It’d been a few months since the masquerade party, and a lot has gone on since then. Everyone had their bedrooms and side rooms all set up for the most part. I’ve stopped spending so much time in my library, after Sophie’s complaint that I spent too much time in my side room. Duncan and I are still investigating what was going on with the Journal owner (who Duncan affectionately refers to as ‘JOwner’), and based on some of the things he described, and some of the things that have already happened, we figured out that something bad went down on the property at some point. We still had yet to find out what. A lot of what was written in the journal had us running around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off, we would go all around with theories that would seem to line up until we find something else in the journal later that shatters the whole thing. Duncan is also seeing that girl, Lacey now. Paisley tells me that she’s so much happier now that she has him, and I tell her the same of Duncan.

Paisley, Sophie and I were sitting together in Paisley’s loft on a plush sofa she had brought up. Paisley was texting someone, smiling to herself, and Sophie was playing with her new tablet. Our parents left yesterday to go on vacation for a couple weeks, they somehow managed to find the time to be able to go on vacations frequently. My phone buzzed, it was Liam. We’ve been talking a lot these past few months, we even hang out in town sometimes, and I’ve met a few of his friends. I find myself growing attached to him just about everyday, which is concerning. I’m pretty sure he likes Paisley, he texts her a lot too. It doesn’t surprise me though, I’m used to it by now. Paisley is just nicer and prettier, and she’s a girl. Those are three things she’s got to make him like her more than me, so I try to stay content with just being friends. It was hard sometimes though, sometimes he’d say something really sweet and I almost want to tell him how I feel in the heat of the moment, but I can’t ruin my first friendship with someone in this area over a boy-crush. I don’t even bother acting like that’s not what it is anymore, luckily the only one who ever asks me about those kinds of things these days is Duncan. I finally checked my phone.

Text Conversation: 12:04 a.m.

LI AM I AM: Hey

Owen: Hi Liam

LI AM I AM: Whats up man?

Owen: Not much, hanging out with sisters. We are all on our phones, lol.

LI AM I AM: Oh, Pais is there?

Owen: Yea, she is. Why?

LI AM I AM: Nothin, I am talkin to her too, she didnt say she was right next to you.

Owen: Ah…

Owen: Wait, why does that matter? Lmao

LI AM I AM: It doesnt, I just thought she was hangin out in her loft

Owen: She is, so am I

LI AM I AM: Oh shoot I just realized this probably sounds weird doesnt it?

Owen: yyyyep.

LI AM I AM: Shoot im sorry. I actually gotta go real quick. Ill text you later

I sighed, and put my phone down on the couch. Paisley started giggling. I looked over at her, and she was staring at her phone.

“Who are you talking to?” I asked her, afraid of the answer.

“Liam.” Yep, there it is.

“What’s he saying?”

“He’s been ranting about something for a while now. It’s funny.” She was quiet for a moment, she glanced at me, then back at her phone and laughed again as she got another text. Incredibly frustrated, I grabbed my phone and stood up.

“I’m going outside with Alice for a bit.” I started walking to the door.

“Really? But it’s raining?” Alice sounded concerned suddenly.

“It’ll be fine.” I said as I descended the stairs. Hearing Sophie shout a farewell at me from the bottom.

The water outside was cool, it felt nice against my skin. The dog ended up refusing to go outside, so I went out alone. I went back to the flat stone spot and danced in the center until I was tired. Our parents had each of us learn the waltz at a young age, I was the only one who enjoyed it. I closed my eyes and moved my feet in the basic pattern, then sped up and allowed my footwork to become more complicated. At one point I finished the song in my head with a twirl, and a bow. I stood again, breathing heavily. Dancing requires focus for me, so it was something I did every now and then when something was bothering me and I needed to think of something else. Like Paisley and Liam, I wanna be supportive so much but I can’t help but get angry at her. I don’t want to be angry at her, she doesn’t deserve anyone’s anger. I sighed, and looked up at the top of the house, then at the tower. It was faint, but I could’ve sworn I saw something in the top window. I rubbed away the water that had collected on my glasses and looked again. I still saw it, it had a whitish blue hue. My eyes grew wide as I realized what it was. I pulled out my phone to take a picture, but the lense was all foggy, it wouldn’t show up in the rainy weather. I decided to go inside. I approached the old door hesitantly, then looked up at one of the windows once again. Making up my mind, I pried it open and stepped inside.

