NightCrawl

Alone
It all started on a dark afternoon, I had gotten home from school late to found that my entire house was empty.
No one was home. It was strange to see the house completely dark at six p.m. Once I noticed that nothing had changed from when I left the house, I started to get nervous. I began to look frantically throughout the rooms in my house. It was a pretty small one floor house with only 2 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Finally getting to the last room of the house; it was my kitchen, the kitchen that I so quickly ran out of this morning when I left for school. I had wished my mom a warm goodbye when I left not expecting it to be my last. I continued to look around the room seeing that nothing had changed just a note left on the kitchen counter. I walked over to it nervously as my whole body started to shake. I picked up the note and began to read it:

Dear Zach,
I'm sorry ...
Love Mom

I just stared at the note, what did she mean I'm sorry. That wasn't an explanation, what the hell did she mean: I'm sorry...what I'm sorry I can't make it home for dinner, I'm sorry I'm going to be late, what did she mean. I started to crumple the paper in my hand; I just couldn't believe my mom. How could she just up right and leave her only son alone.
I stood there in the middle of my kitchen thinking to myself, what I was going to do now. How could she just leave me a note saying she wasn't coming home? What did it mean? I couldn't understand why this was happening to me. I pulled a chair out and then sat down. Looking down at the note and re-read it over and over until it was imbedded in my mind. Before I knew it I had already thrown the chair I had been sitting in at the wall as if it had done something to me. This had to be a joke, I thought as I looked around. "Mom will be back in the morning" I said to myself as a slowly made my way to my room not bothering with dinner as I just lay in bed.

I don't think I even slept that night, I wanted to wait for mom to come home but she never did. Instead some lady from child services showed up at my front door in the morning. I couldn't believe she was even there.

"Zachary Oliver" she said as she looked at me with a stern expression on her face. She didn't seem too happy to be there. I nodded and looked at her; I didn't really know who she was. It may have been a better idea just to lie but I didn't think about it then.
She explained to me that I was going to be leaving my mom of 16 years to leave with my Aunt Sophie. Someone that I had never met before, scuffing and then looked at the worker. "You don't expect me to believe you right?" I said looking at her. "This is all some joke, how could you be here so soon." I asked her giving her a sort of glare. She wasn't really at all surprised by my question as she stood there in front of me. "We were informed that you were living here by yourself" she replied. "Who told you that? My mom is out on a business trip" I lied as she gave me a slight smile. It didn't really suit her; it looked more like it was an evil smirk. "Your mother" she stated not saying anything else.
"She informed us, that she could no longer care for you and that you are to go to your Aunt Sophie" she told me.
I just glared at her and tried to understand why my mom had just up right left. The woman didn't really explain much to me after that. What was I suppose to do now, leave quietly with her or just run away.

I sighed and gave up, if my mother didn't want me why would Aunt Sophie want me. Starting to pack my things as the child service worker just waited for me. All the while making sure that I had grabbed absolutely everything I needed. Glancing back at my room one last time before I slowly made my way towards the front door. There was the social worker (someone who I had come to hate with a passion) was waiting for me, she put her hand on my shoulder as I just tried to shrug it off. She asked for my bag so she could put it in the trunk. I glanced once more back at the place where I had grown up only to notice that it was completely lifeless as if no one had lived there for years. I got into the car as the lady shut the door the second I got in.
I had no idea where my so called Aunt Sophie lived as I watched the signs pass by. It seemed like forever until we got to the place. Well it probably had been, sometime during the ride I had fallen asleep and woken up a few miles from my new home. Not being able to see a sign that said
'Welcome to Tweed, Population: 5612' there was very little possibility for me to get in any trouble here. Sighing once again I could see that we were turning on a small street but I couldn't see the name due to all the tree leaves covering it. Noticing that it had gotten rather late when we reached my new home. How long had I been sleeping in the car I wondered as I heard the social workers speak.
"We're here" she said as getting out of the car, groaning slightly I got out and looked at the house. It was a lot bigger then my house was being 3 floors and it looked like it had a basement. The social worker made her way up the steps of the house as she then glanced back at me. She motioned for me to hurry up, throwing my bag on my back as I headed towards the front door when the door opened.
A woman in her late 20's, short brown hair down to her shoulders, pale skin with green eyes stared back at me with a warm smile. Hearing the social worker being to talk to her but it wasn't really to clear what she had said. Sophia looked back at me and smiled once again. "I'm Sophia Hobbs" she said as I just looked at her with an uninterested expression. The social worker frowned slightly at my behaviour and then told Aunt Sophia I needed to get used to my surrounds and then I would open up. She didn't know me, how would she know I would open up. Giving the social worker an unhappy look as Sophia looked back at me once again. "Zachary, Right?" she asked hopping that she got it right. It didn't even seem like she knew me at all. Nodding and then just looked towards the street.

