by Tiffany Tay
Gripping my wounded leg, I will myself to move. I can’t stay put like this. Who knows when I’ll be able to move my limbs, from all the lazing around I’ve done?
Struggling, I push myself up with my hands, feeling the walls in the darkness. Ignoring the biting pain like a thousand punches to my leg, I begin the horrible task of hobbling. Round and round, feeling the walls, stumbling, gasping, tearing, crying…
After the second round, the pain intensified into an unbearable burning, and I crumple to the ground in an exhausted heap.
*****
The next time I opened my eyes, I’m not laying in darkness anymore.
I stirr, uncomfortable. My mind urgers me awake, but my body does not respond. I open a mouth to utter a word, but only a croak escapes my lips.
A torch is placed on the ground opposite me, shining directly in my face.
I squint in the sudden light. To my fright, a shadow crossed over my sight.
“Who?” I yelp, scrambling backwards. I yelp again as my I bump into the hard wall, scraping up my elbow pretty badly.
Suddenly, my eyes focus, and I gaze up in amazement at the person standing over me. Long, flowing blonde hair, probably once heathly and shiny, but now wild and tangled. Messy, crinkled clothes covered her body. From the waist down, she is clothed fully in some scrubby black jeans. From the waist up, she wraped her body up in a ragged blue cloth.
I’m partially drawn to her face. Looking at the arched eyebrows, her narrowed eyes as she scrutinizes me, her up-turned nose, I experience the feeling that I’m supposed to place a name to this girl. She stires me as odly familiar, yet the familiarity ended as abruptly as I was awoken.
Placing her hands on her hips, she glares at me, accusation in her eyes. “Well?” She fires, not rudely.
I blink up at her under the torchlight. “Uh… excuse me?” I winced, nursing my elbow.
Huffing, she rolles her eyes. “Has it begun?” She shot me another annoyed look, then looked behind her… at the same spot where I saw had lit up just hours ago.
A creepy feeling crawled up my back. Gazing into those intense icy blue irises, I shudder. “Has what begun?” I try to stop myself from shaking.
Just a brief moment, I see something flash aross her face. Realization. The annoyance. “Sorry. I’ve made a mistake.” Was her curt answer. With that, she turned around, picked up her torch, switched it off and made as if to leave.
Panic bubbled up in my throat. My gut feeling told me that this girl, whoever she is, is the only person I’d see in awhile. She might bring information from outside. She may be my only source of refuge.
Gasping, I reached out blindly and call out. “Wait! Please, wait!” I sputter in my haste to stop her.
The footsteps I heard a moment ago halted. I hear a sigh. “What?” She calls out, an unmistakable hint of irritation on her face once more.
Taken aback by this girl’s sudden appearance, her attitude, I’m temporarily struck dumb.
She makes an impatient clicking sound with her tongue, drawing me back to reality. “Uh… I mean, please, at least answer my questions.” I plead.
I see her fold her arms, impatience written across her face. “I can’t, sorry.”
I try to hide my irritation. “Look--- you can at least tell me who you are, and what you’re doing here.” I don’t think I’ve met her before, yet she does seem odly familiar… I sigh. Since my fall, everything just got worse.
“My name does not carry anything anymore.” She shows no hint of friendliness. In fact, she looks almost bored.
“Well… what did you mean, when you asked me if… it has begun?” I scramble into an acceptable sitting position. “I don’t understand.”
As an answer, she stares at me, her face a mask. “I told you, I made a mistake.”
Now thoroughly angered at this strange girl’s lack of answers, I utter an annoyed scream. “Yes, but What? And how did you get down here? Is there a way out? Can I go back up? Why are you here?” I fired question after question at her, still she is unmoved.
“Are we done here?” She yawns.
That does it. “How about Nikolay? Is he safe? Had they rescued him yet?” I push myself up with the palms of my hands, not caring about the throbbing jets of fire shooting up my leg.
This time, it’s her turn to look blank. “Nikolay?” She mused. “And who is he?” I could see her mental wheels turning, clicking and moving, trying to fit in pieces of a puzzle I haven’t had the honour of even seeing.
