It was foolish that Ollie still believed the book was gone. The lilac canine had spent every second of his walk to his next class trying to rack his brain over how in the world the book had gotten into the car with him. This second period went quite similarly too, developing a mental list of all the culprits that wanted to pull such an uncomidical gag. It could not have been his mother as she was still at his grandmother’s house, his sister seemed too preoccupied to even remember having the book placed on her bed, and his father seemed too worried about Ollie getting to class on time to even give a second thought to a cookbook. That only left him.

Ollie didn’t even think of himself to be a very forgetful person in nature. Sure, there was the occasional homework assignment that completely slipped his mind or the occasional chore he didn’t complete, but overall, Ollie felt like he had a pretty solid memory for an upperclassman who didn’t get a break from work. He was beginning to doubt that belief now more than ever, especially when he started to forget about the whole book situation by the time his two hour class had commenced.

That was, until he made his way to his small locker in his passing period. The lockers the school provided for its students were small and could barely fit a textbook, let alone the two he needed to haul around if he didn’t want his grade to get docked for being forgetful- a trait Ollie was now hyper aware of having for the first time in his life. The school told them they were lucky to even have lockers with how many kids stored their drug stashes in them but Ollie thought it was just a sad excuse for their lack in size. Regardless of where students kept their drugs, it would always be a present problem. The only way the locker size benefitted Ollie was that Finn wouldn’t try to shove him inside one.

Mindlessly putting in the lock’s combination, he swung the metal door wide and went to grab the chemistry textbook that leaned inside, flattening his ears when his fingers brushed the spine of an ancient cookbook instead of a chemistry one. He pulled his hand away in revulsion, for some reason not feeling in the mood to touch the book when he had done so several times earlier that day. He distinctly remembered shutting the door of the car, the cookbook sitting on that front passenger seat as it drove away with his father. That funny feeling he had when his father drove away with the book now seemed like it came from the book’s taunts, telling him “see you later.” Ollie was starting to believe the book was one a mage would carry around but he clung to the hope that it was just a damned cookbook.

“What’s the matter?” An off-white dog asked, approaching Ollie with a perplexed look on his face as he looked at a dumbfounded Ollie who just stared into his locker. “Did you get test results back?” He teased Ollie.

“What I have, Gideon, is a problem,” Ollie said, the words dry on his tongue as his friend peered at the book in his locker.

“What’s that?” Gideon asked, reaching out to take the book and look over it for himself, only hesitating momentarily for Ollie’s permission to take it out of the locker. “Also, where were you first period? Mr. Albert was a tool as always this morning,” he explained absently as he skimmed the pages, his brows strunching in confusion as to why Ollie had a problem with a cookbook or maybe even why he ‘brought’ one to school.

“Are you going to make me explain I was at my grandma’s funeral when I’ve already told about five people?” Ollie asked as he put the chemistry book in his bag. Gideon froze with his absent-minded page flipping and eyed Ollie, looking for either a punchline or a sign of sadness.

“The one you know?” Gideon asked with caution, holding the spine of the cookbook in one hand as he rolled up his sleeve, revealing brown patches of fur.

“No, the other grandma,” Ollie clarified and he could almost hear Gideon exhale, thankful for not having to deal with an emotional situation. Ollie had learned Gideon wasn’t well-equipped to handle those types of conversations very well. “The one on my mom’s side, the one that hoards the random stuff,” Ollie explained further. Gideon just hummed in reply, his attention already back on the cookbook.

“Why do you have a cookbook at school, you thinking of taking baking classes, Ollie?” Gideon taunted.

“We are halfway through the year, how am I supposed to enroll in cooking classes that I didn’t even know this school had?” Ollie asked, “It’s just something I intended to give to my sister from my grandma’s house, but it’s just been… following me around now,” he said, cringing at how stupid that probably sounded to someone who wasn’t there.

“What do you mean it’s following you?” Gideon asked as he studied the book, shutting it before looking at the cover.

“I mean that wherever I go, it’s there, whether I’m bringing it with me or not,” Ollie confessed, now frustrated he was having to voice the problem to someone else. Gideon just looked up to Ollie and raised an eyebrow. “You know what?” Ollie said, taking the book from Gideon’s hands after shutting his locker and walking away with it, Gideon trailing behind him, “I’m done with this,” he said, walking over to a grey trash can, rimmed with an ugly black bag and dropping the book inside, not giving Gideon even a moment to consider protesting.