"I prefer Zach" I told her not caring to say much else.
"I'll keep that in mind." She replied as she let me go inside while she talked to the social worker for a moment longer.
I walked into what seemed to be the living room which wasn't very far from the front door and could hear what Aunt Sophie was saying to the social worker.
"You can't expect me to take care of him??" she basically shouted loud enough to for me to hear.
"It is listed in the will that you are his permanent guardian"
"But you seriously can't expect me to watch ov-"Aunt Sophia began as the social worker cut her off before she could finish her sentence seeing that I had popped my head out when I heard the shouting. She gave me a fake smile and then told the social worker she would call her later before she pretty much slammed the door. Sitting down on the couch as I gave her a bored glance, Aunt Sophie walked in shortly later and shot me her fake smile once again. "Look..." she began as I glanced towards the stairs and got up. "Where am I going to sleep" asking rudely as a shot her a glare of annoyance.

She stared at me blankly and then sighed, she knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with me tonight so she just showed me to my new room. Thanking her with a nod of my head, I threw my bag aside in a corner and slammed the door with my foot. Checking the time I notice that it was ten thirty at night. Sighing to myself 'I'm not going anywhere tonight' I thought as I just lay down on the bed staring up at the ceiling.
I could tell by the conversation with the social worker that Aunt Sophie didn't want me here as much as I didn't want to be there. Getting off the bed to look at my room; it was fully stocked with a new Dell computer which had all the perks a 16 year old boy would want, a large closet for my cloths, and enough wall space to put my posters up. Shrugging slightly wondering why it was even here seeing as Aunt Sophie didn't seem too happy about the whole situation. Moving slowly over to the computer as i turned it on, it started up much faster than the piece of crap I had at home. That was a plus for moving into a new house with someone who didn't seem at all to welcoming at a second glance. Sure, if it had been under other circumstances maybe I would have enjoyed living with Aunt Sophia. This was not one of them. Waiting for the computer to load up I noticed that there was no password lock on it
"Awesome!"
I quickly turned on whatever internet serves was available to me as went to the search engine and typed in the email provider. Logging in as swiftly as possible I saw I had one new email, from my best friend Eric. Man would he be pissed that I didn't show up for practice today. Scanning the email quickly and giving off a smirk wanting to laugh at my friends email. He seemed concerned about my absence, usually when I missed school it was generally with him. More like skipping that is.
Dude!!
Where are you?? I went by your place today after school when I couldn't reach you on your cell.

"Crap!"
How could I have forgotten the only other object in my life that kept my connected to my friends. I didn't have the greatest photographic memory in the world to remember all those numbers. Damn it, some were from some cute girls Eric and I had meet while skipping class. I had meant to call of them again...ah - what had been her name. Alice - Linda - Oh well that didn't matter anymore, so really who gave a shit. Not like I was going to need it anymore. I was in some little place called Tweed that I knew nothing about. Continuing to read the email I began to smirk again. Only a friend like Eric could think I was leaving him out of something good. Maybe he thought I skipped to go hang out with one of the girls.

