By the time Sam and I made it to the library, it was already 12:40 P.M., which meant we had to leave the library in ten minutes if we were going to get back to school quick enough, but we weren't goody-two-shoes, so we would probably stay here a little longer than that. Long enough, so that Astrid and Gwen would probably come looking for us, but, if we were going to find anything, we needed to investigate for more than just ten minutes. Right?
As we walked into the library, a nice calmness settled upon us. The old, vintage décor of the library – long, beige drapes pulled to cover the elongated window panes, faded hardwood, spiral-patterned carpets with tables above them, a cliché, square desk for the librarian towards the right side of the library, which was secluded from the rest of the library, and gargantuan bookshelves with ladders attached – really made you feel relaxed. I almost wanted to take a nap here, and I didn't just take naps anywhere.
"Wow, this place is so relaxing," Sam said, stating the obvious. Every time my friends and I came here, we always said the same thing: This place is so relaxing. Which it was, because anytime my friends and I felt exhausted or stressed we came here to destress. We didn't do that very often, which was saying a lot, since we get really stressed during our mystery solving. We should come here a lot more often, I thought as I strolled farther into the library.
"Welcome to the Dark Falls Library," someone said from behind us. Sam and I jumped a little at the voice, and turned around pretty quickly...maybe a little too quickly.
"Is something wrong?" the librarian asked us, just as we were trying to get ourselves together. The librarian, Ms. Huffin, was an old lady, probably in her seventies, and worked at the library most of the time. Occasionally, there would be another librarian here, but not usually.
"No," I blurted out. The librarian turned her head slightly towards me, so she could see me better. Her bifocals sagged on her nose, and the sight of her almost made me tense up again, but I continued after a moment of silent awkwardness, "Sorry, we hadn't realized you were behind us and we got scared, that's all."
"Do you need any help checking out books?" the librarian asked us. Sam and I shared a glance and I gave him a look that basically said "yes". Sam nodded and turned to look at the librarian. The librarian's face expressed anticipation and I almost gave Sam a nudge to urge him to speak, because I didn't want to make the librarian wait any longer, but Sam obliged.
"Um, y-yes we would like some help. We have a specific book we want to find," Sam stuttered, his eyes wide. It almost looked like he was shocked, but I knew he was a bit scared of the librarian. The librarian didn't seem to notice and strutted off towards her desk, signaling for us to follow. I tugged on Sam's shirt sleeve for him to follow the librarian and he came out of his trance.
The librarian sat at her desk, adjusted her bifocals, and started typing rhythmically on her computer. It seemed like she was looking for something on the computer, even though we hadn't asked her to do that yet. "What would you like to check out?" the librarian asked, her eyes settled on the computer, but darted her eyes at us every few seconds, as if checking to see we were still there.
"Uhh, we would like to check something out about the Death Disc –" I said, but was abruptly cut off by the librarian. The librarian's eyes widened just as we said "Death Disc", and she whipped her head to the side, so that she was completely facing us. Her mouth was parted slightly and she was breathing shallowly, almost as if the word sparked a memory in her mind from long ago.
"We don't have any books on what you speak. You must leave right away. You probably have to get back to school," The librarian almost blurted out, rising from her chair, and shooing us out of the library with her arms. She literally threw us out of the library, and judging by the way she shut the doors quickly after she kicked us out, I didn't think we were going to be able to get back in, without breaking in, of course.
"What was that for?" Sam said, banging on the library doors, his face tight with anger and irritation, but mellowed out towards the edges of his expression, probably because he was a little shocked by how fast we were kicked out by the librarian for no apparent reason.
"I have no idea, Sam, but I want to find out," I said, my eyes squinting in the afternoon light.
"Yeah, but if the librarian's not going to let us back in, how are we going to get in?" Sam asked, shrugging his shoulders in bewilderment. I wasn't sure if Sam was just playing dumb with me, or if he really didn't know that we had to break in. Sam was still pretty angry at the librarian, so maybe he was just distraught.
"We're going to break in, but how? Maybe there's a secret passageway we could use or a back door that no one uses anymore, but is never locked?" I contemplated aloud. Sam was sitting on the steps leading up to the library at this time, looking solemnly at the steps below him. I walked over to him and sat down beside him, reaching up with my hand to pat him on the back.
