After we got that non-delightful text from Anonymous, we knew things were going to get hard. We had to stay in the library, no matter what, for three days or else David would be killed. Now, I had just met David, but I wasn't going to let him die after everything he'd done for us so far. But I don't think we were even considering that as a possibility, so we had to figure out what we were going to do in the library for the next three days.
"You know, we should probably get some rest first. We can figure it all out in the morning," Tanner suggested, his eyes heavy with sleep and as I looked even closer, I could see his eyes were pearly. He was exhausted.
"And risk someone catching us in here while we're asleep?" David debated, his gaze directed toward Tanner, but Tanner was so sleepy that he didn't even notice. I was a good friend, so I propped Tanner on my shoulder, so that he would be able to stand without collapsing on the floor from exhaustion.
"Tanner, you look exhausted. Take a nap on the coach. We'll figure something out while you're asleep," I said comfortingly, rubbing Tanner's back with my free hand, the other one holding onto the couch, so that Tanner wouldn't crush me. He was a good fifteen to twenty pounds heavier than me, and I didn't want to collapse with him.
"Okay," Tanner mumbled under his breath. I knew that Tanner wouldn't be able to walk to the couch, so I laid him down lightly, and within two minutes he was in a deep sleep, the soft sound of his snoring the only noise in the room right now. Everyone had gone silent, probably because they were occupied with looking at me lay Tanner on the couch.
"Okay, so how are we going to make this work for three days?" David asked us, his gaze shifting from Astrid's face to Sam's and then finally to me. When he started to turn his head back to face Sam, I spoke up.
"I have an idea," I said, which made everyone turn their heads to stare at me. Astrid looked confused, almost, as she stared at me. I guess she just wasn't used to me being so out-spoken. Astrid and Sam usually came up with ideas the most when we solved mysteries. Tanner and I usually just followed plans. Well, I mean if we were going to become regular friends instead of a team, I had to stop following people.
"Okay, shoot," David allowed, anticipating what I had to say.
"Well, we all look like we have to get some rest, including Astrid and I, so we should get some rest. But someone should keep watch while the others are sleeping, that way we won't be caught off-guard if someone finds us here. We can switch shifts every few hours or so, except for Tanner since he's pretty much passed out," I said, my idea finally out there. Everyone laughed a little at that last part. I was finally glad that I had made up an idea. I felt independent for once.
"Okay, good idea," David said. He sounded impressed. He probably thought that I was a shy girl who didn't come out of her comfort zone very often. I'll show you, I thought to myself.
"So, who wants to take first shift?" David asks, walking over to the couch opposite of the one Tanner was sleeping on, and sitting down, as if he knew he wasn't going to take first watch. I was really starting to despise David all of a sudden.
"I guess I will," I said, my voice sounding a little agitated, but no one seemed to acknowledge it. Everyone nodded, and Astrid nominated herself for the second shift, David was picked for the third shift, and then Sam was picked for the fourth shift. We all agreed that each shift would be two hours or so, that way everyone – excluding Tanner, who would get eight hours of sleep – would get six hours of sleep. We would all feel rejuvenated after that.
So, within ten minutes, I was completely alone. There was hardly any noise whatsoever in the library, except for the sound of shallow breathing that came from my friends sleeping. I would've said "and David", because he wasn't my friend or acquaintance for that matter, but he wasn't even making a peep. I guess he'd learned to become absolutely quiet when he slept after being on the run for so many years. I was still kind of confused about the story he told Sam and Tanner; the one that said he and his friends were blackmailed to leave the island forever.
I wondered what made him come back after so many years, or if he even left at all. For someone who had lost his friends, he didn't seem very heartbroken. No one even knew he was alive. I mean, people knew David Hummer was alive, but whoever he'd been before...that person was still missing.
I also wonder how he became David Hummer. Did he have to create fake I.D.'s? Did he have to get new credit cards and put them under his new alias? There were so many things about his story that I didn't even understand...which made me think he was lying. I mean, he could still be working for Anonymous. That whole story could just be a bunch of baloney. His name really could be David Hummer, or it could still be an alias. I wanted to know more, and since I had two hours before I could fall asleep, I had time to investigate.
I hadn't brought my phone to the library, because when I left the school, it was still in my locker, so I had to find another electronic device I could use. I scanned my eyes around the room, looking for something I could use the internet on, and found a computer sitting on top of the librarian's desk. I silently tip-toed over to the desk and silently sat in the rolly chair, careful not to let the leather squeak when I sat in it.
