Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 114: Following

Corrie hung out with Dawn for a while, then went back to the room with the history books to do some more work. She managed to write a little bit of her paper in between looking around for Sarah and checking her email. Naomi emailed her back, but said that she hadn't seen Sarah.

As the library's closing time came closer, Corrie gathered up her things and went downstairs to the room where novels and pleasure reading were kept. That was where Edie was working and where they were supposed to meet at the end of the day, because they could all find something to do in there and it had a glass wall that would allow them to see the front doors.

Edie, Naomi, and Rico were already there. Edie waved to Corrie as she came in and held out a book for her. Corrie took it and grinned. It was a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales. She flipped through it, looking for stories with actual faeries in them.

After she'd been sitting there for a few minutes and was pretty sure there wasn't anyone else in the room, she asked in a low voice, "Have you all seen her?"

"I still haven't," said Naomi. "But I'll join in the stalking anyway."

"I did," said Edie. "She was at the front desk for a little while, checking books out. I didn't go out there."

"I think I saw her," said Rico. "She was reshelving some journals."

"She was doing books when I saw her," said Corrie. "Did Annie go home yet?"

"Yeah," said Edie. "She stopped by to make sure I'd seen her, then left in a hurry. I hope she didn't get noticed."

"Me, too," said Corrie. "I guess we just have to wait for Dawn now."

They didn't have to wait long. Corrie was just looking through the illustrations to a story about two little girls and a dwarf when Dawn came in, already wearing her coat and standing with her back to the window. "We'd better get out of here," she said. "Emi told me a while ago that she'd told Sarah I was looking for her. I shouldn't have said anything." She sighed. "But the library closes in five minutes, so we should go wait outside for Sarah to leave. I don't want her finding me before she heads back wherever it is she goes."

"We can pretend we're forcing you to leave," said Corrie. She stood up and pulled on her coat and backpack, then marched over to Dawn and grabbed her arm. "Come on! I'm tired! It's Friday night! Let's go watch a movie or something?"

Dawn grinned. "Do you want to check out a movie? We've got some good ones here." She pointed to a shelf full of VHS tapes.

Corrie rolled her eyes, knowing she was facing in the wrong direction and Sarah wouldn't be able to see them. "No, I do not want to check out a movie. We are never going to have time to watch a movie. Come on." She pulled Dawn by her arm, pushing the door open with her own back. The others had put their coats on, laughing, while Corrie and Dawn acted theatrically, and now they all piled out.

Dawn waved apologetically to Emi as Corrie mock-dragged her out of the door. "I'll see you on Sunday," she called.

Emi laughed. "Yeah, make sure your friends don't pull you apart first!"

Once they were outside and past the circle of light that emanated from the library doors, Corrie let go of Dawn's arm. Dawn gestured them to the side of the library building. They all ran over there, around the corner from the doors, and waited, ducking under a window so no one from inside could see them. Corrie found herself in front, but she didn't mind; she liked knowing that she would be the one to see where they were going.

After a few moments of hiding, Dawn murmured, "We should have asked Troy to come. He could have given us some camouflage."

"It probably wouldn't be good enough," said Corrie, remembering when Troy had given them camouflage to hide among the trees—it wouldn't have worked if they had gone somewhere outside of the trees, and there probably wasn't any camouflage that would hide them if they were walking across campus. "And he wouldn't be able to leave campus with us, assuming we do."

"Shh," said Dawn, and Corrie shut her mouth. The library doors were opening.

Emi, Sarah, two older women, and a man emerged, chatting and laughing. Emi and Sarah waved to the others, both heading in different directions—Emi north, and Sarah east—though the adults stayed, locking the doors. Corrie cursed silently. But it only took them a moment to get the doors locked and move off south, along the paths. Sarah was still in sight.

"Come on," breathed Corrie, and began to follow her.