The Majors, Rebuild and Reunite (Book 3)

Chapter 16: Tick Tock

~Sausage~

Gem lifted something from the ground into the light, orange flames illuminating the white and grey feather in her hand.

"Proof." She said, a smile spreading across her face like wildfire, even brighter than her hair. "He was here."

"That's Scott's feather—" Katherine started, taking it from Gem's hand and twisting it between her fingers. Bubbles attempted to nose it, just before Gem snatched it back. "How—?"

"I think the Majors want us to go insane." Fwhip said. "Even from beyond the grave."

"Well he's not beyond the grave if he was right here." I pointed out.

"I buried him myself, Sausage." Gem suddenly spoke up, her voice dropping to become quiet. Her free hand drifted along Violet's snout as the dragonet nudged the side of her face in comfort. "He can't be alive. I don't understand. I saw him, I know I did, but he can't."

"Gem oh my god make up your mind." Fwhip said, clutching at the hair by his temples. "He was here, but he was dead, you saw him alive, but you buried him. I'm about to strangle you and put you in a grave instead!"

"I– I don't know— I'm sorry—" Gem stammered, her eyes glossy with tears I don't think any of us expected. It was wrong to compare the glistening of her eyes to a still lake. Because there was nothing still behind them, I could see the frantic movement, the racing and the panic, just behind what we all could see on the outside. "I'm sorry—"

Fwhip's expression faltered. "No– I'm sorry, Gem, I—" He lowered himself down to the ground next to her, nudging her shoulder gently just as Violet had. "I'm just frustrated. We all are."

"And now we're back where we started with no leads. There's over a million books in this library, how are we ever supposed to find it in time?!" Gem cried, jabbing her palms into her eyes, hiding her face from the rest of us. I could've sworn I saw her shoulders shake with a small, nearly silent sob, masked by her hands. "What're we supposed to do...?"

None of us had a response. I could already feel it, the grief, crawling back. A guilt I had been trying to fight these past years, trying to tear a hole in my lungs and burrow its way into my heart. I thought I would finally defeat it, I could save her, if I could just find it. I could make up for it, for failing her. But Gem was right. Finding the one right spell in this labyrinth of books was even more impossible than finding a blood sheep within the entirety of the Crystallos, with nothing but the words of a dead girl leading us here.

Hope really was a drug. Now it was wearing out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Katherine's brow furrow. "I wonder what he was in here for." She said a bit quietly.

Fwhip gave the barest of shrugs, his hand still clasping Gem's shoulder tightly. "Well he was reading something when we scared him o—"

All four of us froze.

Lightning ignited behind Gem's eyes. A new dosage of hope. "Come on!" She said, instantly scrambling to her feet after the moment of shock had worn off, bolting back in the direction we had come from with Bubbles and Violet barking and chirping at her heels, Scott's feather clutched in her fist.

We took off after her, trying to keep up, trying to keep her within sight of the light from my staff before she disappeared into darkness.

It didn't take long to return to the spot we had come across the mysterious figure that Gem claimed to be Scott, we hadn't run that far before Gem had disappeared and came falling out of a wall.