Merly stared at him without taking the medicines from his hand, then asked him, “How did you know? Who told you about this?”
“I don’t remember who told me, because there are many who were discussing this. I must have overheard. I don’t think anyone told me,” he said, but Merly was unsure.
“What were they talking about? Did you hear my name?” Merly’s curiosity and anxiety sky rocketed.
“You know how people talk, some saw you in the library talking to yourself and then they heard you scream and faint. So you were moved to see the doctor. These medicines are nerve soothers, but you need to relax first.”
Merly heard the same advice countless times that day, but how could she relax until she knew or sort out the recent occurrences in her life.
“They hear me speaking to myself, but that is not possible. My friend, Jeremy, was there, and then I was speaking to this girl with green eyes and…” Merly stopped all of a sudden. She began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
There was no reaction from the pharmacist, but assuring her saying, “We all talk to ourselves at times. There is no need to be ashamed about that.” He arranged the medicine strip for her, and he noted down the dose and handed it to her. “Take them as instructed and everything will be fine.”
“But I didn’t…” Merly tried to offer an explanation one more time, but the pharmacist was persistent and urged her to go back to her dorm. “Did you believe what they said?” Merly wanted to know.
“You are stressed out and it can happen, now don’t think about it too much. All you need is a good night’s sleep.” He gave Merly an assuring smile, and she didn’t dispute him. His words conveyed that he believed what he heard, and she couldn’t do a thing about it.
“I’ll go then, thank you for the advice,” she felt uneasy, scared and rattled. She was sure that there was a woman she was talking to in the library. It was not stress or anxiety. Her brain was working fine when she spoke to the green-eyed woman, so why was she being told otherwise? It only meant one thing, there was not one but two supernatural beings she felt. Merly froze at the thought, and she shuddered even more when a cold wind touched her bare face. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, back to the safety of her dorm room.
On her way to the dorm, Merly decided to stop by Natalie’s room. So she skipped her room and knocked on Natalie’s door instead. Merly was not expecting Natalie to open the door; she expected it to be her room mate, Francesca. “Natalie, are you up?” Merly said while standing in the doorway.
Natalie showed no interest. “I am doing fine. Do you need something?” she asked back.
“I just dropped by to check if you are doing all right, and I guess you are.” Merly was hoping that Natalie would ask her in, so she lingered at the doorway, but she wasn’t asked inside. “I will go then,” Merly started to leave.
Natalie stopped her by calling her back. “Is that all you wanted to say and nothing else?” She waited for her to give an answer.
Merly looked back with sad eyes, because she had to explain her situation again, and in that process relive the horrid memories which she wanted to forget and bury in her subconscious. “I do, I came here to apologize for being so rude last night, and I hope we can go back to being friends.”
“Are you always like this?” Natalie asked and there was a faint smile in her lips, and before Merly answered anything, Natalie invited her in. “Come on in. Francesca is meeting her friends and they will be doing group study tonight, so you can tell me what happened. There is no one here.”
“Didn’t you hear anything? I thought everyone knew by now. The pharmacist knows,” Merly said casually.
“I heard that you fainted in the library and they heard you shriek loudly. They found no one, Francesca told me, but I want to know what happened directly from the horse’s mouth, but only if you are fine with it.” Natalie’s voice was calm and soothing, and it assured Merly that she was in no hurry and could take her time.
“This is so out of character; what made you change?” Merly said, and after the long day, there was a glimmer of glee in her eyes.
“What is?” Natalie questioned jokingly.
Merly relaxed herself down on the couch, and said, “Only a few days ago, you were scrambling through any information that you could lay your hands on. You even wanted to track Nora to Elmhurst, and now you are asking me to relax knowing that I shrieked and fainted in the library, and some even said that they saw me talking to myself, that there was no one present when the incident happened. It is so unlike you, that is all. Where is your curious little self hiding, Natalie, or is there something else in your mind that you are not telling me?”
“You are very suspicious, aren’t you? Yes, I heard everything, but I know when to pick up things and when to let them go, so for now there is nothing in my mind. I am here to listen to whatever you have to say, so go ahead if you want to,” Natalie announced.
“I was looking for you all day, but I couldn’t get hold of you, so I went to look for you in your class. I tried calling you before that, but you didn’t answer. Your classmate showered me with questions, pestering me about what we were up to, so I ran away from there and I only stopped when Jeremy asked me to. He said he wanted to inform me of something about Nora,” Merly said flatly.
“You were looking for me? Why? You could have come here instead,” Natalie wanted to know.
“Well, someone overheard our conversation while we were talking on the phone and I thought that you…” Merly paused and rephrased her question, “…and I thought you might know who it was, or if you have seen anyone, because no sooner did I enter the class, my friends and classmates wanted to know about the conversation I had with Mrs. Clarence, and what I could have done. You were the only one there and I wanted to know if you saw anyone lurking around or someone who could have overheard our conversation.”
