𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎 𝐿𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦

~𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟~

Madelyn turned back to her book, only to come face to face with a pale translucent smiling face.

“Boo!” It exclaimed.

Madelyn screamed at the top of her lungs and fell backwards off her chair, making it topple over.

The figure fully emerged from the book and floated in mid-air. “Haha, gets them every single time. How does the phrase ‘boo’ scare you humans, huh?” It chuckled.

The figure seemed to be male, with shoulder-length wavy hair, and it wore average dark Victorian clothing with a big overcoat that looked frozen and bloody.

“Iden! We agreed that I would do it!” Said a hoarse voice with an English accent behind Madelyn.

She spun her head around and saw another translucent person wearing a black topcoat over black pants, and a white shirt with a bowtie sitting by a piano and other musical instruments that she never noticed while at the library.

“Oh Theodore, let the young man have some fun.” Said another one, outfit like the previous figure, walking down a flight of stairs which Madelyn also never saw.

“The floor is dirty you know. I believe you should stand now.” The pale person who is known as ‘Iden’ whispered to Madelyn as ‘Theodore’ and another person began arguing.

“Enough you two, come along now, she knows we’re here. Joseph, Mildred, I want this place to be spotless!” a stern middle-aged womans voice spoke from Madelyn’s left. She turned her head once more to see yet another ghostly figure in a silver grey frilly, puffed blouse and fluted skirt with a rose pattern near the bottom and her hair was in a Gibson bun.

Madelyn realized that these things weren't alive. They were ghosts. Dead restless spirits. She never believed in spirits yet here they were in front of her.

A dozen ghosts sprang from the ceiling, floors, and shelves. Some came out in pairs, or groups, some came out alone.

The ghost the woman referred to as ‘Joseph’ flew up to the chandelier, circled around it once and the candles on it lit up. He was incredibly thin. His long grey and soot-stained shredded clothes looked 5 sizes too big for him. His hair was short, sandy and spikey. His face was dark from ash stains and the face outlined the bones and there were bags under his eyes.

The ‘Mildred’ ghost was wearing a blue figure skating outfit covered in mud, her hair was long, wavy and wet, sticks and leaves on it and a torn bow was hanging off one side. She floated around the floor doing skating tricks like lifting her leg and twirling. When she faded away the floor was no longer dusty, but shiny and golden brown.

Iden floated in mid-air on his stomach, his face inches away from Madelyn’s. “Are you still in there? Come on, up.” He took her hand and pulled her on her feet.

Madelyn was still too shocked to speak. Her mouth was open in the shape of an ‘o’ and she couldn’t help but gaze up at the spirits flying left and right.

“Anyone ever taught you manners, dear? It’s rude to stare and keep your mouth closed.” said the woman from before.

Madelyn finally found her voice. “What... is happening? I’m dreaming. Someone tell me I’m dreaming.”

“Madam, I suppose we introduced ourselves incorrectly.” Iden murmured to the tall woman next to him. Now that he was on the ground Madelyn saw how immensely short he was. About five-foot five.

“Nonsense Iden, she’ll get over it. Give her some time.”

“Are you all... actually dead?” Madelyn asked under her breath.

“No, we are humans that do not defy matter. Of course, we are dead what else?” Iden said with a smile.

Madelyn reached her hand out and touched Iden’s shoulder, and it passed right through. “I don’t believe it... I thoughts ghosts weren’t real...”

“Well, now you see we most definitely are.”

“But... I thought ghosts haunt people and traumatize them to their death.”

“Not all spirits seek revenge. The ones that do stick with their enemy, the rest of us stay here.”

“And we are safe here. This library isn’t an ordinary abandoned building, it has been protecting us for years. We wreck it for the living to avoid it and leave us be.” Continued the woman.

Madelyn remembered the ‘ESTRELLA’ sign outside. “The big sign outside with the name, what does it mean?”

“Ah, you saw the sign. Let's go for a stroll and I'll explain everything.” She nodded at Iden who nodded back and vanished. Then the woman began walking forward, passing through Madelyn and heading toward the stairs. Madelyn followed.

“How come I’ve never seen these stairs? I’ve been here multiple times.” She asked.

“We use a special spell that replaces the view of the next two stories of the building with a wall. Humans can break through the spell, but it takes focus.” answered the woman, keeping her eyes forward.

“You said you would explain about the sign outside?” Madelyn reminded the woman.

“Right! My apologies, as a ghost you do tend to forget things.” she said.
“You see, this library has been watched over by the family's ancestors. ‘Estrella’ was the family name. The family consisted of the father, Perry Estrella, a rich man that owned several factories back in the day, the mother, Sophie Estrella, who was a housewife all her life, and their single daughter Isabel, a sweet adventurous girl who wanted nothing but to follow her grandmother in her footsteps and protect the library.”

“Protect the library?” Madelyn echoed. “What do you mean by that?”

“Isabel’s grandmother’s library was quite extraordinary. It had a protective charm that kept ghosts safe from any dangers such as memory loss. To a dead soul memory is the only way we exist. Without it we have no reason to stay on earth and we would simply... disappear.”

“Oh. I didn’t know memory was so important to ghosts.”

“But they are, and to keep this library protected a member of the Estrella family had to stay, and to stay they have to care about the place. The father wanted nothing, but more riches and his soul didn’t stay. The mother thought her own mother was crazy about spirit protection and left the house to die somewhere else in peace. In 1920, Isabel was the only one who kept her promise of staying forever. The library is in her hands now, and her spirit stayed.”

“Isabel is still here? Where is she?”

The woman smiled and looked into Madelyn’s light brown eyes. “I am Isabel.”
_______________________________________

Ok so I need to clear something out, I know I have a character in here named Theodore already, but when I was doing my research about certain people who actually existed and died one of their names was Theodore and I couldn't choose a different one because his profession is the exact one I need so I'm so sorryyyyy I hope you all dont get too confused.

Anyway I liked this chapter a lot cyaaaa