Jade turned on her heels and began walking down the hall.
“Jade,” I called out. She stopped and turned back to me.
“Be careful in the library tomorrow,” I told her, forcing a smile onto my face. I just wanted to tell her everything. “We’ll be there in the afternoon.”
“I’ll be alright,” she said. She took a look at her phone and then sprinted down the hallway. She was probably late too.
I let myself into the hotel room, bracing myself for the fireworks that were Monty’s famous rants. He was sitting on one of the beds with a tub of chocolate ice cream and he was eating it with a waffle. I wouldn’t expect anything different from him.
“I’m back,” I waved at him and he finally noticed me. He shoved the waffle into the ice cream and placed it on the dresser separating the beds. He turned the TV off and crossed his arms. I was in for it.
“Where the heck have you been? I was worried.”
My eyes shot wide open and I glared at him in surprise. Worried? He never ever expressed any type of emotion about me other than anger and frustration. So this was new for me. And it kind of scared me.
“Worried?” I asked.
“Yeah…” he cleared his throat. “Worried about my money. I don’t need you disappearing and stuff. Now get to bed, we got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
I let my shoulders slump as I walked over to my bed and tried to make myself comfortable. I guess he really didn’t care about me like I thought. But what was new?
In the silence Monty cleared his throat again.
“And I was kinda, sorta, maybe worried about you too. Now go to bed.” he clicked the TV on and went back to pigging out on his junk food.
Tears tickled my face as they ran down my cheeks. I needed to hear that, even if it was because he was in a good mood. I needed it. I wanted to turn around and tell him everything. But I wasn’t supposed to tell him either and even though it shouldn’t have bothered me because it was Monty for crying out loud, it did.
Tomorrow I was either going to live to tell the story about one of the most or probably the most haunted libraries in the world… or by the end of the night, I was going to be hovering through its aisles, tossing books off the shelves, for eternity.
CHAPTER 13:
A LITTLE HELP
We were standing outside of the library again. But this time I didn’t want to go in. Just two days ago I was somewhat excited that I’d be inside such a huge library, surrounded by thousands of books. But now, I couldn’t wait to get as far away from this place as possible.
Monty nudged me in the shoulder and pointed to the foreboding structure. I looked up and saw Jade waving at us through one of windows. I bet she was surprised to see us back, even though I promised I would be.
“We’re making some good money cleaning this dump out. We already got a new job waiting for us in New Jersey. Now, how do I look?” Monty nudged me again and I reluctantly turned to him and pretended to care what he looked like.
“You look good,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
“Just good?” he snapped. Now, this was the uncle I knew.
“Great, awesome, spectacular!” I pushed a laugh out of me.
“Don’t get smart with me,” he fixed his tie and then for what seemed like the millionth time, tried to slick back that godforsaken cowlick.
The doors to the library flew open and a rush of icy wind spilled down the stone steps and over to us. Monty shivered and that was the first time I’d ever seen him do that in public. I wanted to blurt out everything I was holding in. I wanted to tell him that Octavia might possibly be evil and about the crazy strong mural in the library. I really wanted to tell him how I was going to destroy the mural, all by myself.
Someone cleared their throat and I turned back to the doorway, preparing myself to look Octavia in the face and try to get a good reading out of her. But instead of the mysterious librarian standing on the top step of the entrance, there was a short woman with bright red hair and a pair of square green glasses resting on her nose.
She looked young, maybe a few years older than me and she looked worried, as if something was bothering the heck out of her. I tried to take a peek into her head, but it was as if someone had slammed a door right in my face.
Nice try, squirt. I’m too good for that, she projected at me and winked. In surprise I watched her walk down the rest of the steps toward us, wondering if she was one of the medium’s Octavia had talked about.
“I’m Macy Parker,” she grabbed Monty’s hand and gave it a good shake. “I’m a medium from Los Angeles. Octavia invited me along with several others who are already waiting in the library. We’re here to help you out.”
I’d completely forgotten about the other mediums possibly being here. Monty and I didn’t even get to go over our plan on how to mask his ‘normalness’ now that she knew I was a Ghost Talker too. Things were about to get much crazier.
“I work alone,” Monty snapped.
“Well, we’re here now so you’re going to have to deal with us. It looks like the paranormal activity in this place is too much for two mediums to take out, so Octavia called us in. Now, follow me. We’ve got a lot of work to do before this blood moon tonight.” Macy turned and headed back up the steps, leaving us behind.
“More mediums? Blood moon? What the heck is going on?” Monty turned to me as if I was supposed to know everything. But I couldn’t say a word, so I shrugged and sprinted up the steps and into the abyss of hell on earth.
We were all standing in the foyer of the library. Most of the comfy looking chairs had been pulled and organized into a giant circle so we all could take a seat, but none of us wanted to sit down. The psychic energy was massive.
I could feel it in the tips of my fingers and in my bones. It was a good feeling and I didn’t want it to stop. I had to admit that I did feel a little better being surrounded by a few other Ghost Talkers. It was a warm feeling in this dark and cold place.
