Deptheless: Under the Library

by Tiffany Tay

  Kale flushes and immediately extinguishes whatever revving flow of energy he … I’m going with rekindled. Immediately after he extinguished, I shiver, feeling whatever warmth I’d experienced earlier seep out of my senses.

  “What… you really are like me!” I declare in wonder. Kale just frowns and rubs his elbows. “Just now, I’d felt your essence… never do that in public againg, Stella. It’s bad for you.”

  I feel indignant. “Well! It wasn’t like I wanted to rekindle! It just… sorta happened. And, you did too! So… who are you? Who are we? I don’t care, I want answers.” I demand huffily.

  “Stella. It’s fine for me to rekindle. You… they haven’t sensed you yet, thankfully. You can’t just go around lighting up. You have to learn the power of control.” Suddenly, his eyes takes on a wistful look. Just as soon as I thought he’s soften up, his eyes immediately glass over, as he slips into dark thoughts.

  I sigh. Looks like I’m not going to get anything out of this guy. “Kale. Just answer me, please.” I plead. “I—I can’t stand living like this anymore! Eighteen years, Kale! Eighteen! I can’t just go on without knowing my… my true identity. I need an explanation… and you are the only one who could give me one!” I almost cry. For so long, I had kept my secret powers to myself, however terrifying they grew into. For all my life, I had hugged this secret to myself…and it almost crushed me. Being recruited for real into the Organization… that had helped ease the burning curiousity… but not for long.

  As soon as I left my sheltered home, I couldn’t stop the light. I even had to learn to sleep with the lights on… my own lights. Now, finally, I’d met this guy, who looks remarkably, undeniably similar to me. Hey--- this guy may even be like me!

  Please? I plead with my eyes. Kale doesn’t soften under my agonized gaze. He gives his head one hard shake, then focuses his eyes on me. “Stella. What I said, however unsatisfying for you, is true. I can’t stop your powers, nor could I deny our identity. After all, we were born under---“ He pauses and catches himself. “We can’t let this tragedy continue. I--- I’ll be the last. I hope. Just, you have to promise me.”

  All of a sudden, his looks shift to one of grave seriousness. “Promise, Stella, that you won’t try to find out more about… about us.” He shifts his voluminous book from one arm to another, then apparently decides to shed the weight, and places it onto a nearby table.

  “And… and why should I agree?” I’m obstinate that way.

  “I have a life to protect, Stella. And you have yours. I know mine’s going to end exceedingly soon, and I want to ensure the safety of the other… the others behind me. That they won’t have to go through what our ancesstors had suffered.” He pauses for breath.

  “So… you are saying that we’ll die?” I’m mortified.

  For the first time I saw him that day, Kale smiled. An actual smile. Only, it wasn’t a bright smile which actually shows happiness. All I saw in his smile is a maniacal grieven terror, and somehow, his emotion is catching.

  “Starre, starre, starre…” He murmers. I frown. “How did you know---“

  He shakes his head. “Anyway… just don’t go around with stupid questions. No one knows. You can’t tell anyone, got this, Stella?” Why can’t I shake off the feeling that Kale is looking at me like… like we’ve met before, and got separated, then met once again.

  With that, he turns and makes off in an opposite direction. I feel a sudden urge to rush after him, judo flip him to the ground, tackle him until he relents, and sit on him until he begs for mercy… and tells me the full story.

  Instead, I lunge for him and grab his arm. “Kale…wait.” He turns around, and apparently doesn’t seem very surprised.

  “Kale… you know, there used to be a Kale in the stories my family told around.” My hand was sweating, and my heart’s hammering like crazy. I knew I was taking a serious gamble here, but I couldn’t stop. I simply had to find out…

  “So?” He raises his eyebrows nonchalantly.

  “Listen.” I let go of his arm, and thankfully, he doesn’t take off.

  “In those stories… they, they said about our family lines being interwined for some centuries… and, and something about a Cosmos?”

  “Cosmos, not the…” Kale trails off, then slaps himself in the face. “Urgh.”