Biting back my frustration, I glared at her. “Oh, he’s just your average troublemaker, my partner in crime.” Sarcasm starts spewing out of my mouth, I don’t even know where it all came from. All I want is to get my rage out of my system.
Blondie wrinkles up her forehead. “No… what happened to him?” She questions.
Rolling my eyes, I cross my arms. “I thought everyone knew what had happened to him by now! If you don’t know… guess that explains why I’m still here.” A pang of sadness hit me.
She looks on the verge of exploding. “Look, I just want to know what happened, is that so hard for you to answer?” She sighs, exasperated.
I sigh too, in defeat. I know I can’t win this argument, and anyway, I feel my legs about to give way any moment now. I can’t keep this up any longer. Drained, I slump back down onto the floor, favouring my bad leg.
“Fine.” I grumble, then catch her frown. “Niko fell down the chasm before I did. I don’t think he fell all the way down, though.”
The next few moments were undescribable. Shadows cross her face, and she frowns, deep in thought, muttering to herself. I catch a few words. Mistake… Abnormal… Not supposed to happen… Each of them did not make me feel better about my situation.
Finally, when she looked up, she had an almost sorry look in he eyes. “One last question: are you and this Niko in any sort of relationship?”
One question, yet so dauntingly hurtful. Something sharp pierces my heart and stings my eyes. I wanted to fight, to shake my head and say no. But then, I was also curious…
“Yes.” I whisper.
She gives me one last questioning look, then replaced it with one of pity.
“Well… that settles this then. Why didn’t you talk before?” She bounds to the wall, pauses, then bounds back to where I lay, puzzled out of my brain.
“The Great One finally clicked the puzzle pieces together.” I grumble, earning a mocking whack over my head.
“I would be so glad to leave you hear, but alas, I’m not supposed to.” She glares at me. I don’t even know it, but these days I could even temp the sweetest mouse into hating me for life.
Shrugging, I throw her an eerie grin. “Well, thank you. How kind of you, I suppose.”
“I’d watch it if I were you.” She shoots daggers at me. “I wish I didn’t have to put up with you all the way, but fate is fate. No matter how cruel.” She sighs, making me long to understand this strange girl better, to find out a name to go with her, despite her apparent unfondness towards me.
“Wait…” I back up slowly, my head spinning frantically. “What do you mean? Are you taking me back up?” A dozen questions attacked my head.
“Hold the questions for the long walk, little girl.” She puts up her hands, as I shot her a dirty look. “Anyway---“ She returned the look. “Your destiny has been decided. As long as you are here, you must be involved in all of this somehow. You and that Nikolay guy. And who knows who else. You say you don’t know if it has started, but it sure has, now that I crept out and found you here.”
Pausing for breath, she narrows her eyes at me, making me wonder, for the billionth time, if I met this girl somewhere before. Shrugging it off, I prop myself up into a proper sitting position.
“Hang on! You keep saying that something has started… but what exactly is it?” I pour out all of my exhausted annoyance into my words.
Huffing in her own strange impatience, she says in a dead voice:
“The
Curse, of course. And now that you’re under the library… this time, this place, this makes you a part of it. You are, without a doubt, Under the Library’s Curse.
“And you have to follow me now. This way---“
A/N: Hellooooo!!! I survived the first week of school!!! It was terribly boring! How the week dragged so! I got so much hw, especially maths >< Hardly got a minute to spare. But now here I am! Presenting this chapter… that you’ve just read!
Comment your favourite part, and about who might die! The one who guesses right shall have a big dedication… at the end of the book (sorry, no spoilers).
So what do you guys think of the story cover? I changed the description, you can go take a look. The name is now ‘ Under the Library’ if you think of it, the characters would be spending plenty of quality time under the library! So… comment, vote… anything to put me out of the misery of school!!!
