Jack extended his hand and Jill gave a small curtsy.
Jon smirked as he shook his hand. “Like, up the hill to fetch a pail of water?”
Jack grinned. “Exactly.”
Jill smiled. “Do you two want to explore the library now?”
“Of course!” Jon cheered, pulling Sarah forward.
She looked back at Liam, who was huddled around a set of security golems with his brow knit. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something serious was happening right now at TwoSpells.
CHAPTER 26
SARAH WAS SUDDENLY IN THE YOUNG adult section of the library. Jill leapt up onto one of the giant mechanical ladders and started climbing. When she got halfway up, she reached out and grabbed a book with a red spine. She slid back down with a squeal of excitement. “Three dimensions are so fun!” Jill exclaimed. “Aren’t they?”
“I—I guess?” Sarah stammered, unsure of what she meant.
Jill swooned, holding the book out toward her. “I think you’re going to like this one, Sarah!”
The cover featured a boy running a hand through his dark hair under a waning moon.
“This looks like some kind of chick story!” Jon spat. “Can’t we pick a story about warlocks or werewolves?”
Jack gave Jon a friendly nudge. “You said it, bud!”
Jill ran to a nearby table, opened the book and flipped to a page she’d marked with a piece of pink paper. She began to read softly.
As Jill started to flicker and vibrate, Sarah noticed a small section of books nearby covered in a sickening ooze sliding down the front of the bookshelves. She grimaced at the sight of characters from the stories floundering helplessly. Jill's two-dimensional body converted to light much more quickly, twisting into the glowing portal. They passed into the blackness, cool air cascading over them as they burst into the story at nauseating speed.
The world spun to a halt. A young girl sat at a small vanity in her bedroom. She glanced up at the mirror and stopped writing in her diary. When she noticed the group of them behind her, she leapt up, startled.
Suddenly, they accelerated at hyper speed. Sarah’s stomach felt as if it were in her throat as scene after scene flew past her eyes in a mind-bending blur. They came to a jarring stop on a busy street corner of an intersection. Sarah and Jon staggered, holding onto Jack and Jill for support. Sarah let go, leaned over and nearly vomited before standing up straight. Traffic was whizzing past them, spewing noxious clouds of exhaust.
“Are you guys okay?” Jill asked.
Jon and Sarah nodded.
“Why are we here?” Sarah asked.
“Wait a minute and you’ll see,” Jack said, watching the opposite corner.
Several more cars sped by.
“I don’t see anything,” Sarah said.
“You will,” Jill said with a smile, then pointed. “There! There! See him? That’s James.”
He appeared from around the corner, tall with slick jet black hair and dark aviator sunglasses. He wore a black leather jacket and blue jeans. With only a momentary glimpse both ways, he crossed the busy road.
The boy strode confidently across and ran his fingers through his greased hair.
“Hey Jill,” he said smoothly. He hugged her and then checked his reflection in a storefront window. “Long time, no see.”
“Sorry—I’ve been busy,” Jill said sheepishly.
“Don’t worry about it,” he laughed. “Hey. Looking good, Jack.”
Jill smoothed out her skirt and gestured to Jon and Sarah. “I want you to meet my new friends.”
James smiled and tilted his sunglasses up, exposing his deep emerald eyes. He extended a hand to Sarah. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m James. Cool eyes.”
“I—I’m Sarah,” she stuttered, turning her gaze downward,. “And this is my—uh—”
Jon stepped forward. “Older brother.”
“Cool. Cool,” James said. He took a step back and looked Jon up and down. He grabbed Sarah by the hand and pulled her toward the street. “Let’s sneak into the movie house!”
Jill shot him a look. “I’m not sure we have time for that. Maybe another day.”
“Come on! Don’t be a drag,” James said, letting go of Sarah’s hand.
“What’s playing?” Jon asked.
James beckoned again. “A monster flick. Come on.”
“I’m not sure we have time, Jon,” Sarah said. “I think Jill’s right.”
