Buried Within II: Buried Without (Lockwood & Co Fanfic)

Book Pulling

"So, I think our adult supervision should patrol with Kipps," Lockwood blurted out.

George looked up, making a face. "Are you absolutely sure of that, Lockwood? I mean..."

"I'm absolutely sure, and in the meantime, the three of us can finish in here with the books. Hopefully, we can get all of them packed into the iron-lined bags before sunset, right?"

George shook his head. "This would be a lot easier if all five of us were working on the task."

"But only Lucy can sense if an item is, in fact, a source for a ghost, meaning there really only needs to be one person with her."

"Then you get to come with us," Kipps said. "Rather than you simply staying here, doing nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?"

"Don't you dare say you're only here for moral support?"

"Actually, that tile was going to be going to George as I was going to place books in the bags."

"And yet I'm the one putting the books in the bags," George said, shaking his head. "Lucy?"

"I am not intervening," Lucy said, frowning, brushing her fingers across the books. "The library is a lot larger than I expected, so it wouldn't hurt to have Lockwood here for backup just in case we encounter a ghost, right? Or should Kipps stay behind?"

"Kipps is going on patrol with Mr. Eden, right?"

"I'm not going to argue, but if this goes wrong, I will note that you sent me with the adult supervision."

"Considering you're supposed to be our adult supervisor?" Lockwood said. "Technically..."

"We'll be back as soon as we're done patrolling," Kipps said.

"How many more books do we have to go through?" George asked, shaking his head. "Like, this is—maybe I should be glad this isn't a public library?"

"Oh, thanks!" Lucy rolled her eyes. She let out a deep breath. "I really didn't need the image of all those books." She glanced over her shoulder, watching Kipps and Lindsey leave the room. "What do you think of him?"

"Kipps?" Lockwood said. "He's as annoying as ever, but I can work with him now." He sat down on one of the tables, doing nothing but crossing his legs, leaving Lucy to let out another sigh and give another shake of her head as she continued gliding her finger over one book at a time, hoping to sense something so they could pick out all the sources.

"I meant Lindsey," Lucy said.

"Lindsey Eden?" Lockwood said. "I don't know."

"He's an adult, and adults suck," George said, not missing a beat as he ended up shoving another book Lucy handed to him. "I'm surprised there are so many sources in one spot."

"Well, that's something I'm not so sure about," Lucy said. She closed her eyes, the unease not fading away.

"Why?" Lockwood frowned, leaning back where he still sat on one of the library tables. "What are you getting at, Lucy?"

"That maybe it's not multiple sources, but one source broken into multiple pieces."

"So, if we only get one of them, then we're still going to need to deal with the same level of response?" George frowned.

Lucy tilted her head, looking right at their resident genius. The trepidation she felt only grew worse upon hearing what George said. "That—really. I think. I'm not so keen on that idea."

"Well, you're the one who suggested it," George said, pushing up his glasses.

"Well, I'm actually feeling more at ease in this room the more of these we place into those bags, so I was honestly hoping that meant instead of having the same power level from the ghost until we get all the books into the bag, that we're actually slowly diluting the power of this particular ghost."

"Yeah, but why some books and not all of them?"

Lucy frowned, cracking open the book she found. "The card's blank, but surely this book's been checked out."

George opened the book, frowning. "This one as well."

Lucy quickly picked up a book she didn't get anything off. "Oh! The card's not blank this one, although nobody checked it out recently."

"So, these books were donated by someone, and the ghost problem started?"

"Let's see." Lockwood got up. "We're effectively looking for books now with blank cards?"

"Well, not necessarily. I mean, not all of them are likely to be books where nobody checked them out."

"Well, this one, there is blank, and there is no indicator that anybody donated the book."

"Did any of your research pan out anything, such as a murder or something?"

"Funny you should say that, but a student went missing like a tent twenty years ago," George said.

"So they never found their body?" Lockwood hummed.

"Oh, no. They found her body. With a Romeo and Juliet book on her. She was apparently a major bookworm, but she was also definitely murdered."

"So it might actually be her ghost in here?" Lucy said, sighing.

"Quite possibly."

"Well, fine then."

"At least the source isn't the body," Lockwood said. "If that's the ghost, but I actually hope we don't find any bodies this time."

"Even Maisie's case involved bodies somewhere, didn't it?"

"Those tend to be the hardest cases," Lockwood said. "And the more bodies are, the more ghosts."

"Whereas this seems to be one ghost," George nodded his head.

"There's also something—if the school were anywhere near as haunted as some of the other larger places we've taken on, there is absolutely no way they'd have been able to hide that from the general public because if things got that bad, the school would have been closed permanently, which means so far it's been only a mild case, perhaps one ghost."

"There are ghosts attached to the sports trophies, though."

"Figures," Lockwood said. "We'll likely have other places to check out after all of this is sad and done, so the school will likely have to close down a few days so we, or a few other agencies, can handle everything."

"Well, it would make sense if the ghosts in question were of a more modern variety and not because of a serial killer or something."

"This is getting gruesome, so maybe..."

"Yeah. Let's change the subject."