Antique Secrets

Chapter 12: Déjà Vu, If It Exists

Summary:
Studying at a library is a perfectly normal thing to do. Nothing special about it whatsoever and, honestly, Dream should've done this sooner!

That feeling abandons him the moment he steps through the doors.

Something is off.

Notes:
No they didn't have to post this twice cause I accidentally closed the tab, that would be ridiculous.

Small TW: Dream beats himself up in this chapter and there some minor violence (just threats and like one mention of blood)

Ignore that first thing :D

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Chapter Text:

Expectations don’t often make it to reality, the experience always falling just short of fantasies. Usually, this ends in disappointment, expecting grandeur and getting normality is horrible when you believe there was more for you. Nothing was ever good when you thought everything was going to be perfect.

And maybe it makes Dream a pessimist, which he tries not to be, but he usually expected things to go sour whenever he did them. It’s proved him well over the years. He prepared for the worst so that, when the time came that Murphy's law hit him with a steel beam, then at least he was prepared. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

But that’s not such a bad thing. When he’s proven wrong, it’s a wonderful experience that shines like gold. An optimistic pessimist, his school counselor had called it. She might’ve been right but Dream didn’t know much about labels and the psychology behind expectations. Honestly, this little soliloquy was giving him a headache.

Silk covered pads of his fingers ran over spines, thick and thin, leather and hardback. Books lined from stilts just by his knees to the roof several feet above. Magic, or maybe just a ladder, might be the only way to reach the top shelf. Dream wasn’t keen on trying. He’d rather marvel at the library a little bit longer.

There were many things to call marvelous too. Even if Dream hadn’t gone to many libraries to compare, the college’s library was a behemoth and a half. Taller and wider than even the fanciest of rich people's libraries. Hell, it had like four floors! Sure, the fourth floor was only for staff but still. That’s three whole floors for the public.

Dream rests his hand at the edge of a deep green book bound in gold, twisting his head to read the title. Warm light trickled from the light fixtures above, swooping metal twisting like ribbons around starry lights. He was in the astronomy section, so that made some amount of sense. Each section had its own theme and decorations. Bit much but still pretty.

What was he looking for again? Dream narrowed his eyes at the book in front of him. He’d come here to research the pages he’d found, and magic in general as he was definitely failing Phil’s class. Then he’d gotten distracted and the rest is history.

Pushing off the shelf, he spun circles in the aisle. It did not help orient him at all , this place needed a map or several. He’d started in ancient history, waltzed through mythology, only to end up in genetics, and now he was here. What kind of organization was that? Why did one need an entire wing dedicated to just genetics? Why was all of mythology grouped together as if there was only one? Many questions, no answers.

Ducking into a hall, really just a space between one bookshelf and the next, Dream looked down the aisles. Dozens of identical shelves, each with a tiny golden plaque. A section, two numbers, and a letter was on each one. Maybe that would mean something if Dream knew anything.

Of all times for the librarian, or whoever ran this place, to take their lunch. Stupid of Dream to think he could actually find his way around on his own either. He practically walked into an amphitheater that had been reconfigured into the world’s most boring maze.