The Book Of Anonymous Chapter 14: Chapter 12: Tonight

Read chapter 14 of The Book Of Anonymous by Untethered_Seraph on NovelPedia.

People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when knowledge is so damn frightening. ― Laurell K. Hamilton, The Laughing Corpse Felix shut the door of his room tightly, barricading it with a wooden stand. The sky was getting dark, and the moon's silver rays were slightly penetrating the room. He shut the curtains and took the glass lamp from the wall to his desk. Tonight was the perfect time to understand the pocket watch. The fear from today's events made him realise the pocket watch's potential. In his reverie, he had forgotten to ask Elias Grey, the warden captain, about magical items; he didn't believe there was a lack of things like that after hearing about the magical awakened. The strange pocket watch with disappearing abilities had to be some sort of magical item. It would be much more helpful if he could utilise it to save his life. He pried open his machinist toolbox for his magnifying glass, then reached his hand into his right pocket to retrieve the strange pocket watch. The silver pocket watch's glow was more imminent in the darker room. When he put on the tinkered magnifying glass, adjusting the lens to notice even smaller details. The pocket watch had even more symbols than he had noticed beforehand, and the symbols were. moving? The symbols on the pocket watch crawled and slithered across the silver case, glowing strangely. Felix sighed as he complained internally, If he was ever going to use this magical item to save his life, he must be very careful. It was just too eye-catching and might attract more problems for him. He was currently a target for some mysterious faction of dangerous people over a package he had never even seen. Not to mention the possibility that the pocket watch might be the package. Another detail he missed before was the addition of three small, unfamiliar buttons embedded along the top of the pocket watch. There was no adjustment dial, nothing resembling the mechanism of a normal timepiece. He stared at them for a long moment. Before everything that had happened over the past three days, he would've pressed them without hesitation, pulled the watch apart just to see how it worked. But now… Now he had already died once. For all he could gather, this watch probably had something to do with it. He exhaled slowly, pacing the room, weighing the risk. If he stopped here, did nothing, played it safe, would that really change anything? The wardens couldn't guarantee his safety. If something happened again, he would be just as helpless. "…Fine." He pulled the watch helplessly from his pocket and pressed the first button, then Nothing. He waited. Still nothing. A hollow laugh escaped him as he let the watch drop onto the desk. "Of course," he muttered. "What was I expecting?" The continuous paranormal phenomena had made him slightly delusional to the point that he was anticipating impossible things. Maybe he really was starting to lose it. After everything he'd seen, who could possibly know for sure? He picked up the watch again and turned it, inspecting the midnight blue interior for any hidden buttons or mechanisms, but found nothing. Frustrated, he dropped the watch on the table. Then, his finger slipped, landing back on the first button Click! The world lurched as sound twisted. The faint hum in the room warped into a low, unnatural whine. His breath hitched, and then his body moved, all his actions reversed like a tape being dragged backwards. His arm jerked upward, retracing its path. The watch lifted from the desk before he could react. His fingers uncurled, then curled again in reverse. Every previous motion unwound itself. His chest tightened. "What the—" The room itself seemed to pull inward, shadows shifting back into place, the air folding in on itself, and then back to stillness. He was standing exactly where he had been moments ago. The watch in his hand, His finger resting lightly on the first button just before he pressed it the first time. His breathing was sl