~Tiffany
Chapter Twenty-Two// Skye
Skye’s POV
The mysterious girl shades my view as she does something to the section of the wall. The same one which had ignited just moments before. I could hear her mutter intangible words under her breath, placing her hands at different parts on the wall. Finally, she is finished with her ‘ritual’, and takes a step back.
I wait. Forcing a laugh, I say, “What--- that wall really moves? Like a secret passage?”
She doesn’t say anything, but keeps on staring at the blank wall.
“Open sesame!” I command, half-joking. This time, she shoots around, and stares daggers at me. “Do you mind?” She says aggressively. I gulp. “Fine. Go on.”
I push myself from the floor with the palms of my hands. For a moment, I lean against the cool wall, shivering from the atmospheric temperature and from the brutal pain of my wound. “How do I walk?” I attempt a step to the front. At once, pain like I never felt before shoots up my leg, and I collapse under my weight.
Blonde girl makes a move towards me, then sighs. “You can’t walk yet, obviously.” She sizes me up. I’m on the floor, clutching my bad leg, moaning softly while tears stream simultaneously down my cheeks.
Blonde starts saying something, but her voice is immediately drowned by a distinct grating noise. She steps away from the wall, giving me a full view of the wall in front. Which isn’t the correct thing to say. There is no wall. Well, a section of the wall is removed--- it seems to have disappeared, leaving a gaping hole straight into darkness.
I gulp. “You are taking me in there?”
She gives me a strange look. “I’d love to see you scale up the wall in this condition.” She scoffs, hitching up the long sleeves of the blue blouse draped over her shoulders. “So… of course we’re going in there.”
She pauses while I stare in mild fascination at the hole. “What is beyond?” I speak up. “How did you discover this? Why doesn’t anyone else know?” Bewildered, I crawl excruciatingly towards the opening.
A hand shoots out and grasps my shoulder firmly. “Oh no. You aren’t going in there now.” She says, her face straight.
I huff and open my mouth to argue, but she stops me with a glare. “You aren’t doing any exploring until you get that wound of your treated.”
I stare dumbfounded up at her. “How? Are you a doctor?” I say suspiciously.
She rolls her eyes towards the sky. “Do I have to own medical qualifications to give you medicine?”
“Why should I trust you?” I’m instantly alerted to defense. True, I’d just met her. She must’ve somehow known I’m here, or she stumbled upon me by sheer mistake. Either way, I hadn’t developed much of a trust towards this stranger, whom had refused to tell me anything important.
“You don’t have a choice.” Her gaze doesn’t soften as she speaks. “After all, your life is in jeopardy at the moment. How big a threat is a girl like me to you?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh, taking into consideration of my unfortunate injury, your advantage of the routes around the underground… “
She waves me off. “We’re stalling time. There’s not much to waste now.” She turns her head and stares hard into the hole, thinking. Then, seeming to come to a decision, she snaps back and looks at me. “You have to wait here. I’ll go retrieve… whatever… to heal your wounds.”
With that, she dashes towards the opening. Hastily, I push myself across the hard floor with my hands. “Are you sure?” I called to her, my voice ripped with uncertainty.
Scrambling through the hole, she jumps and lands with a soft thud on the other side. Twisting her head to look at me, she curls her lips into a smile, or possibly, a snarl, she says,”No, but what does it matter?”
Her voice echoing eerily throughout the cave, she scurries off, leaving me alone, trapped, in this damp, musty cave once again.
I let my body go slack against the wall. I could only hope, and wait for the best possible outcome.
The cold plays its way through the air, coming at a rest in a gentle breeze, wrapping around my body, threatening to seep all sense of warmth and comfort from my body. I feel my body’s moisture drain away. I force myself to swallow. The ever growing thirst demands to be fulfilled.
What is taking my friends so long? Why aren’t they on their way down now? What happened after the last of the doughnuts dropped? I sigh, thoroughly frustrated. What is to become of me, if I’m left here all by myself? I envision Nikki’s miserable face, and a wave of anguish enfulges me.
For the next few minutes, I stare vacantly off into space. I’m so bored I feel ready to crack. Countless times, dizziness threatens to swarm my mind, almost taking me off to the world of dreams. Relentlessly, I prop myself up with my elbows and force myself into a proper sitting position. This won’t do, I think furiously, blinking myself awake.