"What's bugging you? Are you still mad at the librarian?" I asked, not sure what was bothering him. Sam had been kind of distant for the past couple of weeks, since the day Howard took a picture of him and Astrid on the beach. I didn't really think that was the reason, so I knew something else was up.
Sam sighed, and shrugged his shoulders. I looked at him with concerning eyes and tried again, "Come on! What's wrong? I know something's wrong. Come on, tell me."
"No, well...yes, something is wrong, but let's find what we need in the library, first, and then I'll tell you, okay?" Sam said, his voice sounding irritated, his lips pursed, and he got up from his place on the steps. Sam walked around the library and to the back side of it, probably where there would be a back door we could get in from. I followed Sam and watched him carefully, as if he would suddenly jump ship and run away because of the thing that was bothering him. I hoped this would never happen, but who knows? The last two weeks or so haven't been like the old days where we would be able to put aside our personal problems and solve the mystery.
These days are different; our personal problems are intertwined with the mystery, so we can't put them aside. Plus, I have a feeling this mystery will take a while to solve and it won't end like we hope. "Tanner, what're you doing? We have to break in, fast!" Sam yelled at me. I guess I had been so focused on my own thoughts, that I wasn't following Sam.
"Coming," I replied, following Sam. Sam and I walked around to the back of the library, and searched for a way we could get in, without the librarian noticing. This would be easy, though, since the librarian was old, and if we broke in and an alarm went off, she might not hear anything with how old she is. Sam felt along the base of the library, probably checking for any trigger points that might show us a secret passageway into the library. I felt along the walls and at the corners of the building, but still found nothing.
"There's got to be another way in, right?" Sam asked rhetorically, so I didn't answer him, but rather kept looking, so that we could find another way in, besides the front entrance, of course.
Sam started looking on the ground, almost hopeless at this point, and I still felt the walls and started going to other walls of the library, almost to the point where I was back to where we started...at the front of the library. "Damnit!" I shouted to myself, but Sam probably heard, because he stopped his search to come check on me. I sighed and faced him. My face was stretched in hopelessness, although Sam's face was hardened with concern.
Sam didn't even need to say anything. I already knew what he was going to ask, "I just can't believe how hopeless this whole thing is. There has to be some sort of secret entrance. This whole town is full of weird secrets and I don't think this library is any different."
"I know you want to give up, but we have to keep looking, even if we have to miss school, but that's not really a setback, is it?" Sam reassured me, his face softening out with laughter. I smiled back at Sam, and we headed back to the part of the library facing the woods. We were about to start searching again, but a cold breeze swept by and smacked us in the faces, almost. The cool, hard breeze entirely stole our attention and Sam and I looked into the woods, as if hoping for something to pop out as us.
"What was that? That didn't seem like just a regular breeze?" I asked, but I didn't expect anyone to answer, not even Sam. If anything strange was going on, both of us had no idea what it was.
"I don't know. Let's just keep searching," Sam urged, probably wanting to put it aside because he didn't know what it was.
After a few moments, though, another irregularly cool breeze swept by us, but this time it blew across the wall and swept some dust off, leaving behind a stretch of wall that was different from the others. I turned to look at Sam for closure on what just happened, but his mouth was hanging open in awe, so I tried to figure it out myself. I stepped towards the peculiar stretch of wall, and tapped on it. I gasped. The wall felt hollow there.
"Sam, it's hollow!" I exclaimed.
Sam's face changed expressions in two seconds, and he almost pushed me aside to get a better look at the wall and also tapped on it to make sure it was hollow and that I was telling the truth. I didn't think that he would ever doubt me, but these days were different from the old days.
"Tanner, find something to break the wall in. If it is hollow, which it is, we need to break this part of the wall down. It could be a secret entrance to the library," Sam said, rushing his words.
Sam and I both entered the woods then, trying to find something hard enough to break the wall in, like a log, a fallen tree, anything really. I mean we were kind of getting hopeless at this point, but we needed to keep looking. We needed to get into the library. I had a feeling there were other reasons why the librarian had kicked us out, besides being a grumpy old woman. Sam headed west in the woods and I headed east, in the hopes that one of us would find it more quickly than both of us searching in the same place. I hope we were right.