“What are you doing?” Gideon whined, his hands outstretched like he’d been hurt by the action, “That was a perfectly good book!”

“Agree to disagree,” Ollie said with a shake of his head, opening his locker back up and growling. He had prayed the book would stay in the trash for good, better yet, he had hoped it would end up in some landfill on the other side of the country, but no. The book didn’t feel like staying in the trash, apparently.

Gideon gaped at Ollie’s locker, snatching the cookbook from the depths of it and looking over it, going to the dog-eared page to check if it was the same book. Perhaps it was. With a few indecisive words, Gideon pointed at Ollie and took backward steps to the trash can, turning to look inside. Of course, the book was nowhere to be found; not in the trash, nor in Gideon’s hands, but back in Ollie’s locker… again.

Ollie took the book out once again and waved it at Gideon, who searched his very empty hands for a very real book and found nothing. Like a normal dog, Gideon decided investigating the trash can further was the most sensible route forward, and to be honest, Ollie didn’t think it was the worst idea as he stood there with the book in his hands.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ollie let out a squeak as someone bumped his arm quite forcefully, the book knocked out of his arms and his hands left outstretched as he fumbled to catch it. The canine looked from the book on the floor, pages creased on top of themselves, to Finn who was walking past him, giving him an evil look up and down. Ollie gritted his teeth as he heard Finn’s friend laugh.

“What are you looking at, Queer?” Finn asked and Ollie cringed at the nickname, instantly looking back down to the book on the floor as Finn turned and kept walking. He was beginning to notice how often Finn went out of his way to walk down this hall, beginning to notice how easy a target Ollie was for his ‘jokes.’

“The hell are you doing there, mutt?” Finn asked, leaning towards Gideon who was looking at the trashcan.

“Huh?” Gideon said, looking up to find a particular jock with his hands in his jacket standing over him, Gideon’s ears immediately flattened when he knew who it was.

“Going through the trash? Let me help you with that,” he said, putting his hand to the back of Gideon's head and pushing it towards the trash can as hard as he could, Gideon’s resisting just barely getting Finn to let off. With a laugh and an aggressive ruffle of Gideon’s hair, Finn walked on his way without Ollie saying a single word, just swallowing.

“Fuck off, Finn!” Gideon yelled after him, his hands clenched around the rim of the trash can, his knuckles probably turning white. Ollie just quietly leaned down to grab the book, missing the middle finger Finn threw back in Gideon’s direction. He grabbed the book and flipped it around, trying his best to flatten out the pages inside before closing it again; the pages never laying quite as flat as they did before. Ollie just let out a sigh, a tired one at that and didn’t listen as Gideon half grumbled to himself, half to Ollie as he walked back over, probably saying some foul words aimed at Finn.

“Oh, you know Finn, he’s just being-” Gideon started softly, turning to the direction Finn walked off to and yelling the next words at him, “SUCH A PRICK!”

“Do you WANT a basketball slammed against your skull? Ey, Gideon?” Finn yelled back and Gideon said nothing by with the mention of his name, “That’s what I thought!”

“I’m not scared of him,” Gideon muttered to Ollie, probably trying to convince himself more than the lilac canine. A moment of silence fell over them and then said nothing more of the interaction that had become commonplace for them, Gideon was the only one who yelled back. “Anyway,” Gideon continued, “Are you just pulling my leg or is this book really…” he made wild, unreadable hand gestures, “Teleporting?”

“Pretty sure it is,” Ollie replied, not sure if he wanted to use the word ‘teleporting’ quite yet.

“We have to test this thing’s limits,” Gideon said, excitement creeping into his voice, though Ollie wasn’t quite as thrilled with the idea.

“No way, I want to get rid of the book- What good is it to me anyway? I don’t even cook for crying out loud!” Ollie said back to him, frustrated as he gestured to the book as the metal studs glinted in the light as if it were taunting him again. Ollie wasn’t even halfway through the day and was already done with how much shit he was having to deal with, from the death of a relative to a magic book- bullshit more like.

“Oh, come on, you’re not the least bit interested?” Gideon whined, “Nothing this interesting is going to happen to us, we’re going to be sitting behind desks for the rest of our lives.”