  “Yeah. So, uh, there was this Cosmos… people say that we’ve descended from Cosmos?”

  “Part Cosmos. We are part of his…” Kale immediately corrects me, then he realizes what he said, and bit back a curse. “I told you not to think further about this!” He hisses, slightly pissed off.

  I shrug. “No can do. You’ve only ignited my curiosity, Kale Caelum. There is nothing you can say to dissuade me from finding answers…”

  Kale clenches his fists, looking like a thundercloud. “Look… I can’t gurantee my safety, but at least let me help you. You have to understand, once you know, you won’t feel safe anymore, any time of the day. You will always be in danger. Plus… you can’t have the--- them finding out about your real identity. That would only speed up your demise.”

  He stops and I just stand there, blinking blankly up at him.

  “So… in other words, you won’t tell me about myself because it could kill me?” I raise an eyebrow at him. Kale runs his hand through his brown locks. “Well… if it doesn’t scare you, then your explanation pretty much sums up my warning.”

  I furrow my brows. “Seriously, Kale?” I throw back my head and laugh. My actions only serve to aggravate him further. “You’d think I won’t die anyway? Like I haven’t been through enough life and death situations?” I smile, recalling all those times working for the Organization. Once, I had barely escaped an almost suicidal mission with my head still intact. I had to have an operation to stick parts of my body back in place before. What else could scare me?

  “You haven’t heard about the Curse.” A low voice spoke right behind me, and I spind round so fast I could hear my neck pop.

  “President.” Kale nods. I blink confusedly at him. One minute, he was all: Oh-don’t-talk-to-me! Then, he goes all polite and respectful in the presence of Alex. I sigh, then realizing Kale glaring at me, I break.

  “President.” I mimic Kale, half-heartedly.

  Alex nods at me then proceds towards Kale. “Caelum, may I talk with you, please?” He said in a hushed voice. I don’t know if he uses that voice regularly, like, he always speaks in a low voice. Maybe, as the president of the library, he has to show a good example. Or whatever.

  “About?” Kale questions. I note that he is nervously tucking his hands in his pockets and taking them out, and doing it all over again. Something must really make him nervous, and I have a feeling it has something to do with Alex, who is also acting a little weird. His side-swept hair is messy, as if he’d spent days running his fingers through it instead of a comb. He had developed some serious dark circles under his eyes, and his pale complexion had gotten… paler. He’s still handsome in a I-haven’t-got-much-sleep way, but I don’t like the way he is staring at Kale.

  Anxiety, edginess, apprehensive… he looks at Kale as if he fears for him as well. I had to hold myself in from pouncing on Alex and demand him to pour out every thing he knows. Of course. Being the President, he naturally had to make it his business to find out about everyone… if only he’d tell me about myself. Sometimes, I need other people to remind me of who I am. That’s the only way to keep me from living in doubt.

  Kale stares at Alex, and I see a cold sweat breaking from his forehead. “It’s time, isn’t it?” he whispers. Alex throws me a glance, then proceeds to whisper, “No, not now. But the time draws closer.”

  “If you’ll excuse us, please, Stella. I need to talk with Kale for a moment.” Alex straightens and gives me a pointed gaze towards the exit. I gulp down a mouthful of questions and nod humbly, hardly daring to take my eyes off these two guys, who bears the key to my questions.

  “We have preperations to make--- safety precautions.
” As I move away, I manage to catch something from the two nervous looking guys.

  “Just make sure she doesn’t know. I don’t want the Curse to find her as well.”

  Chapter Twelve// Stella

  Stella’s POV

  “So, tough first day, huh?” David smiles at me over his turkey sandwich. I nod half-heartedly, and return to taking tiny bites of my bagel. The sweetness from the bread helps relax me, and somehow, David’s presence helps soothe my nerves.

  After the weird encounter with Kale and Alex, I spun around to find David waiting for me. I was a little grateful… and extremely glad that he’d stayed to wait for me, even though he claims he only did it cuz it’s technically my first day, and he wanted to show me the ropes.

