Chapter 26: Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE SCROLL

D13.

DANIEL

When I arrive at the hospital, I tell the attending nurse that I am Radjan’s teammate here to check on how he is doing, and she lets me right in. I can tell from the moment that I walk into the room that Radjan isn’t doing well. He looks very frail, two words I would have previously never used to describe our team’s newest basketball star. If I had any doubts over his story, they are quickly vanishing. Even I can tell that this is a man in serious emotional and physical turmoil.

His eyes widen as he sees me and he speaks up, his voice labored as if speaking is a major effort for him, “Do you know where my father is? I need to talk to him; I need to get out of here.”

I watch as he makes an effort to sit up and winces. He must have cracked a rib or two when he passed out. I shake my head at him.

“I haven’t. And you don’t really seem in the best shape to get out of here, to be honest,” I reply.

“I’m fine,” he replies, bitterly. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Look, Radjan, I came here because I really think we need to talk,” I say, walking over to a chair near his bed and taking a seat. “Is it true what you said about Mirjana? I mean… I don’t have any reason to believe that you’re a liar. In fact, I have a pretty good impression of you. It’s just what you’re claiming is so crazy.”

“I know it’s crazy,” he says. “But I’m telling you the truth. I wouldn’t make something like this up. Mirjana was here, she was just here.”

I can feel the hairs on my arm stand up as he says that and I glance around the room, as if I’ll suddenly see Anna peeking out at me from behind a curtain or something, but there’s nothing.

“I fell asleep,” Radjan continues. “I don’t remember when she left but it’s all clear to me now. I need to save her. There’s a way. You might think I’m insane, but I know there’s a way.”

“What do you mean she was here?” I say. “What did she say? What was she like? Can you call her back? I—”

“Dude, I just told you, I was asleep,” he replies hurriedly, looking a bit annoyed. “And it doesn’t work that way, I can’t just call her back. Look, we shouldn’t waste time talking. The ritual only works on certain conditions. We need to do it right now while her spirit is still around somewhere.”

“What are you talking about? What ritual?” I ask before remembering my own musings during class the other day. “Wait, you don’t mean the one Mrs. Koppel was telling us about, do you?”

“Yeah, that’s the one,” he says. “I think it’s real.”

I open my mouth to speak but he interrupts me, as if he knows what I’m about to say before I even say it.

“I’m not crazy. I think I know where the scroll is, I dreamt about it. Everything is real.”

I think back once again to my thoughts that day during class. I wondered about this ritual but then felt that it was useless, as I’d never find that scroll. Could it be that Radjan really knows where it is? My heart races with the thought that we could possibly save Anna, bring her back to life. If he’s telling the truth then I’m grateful for his help, but I still can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy over the fact that he’s been seeing Anna all this time and I never did.

“I don’t get it,” I say, shaking my head. “Why you? No offense, but you’re no one to her. She didn’t even know you. Why would she appear to you and not me? I’m the one that’s been grieving all this time.” I know this probably isn’t the right time to feel angry, but I can’t help it. Everything about this situation hurts.

“Look man, she didn’t know she was….” he swallows, unable to say the word, so he doesn’t. “She didn’t know what was going on. Not at first. No one could see her, no one was talking to her, so she started thinking everyone hated her, including you. I was the only one who could see her.”

“How the hell could she think that I hate her? I loved her! She died on our anniversary, I never even got to say goodbye. I was here at this very hospital hugging her body, I—” I pause and put my hands over my face, realizing that my eyes are wet. “I can’t believe she betrayed me like this.”

“I don’t think she betrayed you,” Radjan says quietly. “I don’t think she can control who can see her spirit and who can’t. I remember the first time I expressed interest in her she told me she had a boyfriend who was on our team. I thought she meant Jason because she watched me play against him at practice once, but that was also the time we played one-on-one. Do you remember?”

My heart swells with so many emotions upon hearing this. I can’t believe Anna was there, watching me play. I think back to that day and suddenly it all makes sense. I lost badly to Radjan, not only because I was rusty from lack of practice, but because I kept getting distracted hearing her call my name from the stands. I thought I was going crazy, but no. Anna was really there. I just couldn’t see her.

Holy crap, this is real. I take a deep breath, steadying myself.

“Yeah, I remember,” I reply. “I just don’t understand why she would introduce herself to you as Mirjana. I didn’t even know until days ago that it was her birth name. She never told me. Apparently, her mom changed it when she was a baby because of some issues with Anna’s father. He still called her that.”

“Maybe she has an unresolved issue with her father?” Radjan offers. “I don’t know why she chose that name. There are so many things we don’t know about the dead, or ghosts. I can only guess. When she was here earlier, she said that she hated someone so much and I remembered some of our classmates were rumored to be arrested. I don’t know how connected they were to each other though. I don’t know if she was talking about any of them.”

“Anna didn’t hate Isabel,” I say. “But Isabel definitely hated her.”

