Chapter 112
KATHERINE.
As I got to the landing, I spotted a familiar face at a reading table and flashed him a smile when he glanced at me. “Hey, Zac,” I said before slightly drawing my brows together. “You’re in the library. That’s surprising.”
“Katherine Roxley,” he stated, returning my smile, and I paused before giving him a questioning look, waiting for him to continue. “Nothing. Just wanted to say your full name. Also, fuck you for that library comment,” he added and I laughed before he glanced past me. “Where’s your girlfriend?”
I raised a brow. “My girlfriend?”
“Josie,” he replied and I muttered an ‘oh’. The last time I talked to her was yesterday when she texted me, asking if I was alright because she heard about Noah trying to kill me and me finding the bodies of the missing students. The reminder of Chelsea being dead made my smile falter and I also remembered I hadn’t seen or been able to reach Lydia. “Ah, wait,” Zac muttered as realization dawned on his face. “Seeing her in a library would be surprising.”
“I’ll be relaying that to her.”
“You suck.” He gave me a small frown and I stuck my tongue out at him before heading back to the art section. Theo was still in his seat and as he glanced at me when I took mine, I wondered if we were going to keep acting like that kiss never happened. I mean, he didn’t even react like it did and I was pretty sure I hadn’t imagined it.
“Theo!” a familiar voice suddenly called from outside the room, startling me, and Theo immediately glanced over his shoulder before getting to his feet as Hunter ran into the room, looking frazzled.
“Hunter, what’s wrong?” Theo asked while I also got to my feet, the same question on my mind.
“Narlington.”
That was the name of the building that housed the most malevolent spirit in Blackwood and since Hunter didn’t elaborate, I frowned, but Theo obviously understood what he meant because a panicked expression flitted across his face. Then his eyes changed from green to black– it was so black that I couldn’t discern his iris. “You’re joking,” Theo said, but he sounded like he didn’t believe his own words, and when Hunter shook his head sideways, he sucked in a breath. “How do you… Is it– Are you sure?”
“The gates are wide open. Faringray’s not on campus. The Dean says we should handle it.”
Theo’s eyes went wide with surprise and anger as they switched to a dark red in an instant. “Is she crazy?! We can’t handle this!”
“What’s happening?” I finally cut in while Hunter said, “I don’t think she understands–” He cut himself off as the lights began to flicker and we all glanced up.
“Hunter?”
“He’s here,” Hunter said, fear evident in his voice, while the lights flared blindingly bright for a second before they all exploded. A yelp tore from my throat as I went down while lightbulb shards rained around me and I finally understood what was happening. The malevolent ghost in Narlington was now here. My first reaction to that was ‘that’s impossible’, but then I realized we’d been strengthening the defenses of that building for a reason.
Thankfully, none of the shards cut me but the room was now dark and as I slowly stood upright once more, the flashlight of Hunter’s phone came on while he moved around with his phone raised in the air, probably trying to find service. “Are you okay?” Theo, who was now standing next to me, asked and I nodded before he proceeded to pick lightbulb shards out of my hair. “Get back to your dorm. Now.”
“Ghosts can enter dorms,” I reminded him while my heart rate picked up due to our situation. A ghost had entered Tegan Hall recently and Keith and Josie had to take care of it.
“Stavenger Hall is new.” By new, he meant built in the past ten years.
“The library’s also new.”
“Oh… fuck,” he muttered before his breath became visible while the walls groaned like a person in pain, and we all crouched down immediately. “Fuck.” Theo was scared and I’d never seen him like this – not even when a violent spirit attacked him – so my heart began to beat even faster. I didn’t want to get killed by a ghost. I didn’t want to get killed in a library. I didn’t want to get killed by a ghost in a library!
“The students in the library–” Theo started while Hunter quietly made his way over to us.
“Blake and Lenore are here. They’re clearing them out.”
“Do you think they’ve gotten all of them out?” Theo asked and Hunter shook his head. “Shit… We have to get to the supply room. Call Blake and Lenore.”
“No service.”
“Are we the only members here?”
“I sent a text to the group chat after I got here. The rest would be aware, but they won’t know it’s here.”
“Zac is here,” I added and Theo glanced at me.
“Where?”
“In the reading room next to the stairs.”
Theo peeked around the table and I glanced at Hunter, remembering that he was related to Professor Norving Hellaton and that I thought his family had something to do with the disappearances and deaths of students in Blackwood, Dumein, and Staerdale, before we both mouthed ‘hey’ to each other. I was about to ask him what he had been doing at Narlington since he said he found the gates wide open when Theo said, “Okay. Let’s go.” The three of us headed out of the art section and to the first reading area where we saw Zac and a couple of students hiding under tables.
“Oh my God. You guys,” he whisper-yelled as he quickly made his way over. “I just saw a creepy ass ghost right now. I thought ghosts couldn’t enter the library.”