  So far, he had helped take my mind away from the horrors of the past hour, where I swear I had felt an unusual shifting inside me. All that talk only served to ingite my curiosity… and somehow, along with that, came different powers… powers that almost overwhelmed me. I shudder, taking a long sip from my power drink.

  “Care to enlighten me on what you guys were so ‘happily’ chatting about just now?” David tilts his head. His drums his fingers on the cool marble table of the dining hall. I shrug. “Nothing really important, really.” I lied.

  David lifts an eyebrow. “Starre, you may fool him, but nothing escapes my knowledge. A guy like him doesn’t normally take a casual stroll up to some random new girl and request a private conversation!” the more David talks, I note that his face starts flushing up, and he uses his hands a lot. I feel a smile tugging on my lips, and I duck under my hair, suddenly feeling shy.

  “We… we just worked some things out.” I mumble.

  “Really, Starre? I know you longer than him, and you are willing to talk to him over me?” David looks hurt. I giggle, mainly because he looks kind of cute when he takes on a wounded expression. Also, he proved to be extremely charming when he’s not on duty.

  “I’m sorry, but it’s not something you could… understand.” I drop my gaze at the last word. I hear him pretend to get all huffy, and I roll my eyes.

  “Fine.” He sighs, exasperated, dragging the i.

  I munch on the remaining of my bagel, whilst he finished his sandwich, and just leans back in his chair, staring off into space.

  I look around the dining hall. It’s a vast room, about two levels below ground. The dining hall looks like a cave. No, seriously--- it is a cave, all hollowed out and dark. Rocky walls stretched out around a vast space. Being a cave, the temperature here is kept cool at all times, and warm when it’s cold outside. The ground itself is, well… rough ground--- rocks and sand. You had to be careful where you place your footing, lest you end up stumbling all over in the dim light.

  All around the walls, torches lined the walls at five foot intervals. These are the kind of torches I’d seen in an old time movie, something about pirates and treasure caves. Imagine a cave. Then, imagine those cone shape things people hold, where you could light a fire and call it a torch. Well, torches like those flank the walls all around. I don’t know where they get the fuel from, but it sure doesn’t seem to burn out the whole time we’re there. If it wasn’t torch-light, it’s candle light. The librarians sure know their romantic dining setting!

  All over the rocky floor, wooden tables were set up, not really in any particular order. These tables had patterns carved in them, so they are tables with, like, holes. Someone had draped a plain white table cloth over the tables, and installed some lights below the table. Now… we’re looking at a table with lighted patterns. Beautiful.

  I sigh happily, not growing tired of this place. In my peripheral vision, I spy David staring my way, but I didn’t dare look back. For the moment, I was just contended with gazing at my surroundings.

  David though, seems to have other ideas. As soon as I place my cutlery down, and drowned my cup, he got to his feet and said, “Great! You’re done. Now come with me, I need to show you something.”

  *****

  “Whoa!” I exclaim. David grins, as if my reaction was exactly as he’d expected.

  “Yep. Welcome to the Shops!” He mock announces, gesturing with both arms to the sides of the hall. I stare, wide-eyed at the buzzing activity around me. We stand at the beginning of a hallway, still underground. To our left and right, tiny spaces, like mini caves, branch out from the path.

  “Shops.” I repeat, gazing in wonder at the first shop, where a couple of girls are happily promoting their wares to a group of librarians. I move in to get a closer look. The sales-promoters are busy unpacking new stuff from plastic crates, and stack them all around the cave in any space they could find. There isn’t much moving space in these small caves, let alone to stack goods.

  David steers me to the right. “Watch.” He had to shout over the commotion. In the cave to the right, I see people unpacking their crates. “This is the fascinating part.” David tell me. Somewhere in the cave, someone turns a lever, and I hear a grinding noise, like rock against rock. Suddenly, parts of the cave floor begins shifting. I jump, looking at my feet to make sure the ground wasn’t going to open up and swallow me.

  “That’s their extra storage compartment. Saves tons of space.” David informs me, as the salespeople begin stuffing their extra goods into the spaces below.

  “So, let me get this straight. People sell stuff down here? Why?”

