~•Aden•~

Within the confinements of my dorm room, I was on my own as I searched for the answers to those questions which have been bugging me for most part of my life. After rummaging my way through the entire collection of the books which Dana had in her possession, I was still unable to find the one I was looking for. I could feel my head starting to throb as my eyes roamed over the crawling figures and digits on the pale yellow, dusky pages. There was a strong aroma of mistiness lingering in the air which spoke of how old the books actually were.

It was a good thing that I had to share the room with a geek so there was no chance that he was going to come back here anytime soon. And since the door to the room was locked from the inside, I could easily do my own thing without the fear of being caught while reading some ancient language which merely consisted of some creeping symbols, rather than actual words.

Bringing the fingers of my hands on either side of my forehead, I began to massage my temples. I didn't know searching through these books for a single thing could be this tiresome. Giving up on finding any clues about the weird vision I had earlier, I decided to put the books back in the metal trunk which was securely resting under my bed, and get back to my next class.

After setting the books in the same order they were supposed to be, I was about to lock the trunk and put it back in its previous position when my eyes landed on a book which was peeking from the foot end of my bed. I picked it up with a frown resting in between my eyebrows and started to give it an oversight.

The stale brown leather cover, marred with scratches in certain portions spoke of the bad state the book was in. A red thread was dangling from one end of the book, showing off that it was clearly being used as a bookmark. I traced my fingers over the thickness of the pages as they ended up lingering over the bookmarked part.

'This is weird. This book clearly seems much older than the rest of them.' I thought to myself as the frown on my forehead deepened by looking at it's wearisome condition. Without thinking any further, I opened the book from the place it was bookmarked. And to my surprise, what welcomed my tired eyes was the picture of a locket with a familiar hex shaped crystal hanging down from its center. To my bad, it was more like a sketched picture instead of a painting which deprived me to know the color of crystal.

'The Crystal of Faith.'

In some weird cursive writing, the words were written on top of the page. 'Why isn't this book in the ancient language of angels, but rather English? That's weird.' Shaking off the thoughts of my mind, I carried on.

'The Crystal holds the power of bounding one soul to the other. But for the ritual to take place, the two souls involved have to be willing to go through it. Giving a little of their powers to the crystal will do the deed. All one needs to do is recite the following spell a couple of times until the stone changes its color.'

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I moved my eyes to the phrase written in some other language I wasn't familiar with. But to my surprise I could easily read it as if it was instilled in my mind, word by word.

'A forbidden bond will bound the two souls to each other for eternity, the bond of faith that no matter what happens, they will always be part of each other. But beware of the price that you'll need to pay once the bond has taken its place.'

I turned to the next page only to find it blank. The frown on my forehead deepened as I flipped through the empty pages. Why was it that every single page of the book was blank without even a single dot of ink splattered over them? And how did it only have the answer to my question? It sure was one hell of a strange book. But what troubled me more was the description written jolted down in the book.

If I was the one who gave the crystal away to someone, then who did I bound my soul to. Was it Dana? But I have never seen her wearing such a crystal and I doubted she owned one. But then again, who was the person I bound myself to? And why was my vision only triggered once I touched that purple crystal. The track my thoughts were following, couldn't be right. It must not be right. If the loss of my powers was linked to the price to be paid, then I must hurry up and find the other person as soon as I can.

"I better ask Dana about it later." Mumbling to myself, I put down the book on my bedside table as for now before shifting my attention back to the truck. A slight knock on the door stirred my thoughts and I hurriedly slipped the locked trunk under the bed.

"I am coming." I spoke up when I heard the door getting banged once again. "Hold on."

In a couple of long strides, I was right before the locked wooden door and hurriedly worked my way on the lock. "Can't you wait for a while, you…" Expecting it to be my roommate, I started off in a rude tone, but gulped down the rest of my words when I saw a woman standing right before me.

"W-what are you doing here?" I managed to recover myself from the shock and asked her in a loving tone.

"My class was over earlier, so I decided to look for you. But I found out that a certain someone was kicked out of the class." Dana spoke up in an enraged tone as she walked inside the room, not waiting for my invitation.

"Yeah. I still had some time left before my next class, so I decided to come here to rest for a while." I replied to her scratching the back of my head as I closed the door shut. "You could have just left me a text, and I would have found you. You know that you aren't allowed in the boy's dormitories."

"It's fine. Nobody saw me getting in here." I heard her reply as her eyes roamed around the room.

"Oh!" I grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to me. "Good that you are here, I needed to ask you something." I added as I hugged from behind, my gaze shifting to the bedside table. "I..." No words came out of my mouth when my eyes registered the emptiness of the dark brown surface.

'Where did that book go?' I couldn't stop questioning myself. I clearly remember putting it there just a little while back before she came.

"You were saying something?"

I shook my head in a no, but my eyes refused to move away from the bedside table. "I just wanted to say, I love you." I finally teared my gaze away from the wooden block to the woman in my arms.

"I love you too." Her melodious voice rang through my ears, tingling my senses. She turned around in my arms and hugged me back with the same warmth and tenderness she always did. Her treatment towards me, only made me feel more guilty about hiding things from her. But if Dana wasn't the woman from my vision, it was better to keep her out of it. 'I am so sorry, Dana.' If only I could apologise to her for real.

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Sitting on a barren branch of a tall tree, a raven cawed a couple of times as his beady eyes were watching the two entangled bodies through the glass window. Flapping its velvet wings, he decided to leave the branch and look for his next target.