19th June 2019

RENEE

"Renee, are you alright?" Clover appeared immediately by my side and helped me up while staring at the bookshelf in horror.

It was colossal damage, seeing that the bookshelf had fallen on two neighbouring plastic chairs, which were now broken beyond repair. Not to mention the numerous books, with pages strewn apart, and I saw an easy math problem on one torn page near my feet.

I don't linger too long on the math problem, since Mrs Sanders, the librarian, had arrived, and tried to calm all the panicking students.

"Silence students! This is a library," She yelled, but everyone had already begun to circulate their own theories.

"Did someone push it?"

"I've told you, everything in this school is old, wouldn't be surprised if the whole place fell apart tomorrow."

"Is Renee trying to injure herself again, because she knows that she hasn't studied for the exam this time?"

The third speaker was Ned, who was giving me a malicious grin. He often went around school, trying to tell everyone that he was smarter than me, but the tests and exams said otherwise. He would never accept that I was better than him, and he'd laugh at me for the smallest mistakes, calling me stupid.

He and Shay would be best friends if they had met, they both had a knack for insulting me.

"Have you actually managed to get some studying done, Renee?" Ned walked arrogantly towards me. "Pity the bookshelf didn't give you a reason to skip school for another two weeks."

"Are you wishing that the bookshelf fell on you instead, Ned? Because I think you're the one who is looking for an excuse..." I said, trying to match his tone of hatred.

"Get lost, Ned. We don't have time for you," Clover gave him the finger and pulled me away, back to the table where we were sitting.

As she packed her stuff, I stared at her in surprise. "What, do you think I couldn't have handled Ned by myself?" I asked.

"Yeah, I saw how well you were doing there," Clover said sarcastically. "Besides, we need to get out of here, before something else kills you."

"That shelf wouldn't have killed me," I retorted.

"No, it would've just crushed all the bones in your body, and you'd be bedridden for life," Clover rolled her eyes.

I picked up my stuff, stumped that Clover was bossing over me, even though I knew that she was right.

The librarian soon approached me with concern. "Are you alright, Renee?" She asked.

"I'm okay, Mrs Sanders," I answered. "Thank you."

"Do you know why the shelf fell down?" She asked me kindly.

"No, I don't know," I shrugged.

"I think someone pushed the shelf from the other side," She said, giving me a worried look. "Our shelves are very sturdy, they don't fall just like that."

Clover and I exchanged looks. "Do you know who pushed it?" Clover asked.

"No, but I wanted to check in the security cameras. You girls want to come along?"

"Yes, Mrs Sanders," I replied promptly. People had already removed the bookshelf from the area and cleared up the books, which were stacked neatly on the nearby table. We head to Mrs Sanders's office, a small area that was built in the library, specifically to hold security cameras.

The cameras had been installed since students tended to make out in the library, the cosy shelves at the back muffling any noise that could be heard. Or some people tended to steal library books, for reasons I didn't know about.

"This was the shelf right?" Mrs Sanders pointed at a particular spot on the computer screen.

"Yes, that's exactly where I was," I answered.

She winded the footage back to when I was standing in front of it. I could see myself staring at the bookshelf, grinning to no one in particular as I imagined Noah with me. My blush was clearly visible in the camera, and I saw Clover smirking next to me as if she knew exactly what I had been thinking.

Maybe Clover did know. She did call herself a psychic after all.

I saw myself pulling out the book.

One.

Two.

Three.

The shelf teetered towards me, as Mrs Sanders paused the footage.

"There's no one here," She pointed to the other side of the shelf, now shown on another security camera. "There's only a boy sitting here, at a table on the opposite side, and he didn't get up."

Sure enough, we do see a boy sitting on the opposite side, his black backpack on the chair next to him. It was Sam, and Mrs Sanders winded back the footage from that camera. He looked up suddenly, appearing to be concentrating on something.

His eyes widened soon after, and as he got up, the shelf fell towards me. He stared at it in shock, before he picked up his bag and walked away, panic written all over his face.

"That's Sam," Clover said, stunned. "He's in one of our classes."

And he sold me spare parts for my inventions, but we don't tell Mrs Sanders that.

"Well, he clearly didn't push the shelf, and he looks shocked by it," Mrs Sanders shrugged. "It's a freak accident then."

She walked out of her office, and Clover and I turned to the footage again. Maybe Sam didn't push the shelf, but he was acting very weird.

"Do you think we should ask Sam about it?" She asked.

"He knows something," I said, biting my lip. "Yeah, we should talk to him about it."

The door to the office flew open, and Sam stood there, his pale face even paler than normal, his hazel eyes widened with fear.

"Sam, hey..."

"I heard people." Sam gasped. "Invisible people."

"What?!" I yelled in shock, and Clover gaped at him.

"I heard invisible people," Sam repeated. He walked over to the footage and pointed at it. "You can't see them."

"And what did these invisible people do?" Clover asked, looking at him in disbelief.

"They pushed the bookshelf on Renee," Sam said.

Clover and I exchanged looks.

"Can you tell us more about them?" I asked.

"Sure," Sam said, sitting down on the chair, and staring at the footage.