“Malevolent ghosts can,” I said and his eyes widened.
“No way.”
“Can we contain this thing?” I asked Theo and Hunter and Hunter shrugged while Theo replied.
“I don’t know.”
“You said a malevolent spirit escaped before. How did they seal it back then?”
“They had a sensible dean back then.”
“Oh, we’re so fucked, aren’t we?” Zac said and I couldn’t stop the snort that escaped me. “What are we going to do now?”
“Hunter and I will head to the supply room. You two should lead these students out of here. If you see Lenore–”
“We can’t just leave you two to handle this by yourselves,” I whisper-yelled and Theo faced me, his brows furrowed.
“You haven’t dealt with this kind of spirit before.”
“Neither have you.”
A loud noise suddenly came from the floor above us, making us look up, and it was followed by another and another while screams and shouts rang out. It sounded like bookshelves were falling and I assumed the ghost was up there because a bookshelf in this library wouldn’t move if immense pressure wasn’t applied to it. The fact that people were still up there made my stomach churn.
“Look–”
“The students can find their way out,” I cut Theo off and he opened his mouth to retort, but I kept going, “The exit is right there.” I pointed at the doors in the lobby which we could see from here. “ They’ll leave at super speed.”
“And what if ‘you’ get hurt?” He burst out, surprising me, and I blinked at him for a moment before heat rushed to my cheeks, and I looked away from him, only for my gaze to land on Zac who was giving me a look that said ‘What the fuck, dude?’. I would have laughed at his expression if someone hadn’t fallen from one of the floors above us the next moment.
“Oh my God!”
Some of the students hiding under the tables began to scream while someone ran past me at super speed and the four of us quickly moved over to the railing to see a student sprawled out on the floor in the lobby.
“Is he dead?” Zac asked in a low, shaky voice and my heart began to beat faster as I stared at the students, hoping they’d move, but they didn’t. Instead, blood began to pool around them. “Oh my God.”
“Get those students out of here,” Theo said and before I could respond, he and Hunter rushed off.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered while Zac quickly began to direct the hiding students to rush out of the building at super speed. We did the same for the other reading rooms and I waited till they were all gone before I headed down to the lobby with Zac. “Is he alive?” I asked after Zac checked the pulse of the student that had fallen and when he turned to me, his face was pale.
“Barely. I have to get him to the clinic. Are you coming with me?”
I should do that. Theo didn’t want me here so I should take up that offer, but I didn’t want to leave Theo here. A student was in a ‘barely alive’ state due to the ghost he was about to go deal with, and I absolutely wouldn’t be okay if I lost him or any of my friends. Zac raised a brow at me, waiting for my response, and I glanced in the direction of the supply room before shaking my head sideways. He picked up the student before getting to his feet.
“Good luck. Don’t die.”
“You too.”
“I won’t, actually. I’m leaving,” he said and the corner of my mouth turned up. “Unlike you.” With that, he rushed off and as I turned to head towards the supply room, someone called my name. I glanced in the direction it had come from to see Keith and several other CMES members heading towards me and even though none of them had dealt with a malevolent ghost before, I was still immensely relieved to see them.
“Where’s Hunter?”
“Is Theo here?”
“Is Blake here?”
“Are there still students here?”
“Have you come across the spirit?”
The questions came all at once and I frowned at the Blake one before responding. “Theo and Hunter are in the supply room. I don’t know where Blake is, but I assume he’s on one of the upper floors. Yes, there are still students here. No, I haven’t come across the spirit.” Then I proceeded to run over to the supply room just as Theo and Hunter walked out of it and Theo’s brows snapped together when he saw me.
“I told you to leave.”
“I’m not leaving my friends,” I replied and his frown deepened but he didn’t say anything else. Then he glanced past me at the members that had followed me and sighed in relief.
“Oh, thank Goddess.” He moved past me to Keith who handed him a bag he immediately began to go through.
“So how are we going to do this?” Keith asked and the corner of Theo’s mouth turned up as he put his ghost equipment belt around his waist.
“You’re asking me?”
Keith shrugged. “You’re kinda the president.”
“A post that should have been yours.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t come with a pay increase, and they don’t pay me enough for this shit.”
“Members get paid?” I cut in and Theo raised a brow at me.
“That’s all you got from that?”
“Priorities, I guess,” Keith said and some people laughed, but they sounded nervous. “So what do you suggest our course of action should be, presidents?” he asked and Theo heaved a sigh.
“We need to get the students out,” Theo stated.
“And prevent the spirit from leaving with them,” Hunter added. “We could use the blockers.”
“They won’t last longer than five minutes.”
“We brought twenty,” Keith cut in.
“That’s twenty-five minutes. Will that give us enough time to seal the spirit here?”
Hunter shrugged. “Let’s find out.”