“Merly, let’s be fair, you wanted to know if I was the one who spilled the beans, there is no point denying it, and I don’t blame you, but it wasn’t me. I was locked up the entire day in my room. I didn’t speak with Francesca yesterday night and I was upset over what happened so I went straight to bed. By the time I woke up, she was gone and I didn’t feel very well, so I decided to take a break. So if you are looking for someone who told about your conversation with Mrs. Clarence, then it is not me,” Natalie said in one breath. “But what about Zoë or Kelly, did they ask you, too?” Natalie added.
“I … I didn’t see them in class today, neither did I hear anything from them for the past few days. It is a little surprising to me as well. But what could have possibly gotten into them to behave in such a manner?” Merly expressed her doubts.
“Do you think Zoë and Kelly were the one’s who eavesdropped? But I didn’t see them anywhere last night; moreover, Jeremy probably knew who it was and I went with him to the library, but as he was about to tell me, his phone rang and he said that he had to leave.”
“So you didn’t get to know anything. This is not taking us anywhere.” Natalie sounded disappointed.
“But then he told me something which I otherwise wouldn’t believe. Mr. Summer’s keeper, Stuart, you know him right? He saw Nora leaving for Elmhurst and she even asked him where to get off when she got there, but what surprised me the most was that Nora was secretly meeting him, and wanted to know about Mr. Summers. Nora never told me anything about it. I was practically upset due to her indifferent behavior over the last few days, and I wonder why she never told me.”
“And then what happened?” Natalie obviously overlooked what Merly told her and wanted to know directly what triggered Merly to faint.
Merly took in a deep breath and informed her of what had happened back in the library, how she met a woman who went on nagging about if she believed in ghosts, and when she started to walk away how the old librarian appeared before her. Natalie listened attentively and didn’t interrupt at all.
“So what do you think? I fainted and I was given an IV, I even told Nurse Ri
chardson not to inform anyone about how I initially reacted after I regained my consciousness. Why do you think the students said that I was speaking to myself?”
“Maybe you were or maybe you weren’t. What if someone was there? I knew about the library ghost and I can vouch that the rumors are true, but I never heard of anyone seeing the person that you apparently saw. What was she like? Did she try to scare you or intimidate you?” Natalie went on as asking like she was a detective.
“No, and that is the weird part. It is true that I was freaked out by her cold stare and how she calmly asked me all those questions, but unlike the librarian, she didn’t try to reach for me or scare me. I was already upset, so I asked her to leave when all of sudden she asked me if I believed in ghosts. I refused to answer for obvious reasons and then she said I better believe, because I am about to see one. That scared me and her eyes, they were haunting. I have never seen any eyes that looked so green, so deep...” Merly closed her eyes.
“Have you ever seen her before, maybe if you try then you can remember,” Natalie asked.
“I remember her, I saw her in the library a few days back. Remember the day you met me there? She was there giving me the same cold stare. I didn’t pay any attention back then, but it was her. Do you believe she is a ghost, too?” Merly asked.
“You didn’t tell me back then. I could have asked around, but now I don’t think that is possible. Maybe I’ll ask a few tomorrow, but chances are that word will get around and people will know. So if you want to keep this a secret, then I have to find some other means to get to the truth. However, it is not easy and you know that, right?”
“Yes, I do, but all this does not make any sense, everything escalated so quickly. A few week back, I was enjoying the break and now I am here worrying about things that I might have seen … like ghosts. Is that even remotely possible? It feels so absurd and I am not even sure what to do anymore. Should I simply sit back and wait to see what happens next or intervene and do something about it? Should I see a doctor? Should I inform anyone? Otherwise, people will think that I am completely and totally out of my mind. This can’t be happening and I should do something,” Merly went on saying. Her face and ears were red, and though it was cold that day, there was sweat forming on her forehead.
“You need to calm yourself down. You think that everyone will believe you if you claim to have seen a ghost, and not just one, but two probably. We need to handle this carefully. Maybe we can talk to past students who claimed to have seen the librarian?” Natalie was trying to calm Merly down, no matter how illogical her suggestion sounded.
“And how are we going to get hold of them? That is impossible, Natalie. At times, I do think that I am losing my mind but then I realize what I saw back in the library cannot be unreal, I am not making any of this up, it’s true, am I losing my mind? Am I Natalie?” Merly sounded truly desperate.
“Merly, just calm down for a moment. You are not losing your mind, and neither are you overreacting. We are trying everything we can, it is just that informing a higher authority about what is going on doesn’t sound like a good idea. We just have to find out if Nora’s disappearance has anything to do with what you are seeing, or if Nora is also seeking the truth just like we are, but we will find out.” Natalie affirmed.
“But how are we supposed to do that?”
“I don’t know, we have to think of something and fast. You cannot just be talking to a ghost, we need to find out something fast before people start thinking that you are delusional. I think I know who can help us without the word getting spread,” Natalie said, and there was a strange confidence in her voice.
“You know whom I am referring to, right?” Natalie asked Merly whose face showed no emotion.
“I don’t know whom you are referring to. I don’t believe students just see ghosts in the library and keeps quiet about it, and chances are that if we ask anyone else then the word will get out. I don’t want any more attention than I am already facing now,” Merly said.
