2|| Whispers in the Wind

20|| everyone tries to kill wilder

Wilder

"Ugh," Wilder groaned, staggering under the small colony of books Leo had just shoved into his arms. "Easy, Leo."

Leo just smiled and shrugged. Wilder was happy to see him coming out of his shell, but really? Plus, Leo was stronger than him and could easily carry them on his own. Asshole. 

Kalyani had been going commando mode for the last hour, having them scale the entire library top to bottom insisting they could have a break afterward and that this would really help on top of Leo's books. Wilder was glad he'd had that heavenly BLT earlier. It was probably keeping him alive right now. Leo had collected the most relevant information out of all of them and chose to harass Wilder about it.

Evelyn kept looking worriedly at her phone, which was unnerving, especially since every time she did, Jacob pulled out his own. What were they discussing that they couldn't say to him?

Wilder was just about to look over Evelyn's shoulder but Leo dropped three more books on his already massive stack. "Bro, I love you but are you trying to kill me? I need to put these down or I'm going to actually die," Wilder said weakly.

"Fine, we can go, I guess this is enough," Kalyani decided.

"Finally!" Wilder cheered, only to be violently shushed by both a librarian and Leo. The librarian glared over the head of a very tall and very bald man she was attending to.

The group divided Wilder's weight, much to his relief, and entered the room Kalyani had reserved for them.

"Right," said Kalyani, shifting to her teacher voice. "So we're here to look for minor details we can disarm Roxanne with and also information on Sarah Wesner. Put more stress on the second goal."

"Yes ma'am," Aria saluted. Arlo snickered.

Wilder picked off a book at random and set to work. It was about "famous siblings." He assumed it'd be about famous people from places that weren't within a 30 mile radius of Fir Hills, but he was quickly proven wrong. There she was, on Chapter 9.

Roxanne. Fir Hills was oddly obsessed with Roxanne. Why was she popping up in every single book known to man? Maybe 'cause she was the most interesting thing to happen around here back then. Wilder snorted out loud and got weird looks from everyone else.

It was mostly stupid shit like their birthdays and typical games at the time. He wished it was more of an advice book- that'd help him figure out how to handle Malia's situation. Then, he found something much more like it.

"Hey guys," he said, "I'm seeing some really fucked up game on here about hanging your siblings over a roof? Do any of you sickos play this?"

Arlo laughed, then immediately clamped a hand over her mouth. "No. How does it work? For scientific purposes."

Wilder gave her a look, restraining his own smile. "There's a section in this book about Roxanne and her siblings. It says they'd play a game where you'd draw straws, and whoever got the shortest one would be hung over the edge by their shoe until they spilled a secret or agreed to do a favor for the others. Guess Roxanne drew the short stick a lot of the time."

Evelyn and Jacob paused to look at them. Their thumbs still flew across their phones.

"Yeah, I don't know about you guys but that's definitely not normal." Kalyani frowned.

Aria tilted her head. "I dunno, I mean I've wanted to do that a couple times," she said, earning a shove from her sister.

"Wait," Leo tapped on the frame of his glasses. "Will and Kalyani have a theory that Roxanne worked with her nightmare. What if the apparition was her siblings' fault?"