It was a humid summer evening when 14-year-old Alex Parker first stumbled upon the strange book. The sun was setting over the small town of Willowbend, casting long shadows across the attic of his grandfather’s old house. The attic was a place of forgotten things—dusty photo albums, faded furniture, and broken trinkets that hadn’t seen the light of day in decades. Alex wasn’t supposed to be up there. His mother had warned him countless times: "Don’t go poking around in your grandfather’s attic. There are too many old things that could be dangerous.