Nefarious

C18 - The Hidden Paper

I could see something was wrong from the sudden look on Alex's face. "You okay?" I asked worriedly. "I need to speak with Jace, I'll be right back." "Wait, you're leaving me alone?" I questioned. "Of course not, Xavier's here." Xavier looked up with a small smile on his face. "How did he know?" I frowned. "My 'Alex is worried' instincts, I suppose," Xavier said. "Xavier is weird, don't take everything he says seriously," Alex said as he cast a glance at Xavier. "Yeah, yeah," Xavier chuckled.

It wasn't hard to tell that Alex wasn't pleased with having to leave me alone again, but I knew that he had to, so I led him out of the room. "I'll be okay," I assured him. "Xavier if you let her out of your sight-" Alex started. "Then you'll kill me, I know," Xavier finished his sentence.

Xavier made sure to lock all three locks before he walked back to Alex's bookshelf. "You interested in literature?" I asked. He let out a chuckle as he placed the thick, brown book he held back into the shelf. "What?" I frowned. "You think Alex keeps literature books in here?" he snickered. "Well, what is it then?" I asked, shrugging my shoulders. "The books here are random. He just haves them here so that his journal will drown in them. A bookshelf full of books won't catch your attention. A bookshelf with one book only, however, that will surely catch ones attention." "I didn't know this," I stammered. "You didn't? Take a look at this."

It looked like he grabbed a random book judging by the fact that he didn't even have to look at the shelf when picking it. He opened it at some page and pointed to a certain point. "You see that right there?" he asked. "Yeah?" I nodded. "It's a tear from the night he was gone for a month," he told me. "Really? Alex doesn't cry," I shook my head. "That's what you think, Valerie. I'm not judging you though. You don't know enough about this place or about the people here to understand, but you will, eventually."

"This is odd," Xavier suddenly said. When I turned around I saw him frowning down at one of the books. "What's odd?" I questioned. "I don't think you're meant to see this," he said as he was holding a piece of paper up in front of him. "Did you really have to get me curious then?" I exhaled sharply. "Can you do something for me?" he asked.

Apparently his question wasn't optional, he just expected me to say yes. "Walk over to the door." "What? Why?" I asked. "Just do it, please." I did as he wished and it only intensified his frown. I couldn't control my curiosity anymore, it was getting too frustrating. Therefore, I grabbed the paper from his hand impulsively. I didn't get far with my looking though, Xavier was insanely quick to get it back. "Come on!" I sighed in frustration. "Alex would kill me," he whispered. "Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Anyone could hear our conversation." "Oh, right." "I'm so bad at keeping secrets," he exhaled. "I can keep it if you tell me," I offered. "It's not up to me to say this to you. I just found out myself," he still whispered. "If he finds out that I know, I'll just tell him that I looked around when he was showering." "Fine, but you'll have to figure it out for yourself," he said, handing me the paper. At first, I didn't understand anything. It was a map of my current surroundings and a dot in Alex's room. "Is it a map that shows you where you are?" I asked. "I thought so at first, but the dot didn't move when I moved." "It didn't?" I frowned. "It moved when you did."