The Grim View

Chapter 3, "Ghost Town"

Adelaide woke up to a loud banging sound, and somebody yelling "Get up already Adelaide!". Since she had just woken up, she couldn't process who said it as fast. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Ross, Vincent, Henry, and Octavia. "What..? I just woke up...!" Adelaide sounded raspy, most likely because she had just woken up.
"You've been asleep for three more hours than the scheduled time to wake up!" Octavia said, irritated.
"Why is there a scheduled time..?"
"We're trying to get this done as soon as possible."
"The helping hand, we mean." Said Henry, trying to help explain. Adelaide groaned and slowly got up, "So you are going to let me help you with the thingy?", "Yes, Adelaide, but you're not working with any chemicals, and I'll have Ross supervise your work." Octavia looked at Ross then back at Adelaide. "Fair." Adelaide was alright with having to be supervised, and even more alright with not working with chemicals.
Adelaide remembered what she was thinking last night, "Wait! Do I have to help?"
"You were begging to help yesterday!"
"I know, but I need to research what happened yesterday!"
"You're still on that?" Octavia paused for a moment.
" Alright. You can go research it, Ross will show you where the library is, Vincent, Henry, and I can work on the Helping Hand."
"Thanks Octavia, you're the best!"
"I know.", Adelaide looked at Ross impatiently, "Oh— ok, got it." Ross opened the door, "Ladies first." He gestured for Adelaide to walk through, "Well aren't you a gentlemen?" She said, a bit sarcastic, then walked through the door, Ross followed after, he looked in one direction for a while then gestures for Adelaide to follow him, Adelaide figures out what the gesture is, as Ross starts to walk Adelaide follows.

~ * ~

"Here you are! The Town Library!"
"Wow, how come I didn't see this coming in?"
"Ah, well we relocated the town,. haha!"
"Oh, well how come Octavia's house is still out there then?"
"She refused to move, Classic Octavia!" They laughed a bit.
"Anyways, what were you looking for?"
"It's.. private."
They opened the creaky doors of the library, to see it was abandoned. "Isn't there anybody left in this town?" , "Well, the townspeople left a while ago, so this place is practically deserted", "Oh." Adelaide walked inside the dusty library slowly, as she inspected the section's names. Ross stood near the door making sure it didn't accidentally close from the wind. "History.. fiction.. supernatural, maybe it's in there?" She rummaged through the musty books until she found one that was in an odd section, from its title. Its title reads "Town History..." the last word was smudged out
Maybe I should ask Ross. Adelaide thought to herself.
"Ross?"
"Mhm?"
"Have you seen or read this book before?" She showed the book to Ross
"Um.. I can't see it, hang on" Ross walked towards Adelaide forgetting about the door, and before he was about to say something the door slammed shut, trapping them both inside Ross turned around reacting to the sound and ran to the door trying to open it, but it was locked somehow.. "I forgot!",
"What?" , "The owner made the door only to be opened from one side, since he thought workers would try to skip.", "Oh right.. he wasn't the brightest.". Ross grabbed a stick and quickly slashed it against the wall until it caught fire, and used it to light up a few of the candles in the library so they could see clearly. "Oh right! Have you seen or read this book before Ross? That last word of the title is smudged out..", "Oh, I'm- I'm afraid not. But look— the author's name is.. Emrys Caston? How did this book even make it here?.."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the Castons weren't the most loved family here, nobody knows why, the Castons just gave one this eerie feeling whenever they were near, however they did name this place."
"Are there any books written about Emrys? Or the Castons in all?"
"I doubt it, people thought the family would curse them like they "cursed" their son."
"Curse?."

~ * ~

"Pass the wrench will you?" I asked, I wanted to rush this along, after all knowing my sister's impeccable timing she'll probably come right after we finish this invention, and then I'll sell it, and earn loads of money! So I can finally move out of this wretched place! I can't believe I was so naive I- "Sure! Here you go, sunshine!" Vincent said, sarcastically, of course, I got lost in thought, again, and, of course, Vincent was the person who snapped me out of it.
"H-hey, don't you think they've been gone for- a bit too long?" Henry asked, mildly concerned.
"I wouldn't worry about it." I said. It's Adelaide! Of course she'll take a while. Just like she did when she left- no EXACTLY like when she left!
"Ross is with Adelaide.. and he's always fast! I mean when he heard the explosion he was practically already there!", As much as I wasn't concerned, he had a point. "Didn't the library have like- a one way door thing; because the owner thought his employees would leave or something like that?" Vincent said, again interrupting my thoughts. "Let's just wait a while, they'll probably come back.".

Authors note: "Hello, guys! Sorry it took so long to post; I will post less frequently but I WILL POST, but anyways, thanks for reading!