Man, I thought you were going to be with those chicks we met last week! How could you leave me out of that? You asshole! We agreed, the blonde one was mine. Either way! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU MISS PRACTICE TODAY!!! Coach was so pissed off, he made us all do an extra 20 laps cuz of your ass wasn't there! I covered for you, told him you had a 24 hour stomach bug, I was going to beat you up the second I got to your house, but when I got there your house was completely empty. Well not empty, some new people where moving in. It was freaky dude, I asked them about you and they just looked at me if I was an idiot. They told me no one had lived your house of over 16 years...that was freaky.
You lazy ass, how could you move and not tell your best buddy! I thought we were cool...
Don't forget about the party this weekend, you better be there you ass!!
Eric
Only my friend Eric could turn something bad into a funny situation. He cared more about me missing practice then actually missing off the face of the planet. What great friends I had, about to reply to his email I could hear Sophia knocking on my door. Without realizing I quickly shut the monitor off and launched myself onto the bed. She waited a moment before she opened the door that moment had given me enough time to make it look like I was just laying on the bed. I'm sure she could hear the small humming that was now coming from the newly turned on computer, but it didn't seem to bother her. Mom would freak out every time I was on it. Like it was some sort of death trap. As if it would suck out my soul and eat it, give me a break mom it's just a computer. I could feel Sophia was staring at my back. It felt really eerie, like she was staring right into my soul.
I knew she wanted to speak to me about what was going on, but not wanting to listen to her I just kept my back turned. Hear her sigh, thinking she was going to give up but instead beginning to speak.
"If you're hungry I made you a snack"
Sophia sighed once again, she could tell that I was being stubborn on purpose and there was no way that I was going to give in anytime soon. Mentally smirking to myself I heard her speak again.
"Look Zacha-...I mean Zach" she started "This is really hard for me, I don't have any children of my own"
Like I hadn't noticed that already; this was becoming one of those conversations that needed to be addressed face to face. I despised those the most, slowly getting up off the bed and turning towards her. I noticed that something was different; she looked wicked now that no one was around. As if a monster ready to attack, I wondered why I was getting this feeling when I noticed her lips moving again. Damn, did she never shut up!

"This is all new to me - and well I'm glad your mom left you in my care"
It wasn't like I was putting much effort into listening to her, she seemed like she was just babbling on about something her and my mother that happened long ago. Not being able to get over the fact that she looked like a monster that was inching to come out of its skin, like out of movie with werewolves. She looked just like that, it bothered me and at the back of my mind I kept trying to pick out which evil villain see reminded me of.
Stopping for a moment to look at her once more, I could tell that she wasn't really comfortable enough with this. Ya, I was just some 16 year old adolescent kid, which she probably didn't want in her nice house. I was actually waiting for the 'but' to come out form her lips.
"You see, I was really shocked when your mother left me to care for you" she said starting to play with the bottom of her shirt as if she was a 10 year old little girl. It freaked me out as to how one minute I was trying to pick her out of my favourite horror movie and now seeming like she was the little child that would get horribly child at the end of the movie just to piss the audience off.
"We never the best of friends, your mom and I. Always at each other's throats if you know what I mean"
No I didn't know what she meant, I didn't have siblings though mom had never mentioned Aunt Sophia at all. Smirking at her, I thought that I would humour her for a bit while she continued to speak. It was true what I had heard, the older that women got the more they loved to talk, "I know it seemed like I didn't want you in my house but it was all so sudden"
And there it was the all glorious 'but' I had known it was coming and now I was going to give it to her.
"Here it comes"
Sophia looked at me in shock not having excepted any interruption of her chatter about 'loving' mom and her.
"Yes, I'm sure that you really want me in your nice house. You just think I'm going to wreck it or better yet burn it to the ground"

Frowning slightly as I glared at her with my hazel/blue eyes, as my short hair had fell in my eyes. Mom would always get so pissed at me when my hair would fall in my eyes when I was around her. I could have cared less, nothing changed. She would yell, I would move it out of the way and then the conversation would end. Those were just the little things that happened, though I never did anything that would deserve her abandoning me like this. To leave me with someone that didn't really seem inclined to even take care of me. There it was again, that feeling as if cute Aunt Sophia was a monster again. It gave me the shivers, though I never showed it. Boy would Eric get a kick out of it, Eric was really 2 years older than me. He was a senior at Westdale High, if that school didn't look like a castle on the outside; I would never go in there. It was ridiculous as to how many stairs there were, everyday it was like a workout that would never end. Eric would probably like her, she was just his type, older green eyes, brown hair well minus the olive pale and he would go for her in a second.