After everyone had introduced themselves, I studied everyone with my own eyes. There was of course, Macy Parker from Los Angeles. Then there was Rick Fuentes from Houston who had one of the most amazing electronic wheelchair’s I had ever seen. And lastly there were twins, Jacob and Jessica Lee. They were fourteen and from what I gathered, very expensive and a bit snotty.
Everyone seemed to like each other, expect for Monty who was now sitting in a chair to my right, sulking like a big baby. He was worried about his money and with these new mediums here to help, he didn’t know if he’d be paid less or at all anymore.
Someone cleared their throat and we all turned in unison toward two figures heading our way from the back of the library. As they grew closer and came into the afternoon sunlight that was pouring through the windows, I could see that it was Octavia and Jade. Madame Helena’s words popped up in my head, the girl is in grave danger.
How was I going to keep Jade safe with her around Octavia the entire time? Now that I was looking at Octavia in a different way, I could see how she could appear sweet and kind and still harbor wickedness inside of her. She could have so much power that she could simply be cloaking everything. I’d read books about things like that before. I could feel the anger rising in me and from the looks on the Jacob and Jessica’s faces, they could feel my anger too.
“Hello everyone!” Octavia announced as she walked past Monty and greeted the other mediums with handshakes and hugs. “Thank you so much for coming. You see, I thought things would be able to be handled by Mr. Santiago over here and his assistant,” she gestured toward my uncle, who was now at attention, smiling.
“But if we all can work together, I’m sure we can take care of everything by sunset.”
“I think so too,” Macy agreed and Monty scowled at her.
“Now, Jade will assign the areas that are most active to you all with these index cards that we created for you. Do your best to be as polite to the spirits you will be dealing, we don’t want anything horrible to happen to
anyone. When you’ve done your best, whether you persuade a spirit to leave in peace or not, we will all meet back here at 5:15pm to go over everything and then you all can go back to your hotel rooms and take a good nap.” Everyone, except me, giggled at her words. “And thank you!”
With that, she spun on her heels and walked off toward the back of the library where she came from, the click-clacking of her heels echoing like stray bullets. I watched as she kept sneaking quick glances back at us. I swore I saw a devilish smirk form on her face and I turned away. A chill shot down my spine and I swallowed hard. Things were about to get real, real interesting.
CHAPTER 14:
A SECRET LIBRARY
Monty, Jade, and I got the second floor of the library and so did the twins. Monty couldn’t have been more irritated and angry at being followed around by two much younger mediums who kept glaring at him, trying to figure out if he really had the gift or not.
I could see sweat beads building on my uncle’s forehead and almost expected for him to faint. But he just pulled his handkerchief out and dabbed away, pretending that it was hot, even though we all could practically see our breath from how paranormally cold it was in the library.
If his cover was blown, I didn’t know what would happen to our agency, so I pulled my camera out of my bag, turned it on, and tried to steal the twins’ attention from Monty.
“Cool huh?” I practically shoved the display screen in their faces. Jessica looked down and tilted her head in interest. Jacob smirked and crossed his arms.
“You’re pretty good at Photoshop, dude.” I wanted to punch him in the face.
“It’s totally not Photoshop, duuude,” I was pretty good at being sarcastic when I wanted to be and this kid deserved it. Finally, he turned away from me and stalked off, yanking his sister along with him. She gave a faint smile before he whisked her off to the other end of the second floor.
“Good luck!” she waved before he could pull her behind a statue of Sherlock Holmes.
“They cost us a pretty penny,” Jade swooped in beside me. She looked like something was bothering her and then I remembered just how insane these past couple of days had gotten. It seemed to be eating her up inside and I couldn’t help but feel terrible. “Remember what I said about the camera,” she added. “This time I’d recommend turning it off.”
“Fine,” I groaned, turned it off and shoved it back into my bag.
“Are you scared now?” Jade whispered as Monty plopped himself down in a chair and picked up a children’s book.
I turned to her and pulled her to the side by the stairwell.
“I’m a little scared, to be honest.” I tried to summon a smile. “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen tonight. More afraid than I’ve ever been.”
“Hey, there’s something over here!” Jessica’s voice rang out from the other side of the second floor. We all turned and hurried across. Before I could make it over to the twins, a gust of cool wind spun up my legs. It seized me by the shoulders and forced my head to look down at the ground. Written in dust on the hardwood floor was the same cursive writing from the window:
Follow the dust, come alone…
I looked up but no one else was paying attention to me. So instead of following them, I turned back to the dust and followed it as the words spun into the air and the dust particles led the way through the archway and into the back of the library’s second floor.
I followed the dust, not knowing what I was doing. What if this was a bad spirit? But then I remembered Jade saying that the writing on the window was the mute spirit she had told me about, the Lady in White. The dust stopped at a lone bookshelf that blended in with the back wall and then shot right through it, rattling a few books that were sitting on the shelf.
I’d seen too many movies to know what the next move would be.
“A secret passageway,” I said aloud as the familiar gust of wind spun its way back up toward my shoulders and pushed me forward toward the shelf. A large green book wiggled by itself and without thinking twice, I took hold of it, pulled it back, and waited.