I turned on the computer and waited for the home screen to load. After about five minutes of waiting for the computer to load, it made a little dinging noise and I got nervous someone would hear it, so I turned the volume all the way down. I was lucky, because no one seemed to have heard it. I could surf the internet now, though.
I went into Internet Explorer and searched "Missing Teens Dark Falls Island", because I knew there was something fishy about his story. If it was true, though, I would feel relieved and might even think better of David for it. But if it wasn't true, I was going to copy it onto a hard-drive – which they probably handed out here – and I would show my friends later, so we could confront David about it.
I had been so lost in my "Anti-David" thoughts that I hadn't noticed that my search had gone through and at least twenty sites had come up. This was unusual, though, because if you've ever used Internet Explorer before, hundreds of sites usually show up depending on what your search is.
I mean, I guess it wasn't too weird, because not that many teens have disappeared on the Dark Falls Island in the past twenty years. David was a middle-aged man now, and he said he and his friends disappeared when they were in their teens, so that was about twenty years ago. I looked for sites on teens that went missing on the Dark Falls Island around twenty years ago, but it took me a few pages of websites to find what I wanted.
A lot of the websites were about Howard, some were about other teens that had gone missing that had nothing to do with the mystery, but I gave a silent prayer for them before scrolling past their websites. Eventually, though, I found a website that was about four teens that had gone missing approximately twenty years ago.
But, before I could look into it, David started to wake up, and I shut down the computer before David could even see I was on it. I rushed back to where I was sitting on the couch opposite of Tanner, and made sure David wasn't awake. He wasn't awake, though. Thank God! I guess he was just moving into a new position.
"This is so boring," I whispered to myself, so quiet it was inaudible to anyone but myself.
Eventually, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to sit here for the next hour and a half, so I walked outside and sat on the porch. The porch lead to the sidewalk, which was outside of the library grounds – the place we had to stay on for the next three days – and the sidewalk would eventually lead home. The humid air outside was so thick, I could feel it slide against my skin, and my face. I tried to calm down and thought of Tanner to do so. Tanner was a very calm, easy-going guy and by just thinking about him and his idea of the Three C's, you could calm yourself down within minutes. Humid air didn't make a person feel good, that was for sure.
Now, I just looked out into the assembly of houses off in the distance, where my friends and I lived. The roofs of houses sparkled, the setting sun changing their brownish-orange hues to a reddish-brown. The setting sun made everything in sight look redder and slightly darker than it actually was. It was so peaceful out here, but the nagging feeling of wanting to go beyond the porch haunted me. I desperately wanted to go home. I desperately wanted to go against Anonymous and flee from the library. But I knew that it might go against what my friends wanted to do.
They wanted to keep David alive, and all I wanted to do was give him away to Anonymous, so that I could go home.
What a horrible person you've turned into, I thought.
* * *
After a while of just looking into the distance, my shift was finally over. Astrid opened the entrance of the library to find me sitting on the porch, and much to my surprise, she wasn't disappointed with me. I guess she understood how tired I was and how much I wanted to go home. I mean, the porch was the closest place to home I could be at right now, so sitting on the porch was the only thing that would be able to cure my homesickness.
"You look like you could get some rest," Astrid pointed out, helping me get off the porch and into the library, since I was exhausted. I bet I looked as bad as Tanner had right before he passed out on the couch.
That's when I remembered David was sleeping on the couch opposite Tanner. An immediate jolt of anger shot through me and I was about to shake Astrid off of me and push David off the couch, but I calmed myself down, before I went on a mental rampage. As much as I wanted to do that, I couldn't let anyone know I had a secret hatred for David, or else David might find out and flip out on me.
I guess I just didn't want David sleeping near someone I deeply cared about before I knew what his intentions were. But I finally realized something at the point when Astrid laid me on a couch far away from the others: I wasn't mad that David was sleeping near Sam or even Astrid for that matter, only Tanner. I mean, I cared for Astrid and Sam a great deal too, but I cared for Tanner in a different way.
Right before I fell asleep, I finally realized that I had feelings for Tanner.
* * *
When I woke up, I could see morning light spilling in from the gargantuan windows of the library, showering the room in a glowing haze of golden light. Parallel rays of light were visible by the window, and I would've thought I was in heaven if I didn't see Sam and Astrid kissing in a far-off corner from where I was. This meant that doing something with them was out of the question right now.
I rubbed sleep away from my eyes as I slowly sat up, a quick burst of nausea creating a thin film of irritation under my eyelids. I almost fell back onto the couch I felt so tired and agitated, but I kept myself upright on the couch, taking a few deep breaths to ward off the nausea. Eventually, I realized that nothing was going to help, so I stood up, scanning the room for anything else I could do.