"No Zachary! Let me finish." Sophia seemed to shout at me, it was never really good when someone used your first name, and this was no exception. "I was really shocked that she...I mean Evie, your mom picked for you to live with me"

I actually couldn't understand why my mom had left in the first place and it seemed like it was becoming more of a mystery than anything else.
Sophie seemed to give up as she just stared at me "...Look, it's late. And you've had a pretty rough day"
"Lets continue this conversation tomorrow alright?"She asked as I just lied back down on the bed. "Sure...whatever"
This truly pissed me off, she seemed strange to me and yet I felt as if I knew. It was a strange feeling nothing I had ever felt before. Once I heard the door shut and Sophia's footsteps getting farther away from my room. I got out of my bed once again and turned the monitor back on. I was going to tell Eric were I was, maybe even convince him to come pick me up and let me stay with him seeing as I was sure as hell not going to stay with my supposed aunt.

Hey man! Thanks for covering for me with the coach. Sorry about the 20 laps, I'll make it up to you. Huh...What do you mean someone was moving into my place, I just left this morning! How could anyone move in so quickly? Man, you will never believe it, my mom ditched me and this social worker showed up early in the morning to tell me I was going to be staying with my Aunt Sophia.
Ironically enough, once you get past this really weird vibe of her being some monster. You'd probably like her. Just your type, all the things you like in a women. OLD, Well not that old she's got to be in her 20s at least.
Anyway, enough about her...I have a favour to ask you. Do you think you can kidnap me from this Hick town? I think it's called Tweed. I don't even know where it is. I fell asleep in the car.
Dude, please I'll owe you my life if you can come get me!!
Zach
Quickly hitting the send button at the bottom of the screen, and waiting for the confirmation that it had sent. I shut the computer off and went back to lie down on the bed. Hopefully Eric would email back within the day and come rescue me. Staring at the ceiling seeing as there was nothing else to do. I continued to try to figure out why Sophia gave me the creeps. Eric would probably joke and say it that may she was a vampire, or better yet a werewolf in costume. Ha, ya right like that sort of thing was even possible. Those things didn't exist; Hollywood had made them up in order to make the big bucks. The clock beside my bed made a small sound as I looked over to check it out. Wow it was midnight already, when had the time passed.

My eyes finally started give way about One-thirty in the morning when I had finally fallen asleep. It wasn't really the longest sleep in history, probably about a few hours before my eyes seemed to open again. This time the clock on my new counter said six-twenty in the morning. Some internal clock I had couldn't even let me sleep on a day that I didn't have school. That really pissed me off. Yawning as I got out of the bed and then rubbed my eyes, making my way towards my walk in closet towards the connected bathroom. It was great I had my own bathroom, wouldn't have to share with Aunt Sophia and have awkward moments. Smirking somewhat as I got in and then quickly washed my teeth and face. There was another door that led to the hallway from the bathroom door. Sweet, two ways to get into my room would have to remember that if I wanted my privacy.

I made my way downstairs, as I could already smell breakfast on the kitchen table. Was Sophia up already? It was to early for anyone to be up this early or maybe I had read the time wrong and it was the evening. Popping my head through the kitchen door, there was Sophia sitting at the end of the kitchenette reading the morning news paper. She looked up from the paper as if she had heard me though I could have sworn that I hadn't made a sound coming down. She smiled at me once again like the previous night. There would have to be some getting used to this, I gave her a half smile back as she got up.

"oh Zach, I didn't know you woke up this early"
Not usually, but today was different. Nodding somewhat she quickly made her way to the fridge and got out some Orange Juice followed by a glass from the cabinet. Placing it down front of me she then went to grab a plate to put what smelled like bacon and eggs. Just like the juice she placed it in front of me. I looked at the plate in disbelieve, what was I five. There were two eggs and two pieces of bacon. The eggs represented eyes while the bacon was the mouth, this was really out of some kind of 1960's sitcom. Never in my life had I seen anyone place their breakfast in the form of a face. It made me kind of see as this egg and bacon face looked at me with a smile. Glancing back at her she didn't seem to notice that I just insulted her food arrangement in the back of my mind.
"Thanks...." I said, not really knowing what else to say as stabbed my fork into my egg eye making it bleed yellow yoke and then placed the whole egg in my mouth. I wasn't much of an egg person but deciding that I was going to be polite and give this Sophia a chance. Glancing around the room I could see a lot of artefacts placed neatly on the walls.
"Wow...." the look on my face was a dead giveaway that I was impressed by the stuff on the walls. "...Pretty interesting stuff..." I continued as Aunt Sophia looked up at me from her news paper once again "Oh...I own the artefact store in town" she stated, would have never pegged Aunt Sophia as the collector of old shitty things or so I would call them until I found out the real meaning behind them.
"Oh...Zach, I'm going to be enrolling you in school in the next couple of days" she said looking at me over her paper. I didn't really seem to care, school was normal for me. I shrugged and then continued to eat my breakfast. "I'm sure that you'll love it, I went there" she said as she went back to reading.
Oh joy - Aunt Sophia went there. Must live up to the name of Aunt Sophia mentally talking to myself
"I have to go to work today, if you want you can come with me, or stay home"
She owned the store, couldn't she just stayed closed for the day. Looking up at her, I could tell that she really didn't want me to go with her, wouldn't want to scare the customers away.