But, even before I could even start a substantial search, I heard a twig snap behind me. I turned around, so fast I was probably a blur, and fast enough that my head was swirling in circles, my vision blurred just a little. Even though I was dizzy, I could still see the man in front of me. He was wearing a brown leather coat, with jeans, and sharp-pointed shoes, almost like he was a businessman. His face also looked businessman-like: combed, brown hair, warm, brown eyes, and stubble dotted his chin. He even had a regal look on his face, like he was doing business right now and wanted something from me.
"Who are you," I asked, a horrified look on my face. My eyes were knotted up in fear right now, too, like I was afraid of the businessman. I wasn't necessarily afraid of him, it's just not every day a businessman follows you into the woods, but at that last thought, some instinct triggered in my brain, and I ran for it. I didn't know where to go, but I was running.
"Hey, get back here!" the businessman shouted, as if we were on a play date and I ditched him. He started running after me, which was never a good thing, so I did the only thing that came to mind. I yelled for Sam.
"Sam!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I mean, I didn't yell like a baby, but the sound would definitely reach him and he would catch up to us eventually. I kept yelling and yelling, though, and the businessman kept running and running. My throat became extremely dry and hurt after a while, probably because I had been shouting at the top of my lungs for the past few minutes.
"Stop chasing me, okay!" I shouted restlessly, but the businessman didn't oblige.
"You must run with your friends and go, flee from the books. Books lead to knowledge, knowledge leads to intelligence, intelligence leads to deceit, deceit leads to betrayal, and betrayal leads to death. Now, run!" the businessman shouted, and since I had turned around to look at him when I spoke, I hadn't been looking where I was going, and tripped over a log and smacked my head against the ground. The businessman loomed over me.
"Run, when you get the chance!" he shouted, but my disorientation made his words sound like "pun len yet dance", which made no sense, so I blacked out, and woke up with Sam standing over me, my body sprawled-like on the ground.
"What happened," I asked groggily.
"You must've tripped on a stick or something and hit your head on the ground. I found a thick, heavy log in the woods, and when I came to tell you the good news, you were blacked out on the ground. You've been out for at least five minutes," Sam said, catching me up. I was about to say something about the businessman, but now that I was awake, I knew that it had been a dream. A very weird dream, but I did remember that thing the businessman said about books ultimately leading up to death. Could it have been a prophecy? Could the 'books' mean the library?
"Sam, let's get this over with. Bring the log, so we can smash the wall, get in, find a book about the Death Disc and then get out of here. I'm starting to get mixed feelings about this," I said, fear slowly creeping into my voice, as if waiting for something to happen, so that I could be really scared then.
"Why do you want to get out of here so badly? You don't want to go back to school, do you?" Sam asked, his voice sounding concerned and sympathetic at first, but changing to comedic at the thought that I would want to go back to school. I would've laughed to, but with the dream and everything, this was not the right time for comedic relief. I had to tell Sam about the dream.
"Sam, I need to tell you something," I said urgently, my expression willing him to listen, so I could tell him. I told him everything about the dream: the businessman, the running, the screaming, and the prophecy. Now that he knew why I was fearful, he knew we had to finish this up before something bad happened.
Sam and I lifted up the log and let it lay on both of our shoulders. We were situated back to back, so that the log was pointed towards the wall. Sam yelled "Charge!", and we both ran for the wall, the log smacking against the wall, and crumpling bricks, shrapnel and dust flying through the air, it seemed, as we continually pounded the hollow, brick wall with the log. It took about five pounds against the wall, but the wall had been brought down, shrapnel and dust littering the floor, chunks of red brick scattered all over the place, but what was on the other side of the wall sent Sam and I into a temporary state of shock.
* * *
Sam and I were literally staring in awe at the room that had once been hidden from view by a hollow, brick wall. Inside the room, no lights were turned on and my eyes had to adjust as I walked in. Dust and bits and pieces of the wall still fell from the ceiling. We had only broken through the bottom part of the wall, so a jagged piece of brick wall was still attached to the ceiling, which could come down at any moment.
