The neat thing about being in my third year is that I’m pretty much done with general electives. I’ve got a few requirements left but they’re requirements from my degree track, meant to complement my geology studies. I’m starting to wonder if my major was a mistake. I mean, there’s some cool stuff in this field! But Cassie is getting these… internship prep classes because they’re going to have a job fair and she’s kind of expected to get an internship over the summer. There’s nothing like that in my program. I’m starting to feel like they expect us to just sort of figure it out.
(if you’re new, start here, and if you’re totally lost, this might help)
I think with Grayson graduating it’s made me start thinking of what I want to do when I’m done here. I don’t know yet. I don’t think Grayson knows either, honestly, because he’s been pretty morose when we’ve hung out. If this keeps up for much longer I might need to do a “you really don’t have to stay here!” intervention, kind of like what I got back home when Kampus killed my ex-boyfriend. Except Grayson’s intervention will be with less murder. Waaaaay less murder.
I’ve got some flexibility in my schedule and since there’s nothing in the popular culture department that I was interested in, I took some random filler classes. I’m in a weight-lifting class. It’s 1 credit hour. Felt like it’d be useful. And I’m also in a class that looked like it would be a martial arts class but it’s actually Tai Chi. I mean okay technically that is a martial art but I was expecting the kind you see on TV, yanno? With punching. I’m still going to take it, it’s interesting and I probably need more mindfulness in my life anyway.
So yeah, a few general classes with students I’ll probably never see again (and no, none of my classmates are Mr. Probably A Football Player, so he’s not joining the Scooby Gang as some of you were hoping (P.S. I’ve never watched Scooby-Doo)) But for my degree program classes, those have scaled down to just the folks like me that are getting a degree in geology. No more lecture halls! Hopefully no more tree roots with insects from the Carboniferous period!
The other interesting thing is that the professors have gotten a lot friendlier now that they’re teaching students that want to be here and aren’t just fulfilling a general education requirement. In particular, Professor Monotone has gotten chatty with me, which is kind of weird. I think now that he knows that I know about the stuff going on around here, that means I’m part of some exclusive club and that automatically makes us friends or something. He’s… actually not bad outside of a lecture. Like, he really knows his stuff. It’s kind of reassuring. I’ve outgrown the tutoring center (they aren’t really able to help with stuff outside the general requirements) and so if I just show up at his office with a question I’m going to not just get an answer, but also get a thirty minute private lesson on any adjacent topic while I’m there.
“Wow Ashley that’s specific.”
Yes. Yes it is.
But it’s also quite helpful! I want to identify the tree in the graveyard, but all I have go to on is a piece of petrified bark. …stolen… petrified bark… that I don’t remember stealing.
Anyway! I presented the problem to him, since fossils are his expertise after all, and even got a little daring and let slip that the piece of wood I was trying to figure out was from the graveyard. He paused a little at that and I feel he might have been on the verge of saying something more, but the allure of talking about fossils was calling to him and he then launched into a thirty minute lecture on identifying ancient plants.
Then he told me about a book that the university owned that was nothing but ancient trees and that if I really wanted to find out what I was looking at, I should start there. Fifth floor of the main library, he said. I get the feeling that he’s read this book more than once since he knows exactly where it is.
Or maybe he’s some kind of inhuman himself with perfect knowledge of campus, I dunno, y’all are gonna go nuts speculating in the comments anyway, who am I to stop it?
I wanted that book. So it was back into the library for me.
Yes, the library that floods periodically and is inhabited by an angry ghost that tried to throw me out a window. It’s fine. It’s alllllll fine.
Now, before everyone panics, I had a plan. The book I needed was on the fifth floor, so I was going to putter around on the first floor for about half an hour, then move up to the second for another half hour. If the ghost hadn’t tried to throw me out a window by that time, then I’d risk the fifth floor. (we figured being thrown out the first floor window probably wouldn’t kill me)
We also had a backup plan. Maria was going to wait in the lobby while I went upstairs.
Yes, I could have had Maria go upstairs and get them for me. That’s the obvious solution. And no, this is not a case of we only thought of the obvious solution in hindsight. We’re not quite that dumb. Just hold with me a minute.
We were going to stay on a call via earbuds and if I felt like I was in danger, I’d say the code word, and she’d discretely start ripping pages out of a library book she’d have on hand.
