Whatever Skylar had been expecting to find, this was most definetely not it. The object in his hands was very small- it could fit perfectly into the palm of his hands. The object was of a golden-yellow-y color, and it was one of the most strangest thing that Skylar had ever seen. It appeared to be a book- one could tell for its thin pages inside. On the cover of the miniscule book were these strange symbols- symbols that Skylar had never seen before, yet were strangely familiar. He racked the confines of his mind, trying to remember where and when he had seen them, but- Alas!- he could not remember. Everytime that he believed himself to be close, it would slip away and he would be brought back to where he had started. It was driving him mad. He just knew he had seen this before. Why couldn't he remember!?

Beside of him, Blake had bended over and was now looking at the tiny book in his hands, hands resting on her knees. " Whatcha got there, Sky?" Blake asked as Skylar turned the book over and over in his hand.

" I'm not sure." Skylar said, which was the truth, because he wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. Was it a book full of a secret language created by some person for code? Was it some type of artifact from hundreds of years before? This last question he doubted, for he was certain that there were no books here at the time.

Stretching out her fingers, Blake aimed to touch the book, as if wanting to see exactly what it was as well. However, as soon as she touched the object, she lept back in pain, clutching her right hand, as if trying to erase the pain by cutting off her circulation. Skylar looked up, shock and surprised. Why had Blake reacted like that? It was only a book... hmm. Maybe she had gotten a paper cut. Skylar looked back down at the book. No. The book had been closed, and Blake certaintly wouldn't have reacted that way if it were only a paper cut. In fact, Skylar was certain that she would have laughed it off and continued on her merry way. So.. no. It was most definetely not a paper cut.

Skylar stood up from the ground, racing toward his seemingly injured friend, dropping the book as he did so. He clutched Blake's right hand, trying to pry her left hand from it. " Come on, Blake!" Skylar said, exasperated at the fifth attempt of trying to pry her fingers from her hand. " Let me see what it did to you." He was honestly getting worried now; her hand was slowly turning blue. Once again, he was surprised at Blake's strength. Of course, the girl had once beaten up a guy three times her size, so maybe it wasn't all that surprising.

Silently, Blake removed her fingers, and Skylar was finally able to tell the damage that it had done. On all of the fingers on Blake'sright hand were a bright red raw; they looked as if she had held them in a fire for a short period of time. Skylar looked up at Blake, and saw that her eyes were wide in surprise.

Skylar swallowed, trying to mask the fear in his voice as he said, " Come on. Let's get back to the house. Maybe my mom will know what to do about it." Blake nodded her head and let Skylar lead her out of the forest.

In no time, they had arrived back at Skylar's place, where they were now sitting at the kitchen table where Mrs. Oakland was now examining Blakes's fingers. She tutted as she turned Blake's hand over and over. Mrs. Oakland had been a nurse for about four years by now, and Skylar was certain that she would know what was wrong with Blake.

Skylar still couldn't understand why the book had done that to her. It had shown no indication of harming him,but as soon as Blake had touched it, this had happened. He wished that he hadn't dropped it; he needed to figure out why it had done that.. that... whatever it was to Blake. Even now, when his best friend was injured, Skylar still couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen it somewhere before. Somewhere in a distant memory...

" Well it seems as if you have earned yourself a first degree burn. Fortunately, I have my first-aid kit here with me, and it is not severe enough to be taken to the hospital, so I'll just treat it here." Skylar vaguely heard his mother get up from the table and lead Blake to the first-aid kit she kept in the closet. Skylar just stayed at the table and stared out the window parrallel to him. The trees outside waved their branches at him, taunting him. As if they knew that he was drawn to the object in the forest. He didn't know why- which was all the more reason to go back and get it.

From the hall, Skylar heard his mother tell Blake, " Just keep doing that for a while more, and then you will be all right again." Skylar lifted his head as he saw his mother step into the room. Her arms were folded across her chest and her brow was furrowed. Mrs. Oakland was a tall, thin woman with wavy, dark blonde hair and hazel eyes. If it weren't for the fact that they both had hazel eyes, Skylar wouldn't have believed them to be related. Other than the eyes, they looked absolutely nothing alike, and while their personalities were vaguely similar to each other, they were almost nothing alike.

"What happened, Sky?" Mrs. Oakland asked, staring directly into Skylar's eyes. Skylar stared back at her, wanting her to know that whatever he said wasn't a lie.

" I do not know." He said firmly, trying his hardest not to blink.

Mrs. Oakland hmmed at this, and appeared to be in the deepest of thoughts before she said, " Well, then, do have any inkling as to how Blake got a first degree burn on her fingers?"

Skylar shook his head, and thankfully his mother didn't ask anymore questions. After all, how was he supposed to explain to her that a mysterious book had burned Blake? She would never have believed him if he had told her.