Natalie who was pacing the room took Merly by the hand and said, “Think, Merly. There is someone who might know things. I am talking about Mr. Stevenson. He has been working in the library for a long time and there are already rumors that he talks to himself, just like people saw you talking today. It cannot just be a mere coincidence, at least I don’t believe that. I am confident that he knows something. He just cannot sit there the entire day for so many years and not know anything. Have you ever wondered why the rumors regarding Mr. Stevenson being senile began to circulate in the first place?” Natalie’s words were beginning to make more sense to Merly.
“What you are saying might actually be true and it is possible. I genuinely like Mr. Stevenson, but he does act strange at times. I have noticed it lately, but I thought it was only due to old age, but now I am not so sure if that is the case,” Merly said, agreeing with Natalie.
“So it’s time we go and confront him. Merly, he knows you, so it will be easy for us. We will ask him when no one is around and that includes the new assistant librarian. He will act like he doesn’t know a thing, but we know that he knows and we will catch him off-guard, and that way he will have to tell us whatever he knows that goes on in the library, if there is even a ghost for real or two or three. And after that, we find out how to deal with the situation and get you out of it. How does that sound?” Natalie raised her eyebrows and asked Merly.
“Natalie, I cannot thank you enough, and there I was suspecting you. I feel so ashamed. It’s just that I can’t sleep at night, and I lost my reasoning capability somehow, but I guess you are right, I just need to relax and take things as they come. So that is what we will do tomorrow right after our first class. I will wait for you outside the library and you can meet me there. We will ask him together,” Merly declared.
“You can thank me all you want later, but we need to put an end to this, so let’s roll now,” Natalie announced.
Chapter 6
Anticipation kept Merly from sleeping the entire night. What would she learn and where would the information take her nagged at her mind. She tossed and turned, then got up once, paced her room, but tiredness didn’t dawn on her. She had an incredibly hectic day, fainted, then brought to the doctor and back, but at two-thirty in the morning, all she could think of was how she would approach Mr. Stevenson. What if he refuses to speak to me? What if he doesn’t believe me? What do I do then? she mumbled in her mind. Merly was not too sure if Mr. Stevenson would comply with their questioning. He had not been acting normally over the past few days, and Merly observed it. There was a high probability that he would simply bypass the questions or makes an excuse or just deny about knowing anything.
Merly wished that the time would fly by fast. When the first rays of the sun hit Merly’s window pane and reflected on her face, she didn’t waste anymore time. She prepared a quick breakfast, but all the anticipation had kept her awake, and only when she closed her eyes and awoke again, it was time for her to get up, but she didn’t complain. Merly pushed her breakfast plate away, there was still some time for college to start, but she couldn’t wait.
******
Natalie was up, too, but doubted if Merly would be. Nonetheless, she was ready and prepared to go. One last time, she checked into Francesca’s room, but she was still not back from the night of group study, so Natalie didn’t wait. She went out as both of them had decided to meet outside the library right after the first class.
Merly was the first to reach the college, and like she expected, the corridor that leads to the lecture hall was significantly barren. There was no one there, so she decided to look around for a moment. During her time in the institution, Merly never bothered to explore her surroundings. Today, however, was different. She felt light-headed in spite of all the anticipation, so she started walking slowly across each room. She went past the first room, and it was open.
The old janitor was cleaning the board and nodded at the sight of someone peeping through the door. “Is this
your class? You are early,” the cleaning lady said.
“No, this is not my class; I didn’t mean to bother you, I am just here a bit early today,” Merly said very meekly.
“I understand ... no student is here this early ever, except for this one girl. I just see her every time, walking past, never turns a head, never looks side ways and never blinks, and those strange green eyes….” The cleaning lady went on talking mostly to herself.
Merly wasn’t listening, but the description of the green eyes caught her attention. She was almost past the door, but she stopped, “What did you just say?” Merly asked.
“You are still here? I said nothing, so go on.” The cleaning lady gestured towards Merly to move along.
“No, you said something, something about a girl with green eyes who is always here. Was she here today? Did you see her or talk to her?” Merly questioned.
“Why do want to know? Is she your friend? And what is with so many questions? Just ask one at a time.” The cleaning lady was not taking Merly or her questions seriously.
“Please, ma’am, this is important. Did you see her today? Was she here?”
“She was here all right; she is here most days.”
“Where do you see her? In the classrooms or in the corridor, where exactly do you see her? Please tell me!”
“Come to think of it, I see her in the library. She must work late or I don’t know, she might live there. What she does confuses me … and you know, it is strange, she has the same book in front of her everyday.”
“Did she ever speak to you? Or did you ever talk to her?”
“No, I never spoke to her, in fact, I don’t usually bother students while they are working or studying. I just go past them and make sure that my presence gets unnoticed. But there is something unusual about this girl, something I cannot place my finger right now. It can be her appearance or the way she sits there all by herself. There is something about her that is not right,” the cleaning lady said while still working on her job.
Books of the Dead Page 18