Salem's Civil War (Book Five of The Silver Society)

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

It took the members of the Silver Society about a half an hour to find the forbidden floor of the library. "Fifty bucks says she's in there," Dylan said.

"Cierra doesn't like breaking rules," Arnie pointed out.

"But she's addicted to books, and addicts do things they wouldn't normally do for a fix... And Cierra would view secret books as a challenge," Aideen said. "Dylan's probably right."

Within minutes, Jesse had the lock picked and they were inside. To their dismay, they did not immediately find Cierra. Her bag, however, turned up in the third row, next to a fallen book.

"Alex... Do you think the scroll was being literal?" Melissa asked.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"I mean, maybe Cierra is actually lost inside of a book... This book."

Jesse went to pick up the book Melissa had indicated, but Dylan grabbed his hand. "Don't be an idiot, man," Dylan said. "If it trapped Cierra inside, what's to stop it from doing the same thing to you? Think, dude."

"That's asking too much of him," Aideen said with a laugh.

"If we can't touch it, how are we supposed to figure out if she's in there?" Jesse asked.

"She's in there," Alex replied firmly. "I can feel her."

"Great. How do we get her out without opening the stupid thing?" Arnie asked.

"Why don't we try a summoning spell?" Melissa suggested.

"That could backfire. We don't know if anything is attached to her that might come back with her," Alex replied.

"Why don't we use gloves and bag it? Someone at the Unit will know what to do... I think," Dylan said, pulling out a pair of the Unit's best latex crime scene gloves. "I mean, they've dealt with weirder things, right?"

"Only Cierra could get trapped inside of an evil book," Aideen said, shaking her head. "Dylan's suggestion is the best one we've got. Let's try it."

"See, Alex? Reading is evil," Arnie said.

"Joke later," Alex replied. "Get Cierra out of there now."

"Who's going to touch it?" Dylan asked.

"It's your idea. You do it," Jesse said.

"No way, dude. I'm not risking getting sucked into a book for all of eternity unless it's a book on music."

"Well, I won't do it. Reading isn't really my thing."

"As an empath, with my luck, I'll get stuck in there, so not it," Arnie said.

"You guys are such chickens. I'll do it," Melissa said. She put on the gloves before picking the book up and slipping it into her bag. "See? Piece of..." Suddenly, Melissa began twitching and gasping for breath.

"What is it?" Arnie asked, completely panicked. "What's happening?"

"Gotcha," Melissa declared with a smirk. "You boys are way too easy!"

"That wasn't funny, Missa! What if you'd really been in trouble?"

"Oh, Arnie, relax." She kissed him. "I was just kidding around. I'm not afraid of the big, bad book."

"Let's get it to the Unit and get Cierra out of there," Alex said, hurrying the others out of the library.

~*~