There were many unpleasant ways to wake someone up from sleep: splashing cold water on their face, flicking their nose, screaming into their eardrum, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. That night, while in the midst of dreaming, Jocelyn was woken up by a foot nudging her shoulder repeatedly. It took a while for Jocelyn to realize that it was coming from the ball of Gerhmaine’s left foot.

Jocelyn sat up in bed, her head still filled with the fog of dreaming. “What?”

“I promised you answers didn’t I?”

Jocelyn rubbed her eyes. “To what?”

“Your arms.”

Jocelyn was growing more confused. “You promised me answers to my arms?”

“A cure for the poison running in your veins, to be more precise.”

Jocelyn’s eyes widened. “You found a cure? You know how I can find this Ruined God?”

“Well no,” Gerhmaine replied, “Not exactly. I’m still looking into it, but I know how and where you can help. Come with me.”

Jocelyn pulled the covers off and slipped into a fuzzy warm robe. She grabbed her notebook, which she used to keep track of all she learned. At times, the barrage of information was overwhelming and she needed a place to write it all down. She followed Gerhmaine down the winding steps of the second floor and into the main foyer.

At night, the insides of Crooked House grew quite dark. Dimly lit candles lined the first floor hallway. It was enough to provide the bare minimum amount of visibility.

“Where are we going?” Jocelyn asked.

“Basement,” Gerhmaine replied.

Jocelyn was surprised. “Basement?”

“Yes, the basement, otherwise known as the lowest level of a house, usually underground.”

“I know what a basement is. I just never knew there was one in this house,” Jocelyn said. “None of the other students do either.”

She was intrigued. Her thoughts immediately shifted towards the midnight screams. The other students had speculated that the source of the screaming came from below ground. There was a strong possibility that its origins resided in the basement that Gerhmaine was bringing her to. Perhaps Jocelyn could obtain some answers tonight.

“All houses have a basement. Ours, however, is not the easiest place to gain access to,” Gerhmaine said. “There are secrets there that would be too mind-boggling for simpletons, like you, to comprehend. Thus we’ve kept it hidden.”

He led her to the first floor bathroom.

“Your basement is hidden in the bathroom?”

“It sure is.”

Jocelyn’s eyes immediately fell upon the toilet. “If this secret entranceway is hidden in the potty, count me out. I’ve already had my fill of shit today.”

Gerhmaine’s bony finger pointed towards the large, full length mirror hanging on the wall, opposite to the toilet. “Actually, that’s the secret entranceway.”

“The mirror?”

Gerhmaine nodded. “Mirrors are more than just objects for vanity’s purposes. They also serve as a gateway to the second layer of the existence: The Beguiling.”

“The Nicodemus Theory, right? There are four layers of existence. We exist on the first.”

Gerhmaine nodded. “Very good, I see you’ve been listening.”

Not only that. Check this out.” She opened her notebook to the infographic she had drawn to explain the theory to herself.

Gerhmaine studied the illustration for a moment, and then nodded with approval. “That’s actually quite good.”

“I find I’m better at learning when it’s in a visual form.”

Gerhmaine stroked his coarse beard. “Perhaps I should utilize these ‘infographics’ in one of my lessons.”

“By all means.”

Gerhmaine nodded. “I’ll make it so. This illustration is evidence there’s half a brain in that noggin of yours. You could have answered my question correctly during lessons.”

“There was no way for me to know Bartholomew’s Sacrifice off the top of my head,” Jocelyn said.

“You could always pick up a book and read,” Gerhmaine pointed out.

“I just got here two days ago.”

“You are your father’s daughter,” Gerhmaine said. “That gives you an unfair advantage.”

There it was; yet another reference to her brilliant dad.

“I don’t even know who he was,” she stated. “But I’d love for you to tell me more about him.”

“He was a man who was determined to change the Universe,” Gerhmaine said. “You’ll learn more about him in due time, but for now, we have deviated from our original purpose of standing in this bathroom together. ”

“No, tell me more about my dad. You owe it to me.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” Gerhmaine said. “Besides, I’ve been instructed by the Silent King himself to keep this information a secret—that is until you’re ready. It’s not in my best interest to disobey my King. Now, do you wish to enter into the Beguiling or not?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Jocelyn folded her arms across her chest.

