The Ghost Keeper

Chapter 6A

I knew i'd find the three weirdos in the library. It was one of the oldest buildings in this town, what am I saying? Everything in this town was old. I laughed again to myself. If only Ellis could see me now, he'd have the same annoyed expression plastered on his face like he always does when i'm zoning out, now I get why he's so uptight, he's a century old. Let me cut him some slack.
It must be hard to have a youth around you all the time when you're not only old, but dead as well
Shaking my head I made my way to the entrance of the library, what I was doing looked perfectly normal, I was a normal seventeen year old girl walking into a library to chat to three perfectly normal teenagers. Nothing weird about that, except everything .

Toby, Ellis and Liza were seated at a far corner table with stacks of books on it, I shivered at the sight. I'm all game for some reading but those books! Not only were they grey, thick and ugly but they were old and dusty too. It was obvious nobody used the library as much. Which was weird, considering the fact that almost everyone in this ghost town went to school. For some reason.
Ellis was the one who looked up first, and kind of smiled for a while well i'm assuming it was a smile. It was the nicest thing i'd received from him since being here. Liza and Toby also looked up and saw me approach, I cautious, them hopeful. I gave them a small nod before plopping myself on one of the chairs opposite Toby. I was at a loss for words honestly, my mind was jumbled from too much thinking, I wasn't okay. I knew that. They knew that. There was a lot we needed to put out in the open.
I understood how they knew about me and my life, but what I didn't understand was why my dad was working against me with Giselle. He'd known what i'd been through, he rescued me. Or was it all just a big fat ploy to get me to trust him?
I'd lost a mother, and now I was losing a father too. I had no one, I was utterly and completely alone.
I hadn't realized I was crying until Toby awkwardly put his hand on mine, it was a small gesture, but it was sweet. They were not used to human contact I assume, so it must've taken a lot for him to do that.

I returned a small smile and looked at Ellis and Liza. Liza was also close to tears and Ellis just looked like Ellis, unaffected. Feeling a bit silly for the crying episode, I wiped the remainder of my tears with my sleeve and cleared my throat. There was a lot that needed to be done.

ELLIS

Aurora Grace looked pained as she walked into the library, i hadn't expected to see her here today considering the fact that she bolted out of school like she was on fire. Such a drama queen. But considering the bombs we dropped on her I pretty much expected a reaction along those lines. I was planning on pretty much ignoring her as she walked in -like I always do, cause she's so emotionally exhausting- but her sad expression tugged at something in me. I wanted to reach out and squeeze her hands or pat her on the head like people usually comfort each other, I think. But I settled for giving her a small smile. It's much safer and less complicated and giving her a hug or a pat meant me getting up from my chair and I.. I'm sorry but I wasn't going to do that.

Instead of the usual snarky comments she dished out she just sat next to Toby and sighed, before her tears began to fall. The atmosphere wasn't awkward or tense, it was morose and heartbreaking. Liza, Tobias and I knew exactly what was going through her head. She looked ... torn .. devastated, i'd never seen her like this, not even when I upset her.
Toby reached out for her hand and she oh so slowly gave him a smile. Did they like each other now? Like did they have feelings for each other? Is that why he was still holding her hand? It annoyed me how close they had become, or how close they were seating. We were here to discuss Chris and his shenanigans, not witness a love story between Tobias and Aurora Grace.

Finally! Aurora Grace looked up and removed her hand from Tobias' frosty hand, she looked at both Liza and I before clearing her throat. It was sad what she was going through, but I wasn't here to watch her and Tobias do whatever it was they were doing.

-"I assume you found something out about your dad? Or that you confronted him? Or something" Tobias was unsure of what to ask, actually none of us were actually sure on how to phrase some words.
There wasn't enough time left to find answers, too many obstacles were going to get thrown in our way, and Aurora Grace was getting herself into more danger than she thinks.
She could lose her life. She could get hurt. Those sgigoris, they're vigorous. But I swear if they hurt her..

-"he was on the phone with someone, I dunno who, but he was talking about how he.. How he was to cleanse the house and how he hoped for my own good, I didn't find out what was going on."

-"did he see you walk in? Did he realize you heard him?"
Aurora Grace gave Tobias a reassuring look as she shook her head no. If Chris had realized she had heard, there was no knowing what he'd do.

"Well then I think we should start diving into this right away, we've already figured out Chris is a bastard, but we need to figure out why he's working with Giselle and what they plan on doing to this town and Aurora Grace.
Chris obviously doesn't know that we're on to him, which might serve as an advantage on our side."

-"meaning that Aurora has to act oblivious and pretend to not know what's going on?"

"Exactly Liza, if Chris doesn't suspect Aurora Grace of knowing anything, he can't hurt her.
Aurora Grace you need to be as normal as possible. Chris is dangerous okay, and we haven't seen the extent of his craziness.
Don't give him any reason to be suspicious of you . At all."

Aurora Grace nodded, the seriousness of this issue was probably only starting to hit her now. But we still need to go over a few things with her to ensure she has the best protection she can get.

"Don't tell anyone about this, under any circumstances. As far you're concerned, this is a normal town with normal living humans."

-"but why?"

-"because there's sgigoris roaming the nights."
Confusion.
"Well Tobias" I rolled my eyes at Tobias' vagueness. Something that I took from Aurora Grace -rolling my eyes-.
"Sgigoris are pretty much evil ghosts if I may put it that way. We don't know what causes them to be that way, but we have a suspicion it's got something to do with the mayor.
Every time someone "disappears" a sgigory is 'born' if I may, again. And we believe it's got something to do with the mayor cause he's the only one that wants to deal with them."

Aurora Grace let out a sigh of exasperation. -"so basically what you mean is everyone is against what we're doing? Even though we're doing this for everyone's good? Your freedom?."

-"well you see Aurora, not everyone wants to be free." This time it was Liza that replied.

-"but why?"

"Because not everyone wants to give up the power they now have."

Aurora Grace' eyes lit up at this, and I knew we were getting somewhere. At least she understood.

-"wait" Aurora Grace put up her hand as if to ask something.
-"I don't understand." And I knew at that moment I had celebrated too soon. This was gonna be a looong day.