The only light in the tower was whatever came in through the windows. I was nervous, but determined. I started climbing. Most stairs were stable and made of stone, but others, wooden, and just wedged into the stone on either wall. I took extra care on those stairs, but none broke. Eventually I made it to the top, just a few more steps to go. I slowly climbed, and I could see the blue hue around the corner. I was on the last wooden stair, it must’ve been rot from the water that was leaking in but it was much less sturdy. The second I felt it creak I was leaping off and onto the next stair, a second too late and I would have fallen down, I saw the wooden stair just barely holding onto itself. Heart pounding, I turned back around and went up the last two stairs.

I expected it to disappear the moment I got there, but the white-blue foggy dust ball thing stayed in place. Watching me, near the largest window. I took a few more steps into the room, and looked around. There were drawings on the walls. One was of the tower I was in; one of an old man in ragged clothes, hunched over a book; one of two people, a man and a woman, they were holding the earth in their arms and embracing it; there was a bright shining sun painted on the ceiling, just above the tower; there were plenty of others around, too. I walked over to the man and woman, if the sun was in the sky, then why was the earth on the earth? I gently touched the faded blue and green planet. Then noticed the wall getting brighter around my shadow. I turned around again, face to face to the orb, or, face to dust? It just hovered there, like it was looking past my face and into my mind. Suddenly it backed away, and I followed a few steps until I was standing in the center of the tower, then stopped. It moved around the room in a slow circle, just around me. Then it stopped after a couple laps- just in front of the earth. Then it blasted out the window. I chased after it, but as soon as I got to the windowsill it was gone. Completely disappeared in the rain. I leaned back, and looked at the sky a moment before turning back and and taking as many pictures of the walls as I could. On my way down I kicked the broken stair off as much as I could so no one would make the mistake of stepping on it. I went inside, completely soaked.

I quickly sent the pictures to Duncan as soon as I was into new clothes as I dried my hair. I heard footsteps rapidly stomping down the hall. I assumed it was Sophie, until Paisley slammed open the door, face red and wet with tears. She was breathing heavy, and she kept trying to tell me something but her words were too fast and slurred together. I had to calm her down.

“Hey hey hey Paisley, calm down.” I began, I held her arms, so she would look me in the face. “Just breathe, it’s okay, take a few deep breaths and calm down.” I had never seen her have a panic attack before. Something bad must’ve happened. After a few minutes of shushing and reminding her to breathe, she finally calmed down enough to speak.

“It’s Sophie.” She said, and I paled. “She disappeared. I can’t find her, it’s- we-” She kept cutting herself off.

“Okay, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out together.” I tried to reassure her, my voice wavered.

“Come with me.” She said after taking a breath. We ran through the halls, eventually coming to a stop at the end of the hall on the second floor, only, there was a fake panel in the wall. It was pushed away to reveal a staircase going down. I looked at Paisley.

“I, we were exploring. And we found this. And Sophie wanted to go in and I was curious too and I wasn’t thinking and we went in together and-” she had to take a breath, she was still crying. “There were two hallways, I told her to stay put at the bottom of the stairs while I checked it out. But she must’ve…” She trailed off.

“What did you see down there? Were there any clues where she might’ve gone?” Paisley looked at the ground.

“Nothing, except she said she saw a light blue ball of mist. I thought she was playing around but now she’s gone and I can’t find her and I don’t know what to do.” She sobbed. My mind halted when she said ‘light blue ball of mist’ like the dust that I’ve been seeing. It didn’t take her somehow… Did it? I heard Paisley saying something.

