The e-mail Nadine received when she turned on her computer on Wednesday morning turned her life upside down. She had literally bumped into a stranger yesterday while leaving work, and the stranger whispered “check your purse” before hurrying off. When she got home, she found a blank maroon-colored card inside her purse. The card was blank, except for some tiny words printed on the corner:
GRADY BARBER
check your e-mail
Well, sure enough, this morning she went into her email and there was one from a person named Grady Barber. It read:
Nadine Marcell Diaz,
You were born with innate abilities.
Read these words aloud and you will know.
VENTEUILUM MORERNUS ANTIOAABEO ATTEARRAN ECRULI
19-21 Great Russell St, London W1T 1BJ
TRAUOIBUS ATTUOTIS
As she read the email, she whispered the strange words. As she read, Nadine began to notice strange things happening around her. She saw sparkly fairies fluttering just outside her window, and mysterious runes glowing on her walls. She heard enchanting music playing in the distance, and felt a strange energy pulsing through the air.
At first, Nadine wasn’t sure what to make of all these strange phenomena. But slowly, she began to realize that they were all connected. Each magical occurrence seemed to be guiding her towards some mysterious unknown force that was awakening within her.
There was a London address written below the strange words. She lived in Wembley and that address was not far from her. Two more words were written below the address. As she whispered those words aloud, her computer screen suddenly flickered and the email disappeared. It was no longer in her inbox. She checked the trash folder of her email app and it wasn’t in there either. It was as if it never existed. But what about the address? She couldn’t remember exactly what it was. She noticed that the maroon card was no longer maroon, but yellow. Picking up the card, she flipped it over and there was the address written in small maroon text.
She had never seen this address before. It looked very familiar to her, though. It was the same street name as the British Museum, but numbers didn’t make any sense. She took The Tube to Great Russell Street. She thought about the mysterious address as she walked along the road opposite the long line of tourists waiting to enter the British Museum. A bright yellow door caught her attention because it looked out of place. At the corner of the door, in small maroon letters were the numbers “19-21 W1T 1BJ YAAIACULE VIMION”.
She said the words softly aloud and the world seemed to flicker. The next thing she knew, she was inside a dark room. She spun around and noticed there was no door behind her. It was just a solid brick wall. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could see a weak light coming from the top of a table in the center of the room. Nadine inched toward the table. Etched onto the table in glowing letters were two more magical words:
NORMA AXESTA
Before she could say any of the words aloud, a voice pierced the silence. “You have a choice to make, Nadine Marcell Diaz. You are dead. You died soon after you left work the other day. You are in the Shadow World now, but you are one of the Chosen. Say the first word if you renounce the Choice and choose to spend eternity in peace. Say the second word if you accept the Choice and choose to take on a great responsibility for eternity. You have eternity to make your choice.” Then the room once again went silent.
Nadine called out, “What is the responsibility?” There was no answer. “Hello?” Again, there was no answer. She looked around the room. A stone floor, a stone ceiling, and four walls of brick. No doors. For several minutes, Nadine stared at the glowing words on the table. Her hands trembled as she traced each one with her fingers. Then her fingers stopped. She had made up her mind.
Nadine took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and announced,” …