In the front of the room sat a small table with two chairs attached, and a leather-clasped book was opened up on the wooden table, as if two people had been reading it together. To either side of the table, there were crates of books that came in all shapes and sizes; some of the books were golden in color, others brown or leather. I strolled farther into the room and picked up one of the books at random. The name of the book was Where Does The Treasure Lie?, and as I scrolled through it, I noticed it was about the Death Disc.
"I think all these books are about the Death Disc. That's why they're hidden here, and it's also probably why the librarian kicked us out when we mentioned the Death Disc," I realized out loud, bending down to the crates of books, checking out some of the other books. Some of the names of the books included The Journal Of Hernan Cortez: A Spanish Conquistador, The Travels Of Famous Spanish Conquistadors, The Mysterious Dark Falls Island, and Beware The Curse.
"Yeah," Sam replied after a while, looking at a few of the books himself.
I looked past the table and the crates of books, where there was a small fridge, other relics and artifacts pertaining to the Spanish Conquistadors, like statues and jewels, and all kinds of weaponry - daggers, swords, knives, grenades, guns of all kinds, and whips - rested on hooks embedded into the walls. I was curious, so I picked up one of the small stone statuettes and I guess I wasn't focused enough and the statuette slipped out of my hands, shattering, jagged stone fragments scattered across the floor.
"Aww, damnit!" I shouted to myself out of irritation.
Sam stopped looking at the books to come over and check on me, but let go of the book in his hand, which smacked across the floor.
I got up, and asked him then," Why did you do that?"
"Look!" he shouted, pointing to where the shattered statuette laid. I looked at the statuette, and that's when I noticed what all the hype was about. A small piece of tan paper had been hidden inside the hollow statuette, and was now curled around the shattered pieces of cold stone.
"What is it?" Sam asked after I noticed what he was pointing at.
I bended down and carefully picked out the piece of paper from the shattered, jagged stone fragments. I stood back up and Sam walked over to view the piece of paper beside me. I unfurled it, and had to hold both ends of the paper to stop it from curling back up. Sam and I squinted as we looked even closer at the piece of paper, because the letters were almost too small to make out. We also noticed that it was a note. Sam started to read the note aloud after a few moments, because I wasn't able to speak.
"Look where the treasure lies, and you will find what you are looking for," Sam read aloud, stuttering towards the end of the note. Sam obviously didn't know what this meant, because he was staring intently at the note, trying to figure it out, but I knew what it meant. For once, I knew something that someone else didn't. I guess this mystery was changing me.
"Sam, I know what it means," I admitted, walking over to the crate of books.
"You do?" Sam asked, his voice suggesting that he was surprised. I mean, this was an unusual circumstance. Sam would usually figure things out before I would, so I guess he just wasn't used to me figuring it out before him.
"Yes, I do. When I was looking at the books in the crates, I found a book called Where Does The Treasure Lie?, and I think that's what it was referring to in the note," I said to Sam, looking for the book in the crate.
I eventually found the book, and walked back to Sam. Sam and I ruffled through the thin pages of the book, looking for whatever the note lead to, but after we had searched through all the pages, we still found nothing. It wasn't until Sam shook the book, that we figured where the next note lay hidden. The note had been hidden behind the book's spine, and it didn't fall out until Sam vigorously shook the book. I picked up the note from the floor, Sam put the book back into the crate, and then I opened the note for us to read.
"Okay -" I started reading, but was cut off by a loud noise, like a book slamming against the floor, but deeper. Sam and I were about to exit the hidden room, because we were scared, but we weren't fast enough. Probably because we were shaking from the adrenaline of reading the note and finding this hidden room in the library. Before we could get out, part of the wall was blown apart and the force pushed Sam and I backward and we landed under the jagged part of the wall from outside, shrapnel flying at us like spears, and dust settling on us from the ceiling.
When the dust had settled on the ground - and us - we could see what had happened. The librarian was standing on the other side of the hole that had been made by the explosion, except now she was glowing green and floating three feet off the ground, a menacing look on her face. Sam and I were literally petrified now. The way the green light was coming off of the librarian made her look like a ghost. Her teeth were now fang-like as she bared them at us, the teeth pointed like mini swords. Strands of her hair floated around in the air surrounding her head, making her look like even more of a ghost.