“We need to call our parents.” She was saying.

“No, don’t!” I nearly shouted. “We can’t. Not yet. Let’s look for her first, there’s still a chance she wandered off and got lost.” That seemed to make Paisley think.

“What else would have happened then, if it wasn’t that?” She asked quietly. I was quiet too, for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

We spent what must’ve been hours looking for her. We used up several spools of string by the end of the day, just trying to find out how to navigate the small passageway. At one point we found a door that led into the basement, which made it even worse. Now there were two large mazes in this house that apparently had more than one secret passages and rooms to look through. We kept looking well into the morning too. Eventually I had to force Paisley to sit on the couch and eat something. She yawned.

“You can get some rest, if you need.” I said gently.

“No, no I can’t!” She protested heavily, but I could see her eyes starting to droop. We continued looking, till about 9 a.m. she was struggling keeping her eyes open even while standing.

“Paisley, get some rest. You can’t keep looking if you’re dead on your feet like this. Take a break, I’ll keep looking.” She shook her head.

“What about you?” She looked right at my tired eyes.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll get help.” I said.

“Who? Mom and Dad are on vacation, all our friends are over five hours away, and no one would believe this would be an emergency based on what we know...” She pointed out. Not all of our friends, actually, and Duncan would probably get here as fast as he could.

“I’ll think of something. Go, sleep.” I commanded, and continued to command until she finally went to sleep on the couch. I sighed. Then reached for my phone that I had been ignoring all day. All yesterday? Time became a blur for me when I didn’t get any sleep. I had several missed notifications, mostly from Duncan and Liam. I called Duncan after I left the room. He answered quickly.

“Dude, my shift starts soon, what’s going on?” He grumbled from the other side, he didn’t like talking on the phone, but at this point I couldn’t care.

“Sophie. She…” I quieted my voice in case Paisley was still awake. “She’s disappeared.”

“Oh, oh my god. Is she… What happened?”

“Duncan, listen to me very carefully.” I wasn’t sure how to phrase my next sentence. “I think the dust ball had something to do with it. I can’t figure it out alone, I can’t tell my parents, and I don’t want to scare Paisley. I need your help.” I finished.

“Are you sure?” He said after a moment. I nodded, then answered when I realized he couldn’t see me.

“Yes, I’m sure.” I finally said. He was quiet again for a few more seconds. Then I heard people in the background.

“I have to go. Family emergency.” He didn’t even wait for a response, I heard a clutter and someone’s voice calling for him to wait. “I’ll be there in a few hours, I’m gonna bring Lacey. She can help, or at least be there for Paisley.”

“Thank you.” I said, my voice was starting to break.

“It’s gonna be okay, Owen. We can figure this out together. I’m getting in my car now, I gotta go.”

“Okay.”

“Just a few hours man, I’ll get there as soon as I can.” He said, then hung up. I stared at the dark screen for a moment. Tears beginning to fall. I took a few deep breaths to control myself, then opened my phone again. I got a text from Liam sometime this morning.

Text Conversation: 8:46

LI AM I AM: Hey, you guys okay?

LI AM I AM: You both went silent yesterday. Let me know if some things going on…

Text Conversation: 9:29

Owen: Yea actually.

Owen: We need your help

Owen: Please

My hands were shaking as I sent the texts. I was 99.99% composed of nerves, and fear, and self hatred. What if the ball in the tower was only there to distract me while all of this happened. What if- my phone started ringing before I could finish the thought. It was Liam.

“Liam…” I whispered, not trusting my voice.

“Owen, talk to me. What’s going on.” He sounded panicked.

“It’s hard to explain, the short version is Sophie disappeared.” My own breathing sped up. “We can’t find her.”

“When did she disappear?” He tried to keep his tone calm.

