Stella and Celestine had their dinner later that day. They exchanged no words for the first few minutes. Stella twirled her pasta, her hand lightly handling the fork, and brought it to her mouth. She barely chewed before swallowing. Though she perceived her meal as flavorful, her appetite was not there.

"Ti posso chiedere qualcosa?" Stella inquired. Can I ask you something?

Her aunt nodded. "What is it?"

"The man who killed Brandon, why does he want to kill us?" Stella asked her.

Celestine dropped her silverware. She reached for her glass, sipped some water, and then cleared her throat. She then said, "It's complicated. You remember when Helene told you that the jewelries were sold to our ancestors by accident? The man's father was the one who sold them. They punished him, and if I remember correctly, he couldn't recover from it. Now the son wants revenge."

"Maybe, we can return the jewelry to the son, so he won't look for us anymore?" Stella suggested.

"It's not that simple. Even if we tried, we can't just give it back."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," Celestine said, sighing. She briefly pressed her forehead with one hand. "We tried to give it back but the jewelries refused to be used by anyone other than us. So we cannot give it, even if we want to."

They resumed eating. After a few bites, Stella asked, "Do you know anything else about him? Like his powers?"

"I don't remember. Why are you so curious?"

"I was thinking that just in case he manages to find us—"

"No! He will not find you!" Celestine said sharply. She then gasped, bringing her hand to her face, and bit her lip. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound angry."

"No, it's okay. I shouldn't have said that."

"Anyway, the only thing I remember Helene telling us is that his real name is Gobhastan, but José and I call him 'the shadow.' He used so much dark magic that he literally became darkness," Celestine said.

"I see," said Stella. She sipped a little of her drink before continuing to eat. "Also, you said that you have a friend who is an author. Is he the same—"

"Yes," Celestine interrupted her. "They are the same person. He had just finished writing his eighth book when 'the shadow' killed him."

Stella merely nodded her head. They continued to eat in silence.

***

Stella's torso sprang upright as she woke up. She glanced at the window; the sky was as black as charcoal. She reached for her phone and checked the time; it was exactly midnight. It was the fifth time that night in which she woke up from her nightmares. In one of them, Brandon's death was replayed in slow motion, his scream piercing her ears as the smoke siphoned the life out of him. In another, Gobhastan was holding José and Celestine hostage, eventually stabbing their hearts with black shards before Stella had the chance to save them. Someone would die every time she closed her eyes. Instead of attempting to sleep, she sat upright on the bed, her back resting against the headboard. She did not want to endure another nightmare.

Creak. Stella glanced to her left. The noise was coming from the bookshelf. The magical book squeezed itself out of its space and approached her slowly, eventually hovering just an arm's length from her. An aura of concern radiated from it. It spread its pages wide and wrote,

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Because I can't sleep," she said. "I just keep on getting nightmares."

"Was it because of the flashback I showed you?"

She nodded her head. Brandon's lifeless carcass flashed in her mind. Stella shuddered. Sure, he did not actually die in front of her, but the scene was so immersive that it made no difference. And she used to think that on-screen deaths in violent films were traumatizing enough. She turned her gaze back to the book. She wondered what other pieces of the past were held within the book's pages.

"So, you can show me the past, right?" Stella asked.

"Yes," it wrote.

"Can you show me any event from the past?"

"I can show almost anything that occurred in the past one hundred and forty years. When Celestine was still young, she used to use me to help her train."

A lightbulb lit above Stella's head. Could she use the book to learn how to contract force fields, like what José was doing in the flashback? She asked it, "Can you teach me how to shrink shields?"

"Sure. Follow me."

The door seemingly opened itself. The book flew out of the bedroom. Stella got up and tossed her blanket to the bed. She walked around the perimeter of her bed, searching for her slippers. She put them on and briskly walked out of the bedroom. Her eyes struggled to spot the book in the darkness. Flicker. She cocked her head to the left. The book was floating above the staircase, a golden glow radiating from it. It swooped towards the ground floor. She followed it downstairs. The book halted in front of the entrance to the basement, motioning towards the small doorknob. Stella held the doorknob, twisted it, and slowly opened the door. She reached for the light switch and flicked it.

Amber rays of light drove out the darkness. Stella shielded her eyes with one hand and squinted, peeking through the gaps between her fingers. It took a moment for her pupils to adjust to the sudden change in illumination. She grasped the railing and descended to the basement. Once she set foot on the basement floor, she switched on the second set of lamps. The color around her changed from shades of grey to warm whitish-yellow hues. The book fluttered past her. The Portable Practice Room. Stella jogged towards one of the walls and jumped through the magic door.

