Tom

Tom wasn’t opposed to a late-night talk…though he had hoped it would be a less serious topic.

The dim light from his phone did little to illuminate his cluttered room. Wrinkled sheets cascading into the darkness at his feet, like some sunless sea. And beside him, an end table topped with stacks of graphic novels.

A stronger light would reveal a room full of life, color, and personality, but in the dark it was harder to tell he was all alone in there.

Kat hadn’t talked to him much since his…confession, and he was worried he’d blown any chance at even a friendship with her.

When he’d gotten a call at 4 in the morning, well, he’d hoped his luck had changed. Now he was more worried than anything else. Why was she asking about Rodney’s journal?

“What do you want to know?” He asked, trying not to make his disappointment obvious.

“Have you made any headway with the Latin?”

“Um, no not really, that’s not my strong suit.”

You don’t really have a strong suit.

He hadn’t solved the code either, and the symbols…he was totally stumped.

“Then would you like to do some research?” She asked before qualifying. “Together, I mean.”

He wasn’t sure if that meant she had no faith in his academic skills, but more time with her was good either way.

“Sure, I know a place in Blackstone we could check out…though having a topic would help.”

“The supernatural.”

“Right…” Tom said, rubbing his tired eyes. “Does that mean you’re buying into all that?”

He hoped she’d just said no; he wanted to keep telling himself he didn’t believe in it either. He was also worried that, at some point alone in the dark, she’d started down the same road Rodney had.

“I don’t know, but at the very least, Rodney did, and it will help us understand what he was writing about.”

“Right, we might want to bring Lucy in too. She knows a lot about this and…” Tom paused; he’d forgotten they weren’t on good terms, “if that’s okay with you?”

“No, you’re probably right. It’ll be hard to research anything if we don’t have a starting point and she knows more about this than we do.”

“Ok, I’ll text her some of the weird drawings and whatnot.”

“How are we going to crack the codes, though?” Kat asked.

“Well, from what I’ve read, you need a keyword or something like that. You use that to solve the rest.”

“Couldn’t that be anything?”

“Yes, but it’s usually personal.”

“So we learn more about Rodney, and we discover the keyword.”

“Yeah, we’ll be in Blackstone, anyway.”

“Right, and the rest is up to Lucy… I’ll shoot her an email, explain some of what we’re doing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I have to write a night log anyway; it’s a good icebreaker for all this crazy stuff.”

“Ok…and well, this feels sudden…did something happen tonight?

“I don’t know. I thought I saw someone out back, but…”

“Do you need me to come over?”

He was asked, but he was also walking across the room and putting on his jacket.

“No, I’m ok.”

“If someone is skulking around, you might not be safe and—”

“I’m fine, Tom, it was probably nothing.”

“Ok,” he said, disappointed. “But if you change your mind, just text me.”

“Will do. Meet me in Blackstone tomorrow, before work?”

“Sounds great… I mean, fine. I’ll check what time the bookstore opens and text you the details.”

“Bookstore?”

“It’s a long story.”

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