by Lee Bacon
“You found one too?” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. It was exactly the same size as the one I’d found a little while before. And the words printed on it were also the same.
YOU ARE THE CHOSEN.
I could’ve believed that Joey and Brick would sneak it into my backpack. But they were way too intimidated by Sophie to try to play a trick on her. It couldn’t be them. So then, if they didn’t do it … who did?
The final class for the day—and the entire school year—was American history with Ms. McGirt. Instead of meeting in her classroom as usual, we’d all gathered in the library for her lesson on library orientation.
I guess Ms. McGirt was unaware that the last class on the last day of school was the absolute worst time to teach us about navigating the library. Most kids were more interested in watching the clock above her shoulder, the seconds ticking away toward summer. Not that Ms. McGirt noticed. Truth is, she didn’t notice much of anything.
She was standing in front of a tall shelf of books, blinking dazedly in our general direction. Her eyes were magnified behind a thick pair of glasses. Her white hair was pulled into a tight bun.
A student in front of me called out a question, but Ms. McGirt ignored it—probably because she didn’t hear it. (She was mostly deaf.) Instead, she turned to her right and began lecturing a stack of encyclopedias on how to use the online catalog system. (She was pretty blind too.)
I was seated at a table with Sophie and Milton. Joey and Brick were a few tables away. Behind them was the desk where the librarian usually stood. But she must’ve been out for the day, because another woman was standing in her place.
The substitute librarian was a sickly-looking woman with a horribly hunched back and grim features. Dark bags hung under her eyes. Her skin was gray. The only part of her face that seemed to have any color was her mouth. Her lips were smeared with bright red lipstick.
She was slouched behind the long desk, scanning books, one after the other. The machine let out a beep every time a new book was scanned. I gasped as a clump of gray hair fell loose from her head and landed on top of a pile of books in front of her. Without seeming to notice, she grabbed the tangle of hair and swiped it across the scanner.
Beep.
She went on scanning like nothing had happened. And as if that weren’t gross enough already, when she looked up from her work, her dark eyes landed on me. She licked her red lips with an expression in her eyes that looked almost …
Hungry.
I glanced down at my desk, trying to shake off the disturbing thought. My mind must’ve been playing tricks on me. That was all. Just a bad case of ESF (Extreme School Fatigue). And the cure would come at the end of this class. Summer was just around the corner. I just had to make it till then.
And yet every time I caught sight of the substitute librarian, a chill ran down my spine. I tried to concentrate on Ms. McGirt’s lesson. But it’s hard enough to pay attention to Ms. McGirt on a normal day. It was basically impossible with a creepy substitute librarian staring me down like she wanted to make me her afternoon snack.
“For the rest of the class, you are free to explore the library,” Ms. McGirt said to the encyclopedias in front of her.
The class got up from their tables and began moving through the stacks. Joey shot me a dirty look, but it seemed tame compared to the way the librarian was still glaring at me.
I stood from the table and quickly made my way between two tall rows of books. Sophie and Milton followed.
“Hey, wait up!” Milton called, power walking to catch up with me. “What’s the big hurry?”
I stopped when we reached an isolated corner of the library. Now that the librarian was out of sight, I realized how foolish I was acting. Was I actually running away from an old lady? In a library?
“Okay, so I guess we’re supposed to look through a few books,” Sophie said, glancing at the shelf beside us.
“I can’t believe Ms. McGirt wanted to have class here,” Milton said, grabbing a book at random. “There should be a law against teaching anything on the last day of school.”
Above the sound of their conversation, I could hear a noise from somewhere else in the library. A quiet, steady squeak.
“Do you hear that?” I asked.
“Hear what?”
I listened for the noise, but now it seemed to be gone. There was only the slight, distant murmur of voices and the low rumble of the air conditioner.
“Um—never mind,” I said. “Guess I’m just hearing things.”
I glanced at the table in front of me. There in the middle of the table was a book. It was odd. An instant earlier, I could’ve sworn there was nothing on the table. So now I was hearing things and seeing things.
At least school was nearly over. I obviously needed the break.
I picked up the book. When I opened it, something fell loose and landed on the table.
A slip of paper.
I took the slip between my fingers and stared down at the words printed across one side:
PREPARE YOURSELF. YOU ARE IN DANGER.
Pulling my eyes away from the words, I glanced up. Sophie was standing beside me, a very odd look on her face. She was holding a little white slip of paper too. And from where I was standing, I could just make out the exact same text printed on one side.
I had about a million questions pounding in my temples. Where did these notes keep coming from? Why was it that only Sophie and I were finding them?
Over the sound of these questions, I heard the noise again. The steady squeak. This time I was sure it wasn’t just in my head. Judging by the looks on Sophie’s and Milton’s faces, they heard it this time too.
The noise grew louder. Squeeeaaak.
It was getting closer.
A form appeared at the end of a row of books. The substitute librarian. She was pushing a cart of books with a loose wheel. When she spotted us, she brought the cart to a halt, and the squeaking stopped. Her head swiveled and she glared in our direction.