“Fine,” she said.

“Every place of importance has an entry point into the Beguiling. It so happens that the Beguiling of the Crooked House is located in the basement. Of course, the Silent King and I had to clean out the mess that was there before we could actually use it.”

“What was the mess?”

“Oh you know, typical things you’d expect in the Beguiling—demons hiding underneath floorboards, ghosts hovering around their place of demise, and other monsters tucked away in the darkest, shadowy corners.”

Jocelyn didn’t like the sound of that.

“The Silent King and I had ourselves quite the day, cleaning house.” Gerhmaine gestured towards the mirror. “After you, Ms. Dark.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Jocelyn asked.

“Just step through it. It will take you to the basement.”

“The moment I step through, I’m not going to come face-to-face with some vampire demon who wants to eat my face, am I?”

“Now you’re being silly,” Gerhmaine said. “We all know there’s no such thing as a vampire demon. Vampire ogres and vampire ghouls, yes, but vampire demons? Never heard of them.”

Before Jocelyn could say anything, Gerhmaine shoved her right into the mirror.

There was no shattered glass and shredded skin. Instead, Jocelyn found herself in a room, one very different from the rest of the Crooked House.

Gerhmaine appeared behind her, hands behind his back smiling. “Voila, the Beguiling.”

“Don’t do that again,” she stated.

“Do what? Bring you to the wondrous realm of the second layer of existence, enlightening your mind in the process, while the rest of the Universe can proceed no further than the measly first layer?”

“No, push me,” Jocelyn said, as she glanced around the room.

It was a modern looking library, two stories high.

The first floor was filled with computers and tablets mounted neatly on the walls while the second floor housed large bookshelves that stretched all the way up the fifteen-foot ceilings. They were filled with large, ancient looking tomes.

“Welcome to the bastion of knowledge,” Gerhmaine said, “Otherwise known as our library.”

Jocelyn set her journal down on a nearby table and walked over to one of the tablets. She took it off the wall and tapped the screen with her bare finger. The screen illuminated. It displayed a virtual bookshelf with thumbnail images of thousands of books.

“Synthesizing Carbon and…Unicorn dust?” Jocelyn read the title of one of the books she clicked on out loud. “You’re kidding right?”

“What?”

“Unicorns exist?”

Gerhmaine nodded. “They sure do, though not in the manner you humans perceive them.” He leaned in closer. “Mark my words; there are no creatures in the Universe more deplorable than a unicorn. They are savage beasts that share no resemblance to single-horned sparkling horses that you’re familiar with.”

“What do they look like then?” Jocelyn asked.

“You have a finger, don’t you?” Gerhmaine said, tilting his head towards the tablet. “Swipe left.”

Jocelyn did and was surprised by the photo that was displayed. The horn aspect of what she knew to be a ‘unicorn’ was still there, but that was it.

Its flesh was the color of ash and it had long, scraggily hair that was caked in dirt and grease. The unicorn shared the torso of a human but below the waist it had the four legs of a horse. It’s grinning mouth displayed a large set of jagged white teeth, perfect for tearing into flesh and bone. The most noticeable feature of this monster was its eyes, which were blindfolded by a single, long, grey cloth tied around its head.

“That’s a unicorn?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yes. That picture is an actual photo of a unicorn.”

Jocelyn scrunched up her face. “He looks more like a centaur to me.”

“You’re being silly once again,” Gerhmaine said. “Centaurs are well known to be extinct. In fact, they were sacrificed using the Bartholomew’s Sacrifice to borne the Bone Hawk. It’s an ugly, vile new species, if you ask me, resembling flying rats.”

“Bats,” Jocelyn said.

“Huh?”

“Back on Earth, bats resembled flying rats.” Jocelyn turned her attention back the picture on the tablet. “I’m still having trouble accepting that this is a unicorn. Consider my mind blown.”