  “Every beginning of the month, we order in a large wholesale stock of goods: clothing, foods, and such to be taken in. As you know, once we settle down in here, we hardly leave the premis.” David explains. “The food is shipped directly to the kitchens, where they’ll last out the entire month. The clothes and other, uh, household items are brought here, for the librarians, and, uh… the people living here, to buy.”

  “Wait, there are other people living here, not just us librarians?” I’m puzzled.

  “Every once in awhile, we take in some people from the outside world who are tired of their lives up above. We analyze their old lives, then bring them in, as cooks, as shopkeepers, and such. Without them, we can’t function properly, and would have to constantly venture out for say… fried chicken and new jeans.”

  I punch him playfully. “So… how do we pay for things?”

  “Ah… that’s where the work comes in.”

  “Work?”

  “Ever heard the saying: There is no such thing as free food?” Well, as long as we want to live happy, sheltered lives here in the library, we have to work, to contribute to a part of this organization. Be it normal librarian duty, cooking meals, cleaning, home décor… we require people to run this place.” David pauses, letting me absord all this information.

  Behind me, I hear someone bark, “Move it!”. David pulls me to the side as a man with a large sack over his shoulders push past us. I hear David mutter something about rudeness under his breath.

  “So, basically, we aren’t just a library?” I’m still confused.

  David tilts his head, pondering. “You know… consider it this way. We take in people from outside… it could be illegal, for all I know. We have to have a cover, and what better way than a library? No one would suspect an old building full of dusty books could be the cover up to a whole underground city!”

  “Underground city.” I roll the words with my tongue. “So that’s what this place is?”

  David rolls his eyes. “Well… no one ever gave this place a name. But we stay underground. Live here, eat here, grow up here, basically spend the rest of our lives under the surface of the Earth. What else could you call this place, besides Underground city?” his eyes shine, and I realize he has a strong pride for this place.

  “How long have you been here, anyway?” I question. He shrugs. “Since I was born? My parents worked here. My mom was a librarian, my dad was a chef. As long as you were born here, you had the choice of living under the library’s shelter, or venture up into the world to begin a new life on your own. So, why would I leave?” David forces a smile.

/>   Something about his tone of voice, and his smile causes a shiver to travel down my spine. “So… your parents were working here?” my heart thumps louder in my chest, but I ignore it anyway. You have to ignore each heartbeat, or how else were you going to live, counting each and every beat of your heart? It’s like being so aware of each breath that you stay up at night, afraid you’ll stop breathing.

  Pain flashes through David’s face. When he looks at me, I could practically see into his eyes. Soulful, heartbreaking, agony… I step back,a twinge of guilt eating my heart, feeling ashamed at myself for bringing up what may have been a pain filled past. “Sorry.” I mumble.

  David stares unfocusedly at me, then something in his vision starts to clear up, and the next thing I know, the grief in his eyes vanishes, replaced by his usual sparkle. “It’s nothing. They aren’t here anymore.” He shrugs it off, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. For my part, I try to mask my emotions. It’s all too clear David doesn’t want to talk about his parents. I didn’t want to open up about myself either, so I guess we could call it quits.

  Something about the way he tries to drown his grief troubles me. From experience, I’d known the only way to get over sorrow is to embrace it, accept that it had happened, and move along. David, well… I know enough about reading one’s emotions to tell that he’d been through a whole lot of heartache, and yet, he’s playing to stay strong. His bravery makes me show a little more symphaty towards him. I know what he’s going through.

  I decide not to push him. Clearly, this is not the place to pour out one’s deepest grief…

  Just as I was deciding to say something like: I’m sorry about your loss, David drags me across the landing, towards a shop at the very corner of the large hollowed cave. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

  Chaper Thirteen// Stella

  Stella’s POV

  The corner shop is possibly the tinest cave of the lot, and for now, I count about twenty. David says there are more shops, selling other stuff, on different floors. In this particular cave, an old woman in her sixties smiles kindly as David and I approach. She puts down the bundle of cloth in her arms and gets to her feet.