Her skin was a pale gray, the color of concrete. The hump on her back looked even worse than it had before, bulging from beneath her blouse. Where her eyes should’ve been, there were dark pools of shadows sunken into her face. And I didn’t think that was red lipstick smeared around her mouth after all. It looked more like blood.
The librarian opened her mouth, and that was when I noticed her teeth. They were as sharp as daggers.
“Did you forget about an overdue book or something?” Milton asked me in a shaky voice. “ ’Cause the librarian looks seriously ticked off.”
“That’s not a librarian,” Sophie whispered. “She looks like a Cross-Species Hybrid Mutation. Part shark, part human. I saw something similar attack my dad a few months back. Just stay perfectly still. Mutants are drawn to sudden movements.”
“Perfectly still,” Milton repeated. “Got it.”
My heart pounded. A bead of sweat dripped down my cheek. But I followed Sophie’s advice, remaining frozen in place. And the thing is … it actually seemed to work. The mutant’s eyes began to wander, as if she’d lost track of us. She took a step to the side, glancing over her shoulder.
And then the bell rang. We must’ve been so wound up with tension that the sudden noise was like an eject button in our brains. The three of us jumped about ten feet into the air.
The mutant’s eyes snapped back to us. An instant later, she was roaring in our direction.
3
Of all the days to get mauled by a mutant librarian, why did it have to be the last day of school?
Kids were flooding the hallways and celebrating their new freedom, but Sophie, Milton, and I had something else to think about. The librarian surged toward us, gnashing her pointed teeth. She lifted the book cart off the ground and heaved it at Sophie.
Before I even realized what I was doing, I dove toward Sophie and collided with her a split second before the airborne book cart would have hit her. We both collapsed to the g
round just as the cart crashed against the wall behind us.
The librarian howled in anger. Or maybe she was just hungry. It’s tough to tell with mutants.
The cart was lying in a pile of spilled books behind me. I grabbed it and hurled it with all my strength at the librarian. At the same moment, I felt a jolt of energy blasting in my veins. Spontaneous combustion coursed through my entire body, turning the cart into a blazing tornado of metal and books.
The cart exploded, and the librarian collapsed to the ground, moaning.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that Sophie’s Gyft had just kicked in. Her power of superstrength came with a side effect that was tough to miss. Her skin was glowing brightly, making her look like a human lightbulb.
“Look out!” she screamed.
The librarian was already on her feet again. Part of her blouse had been burned away, revealing a silvery shark’s fin jutting from her spine. So that was why she’d looked so hunched. It wasn’t bad posture. Her shark side was poking through.
“RRAAAAARGHHH!” the mutant roared, lunging toward me. I would’ve ended up shark meat if it weren’t for Sophie. She grabbed hold of a bookshelf that was nearly twice her height and heaved it over her shoulder like it weighed nothing.
“Joshua!” she screamed. “DUCK!”
I dropped to my knees. Books flew everywhere as Sophie swung the shelf like a baseball bat. A whoosh of air swept over my head, and then a loud craaack reverberated in my ears. The shelf connected with the librarian, sending her spinning through the air. She collided with a wall and landed on the ground in a heap of books.
Ordinarily this kind of commotion would’ve sent dozens of kids and teachers running to investigate what had just happened. But right then the rest of the school was too occupied with the start of summer.
Sophie helped me to my feet. Her skin was glowing so brightly that it burned my eyes to look directly at her.
“Any idea why a mutant librarian is trying to kill us?” Milton asked.
“No clue,” I said. “Whatever’s going on, those notes must’ve been from someone who knew this was gonna happen.”
“But that’s impossible,” Sophie said. “How could a note inside a book—”
She stopped speaking when a fierce growl ripped through the room. The librarian was glaring at us with her dark eyes. She rose from the pile of charred books and debris, baring her razor-sharp teeth. All the damage we’d inflicted had only made her angrier.
I wasn’t sure how much longer we could hold out. We needed another strategy. I caught sight of the row of windows lining the wall.
“I might have an idea,” I said to Sophie and Milton. “Just stay here.”
“Why? What’re you—”
Before they could say any more, I set off toward the window. On the way, I grabbed a red book off the shelf and flapped it above my head.
“Here, sharkey-sharkey!” I called.
The librarian stopped stalking toward Sophie and Milton. Now she was staring at me.
This substitute librarian is capable of inflicting some serious pain—and not just with late fees.
“GROOGGG?” she said.
“Ooh, real scary.” I took my place in front of the windows. “Is that the best you’ve got?”
The monstrous woman responded with a noise—half scream, half roar—that vibrated in my bones. Note to self: never taunt a mutant.
She set off toward me, her silver fin cutting through the air like a knife. Every muscle of my body wanted to get out of there, but I stood my ground, baiting her with the book.
In my mind, I repeated Sophie’s advice from earlier. Mutants are drawn to sudden movements. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be testing out her hypothesis with my life, but at least it seemed to be working. The flapping red encyclopedia in my hands was driving the librarian wild. She ripped across the room, a gray blur of gnashing teeth that got closer and closer with each heartbeat.