"What the hell," I managed to say, just as the librarian started floating towards us. Sam and I weren't that petrified though because we were able to get up and run out of the hidden room, just as we were about to be attached by the ghost librarian. As we ran out, part of the jagged wall crumbled, and started to fall. It was coming right towards me. This spooked the librarian, though, and she floated backwards slightly. She was probably thinking one less person to kill, but right before the jagged piece of wall was about to crush me, a burst of light emanated from Sam's outstretched hands, and incinerated the piece of brick wall before it could kill me. A sigh of relief left my mouth, just as pieces of incinerated brick showered on top of me.
Even though tiny, black pieces of incinerated brick were blocking my vision and felt really uncomfortable, it was still better than the alternative, which was a heavy piece of wall crushing my head and killing me.
I didn't even think to say 'thank you' or ask him what happened as I rushed out of the hidden room with Sam following me, and eventually the librarian too.
We ran around the building, the grass crunching loudly beneath my feet as I ran for my life, horror stricken across Sam's face and mine. As the view of the front of the library and the parking lot came into view, it seemed some weight was released from my shoulders, as if my body knew I was relieved to see that we were almost safe.
It took Sam and I a few minutes to reach the parking lot, the cars glinting in the sun, like the ocean on a sunny day. Sam and I rushed through the parking lot, desperately trying to put some distance between us and the floating librarian, but the librarian was always a few yards behind us when I turned around to get a peak. Just a peak, because if I looked around for too long, I could trip on something in front of me or the librarian could catch up to me. Plus, I was probably scared that the librarian would be waiting for me to turn around, so she could pounce on me or something. It's weird imagining the librarian trying to attack you like that. Well, not imagining exactly, because it could very well happen.
But, as Sam and I were nearing the end of the parking lot, about to reach the sidewalk, someone pulled Sam's legs out from under him and Sam went skidding across the pavement under a car. My feet were pulled under as well. I just hope the librarian didn't notice. Although, I was probably going to be extremely mad at who pulled me under a red SUV, they did save my life, as well as Sam's.
Sam and I turned our bodies around pretty quickly, just as the now confused librarian swept past, so we could see who had pulled us under the shaded area under the red SUV. It was a middle aged man. He was wearing a brown leather coat, with jeans, and sharp-pointed shoes, almost like he was a businessman. His face also looked businessman-like: combed, brown hair, warm, brown eyes, and stubble dotted his chin. I was about to gasp in shock, but I didn't want the librarian to hear me, so I didn't. I whispered, "That's the man from my dream."
"What?" Sam asked, a little too loudly that I could see the librarian outside perk up at the noise, but she didn't seem to know where it came from. Thank god, I thought.
"He's right, you know," the businessman started to say with another regal expression on his face, but he wiped it off his face after Sam gave him the evil eye.
"Look, Sam. This is the guy from my dream, so it's probably not a coincidence that he pulled us under a car to save us from an evil librarian. Let's calm down and let him explain himself. Then, you have permission to kill him," I said, being sarcastic at the end about killing the man from my dream, but the horrified look on the guy's face showed that he didn't understand sarcasm very well.
"Yeah, yeah! I'll explain. Okay, it starts like this. A long time ago, around the time I was in my teens, my friends and I discovered the Death Disc, but the more and more we searched, an anonymous sender would send us threats, warning us not to solve the mystery any further. But we got in too deep one day, and we were forced to disappear," the man started to say, but confused expressions crept onto Sam's face and eventually onto mine.
"What does this have anything to do with you pulling us under a car? And why were you forced to disappear?" I asked, starting to think that this guy might just be plain crazy, and that we were wasting our time under here trying to get him to explain his crazy self.
