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

and bring her résumé into Flora Adora, jumping at the chance for work, even though it would be working under Gerald Harris.

She experienced firsthand the extent of how strict and demanding he could be. Watching him press further demands upon a woman running ragged to keep up with customers, upset that his worker did not do a certain task within his time constraints as he only gave out criticisms. He was a perfectionist, and while that probably helped keep his store in business for so long, it also hurt his employee rate.

Many only stayed so long before moving on, but Avie was desperate, wanting so bad to secure a job and an income, anything to get her on her feet. She didn’t get a call back for any position applied to as of yet, and she hoped that this may be her break.

“Thank god you’re back, I was about to run out to try and find you!” Owen was in her face as soon as she walked through the threshold, grabbing at her arm in an attempt to lead her.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” She set the bag down on a table as she passed it, allowing the librarian to pull her back towards the archives deeper into the building.

“I couldn’t help it, I wanted to look and see if I could find anything while we waited on food, I think I’ve got something.”

“You did?! Why didn’t you say so?” The initial confusion was replaced by determination, her legs working extra hard to keep up with Owen’s long strides.

She was led to a newspaper article from the town on the microfilm viewer. Sitting her down, he enhanced the image, “I was just messing around with these, figured I’d jump back a ways. It isn’t much, but I thought it must be one of the first cases reported.”

Avie stared intent at the screen, watching the letters become readable.

“Strange occurrences point to magnetic fields in small town,” she glanced at the date, “February 1919. Oh my gosh you weren’t kidding.”

“Keep reading…”

She read over the article, and as old as it may have been, they raised valid questions about the logic of the town’s phenomenon. But the more she read, the more she didn’t understand. The science was outdated, saying the cause was due to the iron in people’s blood that caused them to travel to a magnetic field inside the town of Blacken. That couldn’t be possible with the makeups of blood or Earth’s magnetism.

“Owen, this is incredibly dated. None of what they printed scientifically holds up.”

“But what if the answer was as simple as a scientific reaction? Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction and do you think anyone here had thought to try?”

“Do you think it’s magnets?”

She had been serious, but Owen cackled as though she was having a laugh, “It’s gotta be something, it would rule out any easy answers. Besides, there’s a million things we could test, magnets could hold a small part in the overall phenomenon.”

Avie looked at him, the passion sparkled in his blue eyes, she could see a possible answer somewhere in the future, having it backed up by science could get them on the map.

“Let’s fucking do it then.”

Owen broke into joyous laughter, picking up Avie and spinning her around, “I couldn’t have asked for a better mystery partner! We have to have a name for our team, make it official.”

“Isn’t that what kids do?” she laughed from his actions, eventually being set back down onto her feet.

“You don’t think it’s fun?” Avie plainly looked at him, reading his expression as sincere. He wanted to have fun for fun’s sake, not to be judgmental…

Giving in, she smirked with a terrible suggestion, “What about… The Dewey Decimals?”

He scoffed, “I’m mad I didn’t think of that. It’s perfect for us!” They laughed together at the cliché team name, walking back up to the main sitting area as their laughter died down. “Alright, just in time!” Owen spotted the pizza delivery man walking into the foyer and approaching the desk, meeting them adjacent instead once they were in his sightlines.

They toasted their pizza slices once they had settled, tapping the triangles in the air, “Here’s to the start of, well, something!”

For the next two days, Avie and Owen investigated magnetic poles and fields, as well as solar energy and if it had any effect or correlations. So far nothing had been conclusive, much to their dismay, but they only started to dip their toes into a plethora of trials and questions.

Avie strolled over to the library once again, a spring in her step. It was now her usual spot, frequenting the place to meet up with Owen and work on finding a possible solution to the town’s unknown. What initially started off seemingly paranormal, started to be peeled back as explainable with simple science. It was just a matter of finding the direct cause.

Owen’s dishevelled locks caught her eye as soon as she entered, her mentally noting how he needed a haircut before she greeted him, “Guess who got the job?” She triumphantly raised her arms into the air, catching cerulean attention.

Maybe Vivian Harris already got her good word in. When Avie walked into Flora Adora, résumé in hand and anxiety gripping her bones, she was almost sure Gerald would turn her away at the inquiry.

To her pleasant surprise, he stated he needed someone right away, reluctantly. Albeit, she had to work odd hours to make up for some lost profit in the past few months. Avie was over the moon to be getting hours to begin with. She was sure if she dedicated herself to helping, that the hours of work would steady out to a normal schedule soon enough.

“You did? Hell-yeah you did!” He rose to meet her, Avie’s raised arms wrapped around the back of Owen’s neck, while his slid around her, embracing tight in a celebration. The taller of them rocked their bodies from side to side, squeezing tighter once before letting go, “So when