That would piss the library off, it’d start to flood, and the ghost would come to save her. Then I could make my escape to less lethal altitudes.
Yes, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong with that. We talked through them all. But as I think you all already know, there’s no way to go about dealing with the inhuman without a little bit of risk. Sometimes you have to do something dangerous to get the information you need.
We were running an experiment. I wanted to see if the library ghost was still angry at me, now that I’d gotten rid of the flickering man. Because if he wasn’t, then it would confirm that there were opposing factions within the inhumans here on campus. Actual factions, not just a desire for petty vengeance from the world’s angriest laundry mom.
Do you remember the steam tunnel ghost last year? How it chased off the flickering man? He’d screamed when it came at him.
Maybe the ghosts are all on the same side.
Also it would be nice to be able to visit the library again, even though Maria and Cassie both had volunteered to get me whatever books I needed and I’ve finally realized that it’s okay to ask my friends for help and would let them do that. There’s just some things that are best found through browsing the shelves yourself and if eliminating the flickering man did that, then all the better.
Maria came over to the apartment on the day we planned to execute our plan. Also, she hadn’t seen it yet. I introduced her to Titanosaur, who deigned to come out of his devil-box (that’s what we’re calling it now) to love all over her, at least until she noticed that he had a turd stuck to his butt.
Like I said before, the cat just isn’t that bright.
We told Cassie about our plan to visit the library. She paused in reading her textbook long enough to glance up at me, her expression coldly disapproving.
“Just let me know that you’re alive,” she finally sighed, and returned to her reading.
I guess this sort of bullshit is starting to just be normal around here.
It wasn’t raining when we walked over to the library, but whatever, that could change at any moment around here. It was overcast. We had clouds more often than not and between that and the puddles, I was really starting to wish I’d recorded some statistics in the previous years. Had campus changed now that the flickering man was gone? I had nothing reliable to compare against.
We set ourselves up on the phone call before we entered the library. I wandered through the stacks, testing that we had good range, and determined that I needed to stay away from the interior of the building to keep the call from breaking up. Unsurprising. Then, after a bit of whispering and waiting, we decided that it was time to move to stage two.
I went upstairs. After about fifteen minutes of nothing happening, upon which both Maria and I decided that waiting for half an hour was unnecessary and also boring af, I went up to the fifth floor.
It was a little nerve-wracking, ngl. I mean, I had to stay close to the outer walls to keep enough signal to stay in contact with Maria, but I also didn’t feel particularly keen on being close to windows for what I’m sure are obvious reasons. I hurriedly scanned the shelves, searching for the number range my book was in, my heart pounding in my chest. This seemed like it was working. Maybe my theory was right. Maybe the ghost only hated me because of my entanglement with the flickering man and the laundry lady and now that was all done with, I was in the clear.
The book was fairly hefty and smelled of age and disuse. I flipped open the front jacket and sure enough, found one of those ancient library cards in the front. Professor Monotone’s name was like… every other line. Guess the guy really is as old as dirt. The entries ended roughly around the time the library went digital, I suppose. I tucked it under my arm and stood up.
The library ghost was watching me from the end of the aisle. There was a moment of panic where I felt like I’d been plunged into a tub of ice water and it was like my heart was going to stop, but then I reminded myself we weren’t even in eyeshot of the windows. And he didn’t look angry. He stood there, dripping, in his old-fashioned clothing with his head tilted slightly and he looked a little… sad.
“Hey,” I said, nervously holding up a hand and waving to him like the awkward potato I am. “We, uh, good?”
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I don’t want you here.”
“But - I -”
“Do I trigger the flood?” Maria whispered anxiously in my ear.
I clenched my hands into fists and sucked in a breath.
“What is wrong with me?” I hissed. “Didn’t I do the right thing?”
“It’s too late. It’s been too late for a while. I want you to leave.”
“Flood?” Maria asked. She sounded almost hopeful. Maybe I should have thought harder on why she’d agreed to help so quickly.
There was something brittle and sharp inside me, like tree branches after an ice storm. I could hear them cracking, one by one. It sounded like the noise the flickering man’s skull had made against the pavement.
“I killed the flickering man!” I cried. “What more do you want from me?”
