Chapter 9
Night at the Library
"Honestly, I'm not sure it was a good idea for you to make a promise like that," Viv said as she and Lily walked out of girls dormitory.
They were headed over to the Clubhouse to meet the boys and talk about their next move. The Clubhouse was a place between the girls and boys dormitories where students could hang out and chill on their free time. It came with its own snack bar, a computer lab, a TV room, an arcade room, and even a movie theater. Lily wasn't sure why there'd be both a TV room AND a movie theater (if you asked her, the TV room was big enough to count as a movie theater).
"I don't see what the big deal is," Lily said, holding the left side glass door open for Viv. "We ARE going to try and get her face back."
"Yeah, but we don't even know for sure we can," said Viv. "Melody'll be really disappointed if we can't keep that promise."
"You say that like we could lose," Lily said.
"Hey, it's possible," Viv argued. "You remember, the only reason we got all that stuff back was because the parrot went easy on you. We can't count on that happening again."
"Then I'll just get better," Lily said. "I'll get faster, stronger and way more powerful. Have some faith in me."
"It's not about having faith," said Viv. "All I'm saying is that it's better to be careful before making any promises, because there's always a chance you might not keep them whether you want to or not."
Suddenly, a voice cut in and asked, "What's this about promises?"
While the girls were talking, they had arrived at a sitting area in the lobby where Oliver and Eddie occupied two silver-gray, leather armchairs facing opposite each other around a round, glass coffee table. Oliver could hear the girls from a mile away, though didn't catch everything.
"It's nothing," said Lily. "Anyway, here's what we heard . . ."
After telling the boys the whole story as told by Melody, Oliver rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, "An old journal with a green leather cover that disappeared somewhere around the non-fiction section, huh?"
"That matches up with what happened to that other guy," said Eddie.
The girls exchanged looks.
"That other guy?" asked Lily. "What are you talking about?"
Oliver explained, "While you were getting the details from Melody, me and Eddie went to have a word with the other library helpers to get their side of the story. That's when we discovered that there's a second victim."
Viv raised an eyebrow. "A second victim? You mean someone else got their face ripped off?"
"Yep," replied Oliver. "It was Hassan. He went looking for the book on his own, found one that looked different, and it attacked him. After taking his face, the book flew away. Hassan chased after it thinking it would lead him to the one with Melody's fave, but lost it by a shelf full of electronics books."
"Electronics?" Lily spoke up. "Not technology like that time with Melody?"
Oliver shrugged. "It could be the same section, they just call it different things because of the type of books there. Anyway, that seems to be a good place to start investigating."
"Let's backtrack a little," said Viv. "There's ANOTHER of those books?"
"Honestly, I'm not surprised," said Eddie.
"Alright then," Lily said, rubbing her hands together. "When do we start?"
Oliver smiled and replied, "When else? Tonight!"
**********
"When you said, tonight," said Lily, "I didn't think you meant after dinner when most buildings, including the library should be locked down."
"When else did I mean?" asked Oliver. He was ahead of the group tiptoeing through an aisle shining a light in front of him from his smartphone.
Right now, Lily and the gang were in the library, well after the librarians had gone for the night. The lights were, of course, off, leaving the library in total darkness. Which was why Oliver was using his phone's flashlight to light the way. A glance at her own phone told Lily that it was now seven minutes past Eight.
"Where'd you get the key this place, anyway?" whispered Eddie.
Oliver replied, "I borrowed it from Alejandro. He and Erin were entrusted with lockup. He also gave me his passcode for the alarm. As long as we get back to the dorms before curfew strikes, we're safe."
"I don't know about that," Lily said doubtfully. "Sneaking into the library after closing? This feels so wrong."
This would make the second time she and the others were scurrying around in the dark where and when they were not supposed to. She started to wonder if this was going to be a regular thing from now on.
"Can't be worse than sneaking outside of the school to explore the forest at night," muttered Viv.
"So where should we start?" Eddie asked Oliver.
Oliver replied, "The aisle with the technology books. That's where the face-stealing book disappeared twice, so we should start there. But be careful. That thing's already gotten two faces. Let's not add more to its collection."
With darkness surrounding them at all sides, the gang headed to the area of the library that housed the non-fiction books. But just before entering that maze of bookshelves, Oliver suddenly stopped.
"Wha -?"
Lily was going to ask the older boy what was wrong, but he cut her off with a "Shh!" while holding a finger to his lips. He quickly snuffed out his phone's light and stretched his ears to the non-fiction area. Lily did the same and strained ears, catching the unmistakable sound of people speaking in hissing whispers. A jolt of fright hit her heart when she realized that she and the gang were not alone.
The whispering got louder, a sign that whoever was covered by the bookshelves was getting closer.
Oliver frantically waved his hand, signing to the others to hide. Playing Follow-the-Leader, the gang copied Oliver and dove behind a low shelf full of encyclopedias. One by one, they peaked out over the shelf top and watched as three whispering dark shapes emerged.
Suddenly, Oliver popped up and cried out, "What are you guys doing here?"