“Really?” he replies. “Do you think Isabel could have killed her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I say. “She’s all kinds of messed up. I found out some things about her and I turned it into the cops, but nothing seems to be coming out of it.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter now, not if we can bring her back,” he says. “And if that’s possible at all, I’ll do it, no matter what it takes.”

I know right now is not the right time to feel jealous, but I can’t stop feeling that pang of jealousy in the pit of my stomach again. Anna is the love of my life, so why is Radjan so keen on bringing her back?

Seeing the look of pure desperation on his face, it dawns on me then that she’s the love of his life too. Here we are, two guys in love with the same girl. I suddenly find myself wondering what that means for us if this ritual works, and Anna really gets her life back. I don’t like that I feel a bit scared to find out.

“If this works, what’s going to happen when she comes back?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” he replies.

“Well, we both love her,” I begin. “You claim that she is your girlfriend, that you’re in love. Well, she and I are in love as well. So, what does that mean when she comes back? Who is she going to be with?”

“You cannot be serious right now,” Radjan looks at me in disgust. “That’s what you’re thinking about? Who is she going to be with? Bro, who cares! It doesn’t matter! We are talking about saving her life. If you love her, what matters is that she would get a chance to live again.”

My cheeks burn in shame as I realize he’s right. I shouldn’t be thinking of such a selfish thing right now. What’s important is saving Anna. Everything else can be worried about later.

“You’re right, sorry,” I say. “I just can’t believe this is happening.”

“I know,” he says, chuckling to himself a bit. “I thought I was the crazy one, but it looks like we both are. I don’t care though; I’d rather be crazy than useless.”

“So, what exactly do we need to do?” I ask.

“Well, first I need to get myself released from this place,” he says, pushing a button to call a nurse into the room. “Then we need to go to my place. That’s where I saw the scroll.”

***

An hour later, Radjan and I arrive at his flat and he starts searching frantically for a notebook he remembered seeing the scroll in. I’m a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. It just seems too good to be true. Not only is he seeing Anna’s spirit, but he also knows where this mysterious scroll is? I wonder for a minute if Radjan is insane and I’m just here going along with his delusions, but I quickly tuck that thought away, realizing that I don’t care. In moments of desperation, insanity is to be expected and I’ve got nothing to lose at this point.

I look around and am surprised by how small and shabby the apartment is. Judging by the way he dresses and carries himself, I had guessed that Radjan was one of the richer kids in our school, but I seemed to be very wrong. Appearances can sure be very deceiving.

“There it is!” he exclaims excitedly, reaching towards a black notebook on a high shelf. He winces in pain and grabs at his ribcage before grabbing it.

“I got it, man,” I say, reaching for it instead. “Don’t strain yourself.”

I grab the ancient looking notebook and open it up. Sure enough, there is a scroll tucked inside its pages. I stare at it, curiously. It sure seems legit. There’s something about this scroll that draws you in, daring you to follow its instructions. Unfortunately, they are written in a language I don’t understand. Radjan grabs it eagerly and looks at it. My eyes focus on the writing in the notebook, instead.

“Hey, have you seen this?” I ask Radjan. “It’s something about the ritual. Some guy saved someone named Sergio before and—”

“Dude, we don’t have time,” he says, grabbing the notebook from me and flipping through some pages. “This scroll is all in Latin, we have to find the translated ritual. The longer we take, the more we risk Anna’s soul moving on and if that happens, we can’t bring her back anymore. There.” He finds what he’s looking for and points at it. “Look, here it is!”

“What does it say?” I ask, peering over his shoulder to look at it.

“It’s a list with four items. Number one says ‘This is a timeless ritual that needs to be taken seriously because it has very grave repercussions. For instance, if you are just making up a ghost or hallucinating because of taking drugs, do not proceed with the rest of the instructions. Those who dare will lose their own life, and a loved one’s life within 24 hours.”

“Okay, that’s creepy,” I say, gaining a glare from Radjan. “You haven’t taken any drugs, have you?”

“Is that a serious question?” he asks me, still glaring.

To be honest, yeah, it is. I find that I’m kicking myself for not considering this possibility sooner. I mean, what do I really know about this guy except that he’s great at basketball? He doesn’t seem like a drug user to me, but then again, he also seems very rich and apparently isn’t. I think it’s a valid question. The answer could explain why he’s been “seeing” Anna’s ghost despite never knowing her in life. Maybe he’s been hallucinating this whole time.

“Kind of, yeah,” I respond.

“I’m not crazy,” he says coldly. “How else would I know about the name Mirjana if I were just some junkie? You know what, I don’t care what you think about me. If you still don’t believe me, you’re free to leave, but I’m doing this ritual with or without you.”

This grounds me a bit. He has a point. There’s just no other way he would know about Anna’s birth name. Besides, I can’t let him do this alone, no matter what happens. Anna was my girlfriend, and it was because of me that she was walking home alone that day. I swallow the lump in my throat.