“Maybe you’ll be,” Ollie huffed, hitting Gideon’s side with his elbow, sighing as he used his finger to wipe some of the dust off the cover, “Tell you what, if we can’t figure out a way to get rid of the cookbook, I’ll let you try and test whatever the hell you want with it.”

“You got yourself a deal,” Gideon said with a grin, running a hand through his hair to fix it from Finn’s ruffle. The two canines had a whole day ahead of them to get rid of the book and Ollie was determined never to lay his eyes on it when the sun rose again.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

The investigation started as soon as the bell for their last class rang and the students were free to leave campus. The first test only consisted of Ollie leaving the book behind as the two of them walked to Gideon’s house. It didn’t take very long before Ollie’s backpack had become noticeably heavier with the large volume making its way inside, right in time for the large hill the two friends both had to climb.

Scrapping their idea to try and throw the cookbook away again, the canines opted to just simply see how far away Gideon could drive with the cookbook before it disappeared from his passenger seat. Ollie had stayed right where he was; in the grassy front lawn of Gideon’s home while the off-white dog drove away. Gideon didn’t even get two blocks from his house before Ollie’s phone was ringing for the news that the ancient thing was probably right back in his bag. It appeared the book’s attachment issues to Ollie were just getting worse and worse.

Gideon was more interested in the idea of actually trying to cook something inside instead of disposing of it, but Ollie didn’t think that would be a good idea. Making chicken soup probably wouldn’t be the best idea when they had no idea what this book was even doing.

“Now what?” Gideon asked as soon as he came back but Ollie was prepared for the question, having a good seven minutes to think about it while Gideon was gone.

“We’re going to the beach,” Ollie said as he began to stand up, Gideon following, “We have a book to throw in an ocean,” he continued and Gideon tilted his head at that as Ollie reached the car.

“Compared to everything else, why do you think a salty bucket of water’s going to work?” Gideon asked as he hopped into the driver’s seat of his car, Ollie sliding into the passenger seat moments later.

“Exactly,” Ollie said as he reached for the seat belt and pulled it across his body, “The book’s pages don’t have a single ingredient that includes salt from what I’ve seen and it seems to be a pretty popular supernatural repellent, so it’s worth a shot.”

“Ah,” Gideon said, “But what if that’s just something movies and books get wrong?”

“There’s got to be some truth to it, otherwise why would they pick such a weird condiment as a demon repellent?” Ollie countered.

“Well then, let's go drop a book off a pier,” Gideon said with a toothy grin as the engine turned over and they started their long drive to the coast. Ollie had never been one who was particularly fond of the ocean and for being someone who was a strong swimming lifeguard, the open waters felt very different compared to a pool.

The sun started to lower down to the horizon, ready to rest itself from lighting the world for the night as the moon took its place. Their small adventure, starting in the sun filled day, would end with the sun casting unnaturally long shadows, turning buildings and foliage to pinks and yellows. Ollie knew the stars would be out by the time they made it around to the waves that crashed on the rocky shore.

Gideon had no trouble trying to find a parking spot in the usually crowded lot when the moon was out, the animals that played in the water were constricted to the warmth of the sun on their backs and the reflection in the waves. The beach looked different at night, reality altered as the bright waves became nothing more than dark crashing shapes that engulfed anything it touched, sending anything and everything into the depths of it’s void.

Ollie shivered as he exited the car with Gideon, tucking his jacket close to this body to try and conserve the little heat he still had left. Gideon’s heater to his car had broken weeks ago and now they were paying the price for his procrastination when it came to getting it fixed. The wind ruffled Ollie’s hair and clothing as the two canines made their way across the wooden pier, jumping the sign that told them they weren’t supposed to walk the landing in the dead of night.

As they made their way to the final stretch of the long wooden outcrop, Ollie held the book out to give it a- hopefully- final look. Gideon watched Ollie and the book, his face unreadable, probably unconvinced at how they thought this would keep the book away. The canine held the book over the edge of the railing as he looked down into the monstrous waves, crashing against the wood beams, swirling dangerously with chaos.

“Well,” Ollie sighed, wondering if Gideon could even hear him over the sound of the crashing waves and howling coastal winds, “Here goes nothing.” In reality, he was hoping ‘here goes the book’ but he didn’t want his hopes to get too high.

Then, letting his hand go limp, Ollie let the cursed cookbook, dog-ear still bend on a recipe for chicken soup, fall into the dark, salty abyss below and with any hope, it would stay there for good.