"Look, just let me finish. You'll understand when I'm done telling you. Okay, so to answer your question, I was forced to disappear, because the anonymous sender told us that our loved-ones would get hurt if we didn't. I went to live in Virginia for the next fifteen years, so that I could be far away from the Dark Falls Island. But I had to come back. I've been living on the island for the past month, and about a few weeks ago, the anonymous sender gave me a text that said I could either work for him or her, or he or she would find me and kill me," the man said, his hands starting to shake, and a sorrowful sadness blanketed his face, almost like a veil of depression.
"Look, I know you're trying to explain why you pulled us under here, but can you get to the chase, please?" Sam asked harshly, the veins on his head straining because of stress and irritation.
"Sam, calm down. Can't you see he's sad? Remember the three C's," I whispered to Sam in a soothing voice, trying to get him to listen, so we could eventually get out of here and escape the librarian.
"Fine, continue your story," Sam said with animosity towards the man.
"Well, it's not a story, but I will continue," the man said, getting embarrassed when Sam referred to his explaining as a story, "So, I knew that I wasn't going to let Anonymous kill me, but I didn't want Anonymous to win either, so I decided to work for him, but secretly betray him at the same time. I've tried contacting my old friends to try to make an army against Anonymous, but none of them have contacted me back, which leads me to the conclusion that Anonymous killed them the night we escaped the island."
I was starting to get chills from what he was saying, but a few things about it were confusing me, like how he didn't know exactly if his friends were alive or not. This is so sad, I thought. But part of me still felt like this wasn't real. If what he was saying was true, that meant Anonymous, the person giving us threats now, also gave threats to this guy and his friends.
"Before you go on, I have a question. How do you not know exactly if your friends are alive or dead?" I asked, confusion obvious in my voice. My head was spinning with possibilities about what the man was saying, and it made me dizzy. Good thing I was laying on the pavement, instead of standing up where I could fall from dizziness.
"I wasn't with them that night. We were forced to escape the island separately and then never see each other again. The last time I saw them was earlier that morning. Our sophomore year was ending and we were taking finals that day. You were allowed to leave school once you finished, so we all left at different times. We were so tired from taking finals all day that we were resting when we got home, and didn't text each other, or call each other, or even meet up. It was a shame, though, because that night we got the text, and never got to say goodbye," the man said with sorrow.
"I'm really sorry about what happened, but you can you tell us what else happened?" I asked, starting to get restless like Sam.
"Yes, yes! Not much else happened until about a week and a half ago, when Astrid found that piece of the Death Disc outside the library. Anonymous knew this was his chance to start giving threats to you guys, but Howard Finchman was in the way. Finchman was already giving threats to you guys, so Anonymous couldn't be the one in power, unless Finchman was out of the equation," the man said, his voice getting more serious with each coming word.
"Wait, are you saying that Anonymous killed Howard, so that he could be the one to give us threats?" I ask, astonished at this new idea.
When I turned to look at Sam, his face looked like he was about to heave, but something about it made me nervous. But what I didn't know was that I was about to get my answer.
"I need to tell you something," Sam blurted out all of a sudden. I turned my head completely towards him, as well as the man in front of us. I still didn't know his name right now, so I was just calling him a man for now.
"What is it?" I asked comfortingly.
"Anonymous didn't kill Howard. I did," Sam said, barely able to finish his sentence.
I gasped so loud that I thought the librarian would hear us and come to attack us. How could Sam have been the one to kill Howard? I would've asked how...how could he have done this, but wasn't able to yet. I needed to let this sink in. "Sam, you didn't kill Howard. You almost did, but Anonymous made the killing blow," the man said, confusion now laden across my face and even Sam's.
"But, how?" Sam asked. His confusion was probably good for him, because it meant he didn't kill anyone. It seemed like a weight had been relieved from his shoulders, because his shoulders didn't look as tense as they had been before.
"Because, when you shot Howard with your fire powers, he was burned pretty badly, but didn't die. He was unconscious. When he woke up, which had been around fifteen minutes later, he dragged himself away. That's why when you came back, he was gone. He was still alive at that point. Howard wasn't really able to walk, so he dragged himself through the woods. After Astrid found the piece, Anonymous was going to send her threats, but one of his minions informed him of Howard, and Anonymous found Howard in the woods and killed him. He buried his body in the woods and the body was found a few days later by police," the man finished explaining.
