Blacken by Alandra Rankin (i love reading books txt) 📕

Avie giggled, digging into the chicken parmesan, “I think the world just needs a little bit more love, that’s all.”

They ate, resuming conversations about the additional wave of vibrating and how they could figure what was causing it to come back. Or even if it would come back again. The woman briefly brought up that she could talk with Jim, even if he didn’t seem to have very many answers to begin with. It may be worth a try. J&K’s atmosphere was bubbling with other conversations, masking their own.

The redhead picked up on a conversation that came from the couple on her right, “Did you hear? They think Dale went missing…”

She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but the conversation was along the lines of what they both were looking into… probably. Keeping concentrated, Avie waved at Owen to be quiet and listen too.

“What, why? When did he leave? He had such a good job here.”

“Who knows, maybe he went back to the States, I hear they pay better. It was just a few days ago now.”

Jade eyes widened, locking them with Owen’s pale face. Her attack was only a few days ago.

Shit, this wasn’t good. Was it just coincidence? Owen grasped her hand.

“Owen, we need to do something, I don’t like this. I don’t like knowing people are going missing with no follow up,” coarse whispers fluttered over the table.

“I know Avie, we’re working on it. We’ll find something soon, there are clues, we just have to follow them.”

Squeezing his hand, the woman nodded, worried about the fates of those in Blacken, and herself. Who really knew if they would find any answers any time soon? Would it be too late by the time they discovered something?

The knowledge that someone actually went missing recently since she came into town kicked the investigation into a new gear. Avie wanted to find something, anything, that could make sense of why people disappeared. It took a few weeks, the Dewey Decimals going through both natural and supernatural elements, trying to cover all bases.

They were running in circles; all the information blended together and didn’t go anywhere. Any time they discovered something that looked as though it could lead to an answer of some sort, came up as a red herring, leading them back to square one.

The pair were no closer to any answers than they were at the beginning.

“I know these things take time, but shouldn’t there be more? Should we have found something after a month of searching?” Her head rested on the table after pushing a manila folder to its other side, “Maybe it’s why so many people accepted religion as an answer. This shit is frustratingly confusing.”

The librarian came to sit down beside her, “I know it’s tough and I know it feels impossible, but we’ve got all the wrong answers out of the way, the right one has to come soon. Once it does, we can figure out a way to stop what’s been going on.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder, “You always know what to say. I hope we can find out more, I just have to be patient. I guess, overall, I’m worried that it will happen to me too.”

“That’s why there’s more priority now, you’ve felt the hum again and we don’t know what that means. We won’t rush anything, you look exhausted. You should really go home and get some sleep,” the blond was idly rubbing circles into her back as he spoke, causing Avie to feel the wash of sleep kick in with all its power.

“I suppose you’re right. It would help to rest up for work tomorrow too.”

She got up to leave, throwing on her coat for protection against the chilly air. The temperatures once again dropped near freezing in the mountainous September atmosphere, gracing her every time she stepped outside.

“If your boss isn’t in, I might be able to run you some food!” he called out after her.

Avie waved back at him, “Here’s hoping! Have a good night, Owen!” With that, she walked out of the library and into the night, seeing puffs of her breath as she shuddered, drawing the coat closer to her body.

The walk home was going to be a long one.

It was back.

The same call she felt to draw her into town, the same pull that hummed in her blood and whined in her bone marrow picked up its frequency in the small hours of the night. Familiar vibrations woke Avie from a dead sleep, causing her to shoot upright from her bed in a panicked state. She clutched at her heart, the bass baritone of the buzzing affecting the center of her circulatory system harshly.

She gasped for air, sweating, desperately trying to crawl out of the mulberry satin sheets and onto the cool wooden floor—all the while focusing only on the vibrating in a feeble act to calm it down herself. It was worse, it was way worse this time around.

Avie couldn’t take this. There was something else, something she was supposed to do or find; nobody else had the forceful hum continue after they moved into Blacken, but here she was, continually suffering.

Finally, after resting on the cooling wood beneath her, her body accumulated to the shock, allowing her to breathe without it catching in her diaphragm. The woman wasn’t taking any chances of another harsh attack like this to happen again. Promptly, she staggered up on shaking knees and all but threw on her violet coat before rushing out of the door, shoes hardly hanging on.

The unexplainable phenomenon of Blacken, an all-encompassing drive to move; to seek. Most seemed to think the town itself was the driving force, even Avie in the first few weeks. It was naive to think that it would stop as it did for others.

No, she knew better after having her body under the powerful vibrating strength long after moving to the town.

It wasn’t a phenomenon of