“Run, Joshua!” Milton screamed. “Get out of there!”
Not yet, I told myself. Not quite yet.
The mutant’s jaws opened wide. She launched into the air.
I dove sideways and hit the ground just as the librarian went sailing through the window. There was the sound of glass shattering. Then she was gone.
“Well, that was a nice way to spend our last day of school,” Milton said.
The three of us were gathered at the broken window, looking down at the parking lot below. The librarian was gone. Although Principal Sloane probably wasn’t going to be happy when he saw the mutant-shaped dent in the hood of his car.
“What’s that?” Milton pointed at the windowsill. Two cream-white envelopes were lying there side by side. One had my name written on it. The other had Sophie’s.
I was positive they hadn’t been there a moment earlier.
I grabbed hold of the envelope with my name, and Sophie took hers. Pressing my finger beneath the seal, I tore it open.
Inside was a slip of paper. It was exactly the same size as those I’d found earlier in the day, but this one had more written on it. My hands still trembling from everything we’d just been through, I stared down at the words.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND
GYFTED & TALENTED
THE BUS WILL ARRIVE AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATION AND TIME:
WHERE: YOUR HOUSE
WHEN: IN ONE WEEK
PS: BE READY EARLY
(PPS: VERY EARLY)
PLEASE PRESENT THIS INVITATION TO GAIN ENTRANCE.
4
“Gyfted and Talented? What the heck is that?”
Sophie and Milton looked back at me blankly. It was just one more question to toss on top of all the other questions that had been piling up that day. Like … how did those notes keep appearing out of nowhere? And was there any particular reason why the substitute librarian had just tried to kill us?
“Hey,” Milton asked, “can I borrow one of those notes for a second?”
“Sure.” I distractedly handed him my slip of paper.
He turned and wandered between a row of books, out of sight.
“This is really weird.” Sophie was staring at her own slip. “What should we do?”
My instinct was to throw the note away and do my best to forget all about it. But I could already see the spark of interest flaring in Sophie’s eyes.
“You aren’t actually thinking about doing this, are you?” I asked.
“Aren’t you at least curious? This invitation must be pretty important, after all the trouble they went through getting it to us.”
“All the trouble? Are you referring to the invasion of privacy or the mutant shark lady that just attacked us?”
“Look, it says here we’ve got a week to decide. I just think we should keep an open mind.”
“Fine. I’ll think about it.”
“Great!” Sophie smiled. “So where did Milton go? He was just—”
“Hey, guys.” Milton popped out from behind a shelf of books with an odd expression on his face.
“There you are,” Sophie said. “What were you doing?”
“Nothing.” The odd expression grew odder. “Just—you know—securing the area. Making sure there aren’t any other monsters roaming around.”
“But why did you take the—”
“We should probably get out of here.” Milton handed the note back to me. “I mean—before anyone comes around asking why the library is such a wreck.”
Milton was definitely acting strange, but he had a point. Our corner of the library looked like a disaster zone.
“Well, we missed our bus.” I turned to Sophie. “Mind if we catch a ride with you?”
Sophie punched a button on her phone. “Stanley’s on his way.”
When Stanley arrived five minutes later, I could hardly believe my eyes. He pulled up in a shining black limo.
“The SUV’s in the shop having a flamethrower replaced,” Sophie explained, like that was the
most normal thing in the world.
Milton and I climbed in through the back door, gaping. A long row of leather seats stretched along one side. On the other side was a mini-fridge, a flat-screen TV, and a built-in computer.
Stanley was in the driver’s seat. He glanced back at us, the sunlight reflecting off his smooth, metallic skin. He was wearing a bow tie and a chauffeur’s hat.
“Greetings, children,” he said in a smooth, automated voice.
Stanley had been the inspiration for Elliot. But except for the fact that they were both robots, the two of them had nothing in common. Stanley was tall and slender, while Elliot was squat and stumpy. Elliot had none of the cool features that Stanley had (unless you consider the ability to eat every fork in the silverware drawer cool).
Stanley turned in his seat, looking back at Sophie. “Your father notified me that he will be late this evening.”
A disappointed look came over Sophie’s face. “Again?”
“Yes, Miss Justice. The filming is apparently taking longer than expected.”
Milton jumped forward on his seat like he’d just been shocked. “Filming! What kind of filming?” His voice was loud with excitement. “Is Captain Justice, like, shooting a movie or something?”
Milton got this way whenever Captain Justice was mentioned. He couldn’t really help it. He was a huge fan.
“He’s not shooting a movie,” Sophie said. “It’s a different kind of project.”
“What kind of project?” Milton persisted.
Sophie’s hands bunched in her lap. An embarrassed expression crossed her face. “It’s nothing, really. Just a”—she lowered her voice—“a reality show.”
Milton jumped so high that he bumped his head against the sunroof. “Awesome! I can’t wait to see it! When are they gonna show it on TV? Can I be in it?”
Sophie obviously didn’t share Milton’s enthusiasm. She only stared out the tinted window at the scenery passing by. When she did finally speak, her voice was quiet and distant.