The young girl, whose name was Paris, took home the chest.**
As Paris watched the cars go by in her mom's car, with the chest sitting on her lap, she could only think of her wonderful boyfriend. Despite his lack of a body, his existence proved the supernatural in her life.
A man phased into existence next to her, his shape and body feminine, with long, majestic hair.
She threw her hands up at what, to everyone else, looked like nothing.
"Yes, my love?" Dean spoke.
"Hey, look what I've got."
He looked it up and down, confused.
"A treasure chest? How cute. Do you know how to open it?"
"Nope. We're going to crack it open!"
"Who are you talking to?" Mom looked toward Paris with curious confusion.
Paris and Kennedy sat in front of the house with a hammer ready to destroy the box. They had a phone set up, recording the entire thing.
"Are you sure about this? What if we destroy what's—"
In seconds, it was destroyed, obliterated into pieces.
As soon as they opened their eyes, they were met with a bright, shiny glass key and a blue book container.
She picked one up, holding it like it was a slug or a rat.
Kennedy picked up a pair of scissors he found.
"Oooooor I could chase you with these. Hehe."
He pointed the scissors at her, then proceeded to run toward her.
"Keep that away from me! I could get hurt!"
"Hehehe. It's just a little sting."
He wiggled them around and accidentally cut himself.
"AHHH! OH GOD!" he screamed.
"It's just a little cut," Paris mocked.
Her mother looked out the window to see her being chased around by no one.
"IT'S DINNER TIME, PARIS!"
A nice, huge meal was set in front of her.
"Does George ever come down to eat?"
"George," said, shocking everyone.
"Oh look, the dog's out of the cage!"
She shoved more food into her mouth.
Kennedy looked at the book.
"Are you sure you don't want to throw it in the trash? It gives me the heebie-jeebies, and I'm not sure it isn't haunted. And I'm your day-one hater."
She took a picture of it using her phone.
She moved through numerous search results while Kennedy slowly looked over her shoulder. Almost none of them said anything about a book.
"The Book of Power: Rauoskinna."
Paris looked at the book, this time with more intrigue than ever.
The second she clicked on the result, she fell over, Kennedy disappearing even faster. A red picture of a goat appeared on the screen with the word **BISHOP**.
It was a trick. Something had happened, but what?
The men came into her room and grabbed the book. On the way out, Paris woke with a knife in her hand. In one stab and swing, she killed two of the men.
The third fought back, struggling as she strangled him, but the sheer force of holding on broke her fingers.
"Damn it! My weakness got to me again. What are these people doing here?"
Before she could stab him again, he fell to the ground and disappeared.
"What the hell was that? I didn't even know I could do that! Both my hands hurt. My entire body hurts. I need to go to the hospital."
"They wouldn't believe you," Kennedy appeared to tell her.
"It's too insane, too crazy. What is it with that book?" Kaguya said next.
"It's more than a book. It must be some occult-related thing."
She looked back at the screen. It was black. Her computer was broken.
"Look, I won't tell you not to get into trouble—that won't work—but don't go anywhere I can't follow."
She headed off to the library the next morning, the national one. Its halls were huge. It felt like they stretched for hundreds of miles, and they were intimidating too. She had no idea where to start, but nevertheless, she started searching.
"FUUUUCK! Still nothing!"
She shouted inside her head while sitting on the ground in the middle of the aisle. She looked around. Almost nobody was there.
She quickly ran to a window. It was locked.
"Crap! I stayed past closing!"
She quickly ran to a door. It was also locked.
Then she saw an emergency lever, but it was far too high for her to reach, so she grabbed a few books, not noticing what was in her hand. She stacked them one on top of the other, then suddenly—
As she got up, she noticed an important word in a book titled *A Deep History of Astral Projection*.
It was like magic, until she heard approaching voices. She grabbed the book and made a run for it.
She saw hooded figures, ones in green cloaks like a cult from a sci-fi movie.
She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves as the figure she had heard caught up to her.
"You, tell me what's going on."
The woman was blonde, wearing a pencil skirt and red glasses.
"Okay, okay. I'll help. Just follow me," she sighed.
Paris followed her through crowds of red-cloaked people. They all stared at her as if they weren't the strange ones.
"Stop looking at them. You're making it worse for yourself. Just avert your eyes."
Paris looked away, focusing on reading the book as they went through twists and turns.
"The Rauoskinna is a book with little to no knowledge about it. It was once revered by the ancient society of the Mañans. Many copies have been made, but most, if not all, are lost."
As they entered a room with a blue light projector and a single chair, worry scurried up her back.
"Someone important. Sit down. We need to talk about the mishap you had with a few associates last night."
Paris sat down like a student at a desk.
"We are the Interastral Organization, the IAO. That book you found, the Rauoskinna, was created a very long time ago by the Mañans to travel the Astral World. We work to fight off demons that invade from the Astral World. We secretly influence the world to recruit people like you, people with subhuman mental traits, to destroy these demons and monsters. To activate the book, you need an activation sentence."
By the time she had finished speaking, Paris was gone. She had already left.
Scared and worried, she banged her head against a wall.
"This must be a dream! It has to be. There's no way it's not! Things like this... do I really want to get involved? Aliens, demons, things of an astral nature!"
She spoke while walking slowly toward a door. She grabbed a book and broke the glass to leave. Her arms were tired from carrying the book.
She sat in front of her teddy bear, a pink one—girly, unlike her; sweet, unlike her. All of these things, all of these people on Earth, were unlike her. Maybe it wasn't a dream. Maybe there was a reason for her difference. Since she was born, she had always been different, laughed at, able to see things that weren't there. Kennedy could—would he come with her? She had always wanted more, and he knew that. She was destined for more, but burdened with this weakness in her bones. Maybe this way she would be able to protect the people she loved.
She thought all of this at a rapid pace.
She heard banging at the doors again, like stone against wood. Pain rang through her ears.
Then it was settled. She would leave—at least try it out.
"Will you go with me?" she said.
She spent all night trying to find the secret word while pondering whether to go to the Astral Realm. She decided to get involved, hoping to find something more interesting than her ordinary life. She said this to the young teddy bear.
"The power of magic is in my hands."
https://archiveofourown.org/works/88184851
