Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (best e reader for epub txt) 📕

could change and you may or may not be able to go back to how things used to be. I knew that fact firsthand. In every direction, there were columns of bookshelves and passing students carrying armloads of research. The shelves literally spanned all three stories, with massive rolling ladders to reach up top.

“Hey! Watch where you're going, mortal!” sneered a familiar voice. I’d rather not have had to deal with this bitch at the moment, but Payton was going to have to be dealt with eventually.

Ignoring her, I glanced towards the second floor, where I saw Maddie walking away a little too quickly, wearing a black hoodie. It was my hoodie, so I’d recognize it anywhere. It was odd seeing her in all black with matching sunglasses, which were already suspicious because there was no sun here. The dark clothes were odd for a girl who loved her bright colors, and the hoodie was an out of character choice. Something had to be amiss.

My gaze suddenly met raging violet eyes filled with hatred and furry. What the hell was up this chick’s butt?

“What are you looking at?” Payton asked with a lip curl that suggested she thought I was just a bug beneath her red heels.

Seriously? Who wears high heels with their cheer uniform? Is there even a sports team around here, or does she just like to dress up for Halloween all the time?

I looked her up and down and with the most deadpan expression I could muster, then I asked, “Have you seen my son?”

Payton drew back, looking at me like I was speaking gibberish, and snarled, “What are you talking about?”

I was so close to laughing as I said, “Get it? Because you’re a clown? Like the fish?” She blinked at me, so I added with feigned enthusiasm, “You see, it all started when Nemo touched the butt—”

She groaned, cutting me off. “Holy hell, do you ever shut up?! I don’t even know what you’re saying, you lunatic! This is why mortals should stay in their own dimension.”

I stood there with a dumb grin, waiting for her to keep going. One second, she looked at me like I was just an afterthought as she twirled her green ponytail around her finger, but her gaze drifted down to my hand that still clutched the letter. Never had I seen a person’s face change so dramatically. If looks could kill, I would probably be dead. I was beginning to understand Jason’s fear of clowns.

“You just can’t leave it alone can you? Why did you have to come here when everything was going well for me?! I’m the one on top, and you won’t take it away from me like your whoring mother did to mine.” She shoved into my shoulder as I stood there flabbergasted.

“Hey… Shut up!” I responded as I stood on my tippy toes, pointing at her retreating back. It sounded lame, even to my own ears. Really, October? Shut up? And what the hell does my mom have to do with this dumb letter?

Fed up with both myself and all the bullshit that’d been dumped onto my plate this week, I took the stairs to my right, my boots echoing loudly up each step. Halfway up, while wondering where Maddie took off to, a grinding noise reached my ears that reminded me of a cranking engine, just as the steps shifted under my feet like an escalator.

Alrighty then… Magic stairs. I can dig it. Oh wise, magic floating stairs, take me to Maddie.

I was kind of joking, but apparently, the stairs didn’t mess around. They shifted quickly to the right, then to the left, until I was probably going to barf. Finally, they stopped unexpectedly, and I quickly exited with a relieved exhale.

What the hell is she doing?

It was easy to find Maddie, because of the book floating by her head in mid air. Not to mention, Maddie was currently playing dodgeball between shelves. She stood on her tippy toes as she shoved books aside to peer over the other side of the aisle. She cursed under her breath and crouched down to do the same thing all over again on a lower shelf. I crept closer, not really wanting to disturb her, because she had me curious about what was holding her interest on the other side.

“Oh sweet baby Jesus, just look at those glutes. I bet I could bounce apples off that tight butt. Yes, ma’am,” Maddie muttered. She didn’t notice me leaning on the bookshelf behind her, too caught up in spying on someone like a creep.

“What I wouldn’t do to you…yessss…come to mama!” She started fanning herself as she straightened, gently parting more books on the middle shelf as she shoved her face between them. “I would totally take you to the candy shop. I’d lick you till you’re begging, baby. Oh god, so good.” She pretty much moaned, so I decided it was time to interrupt before it got even weirder.

Note to self—teach Maddie being a peeping Tom is a no no.

I slid in right beside her, dodging a floating book by her shoulder, and practically pressed my face against her cheek so I could see who she was staring at. She was so absorbed with her spying that she didn’t even notice me.

“Gosh darn it, he’s so…ugh those muscles… I’d have his babies…” She was whispering so quietly under her breath that I missed half what she said. I had to suppress a giggle.

To say I wasn’t at least a little surprised was probably an understatement, because Baen, from The Wicked Quill, was on the other side of the aisle, standing on a ladder while stacking books.

“What are we looking at?” I said with my lips close to her ear, playing dumb.

She gasped so loudly, I was sure the whole library heard her. The books immediately fell to the ground around us as she drew back from the shelf, her cheeks flaming red. She raked her hand through her