Jill stepped over, standing between them.
“No. She’s not right,” James said, taking a couple of steps into the street. “Come on! It’ll be fun.”
Suddenly, a car squealed around the corner and barreled toward James. Sarah leapt forward, knocking Jill aside and pulled James back onto the sidewalk. The car skidded to a stop a few yards beyond them and the driver made an offensive hand gesture before speeding off. Jack and Jill gasped in disbelief, stepping back from the curb.
“Are you crazy?” Jill whispered sharply.
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked.
“You interfered. You broke the most important rule!” Jack spat. “Witness only. Now you’ve probably gotten us a suspension.”
Sarah looked from Jack to Jill, her cheeks beginning to flush. “I couldn’t just—I mean—”
Jack paced the curb with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “It’s too late. We can’t fix it now. Too late.”
“Maybe there’s a way,” Jon started. But Jack held his hands up.
“No way. She’s done enough,” Jack argued. He turned to Jill and nodded. “We’re done here.”
Jill flipped to a random page in the book and began reading backward. A portal spun open and they leapt through. Sarah’s vision darkened. The air cooled around her. James and the girl from the vanity were walking arm in arm across the busy street. He turned to them and winked.
The world swirled, a chaotic blur of faces and places. Scenes flew by at hyper speed, suddenly coming to a grinding halt. Sarah watched the girl at her vanity once again, the ink on her diary page disappearing as she wrote in reverse.
The exit portal materialized in front of them, opening a rift to their home world. Sarah pinched her eyes shut and leapt through, already getting better at adapting to the disorienting effects. She ducked her head sheepishly, worrying that she’d ruined her chances at seeing more of the library.
“Wait!” Jill called after her. “It’s all right. He didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“Sorry,” Jack said, putting a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “We just have to be careful. One wrong move can create a temporal paradox of sorts that ends with the Cleaners. Believe me. You don’t want to deal with the Cleaners.”
Sarah felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have listened. Can we still continue the tour?”
“I don’t see why not,” Jack replied. He stroked his chin. “As long as you’re careful.”
“I will be!” Sarah exclaimed. “I promise!”
Jill gestured across the library. “Well, if the two of you are finished, we have places to get to! Come on!”
CHAPTER 27
THE GROUP STROLLED FOR A SHORT DISTANCE until they came upon a very peculiar character sitting all alone. It was debating happily with itself until noticing Sarah and her group.
Sarah and Jon stared in wonder. They’d never seen conjoined quadruplets before—two boys and two girls. They looked like paper dolls, strung together elbow to elbow.
Sarah whispered to Jon before sitting down. “Are they one person or four?”
Jon sat down beside them, excited by how odd they were and shrugged his shoulders, not sure of how to answer.
“Have a seat,” one of the conjoined boys said, motioning Sarah over. He shot her a wide grin and nudged the boy beside him.
“Leave her alone,” the quieter boy said, staring down at the floor. “She doesn’t want anything to do with us. I’m sure of it.”
“Shut up! T
he lot of you!” the next girl snapped. “She’s bound to be as sick of your nonsense as I am.”
The final girl smirked. “If she were the least bit worried about nonsense, she’d have turned tail and left us four idiots where we stand.”
Sarah approached them cautiously. “Sure. Maybe you can tell us more about the library here?”
“It would be my pleasure. I’m Joe,” the first boy said, raising his hand to wave. “The more the merrier!”
Jon smiled at that. “What are you four doing here?”
“Playing hide and seek,” the last girl cracked, shaking her head. “What does it look like we’re doing? It’s a library!”
“Don’t mind Jo,” Joe said. “She’s a bit of a killjoy.”
“That’s Jo with no ‘E’,” Jo added. “Makes it easier for the dimwits here to spell it.”
Sarah looked back and forth as they bantered, trying to keep up with it all. “I’m Sarah, and this is my brother, Jon.”
“Twin brother,” he added quickly.
