𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎 𝐿𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦

~𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐸𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡~

Madelyn dragged her feet as she walked home from school the next day. She was exhausted already from getting little sleep the previous night and on top of that she had track and field practice.

It was a quiet street, the only cars that ever passed by were the kind neighbors who never disturbed anyone. Each driveway was big enough for two cars and was always clean. Well taken care of flower bushes and healthy trees stood in the gardens, making the houses look very alike.

Her shoes softly tapping against the grey concrete sidewalk, Madelyn focused on the peace around her.

The past couple days were quite ideal. Actually, they were the most terrifying events she ever experienced since tumbling downhill off her scooter as a child.

Lost in her thoughts, Madelyn didn’t even hear Aaron running up to her from behind. “Hey, what’s up?” He said.

“Not a lot, what about you?” she replied, glad to have someone to walk with.

“Well, remember when the day I left in a hurry because my brothers were yelling? Kayden thought he could chuck the ball into the basket from a far distance and ended up throwing it right into our garage window.”

“Oh my gosh. We’re you able to repair it?”

“Of course. The window was ruined we needed a new one but it’s all okay now.”

“I hope your parents weren’t too mad about it.”

Aaron chuckled. “Our dad was laughing his butt off. My mom on the other hand was going crazy. She even lectured me on how I should have been watching them.”

Madelyn felt bad about distracting Aaron from watching his brothers like he was supposed to. But on the other hand, if he hadn’t went to help her, she wouldn’t know about the library and meet all the ghosts.

“Anyways, little Theo told me about your after-school activity in an old library. We aren’t talking about that library I told you about on Mollistan Street, are we?”

Madelyn slowed her walking pace. Exactly why she’s bad at lying.
In a matter of seconds, she thought of a reasonable explanation. “Theo was um... Being nosy and I uh, just wanted to back off y'know?” Madelyn smiled nervously.

“I guess he can be a bother at times.”

“And a tattletale”

“Haha, agreed. So, you’ve found the library useful? The books aren’t messed up that much?”

“It's extremely dusty in there I’ll give you that.” Madelyn felt more comfortable talking about the place with Aaron since he was the one who found it and told her about it, so Madelyn didn’t think much of it.
The few minutes of chatting flew by and the two stood by Madelyn’s house.

“I mean, last time I went to the place was for fun with my friends. We thought it could be a cool hideout and they assumed there would be old jewelry for them to sell for some money. It was so broken-down I didn’t think you would actually find the stuff there convenient, and you since it’s a lot cooler than I originally thought, could I maybe come with you the next time you take a trip there?” asked Aaron.

Madelyn instantly agreed. “Of course! I’m going tomorrow after school; I’m too tired to go today. We’ll meet at this spot around four pm okay?”

He smiled excitedly. “Can’t wait! See you tomorrow then. Bye!”

The two left for their own homes and barely made it through the rest of the day waiting to meet up the next afternoon, smiling until they fell asleep impatiently.

But once Madelyn woke up in the morning, she felt uneasy and nervous.

Her hands shook as she tried to hold her spoonful of cereal at breakfast, milk spilling from the edges. She considered it being just the aftermath of a nightmare and shrugged it off except she doesn’t recall her dream from last night at all, which is something most should be able to do after a nightmare. Madelyn tried her best to shrug the feeling off and spend her day normally but was quite difficult with the odd feeling.

School came and went, and four pm was drawing nearer. Thankfully, the terrible feeling slowly started to come to an end and Madelyn felt a lot better.

Four pm. Time to meet up with Aaron. Madelyn packed her bag with her usual necessities; extra food and water for her and Aaron, paper and pens, books she was allowed to borrow.

She put on wide black jeans, running shoes, a blue hoodie with gold imprint, and she let out her long shiny hair.

Aaron was already waiting outside in grey sweatpants and a white T-shirt. His hair was wet, most likely from a shower.

The two greeted each other, got their bikes out from their garages and they began peddling toward the library.

Talking to Aaron in the meantime helped Madelyn completely forget about how pointlessly worried and frightened she was.

“It looks a little tidier than I last remember it.” Aaron mentioned when they stepped into the torn as always library.

“Well, I’ve been organizing it when I find the time.” Madelyn replied taking out a piece of cloth and wiping the shelves, tables, and pictures on the walls.

Aaron joined in after observing the library. They both made sure the place was spotless and then began exploring it. Madelyn explained the way the aisles were organized and they picked out books to enjoy by the fireplace which Aaron figured out how to light without matches.

He was a boy scout when younger and carried all the knowledge from it up till this point of his life. Obviously, he was one of the best and learned more quickly than everyone else and got the Eagle Scout rank which is a big deal since four percent are able to reach the rank and it shows how much dedication and hard work the few people like Aaron can put into what they’re doing. He had many skills and used them all wisely.

After taking some time to talk and read, Madelyn wished to show Aaron around the library more. She led him to where the stairs would usually be and after seeing them so much, the spell almost doesn’t affect her.

At first, Aaron was incredibly confused when she kept pointing at a dirty wall. But, after she made him step through the wall, his eyes adjusted and he finally broke through the spell. Even more confused he wondered how on earth he missed the stairs and saw something completely different and felt silly.

The second floor of the library had a long hallway with multiple doors against every wall that were large storage rooms for boxes and boxes of extra books, papers, quills, and ink.

Five of the rooms were bedrooms with exceedingly dusty sheets that were dull and had no more color.
While moving to the next room,

Madelyn stopped by an oval shaped mirror with a black rose design all around on a wall in the hallway and went to wipe it clean when Isabel's inverted triangle face came out of it.

“What were you thinking?!”