The Adventures of Emily Tual Book One
Chapter Six

At the library, the four girls were walking up to the help desk. There was an elderly lady at the desk. Emily’s heart sank. “Do you think she’d be able to help us identify the language that this book is in?” She asked. She looked at her cousins and little sister. None of them knew if the person there would be able to help or not. “I’ll go to her and see if she knows this language. How about you go to one of the computers and see if there’s something about different languages there.” She said.

Emily went up to the help desk. The elderly lady looked at her. “Is there something that I can help you with?” She asked.

Emily nodded and took her book out of her backpack. “I need help with something.” She said. She opened her book and showed the elderly lady the strange texts. “Can you help me identify this language?” She asked. “This book was a gift from my mom but I’m not sure what language this is.”

The elderly lady looked at the texts. She frowned and looked up at Emily. “Where did your mother get this?” She asked.

Emily shook her head. “It was a gift from her old professor.” She answered.

The way the old woman was looking at her bothered Emily. “What is it?” She asked.

The elderly lady shook her head. “It’s just that this text isn’t just one language.” She explained. “It’s made of several different old languages.”

Emily frowned. “What do you mean?” She asked.

The elderly lady gestured to the text. “There’s a bit of Old English mixed here with Hebrew.”

Emily looked at the text. How was that possible? What was this book even? She closed the book and gestured to the cover of the book. “What is this book called?” She asked.

The elderly lady looked at the cover. “There isn’t a title.” She told Emily. “The S isn’t a book title. It’s just a design for the cover of the book.”

Emily’s heart sank. So there wasn’t going to be much luck here with replaceing out what the book was about. She looked at the elderly lady. “Is there anything else you can tell me about this book?”

The elderly lady shook her head. “I’m sorry but sadly I can’t.” She told Emily.

Emily put her book back into her backpack. “Thank you anyways.” She said before she left to replace her family.

Outside the library, Johnny was watching, waiting for his motorcycle gang to arrive. He hadn’t seen the girls coming back out of the library. That was when he got a phone call. He took his phone out and answered it. “Hello?” He asked.

“Hello Johnny.” An elderly lady said on the other end.

Johnny gritted his teeth. “Hello Mother.” He said.

“I know you’re outside.” The elderly lady continued. “And I know that you’re here because of a certain Chosen One and her book.” She said.

Johnny shook his head. “I didn’t realize that you were here.” He said. He leaned back in his seat. There was a bit of laughter coming from the other end of the call.

“I know you’re here for the Chosen One.” She said. “Now I’m sure you’re doing this for another member of the higher Circles. So I’m here to help you if it means getting promoted to a higher Circle.” Johnny hated that his mother was blackmailing him.

“If I don’t let you in on this mission, you’re going to tell the Man with the German Accent about this?” He asked. At that moment, his motorcycle gang had arrived.

In the library, the elderly lady smiled as she was on her phone. “Yes I am Johnny.” She said. The back of her phone had a black hand on it. “Let me help you with this or I’ll sell you out to him.” There was a moment of silence.

“Very well.” Her son said on the other end. “But don’t think that I won’t forget this.” Johnny told her. “My group is here. Get ready to attack.”

In the police station, Officer Daniel smiled as he saw all the police officers there asleep at their desks. Putting them under a small sleeping spell was a lot easier than getting all of them to go on a wild goose chase. He leaned back in his chair and kept smiling. “This should make things easier for you Johnny.” He said.

Emily was with her cousins and sister at a computer trying to replace different translation books when the power went out. “Great.” Delaney said. She slumped back in her seat. “So much for trying to translate this book.”

Emily looked around. She had a feeling that something was wrong. That was when she noticed that the elderly lady was missing from the help desk. She looked at the others and quickly put her book into her backpack. “We need to get out of here.” She said.

Elizabeth frowned. “What do you mean?” She didn’t see anything wrong.

Emily stood up and looked at the three. How could they not see what was wrong? The power was out when they were there? There was no way that that was a coincidence. She knew it was connected. She just didn’t know how yet. She heard doors opening. “Guys. Trust me. We need to go.” She said. That was when she saw something out of the corner of her eyes. There was a man in biker clothes. He wasn’t alone. There were quite a few men with him. They were all looking at the four.

“Who are you?” Emily asked.

The man that seemed to be the leader of the men smiled. “We’re members of the Circles.” He told Emily. “And we’re here to get rid of you Chosen One.”

