The tension reigned supreme. It was almost like that single word made the difference. Quite peculiar to think about that since Joel asked the others before too about that and he didn't get an answer. Joel had grown up reading books, coming across whatever type of words and whatnot, yet this one was weirdly unfamiliar. It was like the word itself didn't exist. More like an illusion formed on him. Joel had to do something about his missing friends and he knew he had to start from the obvious. The book. And in particular, that damn cursed.

"So.." said Joel "you guys know anything about that?"

Silence fell.

"Am i being mocked here or what? continued Joel "I just wanna know if you guys know the meaning of the word or not, thats all."

Jon and Jacob stared at each other.

"Joel, we have no clue what you're saying." replied Jacob "We can't seem to comprehend the word you're trying to emit from your lips."

"Its very bizarre cause you're making it look like that word may be the revelation to whats happening." continue Jon.

"But.. okay then, wait a sec." replied Joel.

He got up and went to take the book, he saw it again and checked if everything was intact, and there's no doubt about it, it cleary had the word Lucifer.

"What about now, what do you guys read?" said Joel. "This is the word i was trying to say before, its actually weird you guys can't understand me."

Jon and Jacob kept staring at each other.

"We're so sorry Joel, i knew we should've never picked up this book.." said Jon "the thing is, there's nothing written in it, thats why we were hesitant on picking it in the first place. We understand we messed up and we're mortified about that. But there's really nothing written in it, so we don't know what you mean."

"We know you tried to ask the same thing before" continued Jacob "but we thought you just forgot what you wanted to ask or something like that so we didn't bother too much. However, i can see that thats not the case and there's clearly something in there that we apparently can't seem to see but you on the other hand can."

Joel was blacked out. He was on his own bubble trying to sort things out. Was it much of a deal if they couldn't see what was written in the book? Yet again, even though the couldnt see it, they couldn't understand him either when he pronounced the word. Something was going on, and it wasn't a good thing.

"Okay, i understand." finally said Joel "This book is certainly the cause of what happened to our friends, im pretty sure about that. I didn't tell you something before, but right as you guys knocked the door, I had this exact same book in my hands.."

He continued explaining them what had happened before their arrival and Jon and Jacob told him everything they heard about the book from the shopkeeper. They were both in shock for a thing, the same thing.

They couldn't seem to remember the shopkeeper's name, even though he had clearly told them right as they had entered the shop.

"We gotta keep our cool" said Joel "I have no clue what we're gonna do about our friends, but i feel that they are still here for some reason."

"A few hours have passed since we first met and its getting a bit late, so we better hurry and search for things." continued Joel "I'll investigate the book a bit more, then i'll call my brother to ask him if he knows anything about it, meanwhile you guys go on the first floor and search for stuff that may seem out of place. We'll meet here in thirty minutes."

"Roger that" said both.

They proceeded walking down the stairs to reach the first floor while Joel was just staying there staring at the book.

When they finally reached the first floor, Jon gulped and said:

"Have you ever heard about his brother? I didn't even know he had one, let alone that he lived with him." asked Jon.

"I was thinking the same thing." replied Jacob.