“What’s number two?” I ask.

Radjan turns back to the notebook and reads, “’This ritual shall not be done if the soul has already moved on to the afterlife.’” He looks up at me, “this is why we have to hurry. She told me she is tired, she is weak. There isn’t much time left,” he looks back down at the notebook and continues reading, “number three: ‘take any personal item of the deceased, press it against your chest, and try very hard to think about the place of death (this step shall work faster if you know the exact moment of death).’”

I suddenly feel dizzy, remembering my dream about Anna’s death. The terrified look on her face. It’s painful to think about, but it dawns on me now that maybe it was her way of communicating with me, of telling me what happened to her. Maybe she sent me that dream so I would be able to use that memory for this very ritual. I don’t like to think about it. In fact, I’ve been trying very hard to wipe that image out of my mind, but I need to relive it right now. I need to tell Radjan everything I know about her death, so that we can coordinate our thoughts and do this properly.

“She was hit by a car,” I explain. “She was walking home from school – on that road behind the woods – someone came speeding at her, hit her and then drove off… they must have dragged her body to the woods first,” I add, wincing at the thought, “because she was found there instead of on the road.”

I can see the pain behind Radjan’s eyes as he registers and visualizes this. He then lowers his gaze back down to the notebook, “the final step, number four, is: ‘chant these words properly: amare, meliorem, sacrificalis, transcendentem illumque! It shall take you to the exact moment in which you can possibly help the lost soul conquer death.’”

This will take us to the exact moment where we could help Anna? As in, back in time, to save her from ever getting hit by that car? That feeling of disbelief comes creeping back in. I want to save Anna more than anything, but reading these creepy instructions just gave me more questions than answers.

“Are you sure about this, bro?” I ask. “I mean, how did this thing even get here? This is seriously creepy. Do you think the translation is accurate?” This is crazy. How can an ancient scroll be here, just lying in this flat, conveniently ready to be used just when we need it? What are the odds?

“I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been thinking about the dream I had. I think… I think my grandfather did the ritual to save my father from drowning. I saw it all in my dream. This man… he saved my father when he was a little boy, from drowning. I think my father was supposed to have drowned when he was a little boy. But my grandfather performed the ritual to save him. I wish I have enough time to read all the entries in that notebook but there are so many missing pages and still a lot more that are already unreadable because the ink had already been washed away.

My father never told me any of this, Daniel. But he always said good things about my grandfather. I figured out he was the boy in my dream because Mirjana… my father was also seeing Mirjana. I introduced them to each other. I think… I think maybe whoever has been saved through the soul saving ritual can also see lost souls? We really don’t have time for theories and for making sense of everything, Daniel. Mirjana told me she’s tired of wandering around and being stuck in between life and death. She is ready to move on. We don’t have time for anything else, do you hear me?” Radjan explains.

I just stare at him, trying to make sense of his every word. It is all too much for me to take in. It’s just too many things at once. All I know is I have to believe everything is real. If I could bring Anna back to life, nothing else matters.

“You ready?” Radjan asks when I don’t say anything about the creepy information he has just spilled.

“Yeah, let’s do this,” I say, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my wallet. I take out the picture Anna gave me of her school photo. A personal item of the deceased. “You said you have Anna’s textbook?”

“Right here,” he says, opening it up and showing me Anna’s name written inside. It’s there, plain as day, her handwriting.

I’m hit with the reality of what we are about to do, and I can’t help but feel so many emotions. I’m nervous, I’m excited and I’m hopeful. If this works, Anna will come back. I’ll be able to hold her again. To see her beautiful, smiling face. God, please let this work.

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do this.”

We gather Anna’s things and press them close to our chests, as the ritual says to do. I brace myself for the memory and then think back to that terrible dream I had, the one where I saw Anna being hit by a car. I think about her walking along that road by herself, turning around and opening her mouth in horror and along with Radjan, start to say the words that might actually reverse this tragedy.

“Amare…”

I hear a sound in the room, but I do not allow myself to break from my concentration. Anna needs me!

“Meliorem…”

From the corner of my eye, I can see a man walking into the room, picking a sheet of paper up from the floor. It looks like a piece from the black notebook. Did we miss something?

“Radjan, what are you doing, son?” the man asks, sounding alarmed.

We continue, focusing hard, “Sacrificalis.”

“Radjan! No! Stop!” he yells, running towards us.

“Transcendentem illumque!”

“No! Don’t do it. You have no idea what you’ve done! You put your life in danger. There is a fifth instruction. It doesn’t end in number four. Come back! Radjan!” his father continues pleading with a sense of urgency I can’t understand. I start feeling dizzy so my brain can’t really process what I am hearing even if I want to.

That is the last thing I hear before I feel myself drifting far away, as if my soul is being transported to another place….