Empty Pages
"Hmm?" Felicia paused her steps as she turned to stare at the grey-colored hard covered book on the floor.
This happened to be the same book Azaroth was checking out when Felicia got back into the room. From the looks of things, he didn't put it back in place properly.
"Oh, are you interested in this one?" She inquired as she walked towards it and picked it up.
On its cover were words written calligraphically, 'Record of the Luchans'
"I..." Azaroth was about to respond when Felicia spoke again.
"Sorry, I would give this to you but the pages are empty," Felicia stated while opening the book and reaching out to show Azaroth.
Just as she had said the yellowish wrinkled-looking pages were truly void of letters.
"Oh... that's a bummer then. The title looked quite mystifying," Azaroth responded but he had an unsurprised expression displayed on his face.
"Yeah, the title on the cover pulls me in. It seems so mystifying and from the looks of things the book must be centuries old..." Felicia had both contemplative and disappointed expressions displayed on her face as she voiced out.
"I know in the old days they hide words in books using certain means but I have tried every known method of uncovering hidden words and none of them worked... looks like it's truly just a book with empty pages," Felicia added as she turned to the side to put it back in.
"Yeah... must have forgotten to put in the words or something..." Azaroth responded.
'How did it end up here?' He wondered internally as he sighed in relief.
"Anyways let me recommend something more interesting to you," Felicia regained her enthusiasm and moved towards the shelf by the side.
-
Azaroth arrived back at home around nine pm by night. He enjoyed the time he spent in Felicia's place.
It was more interesting than he expected it to be. They spent three hours studying classes related to their course and about one and a half hour talking about books.
It turned out that the book first recommended to him by Felicia was something he had actually read long ago.
Felicia decided to recommend him another and it turned out the same way. As she kept looking around to recommend him more, her facial expressions transformed from surprised to astonished and then disbelief.
Both of them began talking about these books and clobbered away for long before realizing an hour had gone by.
Eventually, Felicia was able to find a book Azaroth hadn't read yet and happily passed it over to him before he left.
Azaroth sat on the sofa in the middle of his living room with an ocean blue hard-covered book in his hand. It was twice the size of two adults' palms and looked to be around nine hundred pages big.
'Calicrum's Diary: Vol 1 Advent of the golden bells,' These words were written as the title on the cover page.
Azaroth didn't feel sleepy yet so he decided to start reading right away.
-----
Time flew by very quickly as an entire week went by again.
During this time, Azaroth had visited Felicia's place two more times. They'd spend about two to three hours studying in several classes and the rest of the time would be spent talking about other topics ranging from novels to history.
Felicia also happened to play video games as a hobby sometimes and she was good at it but Azaroth had no idea how things like this worked so she mentioned she'd teach him one of these days.
On this particular day, Azaroth arrived at college with his car and parked in his usual spot.
However, someone seemed to be waiting for his arrival. Getting off his car he spotted a buff-looking dude with curly brownish hair, clad in the college's football jacket which depicted he was a member.
"Hey Jonathan," He voiced out as he stood in his way.
"Yes?" Jonathan responded as he stared down at this student who was a head shorter than him.
"Would you like to come with me for a brief discussion?" He asked with a smile but his eyes shone mischievousness.
"Not interested," Azaroth responded while turning to the side to move away.
The dude quickly moved towards the side to block Azaroth once again.
"I'm asking nicely now so I suggest you listen," He voiced out while standing in front of Azaroth still showing a smile.
"Not interested, get out of my way," Azaroth voiced out with an unbothered look.
"Make me," He replied.
"Either you come with me and this will be over in a few or you make me get out of your way... I'll be right here till you make your decision," He stared Azaroth right in the eyes with a look of intimidation as he stated.
Azaroth barely recognized anyone so he couldn't tell that this dude was a sophomore and even if he knew he still wouldn't care.
At this point, the college students had begun to gather in the vicinity with the desire to witness what was going to happen next.
-"Isn't that Clark?"
-"What's going on why is he standing in front of Felicia's boyfriend?"
-"Take a video..."
Azaroth turned to the side again but this dude once again stood in his way.
"Get out of the way," Azaroth demanded for the umpteenth time.
"Whatcha gonna do if I don't?" The instant he finished voicing that out Azaroth reached to grab him, lifted him slightly upwards, and turned around to drop him behind.
~Gasp
The crowd in the vicinity gasped after witnessing what had just happened. It happened so quickly that even Clark who was being lifted was unable to react till Azaroth dropped him behind.
Azaroth proceeded to start walking forward when Clark was hit with a wave of humiliation as he realized what had just happened.
"Hey hold it!" He shouted out and ran to Azaroth's front once again.
Bam!
Azaroth didn't stop moving and slammed into Clark with his chest, sending him tumbling.
Clark crashed face down into the ground and kept sliding back for a few feet before coming to a stop.
Another gasp was heard from the crowd in the surroundings but Azaroth was barely concerned.
"I warned you to get out of the way," He voiced out as he kept walking forward and moved to the side, avoiding Clark's body on the ground.
Clark later raised his head with a look of pain and turned to the side to see everyone staring at him and laughing with their phones stretched out.
With an embarrassed and annoyed-looking expression, he picked himself up and quickly left the scene.
At this time Azaroth was already in the corridor of one of the college buildings headed for class.
The videos of Clark getting moved to the side by Azaroth and easily body pushed as well, had begun to circulate across the college. Clark was one of the most popular male students in the school so this situation had affected his reputation.
Wherever he turned to, he'd see people pointing fingers and making jest.
"I will make sure he pays for this humiliation," He swore underneath his breath.
Meanwhile in class Azaroth sighed after taking his seat as he spotted Felicia up ahead.
'All this unwanted attention is happening because of her...'