I looked up at the ceiling and was prepared to be dazzled by the chandelier I’d seen in research photos, but instead I was underwhelmed. There was a mural painted on the ceiling instead, but it was more boring than exciting or epic. Intricate silver swirls and sharp jagged lines were painted in the middle, almost making me dizzy, and around it balls of light and storm clouds garnished the rest of the mural. Directly in the center of the swirls, was a stark white pentagram with rune signs integrated into the design. Though it was nothing amazing, the feeling I got from it was dark and sinister. I wondered if the last owner had it done after removing the chandelier. Either way it was dreadful.
I lifted my camera up the mural and snapped a quick photo, but when I looked back at it on the display screen, it looked ruined. Something surely didn’t want me taking pictures of it.
I turned around and was met with the stained glass windows that I was looking at from outside. The windows had been widened somehow and were now reading nooks, fit with various colored throw pillows and cushions. I took a step forward, toward the window I had seen the girl in and stopped dead in my tracks. All the tiny hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Someone was behind me.
CHAPTER 2:
I SEE DEAD PEOPLE... & BOOKS.
I spun around, nearly tripping on the carpet and was met with the face of a girl, but this one was very much alive. She looked to be around my age. I couldn’t help that I was a bit disappointed. I really wanted to talk to the ghost girl before Monty and I made any serious commitments to this place.
“Hi, I’m Jade.” the girl said. I could only assume that this was the girl who I was supposed to meet in the children’s section. Had I really been standing in the library’s foyer for that long?
“Hi, my name is Simon.” I said back. I wasn’t good with other people my age. I didn’t have any friends to begin with, so conversing with someone brand new to me would be a very interesting yet excruciating experience for sure.
“Are you looking for anything particular?” she smiled, a full set of stark white teeth glaring back at me. She had short curly black hair that hung in spiraled tendrils that ended at the bottom of her ears and she was wearing a filthy green smock.
“I’m actually here with my Uncle. He’s the Ghost Expeller.” I nearly busted out laughing calling him that. But it was what he forced me to call him.
“Oh, so you’re his assistant. Cool. Well, good luck trying to get rid of any of the spirits. You’re not the first agency we’ve had in here in the past few years.”
Few years? How many had they called? And all of them failed? This is was definitely way more interesting than finding the ghost girl right now.
“Who was the last?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t someone that my uncle hated. Otherwise we’d for sure have to do this job right, so he could rub it in someone’s face for a few years.
“Scarlet and Damon Price.” she crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow, as if she were gloating about having an infamous mother and son team of phony Mediums at the library. But I was about to burst her bubble.
“You do know that they’re frauds, right? At least Scarlet is. I know real Mediums when I see them and Scarlet is fake. You wasted your money.” I crossed my arms to emphasize my explanation.
The girl’s face turned ruby red and she knocked a loose curl out of her vision.
“How would you know a real medium? Unless you are one.” Oh crap. I must’ve been so into outing a fake Ghost Talker that I nearly ousted myself in the process. Monty was going to kill me. I shook the uneasiness from me, hoping that she couldn’t see past the worry on my face.
“My uncle is one and I’ve been with him since I was eight so trust me, I’d know.” I was actually quite proud of myself for that explanation I’d just thrown together.
“I see. I’ve been helping Ms. Freestone out since I was little. My mom used to come in here all the time before she died and she was best friends with Ms. Freestone. This is like a second home to me.” A feeling of grief and sadness rushed over me. She’d lost someone too and it still hurt, which I could relate to all too well.
“I’m sorry about your mom,” I said, trying to work a smile onto my face.
“Thanks,” she smiled and looked down at my camera hanging from my neck. “What’s that for?”
“I like taking photos,” I replied happily. No one had ever asked why I lugged a camera around from my neck and the fact that someone my age was holding a full conversation with me was astounding.
“Can I see?” Instead of replying, I pulled the strap over my head and handed the camera to her, setting it up so she could just click to the next file.
I watched her eyes widen and her mouth fall open at a few photos. No one ever had taken an interest in my photos, especially Monty. So having a stranger react so incredibly to pictures that I had taken was making me feel a lot better about being in this haunted library.
“How are you able to get such good pics of spirits? Some people spend their whole lives trying to get good ones like these.” I watched as she kept clicking through my collection. I couldn’t possibly tell her that it had a lot to do with the fact that I was a Ghost Talker. My energy, for some reason, makes them show up almost perfectly in my photos.
“To be honest, I don’t know.” She was finally going through the ones I’d taken of the front of the library, when the widened smile fell from her face. She was looking at the photo of the ghost girl in the window.
“You... you saw her?” she looked away from my camera’s display screen and directly at me. Our eyes locked. Worry filled the space between us.
“I did. I was trying to find her earlier but-”
“-Don’t go looking for her. For as long as you’re in this library, don’t go looking for that girl. You’ll regret it.” the look in her eyes was grim.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because she’s one of the bad ones,” she swallowed hard and looked around, as if making sure the ghost girl wasn’t around to hear her. Something about the way she spoke sent chills down my back once again. She was serious and though it rarely happened, what she said, freaked me out a bit.
