Midnight Ruling (5 page)

Seemed strange that the daughter should console the parent, but I couldn’t blame her for it. She’d already lost one child.

The parking lot was less crowded than usual. Exams scattered students throughout the campus for the next few weeks. There’d be at least one exam I’d have to make-up due to my “extraordinary circumstances.”

Taking a deep breath, I turned and walked up to the three-story building. I happened to turn my head in time to see a cluster of girls walking from the dorms. One of them poked the other, and all eyes turned to me. They stopped walking to watch me.

The local Leland newspaper, along with the larger surrounding cities, seemed interested in our disappearances. The fact that only two of us returned with “amnesia” sparked a lot of questions. Too many questions.

My legs grew rigid, and I tried unsuccessfully to relax.

One reporter accused us of being responsible for the ordeal. Mom tried to hide that article from me, but Aidan had reluctantly read it to me over the phone.

As I slipped through the front doors, I realized I had to stop myself from running to the library. Though the halls consisted of only a few people here and there, their startled expressions accosted me at every turn. Maybe Mom was right and I shouldn’t have come back.

Wanting to get some studying done before my test, I kept my head down. If I didn’t see people looking, I could pretend that they weren’t. I tried not to smile at the childish notion.

Passing the pool area, the windows revealed a place I used to love before finals. Three times a week I swam. I used to love it until the Challenge. There, I’d almost drowned in a witch’s kitchen. I watched as the swimmers propelled themselves through the water. It was something I knew could calm me down. Swimming was the only activity I was good at, unlike Phoebe, who could do anything athletic and excel. I had to force myself to start walking again.

The thought of her made my heart twist, and I focused on counting the tiles on the floor until I found the quiet library, which was far from empty. In fact, it was stuffed to capacity. I suppose everyone came here to study before their exams.
Crap.

Most of the eyes kept to the books. That, at least, was a good sign.

Unfortunately, the place was crammed with students, and it took several rounds before I found a free seat by the window. The girl there was gathering her books and turned in time to see me approach. She froze for a second, thinking I was approaching her. I tried to focus past her at the window. She was at least polite enough not to stare until she thought my back was turned. Like Psychiatric Nurse Susan, I’d learned never to turn my back on people.

Psychos are everywhere.
Again, it sparked an irrational smile. And again I quashed it before I looked too crazy.

Sitting, I opened up my scribbler. It didn’t take long for my mind to slip to the forecast. Two days before rain and we could get
mud from a bodiless grave
. I had so much to do. We didn’t have a clue where to start, and this book Nell mentioned…

Focus, Nora!
I read over the first few lines of my notebook and retained only a little. My poetry class felt contrived. I couldn’t survive the Grave with knowledge like this. That was my primary focus after all. My eyes were scanning the lines from left to right, but I only absorbed snippets. Finally shaking my head, I closed my eyes.
Stop thinking, Nora. Stop thinking about the Demon’s Grave
.
You’ll never make it through these tests. There’s still a chance you’ll get out. Can’t have a flunky
.

A sickening voice in the back of my mind sneered,
A small chance
.

Opening my eyes, I let out a soft sigh that struggled in my throat the moment I saw the blank page. Blinking, I turned the page over, thinking I’d unconsciously flipped ahead.

There was twenty-four pages of notes!

Shoulders hunched, I flipped angrily through the glaring white pages. One after another, they revealed blank pages. But wait…

As I flipped it to the end, I saw something. It was small, but compared to the blank sheets, it was a bull’s eye.

I opened the book, and my eyes focused on the small black print in the top right hand corner.

Forget Them
, it read.

I remembered to breathe and realized I’d slouched over the desk. My nose brushed the top of the white paper, and my hot breath warmed my face. Weren’t we already warned? Did he have to send more because of his rules?

I hastily looked up to see if anyone was watching and froze.

The seats were all empty around me.

Straightening my spine, I blinked, slowly at first, making sure what I was seeing was real.

No books lined the tabletops, and no people occupied the chairs.