Tanner and David were still asleep, so I had to find something to do on my own. I strolled over to the librarian's desk, hoping that I could do more of a background check on David than I was able to do yesterday. But just as I turned the computer on, I caught a glimpse of a stray sticky note by the arms of the desk on the floor.
I squinted to see what it said, but blood kept rushing to my head and was making me feel even more nauseous, so I sat back up, picking up the orange sticky note as I did so. I could feel my breakfast from yesterday fighting its way up my esophagus, so I laid the sticky note on the cherry-wood desk in front of me, and picked up the trash can, heaving up food when the trash can was level to my mouth.
Now, I felt even more horrible. My head lolled to either side, and it felt and looked like the whole room was spinning. The effect of dizziness and nausea broke through my will-power and I doubled over onto the ground, calling for Astrid, just as my hands broke my fall.
I could hear Astrid screaming as she ran over to me, helping me to my feet. "Oh, my God, Gwen! What the hell happened?" she asked, her expression telling me that she was mortified. She truly cared about me and knew that something was wrong. Before I knew it, Sam, Tanner, and David were making their way over to me, their faces showing astonishment and concern.
"Sam, get a bottle of water from my purse," Astrid ordered, her eyes focused on me. Astrid's embrace was actually pushing some of the nausea away, and since I haven't been moving for the past few moments, the dizziness has subsided also. A few moments later, Sam got back with the bottle of water, and he handed it to Astrid, who handed it to me. I gulped down the whole bottle of water, not even gasping for air in between gulps. Eventually, I was finished and there was nothing left in the water bottle, save for a few droplets of water. Astrid laid me back down on the couch, and propped a pillow under my head.
"Gwen, what happened?" Astrid asked, her eyes as pleasant as a bird's but deep down, they were as piercing as a wolf's. The mix of different shades of blue was what made her eyes so penetrant.
"I felt very nauseous and then I threw up. After that, I was even more nauseous and I doubled over because of it," I replied, everyone's eyes mellowed out in sympathy as they heard me talk about what happened. The memory of what happened even made me feel slightly more nauseous, so I lay down on the couch, and relax. That's when I remember the sticky note.
"Wait, guys! I remembered something. Right before I doubled over in dizziness, I found a sticky note on the floor beside the librarian's desk. Someone go get the note and bring it over here. I think it could be important," I said, everyone around me blinking, but I hardened my gaze and they came out of it, Sam going over to the desk to fetch the note. I feel like I'm treating them like dogs right now, but I'm not feeling so great, so it could just be crankiness from that.
Sam brought it over and handed it to Astrid, who unfolded it and read it aloud to the rest of us. "Remember to hide the journal," Astrid read, her eyes squinted and shriveled-up in confusion. There wasn't much to the sticky note, but I was beginning to know what it meant, just as Astrid's face straightened out in surprise. I didn't say anything because I wanted to give Astrid the honor.
"Sam and Tanner, remember those notes you found in the secret room towards the back of the library?" Astrid asked, slowly making her way towards the realization.
I already knew what was going on, but Astrid had to talk it through slowly, so that Sam and Tanner understood. Also David, I guess. I haven't been thinking about him too much this morning. I would only make myself feel even worse than I already did.
"Yeah," Sam and Tanner replied in unison, their voices rising a little to show their confusion. They didn't know what Astrid was getting at.
"Well, maybe those notes lead to this journal the librarian wrote about on the sticky note," Astrid said, rushing to get the last note Sam and Tanner had found. I watched as Astrid rushed over to her purse where they had safely tucked the note away. She pulled it out and rushed back over to the assembly of couches in the front of the library, where we were currently standing – or sitting, in my case.
She began to read it aloud, "The time has come for the journal to be bestowed onto another person. I have no need for it anymore and I think someone else should have the pleasure to learn its hidden secrets. Remember, the information always lies in secret."
I was about to ask Astrid to continue, but when she lifted up her head, her gaze now settled on us, I knew that had been it to the note. I sighed. "Well, that was about as vague as it could get," I said, unrelated sarcasm breaking its way into my voice. I mean, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but my voice sounded like it anyway.
"Yeah, what is that supposed to mean?" Tanner asked, his eyes duller than usual because they were lost in bewilderment. Tanner usually had very bright, brown eyes that were so deep that they seemed to make him look like he had in-set eyes – which were a good thing in my book.