It took several moments but slowly the shelf began to rumble. I turned to see if anyone else was noticing but I was alone. The rumbling came to an abrupt stop, chunks of drywall were on the floor and dust clouded the air around me. I looked up and saw a gap behind the shelf, just large enough for me to slip through.
I waited, thinking about what would be waiting for me behind that shelf. Was it an entrance to my untimely demise? Or was there someone in there that really wanted to help? As if answering me, the gust of wind pushed me forward and before I could think about running, I had slipped through the gap and the shelf crunched shut behind me.
My eyes were closed and my heartbeat was pummeling against my ribs like a rabid monkey in a cage. I counted to ten before I let one eye slip open, my mind not prepared for whatever I was about to endure. After not seeing anything alarming in front of me, I opened the other eye and took in the scene before me.
I was speechless for a second and my heart was still going crazy in my chest, from both fear and amazement. I was standing on what looked to be a level of a secret library. Before me thousands and thousands of books sat collecting dust on what seemed like millions of bookshelves. I ran to the edge of the railing and looked over in utter amazement. It went on forever. There were hundreds of rolling ladders connected to shelves and each level had a railing and a tiny metal staircase that led up and down to each level. Murky sunlight poured like sapphire honey through three very large diamond shaped windows, giving enough light to see from my vantage point. Below, you’d either have to use a lantern or candle to see anything.
Realizing that if by chance these old railings didn’t hold correctly, I’d plummet hundreds of feet to my death, I pulled myself away from the railing and bumped right into something. An icy breeze wafted through my hair and I stood still, my heart picking up where it left off, beating against my ribs.
“No need to be afraid, young man.” a strong male voice echoed slightly in the secret library. I didn’t recognize the voice and I wasn’t sure what I was going to turn around and see, but I had to remember one major thing that a priestess taught me in New Orleans: Fearlessness is your greatest weapon against the paranormal. So I sucked up my fear and spun around to meet whoever had brought me here.
CHAPTER 15:
REVELATIONS
I’d prepared myself to see something horrifying when I turned around. But instead I was met with the kind face of a much older man, in a much older suit. He smiled, his thin black mustache twitched as if it had a mind of its own. His hair was slicked back and I could smell something like car wax and almost gagged. If I had to estimate his death year, I’d say Victorian era for sure, which meant… I was in the presence of the man who was responsible for this house of horrors, Jonathon R. Childermass.
I cleared my throat and before I could open my mouth he spoke again, in such a clear and nonchalant tone that didn’t carry any kind of darkness.
“I had one of my daughter’s, Morgana, bring you here. I hope you don’t mind about our meeting alone. Trust me when I say it is extremely necessary, young man.” I moved out of the way as he walked over to a shelf beside me and pulled a large brown book from it.
He studied my face a bit more, probably trying to decipher whether or not he could really trust me. I was feeling the same way about him.
I couldn’t stop staring at him. Normally full body apparitions aren’t as clear and solid looking. You can see through them most of the time. Since it was rare, I almost wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn’t want to seem rude. He could walk the streets and no one would notice a thing.
“Are you…” I didn’t get to finish, because he opened the book and pointed down at the same photo I’d seen while researching the library on the internet.
“Jonathon R. Childermass? I am.” He smiled as he flipped to a few more pages and pointed again to a photo of three young women sitting on a couch, t
heir eyes closed and their hands placed on their laps. One of them, the youngest, was wearing a veil that obscured her face. Another photo had two of the sisters beside each other, one didn’t seem to have a mouth. One thing was certain. They were all dead. I swallowed hard. It was a Victorian custom to take photos of the deceased and keep them in death albums. Some people believed it was a way of keeping the soul trapped in the photograph so that it wouldn’t be tormented on the other side, while some just thought of it as saving a memory of their loved ones.
“Who are they?” I asked, but then a cool chill rattled up my back and I knew there was someone else with us. I stood, paralyzed, as an arm reached over my shoulder and pressed a finger on one of the girls’ faces.
I turned, nearly knocking the album out of Jonathon’s hand.
A girl looking around the same age as Macy Parker was hovering a couple of feet away from me. Startled by my sudden turn she wavered a few more steps back, afraid of me. She was one of the girls in the album. She was dressed in a long white gown and I realized why Jade had told me she was mute. She didn’t have a mouth.
“This is Morgana or as the locals like to call her, The Lady in White. She cannot speak as you can see, she was born that way.” Jonathon sounded sad and I could feel his emotions like the sun on the back of my neck on a hot day. I was too open. I needed to find my inner anchor, which was the memory of my parents. I needed to hold on tight to that before I collapsed from all the energy they were sucking out of me.
I watched as Morgana pulled what looked like a tattered notebook out of a pocket in her dress and scratched at it with a tiny nub of a pencil. When she was done she held up the notebook and tapped at it with a finger.
You are in danger. My sister will stop at nothing
to get what she wants tonight. Get out now,
or you’re just as dead as we are.
The Library of Souls Page 6