Mrs. Oakland stood there for a few minutes more, before going back to check on Blake. " OK, dear, I think that's good enough. You should try to be more careful." Skylar heard his mother tell Blake."

" Don't worry, Mrs. Oakland, I will be." Skylar heard Blake say before she stepped into the room. Blake looked remarkably better. Her face wasn't furrowed in pain anymore, and she looked like her old self. Well... her old self with a gauze wrapped around her hand.

" You all right?" Skylar asked, feeling a bit stupid while doing so. Blake snorted and rolled her eyes. " Nah, I just 'bout burnt most of my fingers off. I'm just peachy!" Skylar smiled as Blake walked the remainder of the room and sat down beside of him.

Looking around cautiously, she whispered into his ear, " Do you want to go back and get it?" Skylar blinked. He had been certain that Blake wouldn't want any more to do with that small book of strange symbols. Of course- as mentioned before- Blake was a lover of the weird and strange, so it wasn't all that surprising.

"I'm not sure." Skylar began as he looked warily towards the hall, where he knew his mother could be listening by the door. It wasn't that Skylar didn't want to retreive the book from the forest- no, that was almost all he could think about- but it was his fear of breaking the rules that prevented him from doing so. It was a ridiculous thing to be afraid of, he knew, but that didn't stop him from being scared of it.

"Don't worry Sky. Your mom went to watch the Twilight movies, and you know how much she loves those." Blake said, and Skylar nodded. Ever since the first movie came out, Mrs. Oakland had been obsessed. Throughout their enire home was Twilight merchendise, because with each coming movie, Mrs. Oakland would drive up to the mall and buy as much of it as she could. Honestly, Skylar could care less about twilight. A romance novel about a whiny teen human girl and a stalker male vampire, how lovely. Of course, his mother had forced him to watch all of the movies, and the last one he watched made him a bit squeamish. A hybrid baby between two different species. How disgusting!

But now... his mother's obsession with twilight came to his advantage, for while she would be watching the movie they would go outside and get the book out of the forest. But... there was still his father and Arabella. Though, come to think of it, his father wasn't much of a problem. Mr. Oakland was a mechanic who worked all days of the week except for Sundays. Years back, Mr. Oakland had tried to stem an interest in cars towards Skylar, to get a sort of family business , but with no effect. Skylar had had no patience with vehicles, and would have preferred to read a book during the times that his father had took him to work with him. And Arabella... hopefully she would be on her cell phone with one of her friends, talking about the latest drama that was going on at the middle school.

Smiling, Skylar looked up at Blake. " I'm in."


" Are you sure this is the place we found it?" Skylar asked as he and Blake traveled through the forest. They had been walking about for the past hour and still hadn't found anything. Skylar hoped they would find it soon, because he didn't know how long his mother and sister would miss their absense.

His mind began to spin with images of punishments of being outside without telling his parents. What would they do to punish him? Ground him for a week with no internet? He had never been grounded before, he had always chosen to abide by the rules, so if his parents did ground him, it would be an entirely new experience for him.

Suddenly, Blake gave a small shriek and pointed towards the ground. " Here! It's here!" Forgetting his worries, Skylar rushed to the place where Blake stood and, just like she said, there it was lying in the leaves. Cautiously, he picked it up and put it into his jeans pocket.

When he looked back up, Blake had the strangest of looks upon her face. " What?" He asked, oblivious as to why she looked like that.

Blake leaned up against the trunk of an old cedar tree. " Oh, nothing. I'm just trying to figure out why that tried to burn my hand off, yet it doesn't do anything to you at all." Not physically at least, thought Skylar.

" Don't know. Maybe it likes me better." Skylar joked, trying to erase the look on Blake's face, but with no results.

"I'm not so sure about this Sky..." Blake trailed off as she stared at Skylar's pants pocket. Skylar blinked. Blake was frightened, and it took a lot to scare Blake. Normally out of the two of them, she would be laughing in a horror movie whilst he would be the one covering up his eyes through two-thirds of the film.

" It was your idea." Skylar said, negletting to say that he would have went back for it anyways. Blake nodded and hugged herself, still looking nervously at Skylar's pants pocket. " Come on." She said as she started to walk back the way they came. " Let's go back."

Wrapped up in his thought, Skylar followed her. Why did the book and the strange symbols within it seem so familiar? If he had seen them before, then when? And where? What language was it in? Was it even a known language? Was it a language that had been lost through the ages? Skylar sincerely hoped that he could figure all this out soon, because he didn't know how much longer he could take without knowing why the book and the symbols inside seemed so familar to him.

Author's notes- Dear twilight fans, in no means did I mean to offend you in this chapter. Personally, I do like Twilight, though it's not my favorite book series. What was said about twilight during the course of this chapter was how Skylar viewed the book series, not me. As strange as that may seem.

And yes, the whole Blake gets burned but Skylar doesn't was intentional.

One more thing, if you review, please give your honest opinion, but no flames, please.