Gulping, I found it harder to breathe. I was imagining things. I had to be.

I scanned the empty library before looking out the window to see that it was dark outside. The moon was half hidden behind layers of darkened clouds, and stars were all but obsolete. Only one lamp of dozens stayed lit in the pitch blackness. Not even the lights of the town of Leland could be seen.

Standing slowly, I was grateful to notice all the lights in the library remained lit. I contemplated yelling something like, “
Hello?”
but had seen enough horror movies to restrain myself.

I proceeded past the desks and surrounding bookcases. Chairs were pulled out as if people had been sitting there once. As if they’d fled, staff and all.

I was careful not to walk too close to the bookcases. They could easily conceal something around the corner. I had to suppress a flinch as I passed each possible hiding spot, expecting something to leap out.

Why is this happening? In mid-day. In my world?!

I reached the library entrance, where the large round front desk sat—empty—and stared out into the darkened hallway. I couldn’t hear anything. No footsteps, no breathing, no echoes.

Did I fall asleep? I was certain I hadn’t; I would have remembered being tired. No, I was distracted.

Aidan!
I thought in alarm.
If I’m trapped in this, is he too?

Licking my lips, I placed a shaky hand on the librarian’s desk and pondered where to go. It felt safer in the light of the library. There were no shadows here.

Back-peddling further into the library, I glanced out the window to see the single lamp outside. It was still lit, beckoning in the dark. Adverse to the task, I pressed my arms to my sides to avoid tugging at my shirt. Frustration bubbled upward, and the temptation to yell for help manifested again.

Perhaps I was supposed to go outside, but then what? I’d be blinded in that circle of protective light, unable to see anything coming at me, and I’d be exposed. Wishing with all my might that Aidan was with me, I made up my mind. Doing something was better than nothing, and this was just a dream. Right?

Damien, you are going to pay for this
, I thought and hoped I could tell him one day.

I grabbed ahold of the librarian’s desk. I’d have to count my steps in the dark. I’d have to move fast. There was a display and steps in the entrance. I’d have to be careful of that too.

I took another breath. “Ready. Set.”

A hand snatched my wrist in a hold so tight my wrist cracked.

Crying out, I came to an unwilling halt. I forced myself to look up.

The girl gripping on my wrist was around my age, with wild, dark brown wavy hair, full lips, and a round face. She wore a black jump suit that didn’t show off anything feminine about her; rather, it was baggy in most places. Her dark brown eyes penetrated mine as she hissed a single word, spitting it at me as if it were a curse. “
Forget
.” Her voice echoed in my head long after she’d said it, and I could only stare.

I half expected to see something decaying or deformed, but this girl seemed like a normal college student. She could have blended right into a crowd.

When she twisted my wrist at my lack of response, my back arched. Pain tore at my shoulder, and I cried out again. “I can’t!” I yelped. “I can’t forget.”

Before I could think of a strategy of getting myself out of her merciless grip, she let me go. I stumbled away, hitting a table behind me. With my wrist cradled in my other hand, I realized she wasn’t looking at me anymore. She’d turned her head to the side, startled.

Her eyes widening, she disappeared so suddenly I jumped. Like a ghost, she vanished.

Closing my eyes tightly, I focused on reducing the fear that threatened rational thought.

Was she a warning? Or a trick?
You’re still alive. She didn’t hurt you much. You can’t stay blind forever. Something could be coming.

Opening my eyes, I found myself sitting at the same desk I was before.

Turning my head sharply to look at the room, I saw that it was brimming with students again. Twisting in my chair, I peered out the window to see the lamp outside in the spring afternoon. Something red and triangular, like an envelope, held itself against the side.

Just before slapping my notebook closed, I noticed the handwriting had magically returned. I gathered up my things and sprinted out of the library without a backwards glance.

The large white clock that hung over the entrance revealed that only a few minutes had passed since I’d entered the library. Shouldering my way through the doors, I ignored a pointed stare and raced for the lamp post. I narrowly missed a girl whose attention was on her phone. Dropping my notebook to the grass, I reached out and snatched the bright red envelope from the metal.

