The Adventures of Emily Tual Book One
Chapter Five

Emily was running through a forest. It was late at night. She kept stumbling over the roots, hurting her bare feet. It didn’t help that the white dress was hiding her feet and was too long. She had to get away from them. “Emily.” A voice with a German accent said. Emily looked over her shoulder as she kept running. There was someone following her. He was wearing dressed in red robes that billowed around him. Behind him, the moonlight reflected on the white robed figures that were following him. They all had one thing in common though. On their chests was a black hand.

Emily reached the edge of the forest. She sighed with relief when she saw the clear field and building near the road on the other side of the field. There was the building she wanted to get to! She started to run but the building didn’t get closer at all. Emily looked down. She was running in place. She couldn’t move from that spot. She could the red robed figure coming towards her from behind. “Come with us Emily.” He said in his German accent. Emily kept trying to run from him but she couldn’t. She felt his hands grab her by the arms. She screamed.

Emily woke up in her bed and sat up. She was sweating and gasping for air. That dream had felt so real. She pushed her blanket away and looked at herself. She was still in her nightgown. She sighed and wiped her forehead. She turned on her flashlight and aimed it around the room. The only ones there with her were her cousins and her little sister. Her cousins were in their sleeping bags on the floor. Her little sister was sleeping next to her.

Emily turned off her flashlight and laid back. She thought about her dream. It left her with quite a few questions. Who were the robed figures? Where had she been? Why were they chasing her? What did they want with her? She closed her eyes, hoping to go to sleep again. As she fell asleep, the S on the cover of her book glowed slightly before returning to normal.

Throughout the night, Emily dreamt about robed figures, her mom, the forest from before and running. She was happy when it was finally morning. She opened her eyes and looked around. Her sister was still asleep. Delaney wasn’t in the room. Judging from the noise downstairs, it sounded like Delaney had gone down for breakfast. Elizabeth wasn’t in the room either. Emily looked towards the hallway and smiled. Elizabeth was in the room opposite of her. It looked like she was practicing her karate.

Emily looked at her mother’s book and opened it. The text was still in some other language. She shook her head. She doubted that she would be able to translate it soon. She got changed and went downstairs to the kitchen. Sure enough, Delaney was eating breakfast. She smiled when she saw Emily. “How did you sleep?” She asked.

Emily thought back to her dream. “Fine.” She said. “How about you?” She took out her cereal and a bowl. After filling her bowl with cereal and milk, she sat next to Delaney.

“I slept well too.” Delaney answered.

“I had a strange dream though.” Delaney added. That made Emily pause.

“A weird dream?” She asked. Delaney nodded. “In it, I was running through a forest.” She told Emily.

Emily looked at Delaney. That sounded like her dream. “Why were you running through a forest?” She asked. She had a feeling that she already knew the answer to her own question.

Delaney shook her head. “That’s the weird part.” She answered. “There was a voice telling me to run. That I needed to get to her before they did.” She looked at Emily. “And then I woke up.” She shook her head. “It was probably just a silly dream.” She continued to eat her breakfast.

Emily slowly ate her breakfast. Her mind and thoughts though were racing. Delaney’s dream sounded like hers. She had a feeling that the “her” that the voice was telling Delaney to get to was her. Emily knew that if she told Delaney about her dream at this point, there would be a good chance that Delaney would think that she was trying to copy her dream. She had a feeling though that their dreams were connected in some way. She just didn’t know how.

Back in her room, Rachel was finishing getting dressed when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She looked around. She felt like someone was in the room but there was no one there. She went to the window and looked outside. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There was Mr. Trunch getting his newspaper like always. The jogger and her dog running by. Officer Daniel making his usual drive by in his police car. That was when she saw what was out of place. An old looking pickup truck across the street from her home. The window on the driver’s seat was rolled down and there was a guy in the driver’s seat. It looked like he was looking at something. Officer Daniel hadn’t stopped to talk to him or at least that she knew of.

Elizabeth joined her at the window. “Who do you think that is?” She asked, making Rachel jump.

Rachel turned on her. “Elizabeth!” She cried. “You scared me!”

Elizabeth smiled. “You must have been focused on that truck driver if you didn’t hear me coming up next to you.” She said.

Hearing that, Rachel looked back at the truck driver. “I’ve never seen him here before.” She said.

Elizabeth shook her head. “He might be new and looking around.” She said.

Rachel looked at her for a minute before looking back down at the truck driver. “I don’t know.” She said. “There’s something about him that doesn’t seem right.”

