Chapter 7

"Damn, son," Abel remarked as he looked at the squirming sprout in Riley’s grip. "Where did the apple go? That's some Peter Raine illusionist shit!"

Riley opened Abel's hand and dropped the plant into his palm.

"Not an illusion." Riley insisted with a seriousness in his voice. "That's the apple."

Abel stared at the plant, contemplating what Riley had revealed. He watched the squirming roots that crawled over his hand, reaching between his fingers in a failed attempt to escape. With a confused look, Abel glanced up and caught Riley's eye.

"Okay, so—" Abel started with a smack of his lips. "Like, magic isn't real...right?"

"I don't know," Riley said anxiously, his heart racing as panic began to overwhelm his thoughts.

"Yeah-but-like, it's not real, right? This is some trick." Abel insisted with a nod.

Riley felt his face growing hot as the room became brighter.

"I think I'm having a panic attack..." Riley began to hyperventilate.

"Uh-uh-uh," Abel's head swivelled in every direction in search of a remedy.

Grabbing Riley by the forearm, Abel dragged his friend out to the balcony and pointed towards the parking lot. Gripping the plant in his hand, he looked to Riley as he armed a powerful throw and hurled it from the balcony.

"Tah-dah!" Abel yelled out, his voice echoing off the brick apartment complex. Both he and Riley watched as the seedling landed on top of the sunburnt bushes below.

"Nice fuckin' throw," Riley replied in awe as he mentally measured the distance. "Those bushes are, like, thirty feet away, and that was a limp ass plant."

"Now, it's not our problem," Abel replied proudly. "See, it's gone, and we can pretend nothing happened."

"It's not that easy." Riley moaned as he stepped away and dropped heavily into one of the patio chairs.

"It can be." Abel pressed, sitting at his side. "Just let it go. Forget about—hey, let's play a different game. Isle is a survival game with dinosaurs. Let's play Isle instead of League Wars."

"No, it's more than that. It's the book." Riley placed his face into his hands and mumbled. "It follows me."

"Throw it away!"

"I can't!" He replied helplessly as he looked up at his friend.

"I will," Abel said proudly, flexing and winking.

"Yeah? Have at her, bud!" Riley said sharply with a smirk that revealed his annoyance. "Fuh ach'quooie'whyjay ze'el Ak'zi'key'my."

Thwomp! The book thudded to the table, sending Abel tumbling back over his seat with a high-pitched squeal. Riley's mood quickly shifted from annoyed to entertained as he released a hearty laugh.

"What the shit, man?" Abel coughed from the floor as he looked up at Riley and then the tome.

"Sorry, that—" Riley tried to say between fits of laughter. "That was just great."

"Glad to be of service." Abel pushed himself up, standing a few feet away from the table and staring at the object now resting before him. "So did you just, like...poof it here?"

"Yeah," Riley said with a sigh as he leaned over and touched the cover reverently.

That was when he realized what he was doing and quickly withdrew his hand.

"And when I get rid of it, it comes back."

"Teach me." Abel approached, fixing the chair before sitting in front of Riley.

"What?"

"Teach me, please." He scooted closer to Riley and placed a hand on the table next to the book.

"What happened to get rid of it—forget about it?"

"That was when I thought you were having a quarter-life crisis, learning cheap magic tricks, and using this situation as a cry for help!" Abel yelled out. He picked up the book and showed it to Riley. "But this is real shit. Teach me."

"I don't even know what I'm doing," Riley explained as he took the tome from Abel and put it back on the table. "I literally read a line from League Wars, and all this started."

"Do you think it’s some sort of League Wars easter egg?" Abel asked.

Riley and Abel stared at each other for a moment, sizing up the question in the other's eyes.

"No-no...that's dumb," Abel muttered in reply to his own question quietly.

Riley and Abel sat in contemplative silence. As they did, the two stared at the book and listened to the cars entering the parking lot as apartment-dwellers returned home for the night. Lights of the adjacent complex had begun to flicker to life by the time they found the words to speak again.

"What should I do?" Riley asked Abel.

"With the book?" Abel replied, pulling his gaze back from beyond the balcony.

"No, with my student loan debt." Riley snapped back sarcastically. "Yeah, the book."

"Just accept it...uh—to both, I guess?"

"Yeah?" Riley snickered.

"Yeah, you're stuck with both for life, apparently. At least the book does something other than depress you."

"Bleak. As. Fuck." Riley said with another chuckle as he looked at the book and felt the urge to touch it. Reaching out, he placed a hand on the leather cover.

"Ve'elgeewhy." The tome whispered in the back of his mind.

"Ve'elgeewhy." He muttered in reply and closed his eyes as an itch tickled away at his palm. Riley felt a warmth enter his chest, and, for a moment, a calm washed over him.

"What does that mean?" Abel asked, snapping Riley from his peace.

"I don't know, it just..." Riley closed his eyes and thought of what to say. "The tome talks."

"That sounds like a Dungeons and Dryads Podcast."

"Dude, I'm serious."

Abel nodded, hiding his smirk away. "Sorry," He said respectfully and reached out to touch the tome. "It talks, like, when you touch it?"

"Yeah—"

"I've got nothing. Wait!—" Abel stopped, holding a hand to his head.

Riley held his breath, feeling his heart beginning to race.

"It says we should eat."

Riley huffed, unimpressed and disappointed, as he stood to go inside.

"Aww, man," Abel called out in response, grabbing the tome and following Riley indoors. "Okay, fine, the book wasn't talking to me. Surprise. But you know I'm more a ZapNotes kinda guy."

Riley didn't respond as he made his way to the kitchen to investigate his food options. The joking by Abel had made him realize that he hadn't eaten nearly enough over the day, and his stomach had begun to growl in response. As he opened the fridge and stared at the empty shelves, he silently hoped that food would appear by some tome-like magic.

"Hey," Abel interrupted, dropping the book to the counter. "Poor jokes aside, I'm also right."

"I'm trying to make food," Riley replied from the empty vegetable drawer that rarely held vegetables.

"No—I mean, yes, food is good—but no. What I meant was that you should double down on this magic book."

Riley closed the fridge and turned to look at Abel and the tome. The moment the leather cover appeared in his line of sight, his hunger disappeared, and he found himself longing to thumb the pages once more.

Shaking the urge, he focused back on Abel.

"Fine," Riley said as he approached the counter and grabbed the keys beside him. "Let's grab something fast, and then we can try and decipher this book together."

"Fuck yeah," Abel hollered as he slapped a hand to the counter. "You're treating this time. I paid yesterday. And I think we’re out of work for a while."