It had been taped on with regular tape, though the envelope itself was silken. The red material felt soft and smooth. It could’ve been fabric instead of paper. The flap in the back was sealed with a crimson wax symbol. It reminded me of all the old movies where a person’s seal was their identifier in the mail. This one in particular had a ring around the outer edge and within held a silhouette of a large bird.

Breaking the seal, I unfolded the silken material and saw a single word written in the same neat writing as the one in my notebook. Except this was a word I didn’t recognize:
elfelejt.

Dumbfounded, I stared at it. How the hell would I even pronounce that?!

My eyes shifted to the redness on my wrist where the girl had grabbed me.

Tugging at my shirt to drive back in the hysteria, I stuffed the note in my back pocket.

Forget Them
, she’d said.

Reaching my locker before the second test of the day, I didn’t bother glancing over my shoulder. I didn’t want to see eyes watching me. Sitting in a classroom where I couldn’t run away was bad enough. I wasn’t used to this. Sure, I’d get a glance here or there but not blatant, gaping stares. It was like when someone I didn’t know made eye contact with me for longer than those few polite seconds: then I couldn’t help but grow profoundly self-conscious.

I checked in the bathroom beforehand. I didn’t have anything in my teeth or on my face. The little make-up that I wore was fine. My face was paler than usual, and dark crescents were under my large, blue eyes, but I expected as much. Sleep was a bitch when bombarded by nightmares. My shirt was wrinkled where I’d unconsciously twisted it during the first test. I checked to make sure I wasn’t wearing the stained jeans from yesterday and that my newly dyed blonde hair hadn’t grown long enough to show roots.

At least the mirror regarded me as an overstressed college student. No one else did.

The problem with a mystery was that the human imagination liked to fill in blanks with something horrible. And these people were filling in blanks left and right.

I opened my locker and exchanged my Poetry class notes for my Journalism notes.

Before I could turn away, a shudder washed over me and a hum vibrated the air behind me.

“Hi, Aidan,” I said before turning around.

His hands were shoved deep in his jean pockets and I could see the knuckles of his fists through the fabric. With hunched shoulders, he ducked his head as if avoiding looks. There were only a handful of people and they were all walking away from us. At least I wasn’t the only one suffering today.

Aidan gave me his usual friendly smile and fidgeted. We both dared a glance around the quieting hallway. With the coast clear, I slammed my locker shut, and I could’ve sworn I saw Aidan jump out of the corner of my eye. Aidan’s hum buzzed up my arms, making the skin on my arms and face tingle.

Recovering, Aidan asked in a low voice, “Have you been getting the same looks that I have?”

Leaning back against the orange locker, hugging my scribblers, I said, “Yeah, and the whispers.”

“Tell me about it. I feel like a criminal that’s been on
Unsolved Mysteries
.”

“It will stop eventually,” I said, immediately hating the socially polite lie.

“Heh, depends on how the ceremony goes. Any luck?” he asked, referring to the book I was supposed to find. He extracted one hand from the bottomless pockets to run it through his wild hair.

“All I could do was an internet research, which failed miserably,” I confessed.

“The library was a bust, and the internet was a bust. I mean, most of the stuff I’ve found is hypothetical parallel universe stuff.” Aidan frowned and dropped his voice. “A rainstorm is supposed to be here in a few days. How far away is Neive’s plot?”

Following his lead, I lowered my voice, even though the hallway was devoid of prying eyes and ears. Better safe than sorry. “It’s not far from Leland. My parents wanted it closer. Though I don’t know why, they never visit it.”

I realized I’d said too much and bit my lips together. Why would he care about my family dynamics?

Aidan seemed torn on how to respond and shifted his weight. “Then a few days?”

“A few days,” I parroted.

We knew the stakes. The countdown to our untimely disappearance was about to commence. It was a morbid idea but an inevitable one. I had to tell him about the library, about what happened. Maybe he would know what the
elfelejt
word meant.