At last, just as my eyelids were about to droop, the girl hops into the cave, a bundle swaddled in her arms. Is it my imagination, or did she look a little panicked? I blink, and stare harder. No, her face is unreadable. Whatever trace of emotion had disappeared.
Shrugging off the feeling, I watch as she squats down beside me. She opens up her arms, and a Mendit falls to the floor. I whistle. “Some fancy gadgets you cave people have down here.”
“Do me a favour.” She starts. “Just shut up.”
To my surprise, I did just that.
She picks up the fallen Mendit, an oblong metal device, about ten inches in length. She hits some hidden buttons, and the device springs to life. A small screen illuminates, radiating a soft greenish glow in the dark.
“Extend your injured leg.” She orders. I oblige, using my hands to move my leg. Expectantly, I stare at her, at the device in her hands. With nimble fingers, she slides the device over my foot, then pushes it up my calf, coming to a stop right over my bruised area.
I gasp as the device began squeezing my calf. “Wha--- what’s it doing?” I squirm uncomfortably as the device issues mechanical noises. Without a word, she leans in to stare at the screen.
“You are bleeding internally. Don’t worry, it’s nothing major, just a soft tissue wound.” She reads from the screen. I scoot my head around to see. Squinting at the tiny screen, I could only make out squiggly lines of green. “What else does it say?”
She takes a moment to respond. “You have to lay still. The Mendit is sending out rays, penetrating deep into your skin. It’s healing your bruise, but it’ll be a painless procedure.” She says in a flat voice.
I stare in fascination at the device. Sure enough, aside from the tight squeezing over my bruise, I don’t feel anything. I’d only seen blueprints of this device from my early childhood days. It hadn’t been fully completed yet, by the time I was taken into the Library. But the commercials I’d watched had been enough to implant a deep admiration for the scientists who’d invented this mini healing device.
“How did such an expansive device come into your clutches?” I wrinkle up my forehead, deep in thought. “How do you even survive down here, if you don’t make trips up to the upper
levels?” I inquire.
She maintains her stony expression, her eyes never leaving the screen.
I sigh, vexed. “Aren’t you ever going to answer my questions, Blondie? Are you those strong, silent, hermit types then? When do you come out of your cave and explore the world above…” I rant.
An enraged snarl halts me. “Don’t call me that!” She yells.
Finally, I’ve gotten a sentence out of her. “Call you what?” I say, just to be annoying.
She clicks her tongue. “My name is Loky, not Blondie, if you please.” She growls, extracting the device from my leg, not bothering with gentleness.
Wincing, I bend to rub the pink spot. “It’s done?” I ask, disbelieving. “That quick?” Tenderly, I shift my leg, and sure enough, the pain is gone, leaving behind only a slight throb.
Loky gathers up the Mendit and rises to a standing position. “Are we done with small talk?” She asks, her voice tight. Something in her expression leaves me wondering if I really said anything wrong to trigger something inside her.
She strides over to the opening. “Come one.” She drawls, her tone bored.
“There you go again!” I spew, slowly rising from the ground. She halts, and I see her stiffen ever so slightly. “What?” She demands in a stressed voice.
My heart beating fast in my chest, I got to my feet and walk gingerly towards her. “You! You keep trying to mask your emotions, you not answering my questions…”
Loky whips around and throws me a death glare. I ignore it and continue rambling on. “I mean, you could at least tell me what you’ve got beyond this cave, or… or how you came to live here. What do you mean about the curse…” A hundred questions gather at the opening of my mouth, but before they could all come pouring out, Loky lets out a bellows shrilly.
In two strides, she had bound over to me, and now she is standing, just two inches away from me. I feel my palms break into a cold sweat. “Umph…”
“That’s it!” Loky screams, her face a disturbing shade of red. “I’ve had enough from you! All you do is poke your nose into where you shouldn’t! You don’t understand… you’ll never understand me!”