The light from the book's pages was still flickering faintly when Ken, Norman, Courtney, and Martin returned to the library from their quiet moments after lunch.
Or so they thought.
Martin Hale, who had been joking in the background and breaking the tension with his comical remarks, now seemed to have taken off all his masks. The book's pages were strangely in sync with his movements, but no one was paying close attention—except perhaps the aura of the book and the creature.
Ken froze for a moment when he realized that one of the book's key pages was missing.
"Wait…" Ken whispered as he slowly pulled out the small, tightly locked cabinet from among Norman's forbidden items. Something instinctively guided his hand. The lock-pick lay on the floor, seemingly abandoned. "This… this isn't there."
Norman's eyes narrowed immediately, a flash of ruthless logic on his face:
"Martin..." he said slowly, his imagination running through the signs, his suspicions, and the oddities of the past. "You were in control of this. From the beginning."
Courtney sighed deeply then, her eyes fixed on the book, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
"Why... why didn't I notice that Martin was strange all along?" she mused to herself, without sarcasm, for the first time that day with emotional honesty. "I guess I always knew something was wrong..."
Ken looked up at Courtney slowly, sensing the irritation and self-deprecation in her voice. For a moment, the old, sarcastic Courtney was gone, leaving the real, feeling, caring woman beside her.
"I know where she could have gone," Ken said in a low but firm voice. "I can feel it. Southwest into the woods." Maybe he's trying to perform the ritual there… or get the card.
Norman gathered himself and looked the group in the eye for a moment.
"Then we have no choice," he said grimly. "Let's go. But let's be careful. Martin is not the type to attack openly. He's… manipulative."
Courtney moved closer to Ken and touched his shoulder gently. "Okay, Ken. I'm with you. Now I know that I can help you with more than just my sarcasm."
He smiled for a moment, but his gaze was serious.
As they left the dimness of the library, Martin's shadow seemed to move at their heels, but when they turned back, he was nowhere to be found. Only the freshly acquired lock-pick and the abandoned piece of paper reminded them that someone was always one step ahead of them.
As they reached the southwestern part of the forest, the trees grew denser, the air cooler, and a subtle, vibrating energy vibrated in the air. Ken thought about the missing page in the book, and felt the faint but powerful presence of the creature's aura, as if it were watching their every move.
"Feel it," Ken whispered, "Martin is here somewhere, but I don't know how fast he's moving. This paper… if he gets it, the ritual can happen."
Courtney and Norman looked at each other, then off into the distance, where the fog moved slowly beneath the dark mass of trees.
"Then let's go," Courtney said, real determination in her voice for the first time in days. "Every second counts."
The group set off, close together, through the shadows hiding in the trees, following the shadow of Martin, who was already a step ahead of them, the key to the ritual in his hand.
The air vibrated, the pages of the book quivering gently in Ken's pocket, as if to signal that every step mattered.
And so began the race for the mysterious, deadly aura of Martin and the missing page, needed for a single ritual.
At the same time, Ken and Courtney's relationship deepened, with Courtney providing emotional support and Ken beginning to understand the signs and secrets of the past that had been lurking there his entire life.