She handed my camera back to me and looked around again, nervously twisting her fingers. She was definitely scared of something.
“So are there are good ones in here?” I fitted the strap back over my head and turned off my camera. She looked back into my eyes and nodded.
“Only about three that I know of. Follow me and I’ll see if I can get at least one of them to show themselves. It rarely happens for me, but maybe you being here will change things.” She spun back on her heels and led the way toward the back of the library. “They don’t like pictures, so put that thing away for now.”
She gave me a true commanding librarian look and I hastily pulled the strap back over my head. Disappointed, I put my camera into my bag, but left it on video so it could record anything interesting I could use to help Uncle Monty with his so-called “investigation”.
It wasn’t until we were halfway passed the circulation dome that an eerie voice, sounding ragged and full of static whispered in my left ear.
“Be careful what you check out…”
CHAPTER 3:
SERIOUSLY SPOOKED
We’d been walking for what felt like forever, passing a gigantic Fantasy section with a statue of Merlin, the wizard on a pedestal made of copper books. Further down a group of tables had been pushed together with a giant chess board sitting in the middle of them. The pawns were as large as a house cat.
For as long as we’d been walking, I didn’t see anyone dead or alive. I could hear a voice or two, one in a different language and another whispering so fast that it almost sounded like a different language. They could’ve been spirits who didn’t want to manifest, or echoes of lost souls passing through. It was hard to tell sometimes.
Deeper inside of the library, I wondered just how many books were in the massive building. The New York Public Library
had nothing on this place that went on forever.
After a few more minutes of being silent as we walked deeper and deeper into the library, I cleared my throat to get Jade’s attention. She turned back to me and waited for me to catch up with her.
“Where is everyone? The patrons, the other librarians?” I asked. It was a weekday afternoon and usually libraries are crowded by this time of day from my experience. I’d been in a lot of libraries to know.
“Ms. Freestone is the head librarian, so she closed the library for a week. It will reopen next Monday. She just didn’t want any interference or anyone going to spill the beans to the Mayor about what she’s trying to do. Besides, not many people come in anymore anyway. Even though our town is famous for this library, not many town’s people want to be inside of it, but it’s whatever.”
She may not have wanted me to see that she cared so much for the library, but I could tell, it was a part of my gift. Sometimes people’s emotions get mixed up in the paranormal atmosphere and I hate it. I personally wouldn’t want anyone to know how I was feeling. But Jade was so open, she was literally spilling out into the atmosphere and I couldn’t ignore it. It bothered her that no one came in here and that she probably fixed up the children’s section all the time for nothing, that’s what her dirty smock was for. She’d been dusting the shelves. I felt bad for her.
“That sucks,” I said. I didn’t know how to carry on conversations after being dumped with emotional baggage. I almost wanted to tell her that it would be okay, but then she’d figure out I was a Ghost Talker and I really didn’t feel like suffering the wrath of my uncle tonight.
“It does. Well, here we are!” she turned down an aisle of the Science Fiction section. At the end of the aisle was a window and a skinny metal spiral staircase that spun up toward the second floor of the library. Gloomy sunlight was pouring through the window and I could sense that there was someone there. Without realizing it, I took my camera out, turned it to camera mode and snapped a quick photo of the stairwell.
“Didn’t I tell you to put that away,” Jade slugged me in the arm.
“I’m sorry, it’s just reflexes and besides, I got something.” I stared down at the display screen. Hovering in front of the window and staircase was a cloud of spirit fog (used only if they don’t want to be fully seen or can’t manifest correctly.) and if you looked close enough you could see two hands reaching out from it.
I handed my camera to Jade and she looked over the photo. She looked back and forth to the screen and the stairwell and a nugget of a smile grew on her face.
“For as long as I’ve helped out in this library, this is one of the ghosts I’ve never actually seen. I just hear him from time to time, he’s very talkative.” Jade handed the camera back to me and chewed on her lip for a little bit, as if she were trying to think of something to say.
“What?” I asked, turning off my camera.
“I’ve only ever seen three ghosts in this library out of the many that haunt it. That creepy girl you took a pic of at the window, the Lady in White on the second floor, and… Black Veil, that’s what we call her. She’s dressed for a funeral and you can never see her face behind the veil she wears. She’s the worst of them all. She almost strangled Ms. Freestone a few months ago because we let another agency in.” Jade was twisting her fingers and looking out from the corners of her eyes, afraid that Black Veil was near.
“That’s pretty intense,” I said, turning back to the ghost fog. I’d seen my fair share of the malevolent spirits. One almost threw me out of a third story window when I was nine. I was surprised Jade still hung out here.
“It sure is. There are a lot of them here, I’m sure your uncle will find out soon enough.” She stopped twisting her fingers and smiled at me. “That’s a great pic, by the way.” I could tell that she wanted me to keep taking pictures, but she was too nervous to ask.
“I’ll keep taking pictures, if you want,” I said, turning on my camera once again and slinging the strap over my head.
