The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📕

 Someone shrieked, rather, splitting the quiet with their terror.  The crash of glass shattering followed after.  Owl was on his feet before the sound faded, whipping around to face the source

“Emma,” Lenny gasped, scrambling upright alongside him.  “That was-”

“Come on,” Owl snapped, already running.

His heart thudded in his chest as they hurried down the grand hallway, his eyes scanning for the threat.  Damn it.  He should have checked on them more often.  He should have taken their damn burners away, before they set the room on fire again.  There were a lot of things he should have done.

But he hadn’t, and now there was trouble, and all he could do was get there.

The hallway shifted in front of them, changing from elegant stone to practical concrete-and-steel in the moment of time it took to pass underneath a door frame.  Owl’s eyes lifted, fixing on a solitary figure ahead.

Emma stood outside a windowed door, her back pressed to the wall and her eyes round.  Her hands were clasped together, and even from afar Owl could see them shake.

But she wasn’t bleeding - and she wasn’t burned.  The worry in him eased, just a little.

He and Lenny skidded to a stop alongside her, the other chemist grabbing at her without hesitation.  “Emma,” Lenny gasped, panting for breath.  “Are you okay?  What- What did you do?”

Her eyes flicked to his, and for an instant, the irritation bubbling in their depths overwhelmed even her terror.  But then she glanced back to the other side of the hallway, and the fear came back stronger than ever.  “I...I....oh, god.”

“Talk to us,” Owl said, his voice low and soothing.  He turned, taking in their surroundings.  Farther up the hall, glass lined the floor, spattered with droplets of something brown.  Something brown that sizzled.  “What happened?”

“I...I was...Jesus Christ,” Emma muttered, dropping her face into the palm of her hand.  Her shoulders rose and fell with a steady rhythm.

And when she let her hand slide down to her mouth, leaving her eyes exposed, she didn’t seem quite so panicked anymore.

“You’re going to think I’m- I’m crazy,” she said, the words muffled.

“Emma, it’s okay,” Lenny said, offering her a smile.  “We’re good.  We’re all here.  So just-”

“I think I saw a- a ghost,” Emma mumbled.  Color dotted her cheeks, but she lifted her chin, peering uneasily across the distance.  “In there.”

Owl turned, following her gesture.  A set of double doors stood open - adjacent to the pile of ruined glass.  Rack after metal rack of neatly-organized binders waited within.  “In the wings?” he said, stepping toward it gingerly.  “A ghost?”  A dreamer.  She’d seen a dreamer, and scared the daylights out of herself.  He’d warned them when they arrived.  He always did.  But it didn’t really take with most people, until they saw one.

“A-A woman,” Emma said, her hands clenching around each other.  “She was just- She was watching me, Lenny.  From back in there.”  Tearing one hand free, she jabbed a finger toward the book room.

“What do you mean?” Lenny said.  “Emma, there’s no-”

“It’s okay,” Owl said, picking his way back to them.  He held up his hands reassuringly, palms-outward.  “You saw a dreamer, Emma.  A...A spirit of sorts.” Somehow, telling her she really had seen a ghost didn’t seem like a good idea.

“A s-spirit?” Lenny squeaked, and inched closer to his partner.

Owl smothered a chuckle.  “They come and go, looking for answers.  That’s all, Emma.  They can be startling, but you can see them coming by the glow.  So don’t-”

“Glow?” Emma snapped, her brows drawing together.  “N-No.  There was no glow.  I’d have- I’d be out of this nightmare den by now if some damned glowing woman was creeping around watching me.  Hell no.”

Owl rocked back on his heels, his mind going blank.  Not glowing?

Not a dreamer, then.  And if it wasn’t a dreamer, then-

We’re going to talk about this, he hissed silently, turning his eyes to the walls around them.  Damn it, this isn’t okay.  You have to stop.

“You’re in no danger,” he said out loud, taking both Lenny and Emma by the shoulders.  “I assure you of that much.  So long as you’re here, you’re safe.”

They nodded, but didn’t say anything more.  Owl exhaled slowly, then turned them back toward the Library’s heart.  “Still, I think you’ve both earned a break.  I’ll stay here, get things cleaned up.  Go...relax.”

And forget about...whoever you saw, he willed, focusing on that with every fiber of his being. Maybe he could convince her. Maybe Alexandria could help.

It wouldn’t work.  His magic was neither that simple nor that convenient.

When the pair took one final, shuffling step and rounded the corner, Owl sighed - and stalked toward the offending Library wing.  One way or another, dreamer or intruder, he’d find them.  He’d get them out of his damn Library.  And then he’d go on with his life in peace.

But as the hours slipped by, leaving him winding through deserted halls and deathly-silent shelves, he was forced to admit the truth.

Whoever had been watching Emma, they were long gone.

* * * * *

The lanterns overhead rocked gently, twinkling with motes of light.

Owl clasped his hands before him, the Library cards clutched tight between his fingers.  The stamps against their surface glowed brilliantly with red, counting out the months they’d spent.

Months that were now gone.

“Thank you for visiting,” he said, the words familiar and well-practiced.  He bowed, holding the pose for an instant and then rising.  “I hope your stay was fruitful.”

His guests stood silhouetted in front of the doorway, limned in gold.  All of them were smiling, with a journal clutched in each of their arms.  Lenny kept leaning forward, as though hoping to get a glimpse through the now-sealed wooden doors leading back inside Alexandria.

“I’m sorry we were so much trouble,” Emma said, her voice hoarse.  “Thank you so much.  We never could’ve- There’d be no way for us to-”  She swallowed hard, smiling again.  “Thank you.  For everything.”

“Sorry about the lab,” Lenny whispered.  “Uh...do you think-”

“The