𝐓.𝐇.𝐄

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖

The week passed quite fast and normally, except for the insisted questions from the girls about that event, the disgusted looks and offensive comments by Anne, and the horrible Miss Ariana's horrible yells to me.

While I was telling the girls what exactly happened that day, their facial expressions switched so many times that if I had a phone I would have captured them all and then laughed for the rest of my life.

Claire was listening to me with her eyes wide and mouth open, Lucy tried to contain herself, but once I started to describe him, she lost it. She put her hands over her mouth, incredulous. As for Anne, her shocked and disappointed face was eating me alive, and if her eyes were able to kill, well, she wouldn't have hesitated.

When my free day came, I couldn't be happier. I hadn't realized I needed some time for myself until I could wake up at any time, making my breakfast calmly, and roaming around the building without having to worry about any duty. However, my mind couldn't stop taking me to that event, and the more I tried to forget it, the more it emerged to haunt my peaceful day.

I've promised myself that I will never go up there for any reason, that I will work as I've always done, and that I will stop questioning myself about the family's affairs or secrets.

"Ave, can you pass me the feather duster, please?" Lucy's voice distracts me from my thoughts.

"Sure." I give it to her before finishing dusting the last shelf of the library.

Cleaning and taking care of the huge library is another of our duties. I've never seen such an enormous library full of books, both modern and ancient. There may be more than a hundred thousand books, and being such an avid reader, I'd live in here for the rest of my life. God only knows how much information there is in here, and not being able to absorb it little by little frustrates me.

"Okay, I'm done here. What about you?" Lucy asks, walking down the stairs.

"Finished, but we still have a lot of work here. It will take more time to clean every single part of it." I affirm.

"Yeah, I know that", she pauses, looking at her watch, "but it's half fast eleven, and we have to help Anne and Claire to prepare the lunch for the bosses." I laugh at her scornful tone.

"What if I stay here and keep cleaning? I'm more useful among books than food." I suggest. Lucy moves her eyes to mine, and a little smile appears on her lips, knowing I'm right.

"Well, I can't disagree with that." I give her an offended look, before laughing with her. No matter what she says, I can't be angry at her. She makes everything so fun that you don't see it as an offense at all.

"Okay, then. See you later, Holmes."

"Stop calling me like that." I shout, but she has already disappeared from my view.

Since that event, she can't stop calling me Sherlock Holmes, asking me every day, "what case do we have today?" It annoys more Anne than me. I pretend to be disturbed by her jokes, but deep down I find them quite funny and getting offended would just ruin the amusement.

I get down the stairs, moving some books to the right and keep cleaning. I've never enjoyed cleaning, but the books' odour relaxes me and helps me concentrate more on my tasks.

Once I've finished, I sit on the golden chair careful not to damage it, and rest. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to sit on it, but as usual, I don't care. I take deep breaths while I look around the huge shelves, and the feeling of being watched by all these books gives me chills. All the fantasy books I read are messing with my mind, making me imagine unreal things.

"History.. Science..", I read out loud the different sections, imagining how much information there is inside each book, "Religion.. Investment.. Prohib-".

I stop reading once I realize what it's written. I blink a couple of times, unsure of my visual capacities, but my eyes seems to detect the word Prohibited. Why would a section be called like that? That is not a topic.

I decide to take the stairs and check it out.  Nobody is in here, so why shouldn't I  tak a look? I start climbing fast, too curious about what kind of books there are. Once I'm in front of it, I analyze the area. All I see are old and huge black books, with no cover or name; there aren't many, but I bet it would take days to read one of them. I take one randomly, and I open it: nothing. Is this a joke?

All I see are white papers with nothing written in. I'd be delighted to meet the person who has this brilliant idea of making empty books, and the fact that they are in a section called Prohibited makes it even funnier. I would have expected to find everything up here, but never this.

Suddenly, a strange sound floods the library, almost making me fall from the stairs. I look around, afraid to be discovered spying this area. I stay immobile, concentrating all my energy to my ears to catch every sound possible, but I hear nothing except my fast breath. I'm too paranoid, it may have been in my imagination. I decide to stop worrying uselessly, and I keep searching the mysterious empty books to try to find out what makes them prohibited.

I leaf through the pages and I see nothing, but I see nothing but white. I feel the sweat dripping from my forehead.

Standing up here in this heavy uniform surely is not helping my nerves, and not knowing what there is in these empty books makes me even more frustrated. I throw them into the shelf, surrendering.

The curiosity I have had before has now vanished into thin air, and not having satisfied it makes me regret having stayed here. How foolish of me to think that I would find some secrets here, in a public place.

I start going down the stairs, when something stops my legs. An unfamiliar and small hole under the shelf captures my eyes. I get down two more steps to have a better view of it. I insert my finger in the hole to find what's in it, and when it gets in, it comes across a metallic object. I move it, trying to figure out what it is, but all my senses feel is a round and cold object with a.. back end.

As I take my finger out of it, a piece of the shelf falls down, followed by a tumble. It takes me some time before realizing what has caused that sound, and once I find out, confusion hits me. Why on Earth would they hide a hand lens?

I don't get any time to think about a possible reason, because a familiar voice interrupts my thoughts and petrifies my whole body.

"What are you doing up there?"

A/N

Hi guys! First of all, I want to thank all of you for the time you're giving to my new book, this is very important to me. x
Second of all, I want to thank you for the corrections and advice you are giving me. Since English is not my first language, I may make some mistakes and I hope you won't make a tragedy about it. Thanks to LaughterGirl11 that is now my personal editor, I will try to get rid of all possible mistakes.
Said so, I hope you're liking the story. This is just the beginning and if it has already thrilled you, imagine what the following chapters will do to you!

All the love,

B.x