“Sure, yeah, I mean, that’s fine.” She smiled and turned back toward the staircase. “I’m pretty sure that fog is Victor Anders. He haunts this aisle because he used to write books like this before he died. You can hear him from time to time, or throwing books at people who come and sit on the staircase and play on their phones. He hates technology.”
I let out a psychic hello and it echoed through my head and down the aisle. Jade couldn’t hear it, of course, but the spirit could. It was how I tried to get their attention and talk them into not blowing my cover to appear normal.
I waited for a moment and repeated myself. I could only do it twice before it began to drain the energy from my body and I passed out. There was still no answer. For a talkative spirit, this ghost obviously didn’t want to talk to me.
“I thought he’d do something, at least throw a book. Oh well, let’s go and see if Ms. Freestone and your uncle are waiting for us in the front. She probably wants to start the investigation before the sun goes down, after that it’s best that we all leave the building.” Jade turned on her heels and began walking back toward the front of the library. Why would we have to leave before the sun goes down?
“What happens after dark?” I asked, trying to catch up with her, my camera swinging back and forth onto my chest. I could feel a bruise coming on.
She kept walking faster but I couldn’t keep up with her, so I ran and pulled her to a stop. Her sneakers skidded on the hardwood and let out a screech that echoed around us. It took her a moment to gather up the strength and look me in the eyes. What the heck was going on here?
“That’s the thing Ms. Freestone forgot to mention to your uncle. You see, for some reason the paranormal energy is heightened times one hundred in the building after dark. That’s when people get killed. At least that’s what happened to Mary Summers and Jordan Lopez a couple of months ago.” A lump formed in my throat. The librarian and research hadn’t mentioned anything about deaths that recent. No wonder Ms. Freestone wanted everything under wraps and wanted us here as soon as possible. The ghosts were still killing people.
“That’s a very serious thing to forget to mention.” I could feel my anxiety simmering beneath my skin. If we’d known about how strong this paranormal activity was, we wouldn’t have come. Even if I think my uncle doesn’t give two squats about me, he wouldn’t want me dead. I’m his money maker.
“No one else wanted to come,” Jade finally said, twisting her fingers once again, worrying whether or not Ms. Freestone was going to kill her for opening her mouth. I needed to stop doing that, it felt intrusive.
“I’ll talk to my uncle about it,” I said and before we could take another step toward the front of the library, a full apparition decided to say hello.
Jade stumbled backward nearly colliding on the ground. This was probably another one of the ghosts she’d never seen before. I stared at him, the temperature around us dropping so low my teeth began to chatter. He was a strong one. But this was not how it was supposed to go. I couldn’t work a spirit in front of Jade. This was going to ruin everything.
The spirit was a young boy, maybe around seven or eight and he was carrying a metal train that began to glow brighter than he was. That meant that that he was either growing nervous or getting angry. I took a step back and braced myself. I psychically projected my voice to him. I had to get him to listen to me before he blew my “normal” cover to Jade.
Hi, my name is Simon, I could hear the soft echo of my voice carrying itself over toward the ghost. The boy’s ears perked and his eyes grew wide and alert. I could see a giant bloody dent on the side of his head, it was more than likely how he died.
You’re not supposed to be here, bad things are gonna happen soon and you need to go, the boy’s voice was cold like ice and pierced my brain like a needle. He was strong, too strong. I clasped my hands over my head and gritted my teeth.
“Simon, are you okay?” Jade’s voice echoed in my head. No
! This little boy was blowing my cover. I couldn’t let this happen, I had to keep focus.
“Please, stop. I need you to listen to me-” I didn’t realize that I was now talking aloud and Jade could hear everything. I was screwed.
No. You listen. GET. OUT. NOW, as the boy’s voice echoed in my head, a rush of cool wind sliced right through us and knocked us both to the ground. The little boy hugged his toy train to his chest, brandished a devilish smirk and evaporated into a soft blue mist.
The wind died in an instant as a few books toppled to the ground beside us. Jade turned to me, a severe look of anger on her face. She didn’t even know me enough to be this angry at me, but it hurt all the same.
“What’s going on?” Jade snapped. “What are you really doing here?”
“I…” I wanted to lie, to find a tall tale to whip up for her to latch onto. But there was nothing left but the truth.
CHAPTER 4:
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
Everything up until this point was going smoothly. I mean, yeah I found out that this place was full to the brim with incredibly strong spirits and I almost got froze to death by a ghost, but my cover wasn’t blown… until now. Monty was going to kill me. But at least if he killed me here, I would be surrounded by books for the rest of my afterlife.
I looked up from my sneakers and tried to look Jade in the face again. But her glare was so severe, I wouldn’t put it past her to be able to kill me with one look.
“Are you just going to stand here silently forever? I want the truth, Simon… or I’ll tell Ms. Freestone that we’re being swindled once again and maybe this time she’ll call the police. Who knows?” Jade was making me nervous and I could feel sweat running down the back of my neck. If she wanted to be a police officer or detective when she grew up, she was sure the best type for that kind of work.
The Library of Souls Page 2
