The whole adventure started in an old cottage, my aunts old cottage actually, in the middle of the woods. It was midsummer and since my aunt lived so far away from any human civilization and electricity, there was no AC at all in her house. I would rather have been spending time with my family in the city or going to the mall with some friends, but there I was, stuck in a house with my close-to-eccentric aunt. my father is traveling for work and my older brother was off getting interviewed for a job in faraway Switzerland and my father didn’t let either of us be alone for anything longer than two hours after my mother died. (Talk about keeping a tight reign on us!)
As you probably guessed, I tend to stay away from my aunt as much as possible, as she’s known for muttering ancient spells under her breath and the kids in any neighborhood in Philadelphia believe that she must be a witch. My aunt used to be a very successful scientist, but was fired from the institute she worked for because she tried to experiments on her co-workers! Now she goes around muttering formulas while the neighborhood kids say she’s muttering spells and enchantments. Anyway, on a particularly hot Saturday afternoon, I was wandering through the basement, the coldest room in the cottage, trying to find something interesting. In five minutes I had already found 3 family albums from at least forty years ago, 14 old dresses with completes sets of jewelry and shoes for each, 8 different shoes, and an assortment of knick-knacks. As I was clearing out my 2nd box, I noticed a tiny book, a journal of sorts, covered by so much dust, I thought it must have been there since the beginning of time! The journal was a simple little leather-bound book. As I blew off the carpet of dust, I noticed a little etching in the top right corner of the journal just before my eyes started watering from the dust. As I took a closer look, I saw the name Marideth Merriman. ‘Who in the world is that?’ I thought to myself, ‘Well, it won’t hurt to take a peek, will it?’ I opened the journal, and started to read.
