Jo continued to read her book, sighing on the couch. She was saving her money for the newest in the series. Speaking of which, she loved all of Isabella Willow's books, but hardly knew anything about the author. In fact, no one did. Or, at least, a few select people did. It was one of the greatest mysyeries surrounding the community around her books.

'Oh,' she thought. 'I forgot about the journal.' She checked the clock hanging on the wall. It read 9:31. It was late enough to try and wake Jay, she thought. She picked up a small pebble and threw it at his window. It didn't take as long as last time to get him to come outside.

"What could it possibly be this time?" He asked her.

"Do you always have to be so negative?"

"Just yell me."

"I want to go up today," she told him.

"Absolutely not, have a nice say." He turned to walk back.

"And why not, pray tell?"

"Because hiking up a mountain, with no idea what's up there is both exhausting and dangerous."

"Oh, ok, someone's afraid of a little danger."

"Yeah, that's kind of the point."

"Fine, scaredy cat, I'll go by myself."

"I... can't... let you do that. Fine, let me just get some appropriate clothes. But if we get eaten, that's on you."

"I'll take that responsibility."

"She thinks I'm joking."

As the two hiked up Mount Brobdingnag, Jo turned toward Jay.

"Y'know, I never noticed that before."

"What?"

"That crescent-shaped birthmark."

"Oh, that?"

"Yeah..." Thay both went quiet for a second, knowing they were missing something. As they reached the entrance to a cave, they noticed that inside were many, many tunnels.

"This place is like a maze. How are we supposed to...? Oh yeah."

Jo gave Jay a smug look as she pulled out the book, waving it in front of him to emphasize they had a map, even in he had already realized it.

A blue butterfly flew by the pair, disrupting their thoughts.

"Is that you, Buddy?"

"Who's that?" Jay asked.

"She's a butterfly who comes around my house a lot."

"How do you know that 'Buddy' is a girl?"

"She's a lot bigger than other butterflies. I just figured."

"Isn't that, you know, a little weird?"

"I don't think it is." It clicked in their minds for a brief moment. They decided to move on. Using the map as a guide, they followed a tunnel down. Along the walls of the cavern were pictures of people and smaller people. At first, Jo and Jay thought they were children, but soon realized they were hieroglyphs of giants and humans. One glyph was disturbing. The image showed a giant, colored grey-brown, carrying a mountain- very similar to the one they were currently in- on his back.

That's not all, they're were images of people with odd shaped faces. Large noses, and Xs and lines eyes. They were colored brown and had an odd "texture" about them. Little did they know that at that moment, they were being watches by those exact creatures.

As they walked through the tunnel, they came to another maze of branching paths.

"Uh, great..."

"Let's see, it's this one," Jo said, consulting the map.

As they went on, it began to get dark.

"We should head back for now," Jay said

"Right."

As they exited the tunnel, Jo placed a wooden stake into the ground, marking the right entrance. She did this with the first tunnel as well.

"What if, by some chance, someone-"

"We're the ones with the map."

"I was going to say someone might have taken it."

"Well, we'll find out tomorrow, won't we?"

"Uh, I guess so."

"Thanks," Jo told him.

"For what?"

"You know, for going out with me. Not a lot of people would go hiking just for a stupid scavenger hunt."

"I thought you believed in all of that."

"Yeah, but, you never said you did." He had to think about that.

Later that night, Jo was reading more of the book, particularly the entries of the author. The batteries in her flashlight died. She rooted around in her bag- which was next to her- for another flashlight. She usually kept a spare or two. She found a blacklight she had salvaged from the old, abandoned house some weeks prior.

She turned it on, and found a message on the page she had been reading:

TRUST NO ONE

ALWAYS BE CERTAIN

'Invisible ink,' she thought. 'I have to tell Jay about this.'

She continued reading through the book, finding more mysterious secrets. Some of them read:

They are watching me.

I am running out of time.

I like paper hats.

I might not finish Six.

She fell asleep, dreaming of her next adventure.

Jay sat at home, thinking of his new, odd friend and neighbor. He thought about what she said.

'Do I believe in all that?' He asked himself. 'Surely most of it is fake, and the rest is just undiscovered anomalies.

Meanwhile, at a secret location, the same hooded figure is at a table at a secret lodge.

"So," said another hooded man. "Did you find it?"

"Not yet, but I have found some kids to help me."

"Are you sure it's real. The Author was said to have lost himself."

"A likely diversion," said the first. "I know 'the Author' personally, and it ain't just hogwash, that's for sure. I know he wouldn't have made it easy to find, and now them fellers are in possession of the fourth Journal. I don't even think they're aware of the others."

He got up from the table and turned around, revealing an eye on the back of his hood. In thr middle, rather than a pupil, was a pentagram.

"See y'all later, friends."

A/N: 00110111 00100000 00111000 00100000 00110010 00110011 00100000 00110001 00111001 00100000 00110010 00100000 00110010 00110001 00100000 00110110 00100000 00111000 00100000 00110111

N, L, TLB,