"They were whispering among themselves, two girls and a guy. I was close enough to hear all three of them." He said.

"What were they saying?" Clover questioned.

"Something about how the bookshelf wasn't supposed to kill Renee like last time, just injure her," Sam replied.

"Why injure me?" I asked, puzzled.

"I don't know, they didn't say why," Sam answered mechanically. "But they also kept saying this name. Sir Johannes or something."

I felt a dead weight drop into my stomach.

Sir Johannes? These people worked for Sir Johannes?

And they wanted to injure me?

I felt like the pieces were coming together, but I wasn't sure exactly how.

"What else did you hear?" Clover asked Sam.

"That's pretty much it." Sam shrugged, now getting up. He pulled his backpack onto his shoulders, gripping the straps on his shoulders tightly, his knuckles white. He still looked frightened.

I remembered that I'd completed his homework the previous night. As Sam was leaving, I called out to him.

"Wait, I have your homework," I said, handing him the notebooks.

"Thanks," He smiled at me. "I asked you to do it for a month, but three weeks is enough."

He threw a worried glance at the computer screen, "Especially since you've got a lot going on."

"Thank you, Sam. What you told us was helpful," I return his smile.

With a final nod, Sam walked away, and I turned to see Clover giving me a smirk.

"What?" I asked her.

"Now I may be wrong," Clover said, "But I'm guessing that Sam might have a crush on you."

"Clover, seriously? Can't you go for an hour without pairing me up with someone!"

"Complain all you want, but I know for a fact that Sam doesn't smile at any girl, except you." Clover winked.

*****

I stared at the flowchart on my notebook, trying to relate all that I knew so far.

Clover's grandma's book was written by Sir Johannes, and published by the MBTN Publishers.

Mike wanted to open a new business, known as the MBTN publishers.

The people who previously wanted to kill me now wanted to injure me. And they probably worked for Sir Johannes.

Sir Johannes, who wanted to be the Head of the Earthly Realm by creating chaos.

I dropped my pencil on my notebook, not understanding the mystery behind this. I felt my mind swirling with questions, none of which had answers.

Was Mike related to any of this, or was it just a coincidence?

Why did those people want to hurt me?

Why could Sir Johannes, the greatest criminal mastermind of all time, be interested in me?

Did any of these people know about my secret Realm?

My phone rang, and I saw Mike calling me. Maybe I could get some answers from him.

"Hi, Renee!" Mike chirped.

"Hey, Mike! How are you?" I asked tiredly.

"I'm fine. Listen, mom told me about that bookshelf falling near you. Are you alright?" He questioned, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine, Mike," I said. "I found out that some people pushed it on purpose."

"They pushed it on purpose!" The anger in his voice was evident. "Who are they?"

"Just a bunch of invisible people who wanted to injure me," I said dryly.

There was a pause on his side.

"Are you messing with me? Is this your idea of a prank?" Mike sounded suspicious.

"I... Yeah, I was joking," I ate my words. Didn't want Mike to think I was seeing things too.

"Haha Renee, your jokes need to be better than that," Mike chuckled, "Especially since I am the King of Pranks."

"That's true," I tried to switch back to being cheerful, which was hard since I was wondering how to question Mike. How would I ask him questions without sounding suspicious?

"So, how is your business?" I started casually.

"We decided to open a technology-based business. Called the MBTN group." Mike said.

"What happened to MBTN publishers? I asked.

"We figured out that publishing really wasn't our thing," Mike sighed. "Besides MBTN publishers existed thirty years ago. And they shut it down in 1991 because of some guy called Sir Johannes."

I held a breath, thinking about how this was the second time today I was hearing the same name from different people.

"Why did they shut down?" I asked carefully, my voice layered with anticipation.

"The guy was high on crack, he wrote about some Spirit Realms and other worlds beyond death... Like people would buy that rubbish," He laughed to himself.

"Clover believes in that stuff," I muttered, wondering if Mike thought she was high on crack too.

"Clover believes in Tarot cards and Spirituality. I believe in that too. But other Realms and Dimensions, that's the stuff of the imagination." Mike explained.

"Oh," I replied, not knowing what to say.

"Now that I think about it, I guess dad started reading that nonsense too. Why else would he think I'm being possessed by a Spirit?" Mike said thoughtfully.

"Dad thinks you're possessed?" I asked, stunned.

"Possessed, haunted, sold my soul to the devil, whatever you want to call it," Mike said casually. "Our old man needs his therapy, and yet he thinks he's not insane."

"That's true," I replied, my brain buzzing with thoughts, like an overheated machine.

"Anyway Renee, I'll talk to you later. Don't make up lame jokes about your accident. Three people pushing a heavy bookshelf on you is not a joke." Mike laughed.

He then cut the call, and I dropped my phone on my desk in horror.

I only told him that a bunch of people had pushed the bookshelf on me.

Then how did he know that it was three people?

*****

(A/N:
Yes, a very early update this week! I wasn't planning on this and I might update later this week if I find more time.

I really hope that the story so far isn't confusing. The next few chapters are going to be at a slower pace, or atleast that's what I'm aiming for, we'll see.

Fire away your theories and ideas, I'm eager to hear each one of them!)