The Inescapable Curse

Arthur looked around to find something to help him. There was nothing. Only broken items and debris. He frantically looked around trying to find something, anything. Lying on the ground, there it was. A doll, a doll of a baby. He ran towards it and picked it up. He threw it towards the woman. As soon as the woman saw it, she let go of Elias. Going to pick up the doll. Elena and Evan pulled him back and ran towards the door. Thankfully the door wasn't locked. They ran outside and closed the door behind them. Outside, they saw the house vanishing, turning into dust. They all looked confused. How could houses turn into dust. then, they started getting dizzy and tired again. After a few moments, they all passed out.

Waking up, Arthur saw a familiar view. It was his house. Beside him was everyone still passed out. He took out his phone and checked the time. It was still the same time as before they got sent to the abandoned house. After a few moments, the others slowly woke up. The wounds on Elias's body disappeared, like it never even existed. They all were confused. Arthur spoke up.

'Was that a dream?'

Emilia replied to him.

'No. No way that was a dream. Everything just felt too real.'

They all agreed. There was no way that was just a dream. But then, Emilia looked back at the grimoire. It was closed. They never closed it. Before they passed out, they were reading. They never finished. She opened the grimoire, and turned it to the first chapter. There it was, their entire situation written down on the pages. Even their names were the same. Emilia was stunned. How did this book know what happened. She turned over the next few chapters. All of the chapters only had introductions to the story, everything else was blank. That's when she realized, the purpose of the first page.

This wasn't some normal book. It was cursed. She explained what she saw to everyone. They were all equally shocked. But it can't be wrong. It copied everything exactly to what happened. Which means what happened to them was because of this book. Arthur picked up the book and threw it into the fireplace.

'We just need to destroy it. Then, it will be all fine again.'

The book burnt in the fire. smoke could be seen on the grimoire. After a few moments, he went to check on it. It didn't burn. Not even a burn mark was left on it. He took it out of the fire and started trying to tear it apart. The papers didn't even budge. tearing the papers felt like tearing the skin of a crocodile. It wasn't possible. After a long time of tearing, he gave up. He knew that it wasn't possible to break it.

Emilia spoke up.

'What should we do then? This book is definitely not some random antique.'

Elias replied.

'We should tell someone. We need to get help.'

Arthur looked over and asked.

'Who? Who would even believe this kind of crap?! Even saying this book is cursed is already not believable. Who would believe that we got transported into an abandoned house and chased by a woman.'

They all hesitated to agree, but they knew Arthur was right. There was no way anyone would even believe something so absurd. They discussed everything for an hour.

Arthur spoke.

'If everything that happened was because of this book. That means we have a week of rest before the next, according to the rules. We need to prepare for the next chapter then. We should at least read what the next chapter is about.

They all nodded in agreement.

They went to the grimoire and opened it to the second chapter. The page read.

'Chapter 2: Trainway To Hell

There was once a train that always went missing but came back every once in a while. But the people in the train always went missing never to be seen again. People went through the tunnels and stations. Nothing was found. No one knew how this train came back or when it did. It just appeared. Ever since then, it hasn't been in operation. Until now, the company of the station decided to put it back in operation after their business was getting bankrupt.'

Emilia spoke up after reading it.

'Even after reading this, nothing helps. We only know it has something to do with the train. They didn't mention what or who we had to look out for.'

Arthur replied.

'Must be something related to the train. But wouldn't there be other people in there, if it is a train station.'

They thought for awhile and nodded in agreement.

Elias suggested.

'What if we just got off the next station? Wouldn't that be all we need to do?'

Elena replied.

'If it was that easy, there would be witnesses that was in the train. Something must be not allowing them to escape.'

They nodded.

Arthur spoke up.

'We should go to sleep. It's getting late. We should discuss this tomorrow.'

They agreed and went to lay in their sleeping bags. An hour pass, the room was silent but no one was sleeping. What happened just now was too terrifying. Arthur broke the silence.

'No one can sleep?'

Emilia answered him.

'Well, after what happened, of course not.'

Arthur replied back.

'Let's play games on my console then. We won't be sleeping anytime soon anyway.'

They all sat up and played video games for hours. Sunlight shone through the window the light shining into the room lighting up the room. They played for the entire night. it was 7 am. Arthur looked out the window.

'Oh wow. It's morning already. We played for the entire night.'

They were surprised. How did they even play for 8 hours straight. Arthur got up and went to cook some breakfast for them. He took out a lot of eggs and bacon and started frying them in the frying pan. After 15 minutes, 6 plates with scrambled eggs and bacon was ready on the dining table. The others stood up and went to sit at the dining table. After eating, it was almost 8. They played for another hour. Then, the others all went home. Emilia was gonna stay over for a few more hours until she returned. They both sat at the living room watching a movie. Both of them were engrossed in it. Not realizing how close they both were. They both reached for the chips in the middle at the same time. Their hands touched each other. When their hands first touched, their hands both bolted back. Their faces were bright red. They looked away from each other trying not to make eye contact.

Emilia apologized.

'Sorry.'

Arthur replied to her.

'No no. It was my fault.'

Arthur thought.

'Her hands were soft. It felt like my mom's hands.'

Emilia thought.

'His hands were rough.'

After finishing the movie, they talked for some time until she left. He was all alone in the house again. He packed the sleeping bags and stored it back in the storeroom. Then, he cleaned the house after. After finishing all that, he took the grimoire back in the room and kept it in a locked cupboard. He tried looking on his laptop for information about the book, but wasn't able to find anything related to it. Every website that looked like it had relation to the grimoire didn't have anything on it or was just a fraud. Nothing online described exactly what happened to them. After searching for quite a while, he gave up knowing this book wasn't something people knew about.

He laid on his bed and thought.

'Why did my parents have such a book in a chest though? Was the reason of their disappearance related to this book in a way. Even if it wasn't, they must have known about this book. I might need to go ask my relatives if my parents left anything behind.'

After thinking for quite a while, he took out his phone and scrolled through social media for an hour then slept.