To Begin With (I)

                It is that time of a year again; where people wear thick clothes and nose turns red. The view of a road down the street from the window-view is blurry due to the cold temperature outside. Wiping the window with the sleeve of my sweater, I can see kids throwing snows at each other down there. They are running and laughing. They looked really happy. At least it seems like. The snow is still falling down and cars are covered with thick snow now. It's been two days of snowing. Being distracted for few minutes by the sounds of those kids, I turn my focus to the room I'm in. The room is not really big. Probably a good size for a hotel room. It's covered with vintage wallpaper and Lavender aroma is filling in. At the end of the room situated a small brown table that portrays the element of 80's. On the top of it is a book with a dark red cover. Everything seems to be well-arranged and welcoming. The hotel management did a great job. A knock is heard on the door.

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               I was a sixteen year old boy at the moment to begin with. I lived in a small town at the outskirt of the city, out of sight. Moonlilies grown on the river banks and fireflies gathered on its surface at night, making the water glow and sparkle. It was a beautiful place to gain peace but there was something unsettled about the river. Whenever I had a bad day or sad things happened, I would sit by the river and all my sorrow seemed to fade away, along with the river flow. Mom used to tell me to never go near the river because it's dangerous. I heard about it. Everyone was talking about it. My friends talked about it too. I've learned that curiosity killed the cat, but I did survive.

               On the April 14th, ignoring all the talks and stories of the townfolks, I went to the river for the first time. It was tremendously beautiful. Fortunately, the river was not far from my house, I could possibly go there whenever I wanted to. I put my school bag on the ground and took a sit near the river, facing the wide beautiful scenery. It was amazingly peaceful and calm. I decided to close my eyes for a while, enjoying the sound of the water swooshing on the rocks, chirping of birds, dancing grass, a laughing from a distance, the smell of flowers-- There was a laughing. I opened my eyes and remained still, trying to confirm the sound I heard just now. 

"Nope. That should be my imagination. Nobody else is here anyway." 

A laughing came again, it sounded closer this time, I weren't alone in that place.  

Heart beat faster.

          I picked up my bag and tried to remain calm. It's strange then that everything seemed to stop by the motion. It felt like even the Earth itself stopped spinning for the moment. Turning around, I saw a girl in white dress holding a book. Her bright light blue eyes was staring straight at me and for a second I forgot what color the sky was. She handed over the book and smiled. I blinked; book in hand, and she's long gone. I ran back home feeling confused and scared, all mixed up in one. 

I reached home around 6 pm.

"Where have you been for the whole day, young boy? Dinner's ready at the kitchen." mom greeted me with a warm smile but not warm enough to settle down my thought.

"Later," I ran upstairs.

          I went into my room and opened my school bag. There's the book. It wasn't a daydream. They weren't lying. I flipped through the pages, trying to figure out the contents of the book. The book had a dark red cover and few worn out pages. There's a small note written at the top of the page 6.

- By the time you're reading this sentence...

Curiosity killed the cat.

"Have you heard about the river, a girl and the book?" they asked.

"Tell me about it."

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