In a flurry of fumbling, Joey pulled the yellowed notebook from inside his coat.
Perhaps because of his body heat, the pages that had previously been stuck together could now be pried apart, barely, as long as he was careful.
His Fortune Teller's spiritual intuition told him the notebook might help with his current predicament.
He skipped the entries he had already read and flipped to the middle.
There was a line of crooked writing. From the handwriting, he could tell that the owner's condition had been growing unstable when he wrote these notes.
"August 6. I met them. They were a bunch of paranoid, crazed people who called themselves the 'Mermaid Forest.'"
"August 7. I abandoned the Holy Knight Pathway and switched to the Deep Ones. I can breathe underwater now. It feels wonderful."
"August 8. My hair has started falling out in handfuls. Oh, damn it, they never told me becoming a Deep One would make me lose my hair. How am I supposed to attract beautiful ladies now?"
From that point onward, the notebook's owner had written nothing for a long time. Joey flipped through several more pages before finding more writing.
"September 3. I hear a voice from the sea. It's like the buzzing of bees, keeping me awake."
"September 5. I'm in a newly opened café in Lia Harbor, holding an unfamiliar picture book. I don't remember why I came here at all."
"September 6. I only know what I did the day before by opening this notebook. Another me has appeared inside my body. It controls this body and does things I cannot understand."
Joey shut out everything around him and tried to calm himself, knowing that would help him think.
The heat radiating from the red crystal had left him drenched in sweat.