The air around her suddenly felt lighter. She scoped the antechamber. Which room was she supposed to train in, again? Stella strolled towards the right, the book floating next to her, and briefly halted in front of the entryway. She glanced upwards. "Three" was printed above the entrance. She first put one arm through the door, then her leg, and then half her body, and the next thing she knew she had crossed to the other side.

Chamber Three was much more spacious than the antechamber—its width was twice as long as one side of the antechamber, and its length was three times longer than its width. Like the room Stella had just passed through, there seemed to be no roof. Perhaps the lack of a proper ceiling was the reason why the air around her felt significantly lighter than the atmosphere on Earth. The book levitated to her and opened itself.

It began drawing on its pages. The first thing Stella saw was an outline of a woman in a knee-length dress. More lines and a little shading were sketched onto the image, and a few moments later she could make out Celestine's youthful face. Celestine's arms were hanging in front of her. Her elbows were bent and pointing downwards, her fingers were spread apart, and her palms were facing frontwards. In front of her was a small wooden block. She propelled her hands forward and slightly curled her fingers, as though she was clutching something. A sphere shield surrounded the ball. She then twisted her wrists so that her palms would face each other and gradually brought them closer. The force field shrunk bit by bit. A single word was written beneath the moving image.

"Try," it instructed. It then flew an arm's length away from her to give her some distance. Stella scoped the room. It was empty. How could they summon equipment, again?

"Block," Stella uttered.

A wooden cube materialized in front of her. Stella glimpsed the moving sketch and then focused her eyes on the object. She moved her hands forward and bent her fingers. Fshh. The block was enclosed by a sphere shield. She rotated her wrists, her palms facing each other, and tried to push them towards each other. She could not. Though there was nothing but air between her hands, it felt like she was trying to compress a basketball. She glanced once more at the moving drawing. Celestine made it look effortless. Stella looked again at her own hands. I'm not doing anything wrong, am I? Her elbows pointed outwards as she forced her hands closer together. A few millimeters. Her eyes darted towards the shield. It barely shrunk. She let go, the block falling to the floor with a sharp thud, and sighed.

The book fluttered towards Stella and hovered in front of her. The sketch morphed from an illustration of Celestine to a depiction of José. At first, he stood still, his arms hanging stiffly. A second later, he raised his hands to shoulder level and opened his fingers. A force field shaped like a flat wall appeared in front of him. He thrust his hands to his sides. The shield expanded rapidly, reaching from one edge of the page to the other.

"Maybe this will be easier," the book wrote on the other page.

Stella took one more look at the sketch before she began imitating the changing picture. First, she let her arms hang naturally, her fists clenched. She then quickly raised her hands and popped them open. A flat force field appeared in front of her. She positioned her hands so that they were next to her shoulders. She began stretching her arms. It initially seemed like she was going to be successful—she had not experienced any resistive forces yet. Suddenly, a great amount of force blocked her hands from moving further away from her shoulders, her palms audibly smacking against invisible barriers. Stella looked at the force field. It expanded a little, gaining about five centimeters horizontally. A better result than when she attempted to shrink a shield. Stella resumed pushing her hands sidewards. It felt as if she was pushing against walls made of thick rubber. Her fingers flattened, veins bulged out of her arms, and faint grunts escaped her narrow mouth as she continued to push. The force field in front of her gradually enlarged, its width expanding more than its height. She then stopped and caught her breath. It's easier in the movies, she thought.

Stella spent the next couple of hours practicing her shield summoning. The book guided her as she learned to enlarge and diminish force fields. Stella wiped the sweat off her forehead. The book tapped her on the shoulder before displaying a short message.

"That's enough for today."

It closed itself and flew away from her. Stella staggered as she exited the magical room. She switched off the basement lamps and trudged up the staircase. She turned off the other set of lamps before closing the door to the basement. She glanced upwards. The book soared above the staircase. Stella trod up the stairs, entered her room, and threw herself onto the bed. She kicked off her slippers before burying herself beneath her blanket.

✧ ✧ ✧

Question Time! If you got a magical book that could show you the past, what would be the first thing you'd ask to see?

I hope you liked this chapter! If you did, please vote by pressing the star-shaped button on this chapter!

Thanks!