"nah...I think I'll just stay in - I'll be bored if I go there"

Sighing slightly she finished her coffee and then decided that it was time to change and go to work. It had only been about 30 minutes since she had gotten up and decided to change and go for work. Before I knew it she had said her goodbyes and left for work.
I was already bored and it hadn't even been a minute before she left what I was going to do for a whole day on my own. Maybe Eric had read my email and was on his way to rescue me, and then I would be free of this place in a matter of hours. Let's hope, if not I would have to pre-occupy myself with other things. Perhaps check out the house, see what else was hiding in this new place. Maybe I would find something juicy on Sophia and blackmail her into letting me leave if Eric wasn't going to come for me.

Making my way back to my room as fast as I could without falling down the stairs, and laughing to myself, perhaps the stairs at Westdale High had trained me just for this event of running of one flight of stairs with such ease. Guess they were good for something, I couldn't remember how many times I almost fallen down those stupid things. In occasion I had started a domino effect when I tripped my freshman year. The stairwells were so packed that I tripped over my own feet and fallen on the person behind me and him on the one behind them and so on. Thinking about it now, it made me laugh so hard. The person behind me had just happen to be Eric, he had been a junior then, afterwards I had felt so embarrassed that I thought I would get hazed. He had been pretty cool about it though, said it happened to everyone and then helped me up, and we'd been friends ever since.
Getting to my room was torture enough, it didn't seem like I could have gotten there any faster. Turning the computer back on and waiting it to start up, once again it was just as fast as the night before.
Making my way once again to my Hotmail account, I saw that I had gotten one new email. Great! My luck was finally turning, it was from Eric. Opening it up as quickly as humanly possible, or in this case computably possible I began to read it. Something was different about this email then the rest.

I'm sorry, but I believe you have the wrong email.
Reading that line over a few times think, that I had somehow misread it and then continued to read.
All the best to you, Zach is it? Sorry about your mom leaving you. But I really do believe that you may have typed in the email incorrectly. I'm sure if we knew each other I would probably help you out. Though seeing as I do not. I wish you the best of luck
Eric Wilson
I couldn't believe my eyes, what the hell was going on, first my mother and now my best friend Eric. Just what the hell was going on, it was like the other day all over again with my mothers letter only this time it was Eric. Everyone was leaving me and I couldn't understand why. Well not everyone, Still had good old Aunt Sophia. In all my frustration I shut the computer off and wanted to shatter a few things. How could he just forget who I was, wasn't I suppose to be his best friend. We had had some great times, and some really dumb ideas in the past, but so help me if he was playing a joke on me I would never forgive him. Deciding that it was time to let some of this anger on Sophia's house I began to explore it.

