The Hunter

Haunted Library

Gloria woke to the sun filtering in through the leaves of whatever tree was outside. She took a moment to enjoy the light, her room at the café had been more a closet than a room and the only light was a bare bulb whose cord dangled just out of strangling distance from the sleeper. The running joke was exactly what you'd expect it to be, but everyone that boarded there had the same size room so the joke was never funny.

Gloria sat up and stretched, happily surprised that a night on the old, worn-out couch hadn't left her in more pain. She pulled back the blankets and settled her feet on the soft braided rug and blinked. She stared unseeing at the floor a moment and then turned her head slowly to see the bed she had woken up in. In a room she hadn't fallen asleep in. With a window that didn't show anything she knew to be outside the city.

"Don't scream." She mumbled to herself, and felt sparks ripple up her arms. "Don't scream, and don't panic." She stood slowly, ignoring the knit slippers that sat beside her - she shook her head - the bed and took in the room. It was basic, neat, and devoid of personality. The bed was a twin with a wooden headboard. The blankets and sheets were all the same navy blue. The walls were white, the floor was wood and the ceiling had a perfectly serviceable light fixture in it. There was a small dresser, no closet, and a wooden door that didn't appear to have a lock on it.

Gloria crept to the door and listened at it for a moment before turning the handle gingerly. When it turned easily and silently she pulled at the door gently. The door opened a crack easily and silently as well and Gloria breathed deeply to try and calm her nerves. She may not have been happy at the café but at least she had been safe from kidnappers.

Gloria held her hand ready to throw a fireball at her captors and flung open the door. It banged against the wall with a crack that probably meant the drywall had been damaged and then as slowly and silently as it had opened the door swung away from the wall and stopped. Gloria stood in shock, staring at the room she would have sworn she fell asleep in last night. The large window with sheer curtains looked out onto the street of the city she had come in from last night. The old couch was against the opposite wall. A small coffee table  sat in the middle of the small space and through the space that should lead to the hallway and the exit stood a slightly frazzled Finn.

Gloria swallowed. "I can fix the wall."

"I wouldn't worry about the wall, the house will mend it when it's ready. Personally I would think it should know better than to move people in their sleep by now, but - " Finn finished her sentence with a shrug and stepped back towards the kitchen.

Gloria stood in confusion a moment before she glanced back over her shoulder. The room was still there and the window still showed a world that was not the city they were in. Gloria swallowed and wondered what she had gotten herself into. As she moved towards the kitchen she saw her backpack where she had left it the night before and scooped it into her arms. 

"I'm afraid all I can offer you for breakfast is porridge." Finn said as she set a bowl in the rack to drip dry.

Gloria swallowed. "I'm not really hungry at the moment."

Finn chuckled as she leaned against the counter. "Feeling a little overwhelmed?" At Gloria's expression Finn only nodded. "Everyone is at first. You get used to it."

"Is the house alive?" Gloria asked around a lump in her throat.

"Closer to possessed although neither concept really applies fully." Finn pushed herself off the counter. "If you aren't ready to eat let's go talk about the job I have for you and see if it will suit you." She stepped out of the kitchen and Gloria followed nervously, eyeing the walls and waiting for them to breath or bleed.

They walked down the hall and Finn stopped at a set of stairs. She gestured up. "My room is up there. Stay out unless you know I'm there and need me. Same rule applies to the room you have now. House says you get a room, you get a room." She shoved at the wall across from the stairs and muttered under her breath. Gloria frowned and backed up a few steps.

"Open the bloody door or I'm getting the axe." Finn yelled, and then crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at the nondescript wall. "Fine." She turned at stomped up the stairs with Gloria watching her.

"Okay. I think I'm going to go back to the café and beg Elizabeth to take me back." Gloria turned to leave the house and stopped. The door to the city was at the end of the hall where it should be. To the right of that was the entrance to the kitchen and to the left of the door was the entrance to the living room. Gloria felt her mouth dry up as she turned to look at the wall across from the stairs again.

A heavily carved door stood in the wall. The colour of the wood was a deep brown and although it looked like it had just been stained there was no shine. A brass knob with a keyhole above it gleamed dully in the light. The carvings were dragons and books, a phoenix and flowers, a gryphon landing on a tower with no windows. Gloria turned her body to face the door, transfixed. On closer inspection there were more details in the carvings: fairies in the flowers; the slightest change in the colour of the wood to show the cycle of the phoenix from ash to flames; faces in the grain of the wood.

Gloria found herself at the door, reaching for the handle, and chose not to stop herself from opening the door. It opened as silently as her bedroom door had, and swung open as though it had been waiting for her. Inside were piles of books of all sorts. Paperbacks and hardcovers stacked beside leather bound volumes, loose pages held together with twine and weighted down with heavy carved statues of mythical creatures, scrolls sticking out of a barrel. Gloria felt her mouth grow heavy with drool as she looked at the room and she swallowed in anticipation of the pleasures this room held.

A muffled curse from behind her made Gloria turn her head slowly. Finn stood with an axe propped on her shoulder and muttered incoherent anger at the door. After a moment she propped the axe against the wall and stepped into the library.

"So this is the library."

"I'll do it." Gloria said.

Finn blinked at her. "Do what now?"

"I don't care, so long as I can read these. And sort them, this place is a mess. Whatever the job is I'll do it." Gloria set her backpack down and reached for the nearest book, a small leather bound volume that looked like a journal she had seen for sale in a bookstore years ago.

"Ah, well. That's the job."

"What is?"

"Read them. I don't care about sorting them out, that's up to you, but they have to be read or they change." Finn crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate reading, which is why the house doesn't like letting me in here, and I usually hire someone to read them once in a while. I don't mind working out a trade with you though. What time of day do you learn best?"

Gloria nodded mutely as she read the first pages of what was indeed a journal of some sort. She had heard Finn speaking, but couldn't pull her attention away from the book. Finn shook her head and went to the kitchen, lifting her axe as she did. A pot of tea and some crackers beside her would do alright for Gloria for now. She remembered that look from the last Chronicler, a memory that was physically painful even now, and set the kettle to boil.