“Double that and you’ve got a quad! Like us,” Joe said with a grin.
“Oh, come off it!” the girl in the middle scoffed. “They aren’t even connected. They’re nothing like us.”
Jo leered at the girl. “Well, there’s certainly nothing as delightful as you, Josephine.”
“I told you to shut it!”
“No you!”
Joe cleared his throat. “I’m sure you’ll agree, Sarah and Jon, that four heads are definitely not better than one.”
“I think you guys are awesome,” Jon said, staring rudely. Sarah smacked him on the arm.
“Thanks, kid,” Joe replied, holding up an elbow. “It spooks some folks.”
“You guys seem fine to us,” Sarah said.
“We’ll grow on you,” Joe smirked and poked Jon in the belly. “Get it. Grow on you.”
Sarah and Jon giggled.
“Now who wants to be first?” Joe grinned.
Jon looked around. “You mean for hide and seek? I thought you were joking. Can we hide anywhere in the library?”
“No, silly,” Joe said, looking curiously at his brother and sisters, then at Jon and Sarah. “Wait a minute! You three-dimensionals are newbies, aren’t you?”
“Not new to hide-and-seek!” Jon exclaimed.
Joe winked at his siblings. “But have you played our way?”
Jon looked at Sarah perplexed. “Um. I don’t think so.”
“No problem,” Joe said. “We’ll teach you how to play our version. First we pick who’s going to hide. In this case, that’ll be you Jon, because it certainly can’t be one of us. Not much of a challenge that way.”
“Then what?” Sarah asked. “What makes it so different?”
Joe scratched his head with his sister’s hand. “Well, you have to choose a storybook and everyone flickers in together. Then the hiders flicker to other parts of the story as a group, each time leaving a player behind and flickering deeper within the story. Now the seeker has to seek them inside the story itself. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn’t it?”
“Sure, I guess,” Sarah said. She wasn’t sure about how fun it sounded after the last incident.
The quads clapped and cheered in unison.
“Just a minute!” Sarah said. “If the seeker doesn’t have the book to get out, couldn’t that person get trapped inside the story with no way out?”
“Exactly!” Joe said. He eyed the bodyguards standing nearby. “Wait. Are you guys dignitaries or something?”
“Dignitaries?” Jon asked.
One stepped between them with a scowl. “Hopscotching dangerous.”
Jack and Jill didn’t say a word.
“I—uh—I think we should play another time. We gotta’ go,” Joe stammered. The quads scrambled to gather up their books, stumbling around one another, tugging and pulling. They knocked several chairs over as they wobbled away madly, shackled at the elbows.
“But they seemed so nice,” Sarah said, blushing in embarrassment at finding herself in trouble again. “What would happen if you were trapped in a story? Would you be stuck there forever?”
One grunted. “Seventh Sense find you.”
Sarah gulped. “Then we could have played safely?”
“Maybe,” One added. “Maybe not.”
CHAPTER 28
A HALF MILE OR SO DEEPER into the library and many thousands of books later, they came across a group of older teenagers. They were wearing torn, saggy jeans, tattered sneakers and dirty, wrinkled t-shirts. They were covered in tattoos and body piercings. A large stack of books sat on the table where they gathered. The books’ covers were hidden, masked by blank brown paper.
Sarah and the rest of the group watched curiously, pretending to be browsing for books.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Sarah whispered to Jon.
Jon shrugged. “Who knows.”
“Let’s go,” Jill whispered, tugging on Sarah’s sleeves. “I know these troublemakers.”
“Wait,” Jack interrupted. “See that stack of books on the table?”
“Yeah,” Sarah replied.
“That game looks vaguely familiar,” Jack said. “But not in a good way.”
“By the way they’re acting suspicio—,” Sarah started, stopping when the gang of teenagers looked in her direction.
They continued the facade of perusing the books while all six of the teenagers arranged their chairs in a semi-circle. The tallest of the group shuffled through the stack of books and chose six randomly, tossing the remaining aside, and then mixing the six like playing cards before spreading them on the table.
