The book looked like it was about thousands of centuries-old - the coffee stains, the dull-colored and dog-eared pages, the cracks on the dirty blue leather cover said it all.

They opened the book and in big letters, 'Nick's Diary' was written in the middle with 'DO NOT EVEN DARE' written in bold to accompany the title as if giving a warning to anyone who tempted to read it.

Hannah turned the first page and they saw diary entries written in hasty and messy writing which seemed to be faded and some words were missing from some lines.

9 Aug 1918

Dear Diary,

Dad thought it'd be a good idea if I write my feelings and my thoughts in you. He says it could cure my loneliness and depression. You see, I'm the only child and with my dad gone for hours away from home I'm all by myself. Well, now it'll be two of us. I don't write much though, but let's see how it turns out.

12 Aug 1918

Dear Diary,

You won't believe what happened in school today! Samantha was being such a jerk to Lily. All she asked was for a pencil. But Lily should see this coming considering Samantha's reputation as a bully. Don't know why today Samantha's mood was off but thank God she didn't eye in my lunch box.

19 Sept 1918

Dear Diary,

I know I haven't written in quite a while. So much is going on in school - projects, assignments, tests - we too have a life! Everyone is caught up in this stuff but at least they have their friends to help them out or hang out with to take a break. But for me? I'm alone - well at least now you're with me.

30 Sept 1918

Dear Diary,

Dad had become so quiet. Maybe he misses mom. Yah, I know I don't talk about her much with you but I haven't seen her myself. She died when I was only 1 or 2 yr. old. I have only heard about her through dad. But by how he describes her and talks about her, I wish she would be with us. I miss her. Maybe my life would be a little less HELL if she was with me. Every time when I see someone's mom picking my classmates up from school, I don't know but a little piece of me dies inside. I'm sorry I'm making you wet with my tears but I wish she would be here.

Reading the entries by Nick made the two of them cry a little, feeling bad for him.

"He lived such a hard life," Hannah gave a sympathetical smile as she wiped her tear-clouded eyes.

John skipped a few pages and stopped when something odd caught his eyes.

21 Oct 1921

Dear Diary,

Something strange is happening with dad. He stares at empty space and talks to himself. When I ask him what's wrong, he shrugs it off. But I swear I could hear finger clawing on the walls and someone's faint laugh. It was not certain my dad's and there's only me and my dad in the house.

2 Nov 1921

Dear Diary,

I swear I heard someone calling my name from the attic. It sounded like a girl though. But we don't have any lady or a girl as a maid or as a housekeeper. I went to investigate. There was only darkness with the moonlight coming through the attic window. I heard the sound again. I turned around but saw no one. Suddenly, a ball came rolling towards me and I saw a shadow of a little girl - she was floating! I ran as fast as I could. I swear I'm never going back there. EVER!

13 Nov 1921

Dear Diary,

I don't know what the heck is going on but Dad is acting so weird lately. Before, when he comes back from work, he spends time with me and then we both will have dinner together. But since a few days back, he locks himself in his room after coming from work. I tried to knock on his door but he never comes out. So, every night I'm eating alone. I wish I had a friend but sigh, anyway, yesterday I thought to check up on him so I stayed up late. You won't believe what happened. As the door was closed, I placed my ear on the door, and in a faint voice of my father, I could hear him saying something to himself. It was nearly midnight so no one could be with him. I'm not so sure what he was saying, but I figured out it was something like Dia-no-sor-. He's not saying dinosaur - stop laughing, diary. His sound was muffled and the wooden door was absorbing half of the sound. But he was definitely sounding worried.

"What do you - Hannah it's not funny!" John saw his sister cracking up on the dinosaur joke.

"What? This kid has a good sense of humor!"

"Jokes apart though, what do you think, his dad was saying?"

Hannah's face turned to a serious note as she began thinking as this could be something important that could help them.

They both were thinking - putting different words together to make a sentence that would fit for that situation. There could be many possibilities for different words that would fit it.

Suddenly, one possibility of words made the two of them froze.

"Do you think?" John could not muster up his courage to complete his sentence.

"I mean, what else could it be, John? This fits perfectly considering the things that we read till now. It has to be that - "

' Diana, no, sorry. '