Chapter 6: So, What Happened at the Library?

Chapter 6: So, What Happened at the Library?

AND SO, she did. She went to the school's library to kill her free time and study spells at the same time. 

Since both her physical body and magic are still weak, she chose to read some basic books that are available at the library instead of wasting time. Though she doubted it if she could actually perform any of those in person since she simply… Sucks. 

She shook her head as she slapped her cheeks.

“I shouldn’t be thinking like this!” she said to herself.  

Then, she sighed exasperatedly before a smile suddenly rose on her lips. Afterwards, her eyes started to show a flicker of determination that gradually burned intensely as if a fire in a forest that had a high temperature. The look that lies in her eyes is like how a spark that first landed on a small dry branch managed to spread its fire in a span of a few minutes—burning the whole forest without minding everything as long as the thirst could be satisfied.

Right! This is how it was supposed to be. She should be positive instead of thinking negatively. She remembered in a book that she had read before, there was a saying: “What you think becomes your reality.” If she keeps on thinking pessimistically, would it not only make her reality become even more hopeless?

Today, she should just start doing anything that is within her capabilities before acting as if it’s already the end of the world even when she has not even started to do a small step yet. She should mind all her worries tomorrow and once tomorrow comes, she should set them aside while keeping her focus towards the future.

As of now, she is busy scanning the bookshelves in the library for the second time while trying to look for more interesting book titles; trying to find anything that would pique her interest in reading. It wasn’t like there was nothing that she could understand from the first batch of books she read. In fact, she already finished everything and memorized their contents. Just that, she couldn’t really perform them yet.

So, instead of picking a book about magic again, she decided to pick a few fictional books this time to remove in her mind all the negative thoughts that are stressing her. That is also the reason why she has been wandering in the library while quickly looking at the books that are trying to take her attention.

Then, after a few minutes of looking, Crostelia felt something weird—as if there is a force that she couldn’t see that is trying to take her into a certain location in the library that doesn’t seem too special. So, the girl walked towards the place where her feelings were trying to take her. She took a couple of steps from where she was standing and immediately stopped when she reached the side of the most discreet bookshelf at the back that had a lot of dust. Then, she raised her head. As soon as her eyes lifted up, she caught a faint, silver, twinkling light in the middle of the books covered with dirt at the other side of the bookshelf. It wasn't that far from her current place so she took another couple of steps until the light was already in front of her—it came from a book. 

A few seconds passed; the glowing book was already in her hands. Crostelia’s eyes beamed with happiness because of the mysterious object she just discovered. Since it was covered with dust, she happily blew the dust away while holding the book with care. However, just when she thought that she had found an amazing item, she immediately got disappointed.

The girl’s lips immediately ended with a thin line as the sparkle in her eyes disappeared. She thought what she found earlier was so amazing because of the light it was emitting but it turned out just a plain, brown book without a title nor even the author's name. The only parts she could flip were the front and back hard cover. The light also disappeared as soon as she tried flipping the covers—that made her think; maybe she was just hallucinating earlier.

What shocked her though was seeing a black steel covering the whole book’s pages—that looked like a jewelry box with a lock that was made to prevent the pages from being read. A small keyhole was placed at the middle part of the metallic cover that is why she immediately assumed that the book needed a key to be read.

When she was about to find the librarian, she suddenly just dropped on the cold, marble floor because of the sudden force that suddenly came rushing while pushing her body down.

"Oh no, dear, you're not leaving this place. Not unless you bring me with you!" she heard a woman angrily shout at her.

When she tried to look for the source of the voice, she froze in her place. Her body gradually shook in fear as she lost all the colors of her face when she saw a woman who looked exactly like her.

The woman is still covered with blood but now, Crostelia could also see her large wounds all over her pale white body. 

Crostelia’s eyes soon rounded as she felt her heart beat rapidly. Her hands that are cold as ice unconsciously went to her face when she saw that woman started to slowly walk towards her location. She tried to run but she couldn’t move her body again!

The woman devilishly laughed while looking down at her, showing her sharp, saw-like teeth that are covered in blood.

Although the woman’s teeth looked bizarre, that wasn’t what bothered Crostelia the most. At the same time that the woman’s mouth opened, a huge amount of blood came out from her mouth and eyes… And it did not stop. It is like a waterfall; continuously falling on the ground. Because of that, the clean marble white tiles immediately got tainted with red.

To add more to Crostelia’s horror, a weird liquid suddenly started to drop like rain on the ceiling. It was blood!

With seconds passing by in a blink, the blood rain became so heavy that every time droplets fell, her body would feel so painful as if she was hit all over by a spiky and a heavy whip.

Soon after, the blood just covered her whole body.

As if the woman became satisfied with her helplessness, she smirked at her before slowly turning away while disappearing.

But wait! The blood rain is still falling and becoming more and more heavy. The blood is increasing and creating a large red pool in the whole library.

Suddenly, while she was laying on the ground, in a blink, the blood reached above her head. 

Because of the force that is still pushing her down, even though she knew how to swim, she suddenly felt like drowning. 

Help! Help me, please! I need air! My mouth is starting to be filled with blood! I can’t breathe!