Last night wasn't a good time to see the house, really I had only seen a bit of the first floor and the second floor. Walking back down the stairs I noticed that it was a lot larger then my old house. Aunt Sophia seemed to make a very good living selling really over priced junk; I walked back into the living room and saw that there was no TV. Must be somewhere else, maybe in the next room the room that was connected to the living room was a den. Once again no TV, What the hell did she do for fun. I gave up my search for the TV and just explored the main floor. I could see that it was well decorated and that there were about four rooms on the first floor. Living room, Den, small office what Sophia needed an office for was beyond me but I guess I would bite; the last room was the kitchen. Oh let's not forget the half bathrooms located strategically throughout the first floor. Walking back up the stairs, I decided that I already knew what was on this floor, 2 bed rooms. It was weird only having two bedrooms, but hey I couldn't complain, My room was really big and I rather enjoyed it. Making my way towards the third floor and opening the door at the top of the steps slowly as a made a cricking sound much like in a horror movie for the room you weren't suppose to go into or you would die a very painful death.
Once the door was fully open and I had managed to find the light switch on the side wall, my eyes widened it their max. I couldn't believe that the third floor was full of books. Just books, well that's why she doesn't have a TV, who needs one when you have so many old smelly books laying around. Gathering my thoughts and stepping in as I carefully looked around. I could see that all the walls on this floor were had been removed and the only thing holding the roof up were carefully positioned pillars throughout the room. The walls had built in shelves holding, what I could only imagine was more than 1000 books. It was just like a library, only in some one's home, I wasn't much of a book person but how could someone have so many books in their home without actually being a library. I did notice however that all the books that were resting on the shelves were in alphabetical order and mostly first editions. The book titles had been rather weird, some in languages that I couldn't even understand, though one book actually caught my eye. It wasn't in the right place, it didn't have a have a title on the binding and when I pulled it out from its surrounding, its home for many years.
I dusted the book off in order to try to attempt to find a title thinking that it may be on the cover the realizing quickly that just like the binding it revealed nothing. Opening the cover, the first page seemed to reveal something

To those who survived the fire's of hell,
To those that live in the fire's of hell,
To those fools that though they could rid us from their world,
That think we are but mere myth,
Let their eyes lie to them,
Fools, all but fools in my world,
- Serix Talabon
It was strange the words that I had just read yet so confusing and yet I understood every word. I hadn't noticed it when first reading the first page that it was all hand written, as if someone had wrote in it just the day before. Turning the page to read more of what this Serix person was talking about but before I had enough time to turn the page to see the next part I heard Sophia's car pulling into the drive way. Was she done work already? Shit, quickly making a run for it down the steps not realizing that I had the book still in my hand I ran to my room and then shut the door leaning against it breathing hard. Not really knowing why I was breathing so hard, it's not like I was trespassing or anything so why was I suddenly afraid of being caught by Sophia. I looked at the clock to see that it was four - thirty in the afternoon. I was seriously car lagged or something was going on that I didn't realize.
There couldn't have been anyway, that exploring the house took more than hour at the most. Not a whole day. I heard Sophia walking up the stairs and then I noticed that I still held that book in my hands.
Shit - Shit - Shit, why had I taken this stupid book with me, She would defiantly notice it missing and being to question me about it, Had I even remembered to shut the door behind me as I left the third floor.
Did I shut it?
I couldn't remember.
Aunt Sophia knocked on my door as I instantly throw the book on the bed and threw the covers over top hopping that she wouldn't notice it missing before I put it back.
"Can I come in?"
"uh...Ya...Sure...." responding quickly as I saw the door inching open.
"Zach, look I wanted to apologize for last night" Sophia said as she popped her head threw the door. Something was different with her; she didn't look as nice as she had this morning. As if she had seen a ghost, her skin was paler then normal and her eyes didn't really hold the same green tint as they had the night before. That's it! Finally, I figured out what kind of horror movie she reminded me of. A Zombie movie, not like they scared me but it was strange to see her like this.
"Are you ok?" I asked somewhat concerned, not really knowing if I should have been or not but I found soon find out why she looked so different to me now. "You look a bit sick" I continued.

Sophia looked at me oddly and then smiled showing me her teeth. I flinched slightly as I saw sharp fangs "No I'm perfectly fine Zach"
I grimace moving back slowly, why did she look like that I couldn't understand.
The smile went away as fast as it had been put on. "I think you need more sleep Zach" she suggested as if I was seeing things.
Hell, I was seeing things, I thought my new found family a Zombie with Fangs or would it be better to call her a Vampire. I couldn't tell which would be good. Nodding slightly as she left the room all the strength that had kept me standing failed as I just fell to the floor. What the hell had that just been, picking myself off the floor and laying on the bed I felt the book underneath my body.
Moving my hand under the covers and then pulling it out as I looked at it. I wanted to throw it across but something made me open it again, back to the first page.

This time it was different. Had I missed some parts when I heard Sophia coming home, wait - wasn't I about to turn the page to continue reading?

Heh, not what she appears to be? Huh, boy,
The eye's that lied to you before,
They show only that of a person's intentions.
- Serix
Huh, what's the book talking to me this time I made sure I would turn the page to make sure that it was just my imagination and that the book was not talking to me.

That's when I heard it.