I need to protect her from him, but I don’t know how. Right now it seems like I won’t be able to save her at all.” I let out a sigh of misery. Talking about my unsolved problem made me more stressed than I was before. It only reminded me about how incapable I am to protect my friend.
                “Wait. She’s dating a vampire? Are you sure?” he questions, sounding as if he doesn’t believe me, “No offense, Piper, but that sounds like some overused cliché.”
                I give him a small glare. I thought he’d believe me at least, but it looks like I was wrong. “I am sure,” I snappishly say, “I saw his fangs and I watched him eat a rat raw! I’m pretty sure he’s a vampire.”
                “Ew,” he says, sounding disgusted.
                “Yeah,” I say, agreeing with his disgust.
                “Okay, so if it is true, how are you going to save your friend?” he questions.
                “I just said I don’t know,” I groan, becoming more distraught than I was before. I still haven’t found a way to save Hannah from Emmett and the homecoming dance is tonight. I don’t have much time left.
                “Well, what does the journal say about getting rid of a vampire?”
                “To behead it or burn it,” I reply, clearly remembering the words about how to kill a vampire written in the journal, “But I don’t want to kill him. I just want to save my friend.”
                “So, you’re trying to find a way to stop him without killing him?”
                “Yeah.” I try to find a solution for my problem again, but my brain is empty like usual.
                “I don’t know, Piper. Maybe you should just do what the journal says.”
                I want to give him a dirty look, but I’m too distraught to. “You don’t understand, Ezra. Think about yourself doing either of those things to a person.”
                He thinks about it for a moment. “I wouldn’t like it either, Piper, but isn’t saving your friend more important than that vampire’s life?”
                His question makes my heart sink in despair. I know that Hannah is more important than Emmett to me, but is killing him the right thing to do?
                The more I think about it, the more I don’t know.