He was quiet for a moment. I was crying. I didn’t know why. Hadn’t I done the right thing? Hadn’t I?
“How did you kill him?” he asked softly.
“DO I TRIGGER THE FLOOD OR NOT.”
Maria’s demand snapped me back to myself. The library ghost was still standing nearby, but he was only watching with curiosity, as if he only distantly remembered what it meant to have emotions this strong. I choked out a ‘no.’
“I don’t want to talk about that,” I said to the ghost. “Sorry. I can’t.”
The ghost straightened his head and I felt he’d come to some kind of conclusion.
“I’m sorry too,” he said. “Get what you came for and leave, please.”
Then he vanished. I sucked in a deep breath and looked back at the shelf. I had the book already, but some weird part of me wondered if what he’d said was significant, if there was something else I was here for. I stared at the shelf for what seemed like an eternity, my eyes unfocused, staring mindlessly at the spines without really comprehending what was printed on them.
“So I didn’t do it,” Maria said suddenly, “but the library is flooding. Like. For real.”
Great. Someone else pissed off the library.
“How deep is it?” I asked.
“Uh, this is a real flood,” she said. “So it’s only coming in at the doors and it’s just getting the floor wet. But the library staff are panicking and calling maintenance.”
Wait. Water was coming in under the doors? Like… from outside?
“When did it start raining?” I demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did,” she replied crossly. “You even said ‘okay’.”
Wow. Perhaps this wasn’t a great idea after all. I clearly did not have my head in the game at the moment. I headed towards the wall just to get a clear view of the window and sure enough, rain was pouring down. It was dark enough outside that some of the street lights had clicked on.
“We’re not going outside in that,” I said. “No way.”
“Yeah, agreed. Wait it out in the lobby I guess like everyone else?”
“Well… the ghost wants me to leave now that I found the book. But he was polite about it.”
“Then we should probably leave while he’s still being polite. Steam tunnels?”
“Steam tunnels,” I agreed.
I met Maria downstairs and we headed for the back of the stacks, where we’d find the entrance to the tunnels. It was a little nerve-wracking, as the stacks were conspicuously empty as most students had migrated to the lobby to see what all the excitement was about. My only consolation was that we hadn’t done anything to anger the library and now that we knew, we’d follow the rules and it would have no reason to drown us in retaliation. Still, I couldn’t help but feel relieved when we reached the heavy door leading into the tunnels.
That relief fled as soon as we opened the door. Maria and I stared at the tunnel before us in shock. That horrid, cold dread crept into my chest again, squeezing so tightly that I thought my chest would burst. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw up. Because the tunnel before us was impassible, filled with long, spiraling tendrils that branched again and again, from ceiling to floor, burrowing through the brick and concrete, forming a barrier that stretched as far as we could see. Steam crowded thickly amongst the barrier, hissing like a living thing at the intruder that was decimating its home.
It sounded like a living thing. Enraged. Screaming in anger… and desperation.
“Nope,” Maria said, and she slammed the door shut.
We stood there for a good moment, breathless with dread. But I, in particular, felt the weight of terror falling especially heavy on my shoulders.
Because those were tree roots. Everywhere.
There was nowhere else to go, so we returned to the lobby. Neither of us were willing to venture out in rain that heavy. The only option was to sit and wait and hope the mass of people waiting with us would keep the ghost from coming at me. The lobby was bustling with noise and the library apparently had given up on its rules in these extraordinary circumstances. The maintenance crew had arrived and were putting up barriers to stop the rain from progressing any further, forming a pool of water around the doors that grew steadily deeper as we watched.
The more I stared at it, the darker the water looked. It reminded me of the pool in the power plant basement, that was only an inch deep but seemed to go on and on forever. I felt sick.
Maybe I hadn’t done the right thing. Maybe I should have just… made it through the year and then gotten myself expelled or something to forcibly cancel my deal with the devil. Maybe I had made a terrible mistake when I’d let myself get pulled into that stupid quarrel and decided that since it was going to be me or him, that I’d be the one to kill the flickering man.
The number of puddles. The frequency of the rain and the clouds. None of that mattered anymore. I didn’t need to compare it to previous years. Sitting there, watching the rain slowly encroaching on the library, I had my answer.
Campus has changed.[x]