A petite girl with brilliant blue hair chose a book and turned to a random page. She began reading to herself and, moments later, flickered away through a portal. She re-appeared almost immediately, cradling an armful of ducklings.
“What do you think that was all about?” Jill whispered.
Sarah frowned. “I’m not sure, but look! They’re doing another one!”
“It must be his turn,” Jon whispered.
This time a stocky, athletic boy with a crocodile tattooed across his arm chose a book from the remaining five. He entered the portal and returned riding a red motor scooter and wearing an old pair of goggles. He cruised past Sarah and swerved hard, crashing into a small bookshelf and sending books tumbling down. The gang laughed and helped him to his feet, congratulating him on his choice.
“Awesome!” Jon cheered.
“Quiet,” Sarah hissed.
“Sorry,” Jon mumbled, watching intently. “What’re they doing now?”
“Wait a minute,” Jill whispered. “Another one is taking a turn.”
They watched again as another member of the group drew a book from the last four. This time it was a short, pale girl with half of her head shaved. Her hand trembled as she opened it and froze, her eyes beginning to well up.
After a few moments the other players began to poke and prod her. “Do it!” they chanted, over and over again. She pulled her library card out. It trembled in her hand as she touched it to the book and then she began to read hesitantly.
“I wonder what it is?” Jon asked, squinting at the cover.
They watched the young girl as she began to flicker. The portal sluggishly opened and the group pushed their seats back a few feet.
“I don’t think she’s coming back with anything nice this time,” Sarah said. “What do you think?”
Jack snapped his fingers. “That’s it! I think I know what they’re doing. This is TwoSpells Roulette.”
Before he could explain further, the girl slipped through the portal. Sarah held her breath. The girl was gone for much longer than the others had been.
Suddenly, the portal opened again and the jaws of something big, blue and scaly poked through, equipped with massive curled horns. The other teenagers panicked and ran, slinking away into the shadows.
Sarah turned to run, but slipped on a cobblestone, twisting her ankle an
d tumbling to the ground. Jon grabbed her under the arms, trying to help her up. She cried out in pain and limped along at his side.
The remainder of the massive creature squeezed through the portal, its huge head raised and shaking from side to side. A bloody book landed at Sarah’s feet, flipped open to the middle.
“Close book!” One shouted over the screams of patrons fleeing.
Sarah looked up at the alien creature, reached down and closed the book. The portal snapped shut, severing the tip of the reptile’s massive tail. It reeled in pain, swishing its wounded tail about, knocking tables into the air and spewing thick goop from the injury.
The creature resembled a tyrannosaurus-rex, but with a strange, translucent skin and four muscular legs instead of two. From its lips protruded two long ivory tusks that curved to sharp points.
Sarah and Jon searched desperately for a hiding spot among the thousands of shelved books and exhibits, settling on a spot behind a lower level bookshelf.
The beast staggered a few paces, digging into the stone floor with its sharp talons and knocking down yet another shelf of books. It instinctively lashed out with its tusks, toppling a large replica of the solar system.
The creature suddenly paused, shook its head side to side and inhaled deeply, searching for the scent of prey. It lunged toward Sarah and Jon’s hiding spot, slamming against the backside of the bookshelf. It kicked and flipped its huge tail, sending tables and chairs splintering in all directions. A giant tusk burst through the shelf just above Sarah’s head. She shrieked and pressed her body to the ground.
Sarah crouched and trembled next to Jon. Its awful breath smelled of rot and blood as it panted through the shelves. Jon pulled her to her feet and the two of them pressed on.
The creature roared and took off after them. Several wizards leapt into its path, chanting spells and casting their wands in its direction. The spells ricocheted off of its tough hide, smashing into shelves on the upper tier of the library. A few brave Elves stepped forward, firing small bursts of energy from their bony fingertips, but it only seemed to anger the dinosaur further.
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