Stolen

Chapter Fifteen

Ember

I didn't quite understand what had happened next. Maya and the red headed man looked at each other as if they knew something that I didn't. The man backed away from me slowly. Was he afraid of me? I had more reasons to be afraid of him. Maya followed him into the hall quickly.

"Rhett!" She called after him, but he turned from her.

What had I said? Did they know Carrson? Before the two of them could come back I pushed myself out of the infirmary bed. I wasn't going to stay here and wait for that brown eyed man to come back for me. I needed to find Carrson. He would keep me safe. I peered out into the hallway and saw Maya's blonde hair disappear around a corner. It was now or never. I unwrapped the bandage around my head. There was no hiding the blood in my hair but at least it was less conspicuous than the bandage was. As quietly as I could I crept out of the room. The medical team had taken my jacket and shoes and I had no idea what time of the year it was, but I was praying it would be warm when I got outside of the building. If there was snow on the ground, I wasn't sure how far I would make it. Nothing about the infirmary seemed familiar to me. The walls were a slate gray stone and ancient. Like it belonged to some part of a long-lost castle. I walked down hallway after hallway trying to find the way out. Eventually I found a hallway that had open arches that overlooked an outside part of the building. I peered out of one of them to take a better look. The building surrounded the open area, making a square. There were three floors to each of the surrounding buildings and all of them had open archways to give people a glimpse of the outside. The wind carried warm air across my face as I realized it definitely wasn't winter. There was odd equipment out in the open of the buildings and a few people using them to fight with each other. None of them noticed me standing there. I tried to remember if I had ever used any of the equipment but I couldn't. Everything felt so fuzzy and wrong. I was a fish out of water here.

"Think Ember...where would Carrson go?" I asked myself aloud.

I searched through the fragments of my mind until I recalled a small memory. It wasn't a lot to go on, but it was something. Carrson had asked me to meet him in the library. When I had gotten there, I'd searched all of the stacks until I found him in the classics section, a book in his hands. He'd smiled at me like I was his favorite person in the world and set the book down to kiss me. I absently brushed a finger against my lips as I tried to remember what the kiss felt like but couldn't. He'd told me that the library was his favorite place in the entire academy. At the time, it was surprising to find out. I would have guessed that he felt more at home... I couldn't remember where. I shook the thought away and tried to focus back on the fragment I could remember, the library. "Hardly anyone even comes in here," He had said, "I can always find myself in these pages..." I knew in my soul that I would find him there. I just had to figure out where it was.

I wandered for a while. I tried to concentrate on the library and remembering anything that I could about it, but it was hopeless. Nothing else was coming to my mind about the library. I could feel myself being pulled one way or another as I walked aimlessly through the academy halls. A few people gave me wide eyed looks as they passed by but none of them actually stopped to ask me what was going on or who I was. I suspected they knew me, but I couldn't remember them. I thought about Carrson's icy blue eyes and how he used to watch me from across the room. The thought sent a fire through my blood.

I pushed open another door and forced my feet forward with that image still in my mind. It was the loud sound of a crack under my bare foot that sent a shock wave through my body and forced me to realize where I was. The library stood in front of me in shambles. All of the windows along the wall had been busted out except for one. The window that was intact was nestled above a window bench with a tattered copy of a classic novel sitting on top of the soft pink cushion. The window bench sparked something in my head but I couldn't bring it to the surface. I tore my eyes away from the untouched window to take the room into account. Books littered the floor, some in pieces. Pages fluttering around the room from the breeze that filtered in through the broken windows. Some of the stacks had been turned over and lay along the floor. Whatever had happened in here, it was not good.