The Curse ✔️

Chapter 29: Beautiful Things

"Mr. Anderson doesn't like when students go down there." Eugene leaned against the doorframe. "There's no electricity and boxes full of books are scattered everywhere. At least that's what he says."

Amma came closer; flashlight in hand, eyes wide.

"It's a whole other library." She said. "With books no one knows about."

"No, it's books everyone knows about." Eugene remained at the door. "Seriously, there's nothing down there."

"Let's go." Amma pushed past me, stood on the first step, and faced me. "Coming?"

I grinned, "Is there a place you won't go into if it involves books?"

"Probably not." Somewhat tentatively, she descended into the darkness.

"Eugene, keep watch."

"You know, Bella can only keep Mr. Anderson distracted for so long before she has to flash him."

"She'll be fine, she's good at flashing." I followed Amma, stairs creaking under my weight.

"If anyone sees us, I'm going to tell them you put a spell on me." Eugene said.

Amma and I ignored him, the faint light of the upper floor of the library dimming significantly once we reached the bottom of the stairs. A shiver ran down my spine; the air was cold down there.

An area, perhaps just as huge as the upper floor, appeared in front of me, illuminated only by our flashlights. Rows and rows of dusty bookshelves spread before us. Before my flashlight, dust particles floated in the air.

"Holy-." Amma gasped.

"Yeah." I stood beside her. "We've got ten minutes, fifteen at most."

She walked ahead, surprisingly courageous, and I followed her.

I flashed some of the titles on the bookshelves, and indeed, they were mostly old editions of familiar books. Intro to Demonology from the 1950s, The history of curse cleansing from the 30s, and all possible version of Latin. Some were obscure manuals that weren't used anymore, or have been proven inaccurate. Dissertations, theses, research papers. Some classics were there too; Dostoyevsky, Poe, Pushkin, Shakespeare.

As I moved deeper into the darkness, the titles became unfamiliar, and weirdly vague. Historia. Evocati Daemoniaci. Balvadar: Mythos vel Realitas.

"Jade." Amma's whisper was loud in the silence of the library.

I followed it down the hallway, and found her staring into even thicker darkness.

"What?" I came closer.

Her flashlight pointed at another staircase.

"Think it's another floor?" Amma's voice was thick, choked.

"Probably." Mine sounded the same. "More books."

"How deep does it go?"

"Who knows."

Some inner instinct made me open up my senses.

Fuck.

Magic was crawling all over the place. Energy licked my brain and overwhelmed my insides.

"Amma-"

"We should get out of here." She agreed.

Slowly, almost as if scared to make too much noise, Amma and I turned on our heels and retreated through the hallways. There was no fucking way I'd try to find out what was down there, even if I wanted to know. I had way too much on my plate right now. Weird, magic-filled underground libraries would have to wait for better days.