ON THE other hand, the people who were tailing Crostelia started to panic when they saw her unconsciously lying on the ground. They all felt more panicky when they tried to throw a notebook at her but she still didn’t bulge like a stone.

What the hell happened!? After she picked a new book to read, she just suddenly laid on the ground without moving. After that, when they were about to come closer, she suddenly opened her eyes without blinking. They were unfocused in front without a direction. Her eyeballs kept moving and looking around but it also felt to them as if she wasn’t seeing anything. 

A few minutes after that, they didn’t notice anything strange happening. That is why they all thought that she was okay—that she was already okay.

But when Chase tried to deliberately show himself in the line of her direction where her eyes kept on moving and she didn’t panic or become anxious, they already knew that something was off.

First and foremost, it is so impossible for the young lady not to be frightened whenever she is seeing the twins or being near them. If she was in her right state of mind, she would probably tremble just by the sight of Chase or Hunter while thinking of ways on how she could get away from them.

Afterwards, she just started to breathe heavily, as if there was a clog that was closing her airways that also made her choke. 

They panicked again. But when they were about to rush towards her, the school librarian was already standing in front of Crostelia while shaking her body. After that, she landed a continuous slapping to the girl until her breath came back, so as her consciousness.

They all breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that the young lady was okay. However, they were all stunned upon a realization; where did the librarian come from? Why did it look like she suddenly popped up out of nowhere? What is she doing in the most hidden part of the library when there are a lot of students in the front that she has to assist? There are no other students in the hidden area aside from Crostelia who obviously didn’t need any assistance before she acted weird but the real question here is, what is she doing there?

"I’M SORRY, but what happened?" the young lady asked the librarian.

In what Crostelia’s mind remembered, the librarian’s name was Miya. She didn’t look old but she also didn’t look too young to reach her age. 

"I don't know either. You just suddenly stopped breathing," the librarian replied worriedly, which shocked Crostelia.

The young lady was about to search for herself to check if there was something wrong with her body when she suddenly thought of three things: did she just suddenly sleep earlier, why does her body hurt so much, and was the glowing book in the library earlier real and not just a dream? When she raised her right hand when she woke up, her body ached so bad that she wanted to curse while groaning in pain. Aside from that, the first thing that welcomed her eyes was the same blank book so how could she not think it was real?

"It looks like you're already okay. I’m going back to the front, huh? Make sure that you head straight to the clinic and have a body check-up so that you can be certain that your health is okay since there might be other risks in your body that you didn’t know. I’m not saying you’re really sick but after that sudden collapse, we are not sure anymore. You’re not sick, are you? You look perfectly fine to me but my guess might be wrong so…” the librarian said with a worried tone.

The young lady smiled politely before she started softly shaking her head as her reply to the librarian. She also didn’t know why she suddenly felt as if she became like a rod earlier. She didn’t know either why she suddenly saw those things as if they were real—as if she was really dying because of the pool of blood that suddenly filled her lungs. She didn’t know the reason for those but she is certain that she wasn’t sick. She just hoped right now that it was just really a simple incident and there is nothing else serious because if that wasn’t the case, what if one day she might suddenly lose her life?

However, no matter how hard she wanted to force herself to think that the situation wasn’t something big deal, she couldn’t still erase the fear that she has in her heart especially whenever she remembers the face of the woman who looked like her and the vast amount of blood that looked horrifying and somehow felt like familiar to her eyes—which was even more concerning.

Anyway, another weird thing that suddenly occurred to the maiden’s mind: how could the librarian sound so certain about the words she was saying to her when Crostelia herself didn’t even know the librarian to the extent where they could talk about each other’s personal life. Does Miss Miya know her?

Wait! Speaking of the librarian, she suddenly remembered the book—she needed a key to open it so that she could read the contents to satisfy her curiosity.

"Miss, before you go back, can you please help me first?” Crostelia said as she carefully grabbed the slender wrist of the librarian who immediately turned her back on her.

The librarian looked back and sweetly smiled at her—that somehow made the girl stop for a few seconds. Somehow, the way that the woman smiled at her felt so kind that it felt like the way Willowy smiled at her before. But they are two different people so, maybe, she is just overthinking things.

Crostelia cleared her head as she asked the librarian the reason why she stopped her from leaving.

“May I know where I can find the key to this book? It doesn’t open whatever I do. I noticed there was a keyhole so I assumed that there was a need for a key," the young lady said in rapid succession.

"I’m sorry but the key is not with us right now, light of the kingdom," Miya replied with a sweet smile as her tone gradually tuned down in the end—which caused Crostelia to not clearly here what was said by the librarian aside from the fact that the book’s key is not with them.

The young lady had a puzzled look on her face until she heard the librarian speak again using an even lower tone that she didn’t manage to pick up everything aside from the ‘book’.

"That book is yours to keep in the first place..."

The night after the book went to the maiden’s naïve hands, a nightmare that could make a person go crazy in their dreams yet would be forgotten once awake started its cycle. The clueless girl never realized but every night, she would keep on dreaming about it without any memory of it the next day. Nothing seems to be so serious, right? Aside from the fact that the impure emotions inside Crostelia’s body are starting to pile up in a ridiculous amount, nothing is really happening yet. Not yet…