“The appropriate name for its species is the N’Veyan, translated into ‘the first hunters.’ The horn you see on top of its head is very good for impaling things.”

“Where do they exist?” Jocelyn asked.

“Oh, about three miles west of here. A word of warning, never venture out into the Darkling Forest. That’s where these vile creatures reside.”

“Only there?”

Gerhmaine rolled his eyes. “If you have any more questions, read up on it. This is a library you know.”

“The quickest way to learn is by asking questions,” Jocelyn recanted Gerhmaine’s words.

“That’s for when you’re outside the library.”

“Fine.” Jocelyn set the tablet back on the wall holder. “It’s kind of interesting how even in the Beguiling you still have technology such as tablets.”

Gerhmaine smiled. “Ironic isn’t it?” He was practically beaming.

“What’s with the smile?”

“It’s irony right, technology from the first layer existing in the second?”

“It is?”

Gerhmaine exhaled. “Oh for heaven’s sake, youths these days don’t appreciate good sense of irony. It was done on purpose you nitwit.”

“You brought these computers and tablets here to the basement on purpose? Sorry, that doesn’t seem like that big a deal.”

“Of course it’s a big deal! This library is an example of magic and technology, seamlessly integrated together.”

“Okay?”

Gerhmaine scrunched up his face. “It’s not an easy thing to do. Only elite magic users can perform such a task. To do so, one must master nine different forms of magic.”

“What forms are those?” Jocelyn asked.

Gerhmaine gestured towards the books.

“Right, right. If I want to know more about it, I should read it,” Jocelyn mumbled.

Her deranged mentor smiled. “There you go; you catch on quick.”

Suddenly, there was a loud groan from outside of the library. What followed were the screams of someone—male from what Jocelyn gathered.

The midnight screaming.

“What was that?” Jocelyn asked innocently.

“Nothing which concerns you,” Gerhmaine replied with a frown. “On that note, I’ll leave you here. Read to your heart’s content, but don’t leave this room.”

“How will I get out of here when I want to return to the Crooked House?” Jocelyn asked.

Gerhmaine pointed to the upper balcony. “There’s a mirror on the second floor. Do exactly what you did to get here.”

“Have someone shove me through it?”

Gerhmaine looked at her with impassive eyes. “I assure you, your wit is far from charming.”

Another burst of agonized screaming permeated the walls.

“Whoever that is, are they okay?”

“Once again, not your concern,” Gerhmaine said as he made his way towards the large double doors of the library.

Jocelyn was curious to know what other rooms existed in the basement. Perhaps when Gerhmaine was gone, she would step out and investigate.

“If you’re thinking about leaving this room, these doors will be sealed behind me by magic. The only way out is through the mirror.”

Damn.

“It will be difficult to concentrate with all the screaming,” Jocelyn said.

“I will silence it soon enough.” The way Germaine said it was chilling. “The book which may have particular interest to you, I’ve laid out on the white table, upstairs. See what you can make of it.”

“Okay.”

“Very good. Breakfast at the crack of dawn tomorrow, don’t be late. We have a very busy schedule in terms of lessons.”

“If I’m up all night reading, I won’t get any sleep. I’m going to be too tired to pay attention.”

Gerhmaine smiled. “While residing in the Beguiling, your mind is dreaming and your body is at rest. You are essentially rejuvenating your mortal body.”

“So this is like a waking dream?”

“In some degree, yes. In fact, there’s a strong correlation between dreams and magic. When you leave this place, you’ll find that you have been well rested. Spend your nights wisely.”

Jocelyn smiled. This surely was a gift! Getting the value of a whole night’s rest without actually needing to sleep and suffer through her nightmares and fevers.

For the first time while being on Yve, Jocelyn had a genuine smile on her face.

“Oh, and one last thing,” Gerhmaine said, one foot already out of the large double doors. “Don’t tell anyone else I brought you here. If you do, I’ll have to kill you.”

Jocelyn knew for a fact that Gerhmaine wasn’t joking.