The two girls watched the truck driver for a little bit longer. “What do you think he’s looking at?” Elizabeth asked.

Rachel tried to see what it was but it was against the wheel. “I don’t know but Officer Daniel hasn’t stopped by to see him.”

Elizabeth smiled. “If the police doesn’t seem worried about him, you don’t need to be worried either.” She said. Rachel wanted to believe her cousin but something just didn’t seem right. “Come on. We need to get some breakfast.” Elizabeth said. Rachel nodded and slowly left her spot.

The truck driver sighed with relief. He hadn’t been sure how long the two girls had planned to stare at him. Even with the distance between them, he knew that they had been staring at him. He was lucky that he hadn’t shown up on his motorcycle. That might have made it harder for him to stay undercover. He looked at the house that the two girls were in. He knew that it was the Chosen One’s house. He took his phone out and texted something on it before putting it onto the shotgun seat. Right next to it was a file with a black hand on it.

A few seconds later, the police car pulled up behind him. The truck driver watched Officer Daniel getting out of the car and walking to his window. He had his notebook in his hand. The truck driver smiled. To anyone, it would look like the officer would write him up for something but no one would see the black hand on the notebook. Officer Daniel looked at him as he went up to the window. “I got your message Johnny.” Officer Daniel said. He looked both ways down the street. “You’re lucky that this is my area to patrol.”

Johnny laughed. “Luck had nothing to do with it.” He said. “Not when you have powerful friends in the Circles.”

Officer Daniel thought it over before he spoke. “So Bastet wants us to do what exactly?” He asked.

Johnny looked at the house for a second before he looked back at Officer Daniel. “She wants us to ruin his plan.” He answered. They both knew who the ‘his’ was. “She wants to embarrass him in front of the boss.”

Officer Daniel shook his head. “That’s going to be risky.” He said. “Especially since he gave him the order.” He took out an envelope. “You did get one of these, right?” He asked.

Johnny nodded. “I did but to be honest, I’m not a big fan of that German guy.”

Officer Daniel smiled. He knew who Johnny meant. “He doesn’t have many fans. Just a lot of enemies. Even within the Circles.”

Officer Daniel looked at the house. “So how do we ruin the plan?” He asked.

Johnny looked as well. “Bastet wants us to attack the Chosen One.” He told Officer Daniel. “And try to get rid of her before the day that the ritual is supposed to happen.”

Officer Daniel shook his head. “That’ll be hard if I’m on duty.” He told Johnny.

Johnny laughed. “All I would need you to do is to lead the police in the opposite direction while I deal with getting rid of the Chosen One.”

Officer Daniel tore an empty page from his notebook and handed it to Johnny. Anyone who saw it would think that he just gave Johnny a ticket. “I’ll see what I can do.” He told him. He then went back to his police car and drove off. Johnny smiled as he started his truck up and started to drive away. Johnny drove to the intersection and turned left. He went into a parking lot and turned into a parking spot that gave him a good view of the house. Now he just needed to wait for his motorcycle gang to arrive.

Back at the house, Emily went to her room and up to her bed. Still laying in the spot next to where she had slept was her book. She smiled and picked it up. “It’s time to try to figure you out.” She said. She took out her backpack and put the book into it. She zipped up her bag and put it on. She went downstairs. The other three girls were finishing up breakfast. “Come on girls.” Emily said. The three looked at her. “We have an adventure ahead of us.” Emily told them.

Rachel perked up. “Are we going to try to read what that book says?” She asked excitedly.

Emily nodded. “I want to know what this story is and why Mom wanted me to have it.”

Delaney and Elizabeth looked at each other before looking at Emily. “Why would that book be in a different language?” Delaney asked. Emily looked at her. “Your mom wanted to get it for your birthday, right?” Delaney continued. “Why not get one in English? I mean it’s not like little you could ready a different language.” Emily knew that Delaney had a point but this book was from her mother. If she had gone to her old professor for help in replaceing this book, it must have been important to her.

“Where would we even begin to try to translate it?” Elizabeth asked.

“The library.” Emily answered. “Someone there has to be able to help us know what language this is.”

From within his truck, Johnny saw the four girls leaving the house. He started his truck up. Now was his chance to try to kidnap the chosen one. If Officer Daniel did his job right, the police wouldn’t be able to replace a lead until it was too late. He watched them get on their bicycles and ride off. He waited a minute or two before he drove after them. He wanted to be close enough to keep an eye on them but far enough to stay undetected. He texted Officer Daniel that he was going after the Chosen One.