"Oh my god, so I really didn't kill him?" Sam asked, but I don't think he wanted an answer. He was probably talking to himself partly. But then as I thought about it, I remembered his powers.
"You have powers?" I asked, half-hoping that he would say no, but he had already used them to save me from the wall falling on my head, and now the man was talking about, so it had to be real.
"Yeah, I do," Sam said awkwardly, like he was self-conscious or something.
"Okay, so to finish my explaining, I'll tell you why I'm here. Anonymous knows you guys were going to the library - and to stop you from interrupting with questions, he has eyes everywhere, so he knows exactly what you're doing all the time - and Anonymous sent me here to stop you from investigating, but since I'm secretly betraying Anonymous, I didn't. I've been watching the library from here, but when I saw the ghost librarian chasing you, I pulled you under. The end," the man finished with a smile on his face, like he was proud to have told us everything.
"Okay, so now that you're done explaining, I've been meaning to ask you what your name is. So what is it?" I asked out of plain curiosity.
"Well, to protect myself, I won't tell you my real name. But my alias is David Hummer," the man replied, a thin smile spreading across his stubble-dotted face.
"Okay, David, so how are we going to escape?" I asked, getting back to the real reason we were hiding under a car.
"I think Sam knows," David said, as if Sam was the smartest person in the world. I was glad that David was being nice to Sam, but how did Sam know how to stop the librarian?
"How?" Sam asked, because he didn't even know. I was also pretty confused. Just two confused friends, I thought.
"Sam, use your powers. Confront the librarian, aim your hands at her, and then think of something that makes you really angry, like Astrid getting attacked by Anonymous. And just so you know, I know everything that's happens to you guys also," David finished, the cloud of confusion surrounding Sam and I starting to lift.
"Are you serious, because I don't necessarily know how to control my powers yet?" Sam asked, fear replacing his confusion.
"Look, Sam. I know you can do this. Channel your anger into your hands, and it'll come out as a stream of fire," David reassured him. "Yeah, Sam," I added, "You're probably our only chance of getting out of here alive. You know, with your powers and all."
"Fine, but how am I going to confront her?" Sam asked, fear still evident in his voice.
"Tanner and I will distract her and then you'll come up behind and shoot her with fire. That should do the trick," David said, like this whole plan was harmless.
"Fine," I replied, after considering it for a few moments.
"Okay, then. Let's go fight a librarian," David said enthusiastically, but Sam and I shared fearful glances.
* * *
Sam, David and I proceeded to the librarian by rolling out from under the car, and the car next to the red SUV shielded us from the librarian's view, who was floating in the air towards the other end of the parking lot, a great deal away from us. Sam was breathing hard and was almost hyperventilating, I was nervous too, but not to the extent Sam was, and David seemed to show no fear at all. If he really was working for Anonymous, he probably did these kinds of things every day, almost.
"Okay, so what are we going to do as a distraction?" I asked, a blanket of urgency intertwined in my voice. David seemed to notice this, and parted his mouth to talk, but no words seemed to come out for a few moments. Sam and I waited, looking at him, our faces expressing anticipation. I guess David was a little nervous too. He was just hiding it well.
After a minute or two of silence, David finally spoke, "Yeah, I have a plan for how we're going to do this. Tanner and I will come out from the car and we'll make loud noises to draw the librarian towards us. After we have the librarian's attention, she'll probably come running after us. At this point, Tanner and I will lead her to the library. Sam, when the librarian comes past the car, make sure to hide, so she can't see you. It will ruin the whole plan if she does. After Tanner and I have lead her into the library, we'll hide and you'll come after us once she's inside. When you get to the library, find her and shoot her with fire. Kill her," David explains the plan, the hair on my arm rising at the mention of Sam having to kill the librarian.
"I have to kill her?" Sam asked, partly because he was scared, but partly because he was sympathetic. Sam and I have known Ms. Huffin for a few years now, and we've come to like her. It's going to be hard to kill her, and for my sake...watch him kill her. Even now that she was a ghostly figure, it was still going to be hard on us.
"Yes, you do. That is, if you want to live. She'll hunt you guys down if you escape without killing her," David said harshly, probably not taking in the fact that Sam didn't want to kill her.