“Sometime after we were talking yesterday.” I felt a wave of remorse. I left the house because I was jealous. I wanted to scream and pull my hair out. If I had chilled out we wouldn’t be in this mess and now Sophie’s gone, Paisley’s freaking out, Duncan was probably speeding to get help, and Liam was yelling at me through the phone- Wait, why was he shouting? I suddenly realized I was crying. Which was surprising, since my glasses completely fogged up and made it nearly impossible to see. I slowly started to calm my breathing. Liam spoke up again after he heard the slow breaths.

“That’s right, take it easy. I’m on my way. Do you want me to bring the police?” He asked.

“No, god no.” I mumbled. “I can tell you why later, just… please come help.”

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay.” I sniffed.

“I’m gonna hang up now, okay?”

“Uh huh…” I mumbled. I felt like a wreck. A train wreck. I was in the wreck, just hit by a train head on. I thought about going back to keep looking, but decided to wait until Liam came. I heard a car pull up, and I went to the door at the same time as him. I opened it, and he pulled me into a gentle hug. Then he stood back and looked at me.

“You haven’t slept, have you?” God I must look horrible right now.

“No. I just convinced Paisley to rest, she’s on the couch.” I told him, thinking he’d like to know.

“Okay, have you eaten?” He asked. I realized that I was so focused on getting Paisley taken care of, and Sophie found that I completely forgot about myself. I was starving, I couldn’t imagine what Sophie was going through. I shook my head no.

“Okay, let’s start with that. Then you can tell me everything.” He led me inside. He made sure I ate and tried to get information out of me. I was hesitant the whole time, until I caved.

“Come with me.” I said. He followed. I started walking towards the basement. I began telling him as we went.

“Before I start, I want to warn you that this is all going to sound crazy.” I said, then continued. “One of the first few nights I was here, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a whiteish-blueish ball of like dust or fog, and it brought me to this room in the basement, and the next day I found a secret entrance in that room. Then I didn’t see it ever again, until recently. I was outside in the rain and I saw it in the tower. I was told specifically not to go in the tower but when you see a large glowing ball of dust you get kind of curious, so I went anyway. And inside was a bunch of drawings on the walls, and the blue ball hovered around me and watched me and left. Then I go back inside, and Paisley comes running, and what does she say that Sophie saw before she disappeared? None other than a pale blue mist ball.” I unlocked the door and slammed it open.

“You’re right, that is a little hard to believe...” He said after my speech. “But I do.”

“What?” I asked, standing next to Angelica.

“I believe you.” he repeated.

“Good.” I said firmly, and stepped on the metal foot. I walked over to where the wall would open. I didn’t bother looking back at Liam’s expression, I was on a mission. Pretty boys will have to wait. Once inside I went straight for the desk and began rummaging around in case I found anything useful. I found more journals, papers with drawings on them, and a multitude of other random stuff. I dropped them onto the desk and began sorting through them. Liam came beside me.

“Owen, I wanna help, what can I do?” Then the two of us spent the next several hours coming up with ideas, not getting anywhere. We sat there, each with a journal in hand and a notebook for writing down ideas or translations when Duncan came in, Lacey in tow. I didn’t have the time or patience to comment on someone I didn’t really know being in my library. I quickly recounted what happened when Sophie disappeared. We each bounced ideas off of each other, back and forth. Eventually becoming passionate, and raising our voices.

“I already told you that can’t work! Especially since we don’t even know if they’re even ghosts at all!” Someone said.

“Well we can’t just keep sitting here, Duncan did you find anything on them, yet?” Another person asked.

“Not any more than last time you asked!” he crowed.

“Did anyone find the other drawing that went with this?” Someone cried.

“I think I saw something for it over here.” Another babbled.

Conversation such as that kept on. No one thought to check the time until Paisley herself walked into the doorway of the library, some papers comically floated to the ground before her, and everyone was shouting. No one actually noticed her presence, though. Not until she opened her mouth to speak.