"Well, maybe it isn't supposed to mean "the information lies in secret", as if it's hidden. We already know that, and if it did mean that, it could be hidden anymore. So maybe it's wordplay," Astrid guessed, studying the note, and then passing it around the group, so everyone could get a chance to try and figure it out. I wasn't really sure why we were doing this. I already figured out the riddle on my own, and I'm sure as heck Astrid did too. I guess Astrid was just trying to be nice. I wish I was more like her sometimes.
When it was my time to inspect the note, I could see Astrid in my peripheral vision as I read the note over and over. I already knew what it meant, but I didn't want to seem like a know-it-all. At that point I looked up, and gazed at Astrid. Astrid gave a curt nod, so that no one would really notice, and I realized she was encouraging me to say what I had to say.
"Okay, so I think I figured it out. What it means by "the information lies in secret" is that it secretly lies to you. You won't know it isn't telling the truth, unless you've seen it tell the truth. So I'm guessing we're supposed to find a journal that looks like it hasn't been written in yet, but then make it show words, or something..." I trailed off, now understanding how unrealistic my guess was. I mean, it is what made the most sense, according to the note, but it did seem kind of stupid, after listening to it. It sounded so much better in my head than it did out loud.
"Well, we don't have any other ideas, so let's investigate that one. Okay, look for an empty journal, and then bring it back to the group, so that Gwen can inspect it," Astrid said abruptly, probably because she didn't want someone dissing off my idea. I couldn't really blame her. I mean, my idea was silly and I probably made myself look like a fool, but at least I could sit down, while people investigated.
I still felt a little nauseous, so I couldn't sit up on the couch. I laid down, the combination of the soft pillow under my head and the silky couch causing me to fall asleep.
When I woke up, there was a stack of about five journals in front of me. I was a little overwhelmed, and the thought of having to look through them all gave me a headache, so I lay back down.
I knew that it was going to take a while anyway, so I pushed my nausea away as much as I could, or at best forgot about it, and then started to inspect the empty journals. One of the journals was black in color and made out of leather, the cover as silky as the icing on a cake. One journal was made out of blue cloth and looked old and decaying, so I guessed that it wasn't the journal as soon as I saw it. I mean, if the librarian cherished the journal as much as the notes conveyed, then she would've taken great care of it.
All the others were a combination of light and dark burgundy-colored, leather-bound journals. One of them, though, caught my eye, and I picked it up, hoping that it was the one journal we were trying to find. I noticed why it had caught my eye after a breathtaking look at it; it was shiny, opaque, and had gold trimming on the edges and on the pages. In fact, the gold trimming on the front cover symbolized the Roman Numeral for one. Also, the cover of the journal was thick and seemed too thick almost, like it wasn't meant for the journal.
I flipped open the cover, and I noticed that there was an indentation on the inside cover. That was why the front cover of the journal was so thick. Inside it, there was a locket. I pulled the locket out and a buzz of green light emanated from a jewel embroidering on the edge of the indentation. My face probably looked dumbfounded as a magical process happened then.
The front cover closed on its own, as if not wanting me to see what was happening inside. My hand flew away from the cover as it closed, a squeaky noise made by the cover the only indication that this was real and not a hallucination caused by my nausea. After this, the journal floated half a foot above the table and stayed there, as green, wispy spreads of light wrapped themselves around the journal. I was mesmerized as the journal started to shake. It jiggled in midair and hummed with a sound that made me think of a demon. The weird humming sound alerted the others and everyone gathered around me, watching as the journal transformed itself into something new.
In a burst of light that was blindingly bright, white in color with a hint of green from the earlier source of light, and loud enough that the lamps in the room exploded, glass shattering and flying across the room, the transformation was over.
The gang – plus David – and I were huddled on the ground, covering our ears with our hands, but also trying to shield our heads from the flying glass at the same time. The journal's transformation was unlike anything we had ever seen. It had been breathtaking but also horrific.
I was pretty sure that the transformation was over, so I stood up and grabbed the journal. Also, my nausea increased while I was bending over on the ground, so I had to get up. I flipped through the pages, but once I saw black ink fly by my vision, I flipped back to the first page, knowing that this was the journal that the librarian had written about in the notes.
I read the first sentence on the page, making sure that this was actually the real thing, "If you're reading this, you've just uncovered a journal that has been written in for over five hundred years." Everyone gasped and stood up, gazing at the journal in my hands.
"Well congratulations, guys," I announced, a smile forming on my face and the horrible nausea I've been experiencing for the whole morning starting to lift for good, "We've just found a clue that will actually lead somewhere."
ns 15.158.61.48da2