"Okay," Sam said uneasily.
David took that as a sign to start our mission, and signaled for me to come. Once we were out in the open, David and I started screaming at the top of our lungs, trying to get the librarian to hear us. The librarian turned around with a whip of her head, and created a vicious noise, almost like a war cry, before continuing to chase us. David and I followed the plan, then, by leading the librarian to the library. We ran and ran to the library, my legs burning as I ran. It took us around two minutes of literal sprinting, before we reached the library, the librarian only halfway through the parking lot by then. David pushed open the wooden double-doors and I strolled inside, David following me. We found a place to hide between two bulky bookshelves towards the back of the library.
We still had about a minute before the librarian would be inside the library, so we walked across the room and pushed some Victorian-style sofas to the bookshelves where we were hiding to shield ourselves, just in case the librarian had powers like Sam.
After that, we waited for the librarian to arrive, and then soon Sam. I was breathing really hard, and so was David for once. We were really nervous, and this was kind of a life-or-death situation, so it wasn't unusual. I was probably running on pure adrenaline right now, because I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast. Since I was seated away from the entrance of the library, the only thing that told me the librarian was here was a big clang of the wooden doors at the front of the library. My shoulders tensed up at that. The librarian was here.
The librarian looked around, floating over the bookshelves, and I just hoped that she didn't get to us before Sam got here, but before the librarian floated to our bookshelf area, Sam came running in through the front door, the librarian immediately thrown off. The librarian floated over to Sam and I couldn't help but peak over the sofa, worried about Sam.
But, while I was preoccupied with looking at Sam fighting the librarian, David pulled out a laptop from under his leather jacket and starting typing something on it.
"What are you doing?" I asked in the most quiet voice I could, but so that David could still hear me.
"Contacting your friends," David replied, typing rapidly into his laptop. I didn't know how he would be able to contact my friends without me telling him their phone numbers, but he probably already knew what they were, since he worked for Anonymous. I just hoped that he was telling the truth about secretly betraying Anonymous, because if he was truly working for Anonymous, then he might be sending us into a death trap.
As David contacted my friends, it seemed, I watched Sam fight the librarian. The librarian swooped down to Sam, her talons out, probably trying to claw his eyes out, but then a burst of green light emanated from Sam's hands, meeting with the librarian's hands. The librarian screeched, her green-glowing hands starting to throb red threads of light. Sam had burned her hands pretty badly, enough for smoke to come off them, but the librarian wasn't disintegrated yet. Sam would have to do better than that if he wanted to kill her.
Well, maybe I shouldn't word it like that. Sam would have to do better than that if he wanted to win the fight, which would ultimately mean killing her.
The librarian swooped up into the higher reaches of the library, moving in circles, as if she were trying to find Sam's weak spot. Sam moved along with her, not letting the librarian catch him off guard. I was sick just looking at the fight. I was scared for Sam, and if Sam got hurt, she would come looking for us and might kill us too. At the thought of Sam and me getting killed, I started hyperventilating, so loud that the librarian turned around and swooped over our sofa.
"There you are," the librarian cackled in a witch-like voice: high-pitched and scratchy.
David heard this and a fearful look crept into his eyes, and he turned around, staring at the librarian, who was about fifteen feet above us. The librarian started swooping down, and we had no time to run...just scream. But, before the librarian's talons scarred my face, she turned into ash and it settled on the floor and on top of us. I stood up immediately and shook the ash off me. That's when I noticed Sam with his outstretched hands, pointed at the spot where the librarian had just been.
Sam killed the librarian. Sam saved us. Sam was a hero.
* * *
Sam, David, and I relaxed in the library for the past ten minutes, breathing heavily. It had been a very exhausting thirty minutes at the library, and my head was starting to ache. All I wanted to do was lay down on a sofa or something and fall asleep, because I definitely wasn't going back to school. Too much had happened and I needed to destress from it. So did Sam, and maybe even David. I wondered when Astrid and Gwen would arrive and how we would explain this all to them. It would take a long time, that was for sure.
But, just as I was about to take a nap, my eyes heavy with sleep, Astrid and Gwen came rushing in through the door.
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