Emily’s eyes widened. They had called her Chosen One just like the guy in her dream had. That was when she saw what was on their shirts: a black hand. She looked at her sister and cousins. “We need to get out of here!” She cried. Before the other three could understand what was happening, the men charged in at them.

Emily looked at the three girls. “We need to split up and get out of here.” She told them. “Meet up at the house.” Before any of the other three could say anything, Emily took off running away from them all. She had to keep her sister and cousins safe. She had a feeling that the men were after her. It had to be her. The black hand and them calling her the chosen one was too much of a coincidence. She looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, it looked like the leader of the group was chasing her. He had a few men with him. She noticed that not all of the men had followed her. Her heart sank. No doubt they were chasing Delaney, Elizabeth and Rachel. She had to keep them away from her sister and cousins which meant she had to replace those men too.

As Emily was running, she noticed that none of the other library visitors she had seen just a few minutes before were still there. They must have left when the power went out. She wondered if the men with the black hands had killed the power just to clear the library. She hoped that her cousins and sister were able to get out. She wasn’t sure if the doors locked when the power went out.

That was when she ran into the elderly lady from the help desk. The elderly lady was glaring at her. “Don’t move Chosen One.” She told Emily. Several men joined her.

Emily stopped moving. She couldn’t really move anyways. She was surrounded on both sides. She took a step back still. “What do you want?” She cried.

The elderly lady smiled wickedly. “We want you Chosen One.” Two of the men went up to Emily and grabbed her by the arms. “What’s more, we want what is within your bag.” The elderly lady went up to Emily and reached into her bag. To Emily’s horror, she removed the book.

“Please don’t take that!” Emily cried as tears came to her eyes. “That’s all I have left of my mother!” She couldn’t lose the book. Even if she didn’t understand what it said.

The elderly lady sneered at her. “The book is of no use to you.” She told Emily. “You can’t even read it.” The elderly lady gave the book to the leader of the men. “I’m sure Bastet would love to have this.” She told him.

The leader nodded and then looked at Emily. “What about the girl?” He asked. The elderly lady looked at Emily and smiled. That scared Emily even more.

At the house, Delaney, Elizabeth and Rachel met up. Delaney locked the door behind her and looked at the others. “We made it.” She said as she sighed with relief.

Elizabeth shook her head. “Not all of us.” She said. Her heart sank. She looked around them. “Emily?” She called out. There was no response.

Rachel looked up at her cousins. “You don’t think she’s been captured, do you?” She asked.

Delaney and Elizabeth looked at each other. “We need to go back.” Elizabeth said. Delaney was about to argue when the sound of motorcycles, several motorcycles, got louder and then stopped. The three girls looked at each other and ran upstairs.

“What about Emily?” Rachel asked. She was scared. Not just because the men from the library might have chased them but also because there was no telling what might have happened to her sister. They ran into Mr. Tual’s room.

Delaney closed the door and locked it. She looked at Rachel. “Now where should we hide?” Rachel knew the house better than they did. She would surely know where to hide. Rachel looked at them before she opened Mr. Tual’s closet. She went to the back and pushed a part of the wall back. Elizabeth and Delaney knew that if Rachel hadn’t had done that, they wouldn’t have guessed it was possible.

Rachel led them into a small room. The small room wasn’t really the best way to describe it. More like a compartment. Elizabeth and Delaney had to crouch down in it. Rachel looked at them as she closed the entrance. “I found this when I was younger.” She told them. “I used to come in here a lot to be alone. Emily was usually off being depressed and Dad wasn’t always around to play with.” She put a box against the entrance before sitting across from it. “We should be safe in here.” She stayed quiet as she heard men at the door trying to get in.

Outside the library, Johnny got into his truck and set the book down next to him. He knew that Bastet would be interested in the book. Sure his mother would be the one getting rid of the chosen one but he would be getting the honor of the next best prize. He started his truck up and drove away. As he was driving, he saw a few of his men at the Chosen One’s home. No doubt they were trying to get the girls that had been with the Chosen One. He stopped and got out of his truck. He went up to his men. “Forget those girls.” He told them. “With our friend in the police station, no one will be able to help them replace the Chosen One for a few hours.” He laughed for a little bit. His men joined in. “Now get out of here before the neighbors start to investigate.” He went back to his truck and drove off with his men behind him.