The three figures jumped back and yelped, "Gah!"
One figure swore and said, "Geez, Oliver! You scared me!"
"You know these guys, Oliver?" asked Lily. Seeing that they were in no trouble, she and the others stood back up. Light from Oliver's phone revealed the three figures were fellow students like themselves.
Oliver replied, "You could say that. These guys are library helpers like Hassan and Melody. From right to left, we got Alejandro, George, and Erin."
The oldest of the trio, a lanky, Hispanic boy raised his hand and said, "Yo, 'sup? The name's Alejandro. Nice to meet you all, Oliver's sidekicks."
"Sidekicks?" Lily, Eddie and Viv gave Oliver the side-eye, but he just turned away and pretended like nothing happened.
"Ahem!" he coughed. "Anyway, you still haven't answered my question. What are you guys doing here? I thought I told you that I'd handle this myself."
"Come on, Ollie," said George. "You can't expect us to just sit back and twiddle our thumbs when two of our friends are in trouble."
"Besides," said Erin, "we wanted to see what the famed Lady Sapphire was like."
Startled, Oliver stammered, "Wha-!? Wh-what do you mean? Wh-wh-what does Lady Sapphire have to do with anything?"
Erin rolled her eyes and went, "Oh, please, Oliver. You get new assistants at the same time Lady Sapphire shows up, followed by something fantastically impossible like a face-stealing and flying book? Not to mention, even after seeing that picture of Melody, you believed our story a little too fast and said you'd solve everything with an weird can-do attitude. It wasn't hard to connect the dots and see that you might have been through something just as weird and that maybe Lady Sapphire was mixed in this somehow."
"The way you acted just now all but proves it all," said Alejandro. "I'm guessing the kid with the blue bracelet's her, the heroic Lady Sapphire? That bling of hers really stands out."
Oliver gave Lily an awkward smile and then replied, "No point hiding it. Yep, that's her alright. Meet Lily Wong, A.K.A. Lady Sapphire."
Lily cupped her hands over her eyes and groaned. It's only been a few days and the truth of Lady Sapphire was already out. And all the attention the library helpers gave her was not helping.
Viv raised her hand and said, "I'm just going to put it out there already, but we are terrible at keeping secrets."
"Anyway," said Alejandro, "we want to help out."
With a sigh, Oliver said, "Well, you're here already. We may as well have you show us the way."
"Great! So where do we begin?"
"The technologies section," said Oliver. "That was where the book kept disappearing at."
"Got it," said a cheerful Alejandro. "Right this way!"
The library helpers led the gang through the maze of bookshelves, taking twists and turns from aisle to aisle, shelf to shelf, until at last they came across a path with books about the subject of technology. They stopped right in the middle and took a look around.
"So? What do you think?" asked Erin. "Find anything?"
Oliver shined his light everywhere, but shook his head.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary," he said. "No vents or trap doors the book could use to escape. It looks like every tightly packed book belongs here. As far as I can see, there's no green journal book. What about you, Lily? Notice anything unusual?"
Lily took a brief look around and then replied, "No. I can't find anything out of the ordinary."
"What about the bracelet?" asked Eddie. "Can it detect anything?"
George blinked. "The bracelet can detect things? Is it magic or something?"
"Actually, yeah," said Lily.
Astonished, the library helpers cried out, "IT IS!?"
Viv put her finger to her lips and went, "Shh! Quiet in the library!"
The library helpers clapped their hands over their mouths and then hissed, "The bracelet's magic?"
Lily nodded. "It's a long story."
"A story we don't have time for," Oliver cut in. He pointed to the time shown on his phone. "Let's move along, shall we?"
"Right, but what exactly do I do?" said Lily.
"Just ask it to show you where the book is," said Oliver. "I know the bracelet's got restrictions, but that should work."
"If you say so," Lily said, only half-convinced. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, here goes nothing."
She pulled her sleeve up to expose more of the bracelet and stretched her arm out in front of her.
"Okay, bracelet," she said. "Show us where the face-stealing book is."
She didn't have to wait long for something to happen.
Light shine from the bracelet's top stone and a thin beam flew out straight to the floor. A circle filled with intricate patterns suddenly appeared beneath everyone's feet and illuminated the space around them.
"Whoa!" Eddie cried out.
"Is that what I think that is?" shouted Erin.
"It is!" Alejandro said excitedly. "It is! It's a magic circle! A real magic circle! Just like in comic books!"
Lily shrieked, "Eek!"
The light shining from the magic circle instantly grew brighter, overtaking everything that Lily could see like the flash from a camera.
And then, the next moment Lily could see, she found herself and the others in a small, circular room with walls of dark brick and a high ceiling. Past the archway in front of them was a tunnel lit by rows of flaming torches with more warm light at the end.
"Did we just get teleported by that magic circle?" asked Viv.
"I think so," said Oliver.
"That's so cool!" cried out Erin. "Let's do that again."
"But where even are we?" asked Eddie.
Lily replied, "I don't know, but wherever this is, I bet you anything this is where we'll find that book."
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