"No way. That’s—” Joseph paused as he could not believe what he saw. “I thought you said there was nothing in here but some words that you couldn’t read?” Joseph asked, glaring at Holly who looked incredibly confused.

“What are you talking about?” She asked as Joseph lifted the book to show her the chilling contents of the current page.

“What!” She exclaimed. “That’s the same picture you passed around to us. It wasn’t there a second ago. I swear!”

The whole room shook with an outburst of confusion and surprise. So many questions began to fill the room as the illustration in the book and the paper drawings were passed around.

“They’re exactly the same. Down to the last detail. How is this possible? I looked through every single page and so did all of you before Marko got it,” Holly explained desperately as she truly couldn’t fathom what had occurred right in front of them.

“Yeah she’s right. I looked through it very carefully and I didn’t see anything like that in here,” Enrique said, nodding his aching head.

The whole room sat in silence. Shocked and confused, they stressed heavily about the new discovery, trying to decide what to do and how to progress with the information.

“We gotta go back to those kids, Joseph,” Marko said, breaking the ominous silence. Joseph nodded his head steadily while still pondering the new situation.

“You don’t think their mama would have a problem y’all poppin in again? Seems a bid odd ya know?” Josh added with the same dose of skepticism he always applied.

“Well. Let’s find out. Either of you want to come with?” Joseph asked as he stood to his feet and glanced around the dumbfounded room.

Joan still appeared to be in her own world, continuing to stare at the table beneath her. However, she slowly stood to her feet and nodded her head to Joseph.

Holly followed her example and walked towards Joseph on the opposite side of the table. They grouped up in a circle and got ready to head out.

“Do you guys mind cleaning all this up?” Holly asked politely. “We’ll be back soon.”

Though seeming reluctant to do so, Josh and Enrique didn’t debate the matter and immediately started clearing plates from the dinner table.

Holly thanked them as the four continued to walk towards the door, tying up their shoes and heading out.

Joan locked the door behind them and followed Joseph’s and Marko’s lead.

“They live just a few houses down,” Joseph said. “Hopefully they might know something that helps us put this into a brighter light. Right now, it’s looking very dim.”

The group nodded their heads and continued to follow his lead. Today had been an incredibly strange day for them, and they could only imagine it getting worse from this point.

“After what happened last week, I’ll believe just about anything,” Marko said, hanging his head and sighing softly. There was a troubled look on his face that seemed to be brought about from the memory of a recent event.

“Yeah. The rain has come so many times, and so many people have just disappeared. It was only a matter of time before it happened to someone we knew.” Joseph shook his head with an equally upset expression.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The rest of the group showed similar remorse as the prior situation pained them dearly.

“Yeah,” Holly yearned with a sudden sadness. “I really miss him.” She hung her head even lower than the others, reducing the morale of the whole group to nothing. Holly was the cheeriest person they knew. There were few things that could ever get her down, but this was undoubtedly one of them.

“But this is why—” she paused, muttering slightly. “This is why I want to do something. You know? This is why we need to figure this out. What if I lost one of you someday? I can’t take anymore of this.” She spoke in choppy segments with her lips quivering as she fought back the urge to break down in tears.

The group stopped walking to make sure they got their emotions in check before proceeding. They stood in one spot, looking anywhere but at each other.

The emotions they felt came in suddenly and harshly, almost shattering their spirits. This even made them feel helpless and insignificant. Afterall, they were just a group of college students that didn’t know anything about the strange things happening in the world around them. They weren’t supernatural experts or detectives – just a couple of overly curious students.

“Look, guys,” Joan said, wiping away a tear from her cheek. “We may have no clue what we’re doing, but we’re doing something. That’s more than anyone else could say! People just sit around and act like this isn’t a serious problem, but they do that because they’re scared. They’re scared of the rain and they’re scared for themselves. And maybe we are walking into this underprepared, but we aren’t scared. We’re gonna figure this out. I know we will.”

Joan tried as hard as she could to boost their morale, and she somewhat got through to them. Joseph raised his head and nodded. Marko smiled and gave grieving Holly a hug as she wiped away her own streaming tears.

“Let’s go ahead and take this next step, wherever it may lead us,” Joan said again as she gestured for Joseph to take the lead.

They continued to walk towards the house from earlier and spotted the drawings on the sidewalk. They appeared to be the same as they were before but with a few more details. Joseph smiled down at them then proceeded to the front door.

He knocked on the door softly and waited patiently for the woman to answer. He felt incredibly anxious, being uncertain as to what to say exactly. Though he had the book in hand and the drawing, he still felt unsure how to explain the whole situation.

In a few moments, the woman came to the door, opening it slowly. She stood in the passageway glaring at the group with a confused expression.

“What’s it now?” She asked bluntly, stepping through the screen door.

“Your kids uhh drew me something earlier,” Joseph spoke awkwardly, showing her the drawing. She took it from his hands and cringed as she studied it.

“They make drawings like this all the time. The boy does anyway. What about it?” She returned the drawing and continued to stare, making Joseph’s nervous heartbeat rapid.

“Well. It’s weird, but it umm seems to match uhh this drawing in this book we have,” he desperately tried to explain, but his efforts were pitiful.

Joan couldn’t take the shameful lack of confidence and smacked her forehead in embarrassment several times.

“Hmm,” The woman muttered, looking at the photo in the book. “I seen this book before. My mama used to have it, but there was never nothin’ in it.” She developed a new interest in the encounter and gestured for the group to come inside again.

They followed after her hesitantly and seated themselves on her couch across from her. Her television was turned on to a baseball game that was a bit noisy.

She turned the TV off as she noticed it seemed to be distracting her guests, but she never took her eyes off the book.

“How did y’all get this book?”

“We found it at the library,” Holly responded reluctantly noticing that the women seemed very unsettled.

“Can’t be,” she said. “My mama said there was only one of these in the whole damn world. She would never put it no damn library.”

“Well weirdly enough,” Holly started. “The book wasn’t in the library’s database, but that’s where I found it. I promise that’s the truth.”

“Hmm,” she muttered again. “Tell you what. I have something that may help y’all out, but it ain’t free and I also don’t want no money for it.”

“What do you want then?” Marko asked curiously.

“I need y’all to do a job for me. My mama has kept a lot of relics and weird possessed things over the years. She even died in this house. Recently, I’ve been feeling a presence coming from somewhere in this house, and I don’t think it’s friendly. If y’all think you’re gonna be some kind of paranormal researchers, I want you to confirm it for me. Spend the night here if you need to, but I need y’all to find out if there is something here or not. When you do, I’ll give you what you need.”