Survived By Secrets

5 • Unfortunate

Ryan walked down the row of bookshelves, each for a different genre. He stopped at the paranormal section. "I don't know much about ghosts. Maybe I can find a book that helps me," he said to Lya. She was standing beside the printer waiting for the article to print.

He walked through the section, his eyes scanning the spines of different books. At the end a dark-skinned boy stood, looking at a book. His dark brown eyes scanned the cover. It didn't take him long to notice Ryan.

"Hey," the boy greeted. Ryan had recognized him from school. The town was small so he never saw anyone he didn't know.

"Hi," Ryan mumbled.

"What are you lookin' for?"

"Not sure." The boy eyed him curiously. How would Ryan tell him he was actually looking for a book to help him deal with a voice in his head?

"Well if you want non-fiction, it's right there." He pointed to a section on the bottom shelf, "I'm basically an expert so you can ask me for anything."

"Thanks," Ryan said and the boy went back to the book he was looking at. He actually had a lot of questions but he didn't how to ask him and if he even knew the answers. He drew in a deep breath, hoping that the boy didn't find him crazy for what he was about to ask. "Is it possible to hear a voice in your head, like someone else's voice?" The boy's eyebrows shot up. "I'm asking for a friend by the way."

Ryan prepared himself for a laugh but the laugh never came. "I've read about this before!" The boy's eyes grew wide. "I wish I remembered what it said. Something about a strong connection to the spirit world."

This time Ryan was the one that laughed. "My friend doesn't have a connection to the 'spirit world'."

"Well, the voice is probably a spirit trying to connect to our world. Like send a message or something, and because of your friend's connection the spirit was able to reach them."

It did sound ridiculous but it was the only explanation he had.

"My name is Mahlik but you probably already knew that," he said.

"No, I actually didn't know your name."

"Oh. Well that definitely didn't hurt my feelings," he joked. "I know your name though. I can't remember anything else but I seem to remember names pretty well."

"Okay then, Mahlik. Do you know any books that will help me find out more about the spirit world or whatever you called it?"

"Oh! I think I know one. Just might take me awhile to find it." He walked along the bookshelf then bent down. He picked out a few books, scanning the covers. Then he stopped at one "Ah, here it is."

He walked back over to Ryan and handed it to him. Then Ryan said, "Thanks for the help."

"See you around," Mahlik said. Then Ryan walked over to where Lya was standing.

"Who's that?" Lya asked.

"Mahlik. He was helping me with you know..." He waved his hands around his head. "The voice in here."

"You told him?"

"Yeah. I know it wasn't a good idea but to be fair I didn't think he would believe me and I told him I was asking for a friend."

"Okay whatever. You can use my library card to sign it out." They walked over to where the librarian sat. She was behind a brown desk. Tight curls covered her face. She had her head in a book, concentrated. "Hello, can we sign out this book?"

Though she was tall, Lya could still rest her elbows on the cedar desk.

"Of course," the lady said. Ryan came up to the desk and handed it to her. She stood up and took it from him. She then stopped and her eyebrows furrowed when she saw the paper that was in Lya's hand. "I remember this day. It was so devastating, that little girl was the sweetest thing."

"Y-you knew her?" Ryan asked. The librarian smiled up at him.

"Oh yes, I'm not as young as I look," she laughed. "I was just a teenager at that time but I remembered her and her family so well."

Her hazel eyes looked up as if remembering. Ryan had to stop himself from asking if she knew who killed her.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Lya was the one to ask the question. "Do you know who killed her?"

The lady tilted her head up at Lya. She locked her hands together then sat back down on her chair. She broke eye contact with Lya, looking down at her hands. "No, the police couldn't figure it out." She looked back up at them. "I did suspect Mr. Kent though. He was a suspect but they fond no evidence, so he walked free."

"Was he the only suspect?" Ryan asked. He thought that she would have wondered why they were asking her these questions but she just continued talking instead.

"No, there were others but everyone suspected him because he was just a horrible person. But yelling at few kids here and there wasn't enough evidence." She looked down at the table, lines forming across her forehead. "Her death was very unfortunate. That poor Lawrence, he lost her and after he had lost his parents." Did his parents die? It didn't make sense to Ryan because the newspaper article didn't say anything about her parents being dead. Before he could ask her anything else they were interrupted.

"Hey, Mrs. Davidson." A man walked in. He was about the same age as the librarian, maybe a little older. A grey stubble forming around his chin. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, Jay." She gestured to Ryan and Lya. "I was telling these kids about Nancy. You remember right?"

The man narrowed his eyes at her. Then she placed her hands on the table, bringing herself to stand up.

"Okay kids," she shrugged. "No more questions. People don't like when you talk about the past around here."