Seffargo

Chapter 13

Barcley was woken by his blaring alarm. He rolled over, his hand feeling blindly at his bedside table for the phone. Upon finding the familiar surface, he tapped the screen. The blaring continued. Grunting, he tapped harder—but it was to no avail.

Barcley cursed and threw the sheets back, his legs over the edge of his bed before he could change his mind. He grabbed his phone, his finger primed to disarm the alarm ... Then the anger promptly washed away.

It wasn't an alarm.

He took a deep breath and answered the call. 'Hello.' His voice was groggy—too groggy. He should have woken up first. Taken a drink. Eaten something. Pretended to be asleep a while longer ...

'Barc?' Madeline's voice was as soothing as the first day he had heard it.

'Maddie, it's good to hear from you.' He couldn't stop the smile from spreading.

'You to, but ... but I'm not ringing regarding that.' His smile vanished. His lips began to quiver. Thankfully, after a night of crying, he had nothing left. 'I need your help.'

'Of course, anything.' Had she noticed the hitch in his voice?

'Someone's after me.'

'Sorry—someone's after you?'

'I don't know who, or why, but I'm scared, and I don't know what else to do. I called the police already, but—' There was a sound in the distance—one of screeching tires. 'But they're too far away.' Her voice was softer now. 'They won't make it in time.'

'In time for what? Maddie? What do you mean?'

'Someone's coming.' Her voice was hardly a whisper now. 'I didn't know where to run. I was at the café ... I had hoped to see you.' He could hear her tears with each quaver. 'Then the employees told me to run. I ran to the library, and I'm hiding in the aisles.' There was another crash and Maddie squealed. A shelf had toppled.

'Maddie? Maddie?' He could hear thumping footsteps and screaming. She had been found. The wind was loud in Barcley's ear, then it was interrupted by a heavy thump. Maddie's phone hit the floor.

Barcley kept the phone pressed to his ears as he hurried to dress. Though the phone had been dropped, the call was still ongoing, and he could make out voices in the background—two women, one belonging to Madeline, and a man. The words were lost to him, but so long as he could hear something, then Maddie was still there—she was still at the library.

∼

The voices had trailed away from the phone long before Barcley arrived at the library. Inside was dark and destroyed; the peace of the place shattering like the side window—he assumed it was broken during Madeline's capture. Shelves had indeed toppled—and not just one. Books were scattered everywhere, with most baring some form of damage: torn pages, ripped covers, crude graffiti, indentations. If he wasn't set on finding Madeline as quickly as possible, he may have stopped to process to horror before him. Books were knowledgeable; they deserved only the best.

No more than ten minutes had passed since silence befell the phone call, but Barcley still couldn't bring himself to speak or make noise. The library was eerie. A sort of tension ran through the crime scene, and subsequently through Barcley.

As he maneuvered through the wreckage, he found himself wishing he had spent just a minute longer at the castle. As he left, he had met Georgie and filled her in on his phone call. He left her in charge of the castle and asked that she send two guards to the café, two to the library, and two to Madeline's house. Now, as he bent down to retrieve Madeline's phone, he wished he had waited so that the guards could have accompanied him.