Rule of the Fist

Chapter 3

When Riley heard the scream coming from the bedroom next to her, she hurriedly threw aside her blankets, her feet thumping quietly as she ran from her room to her sister's.

Abby was clutching her blankets, tears streaming down her face. "Riley, I had a bad dream," she gasped.

Riley jumped onto her sister's bed and crawled across it, grabbing Abby and holding her tightly. "I know. It's okay. Shhh. It's okay." Nate's room was at the other end of the hall, and Mark and Judy's room was downstairs. It was unlikely that either of them had heard Abby's screams, but Riley had trained herself to respond to anything she heard coming from her sister's room. Besides that, she was a light sleeper.

After what happened to their parents, Abby had started to get a lot of nightmares. Mark and Judy had taken her to doctors, and they'd said it was normal. And she'd even gone to a counselor. After a while, the dreams had mostly stopped, but every once in a while she would have another nightmare. Like now.

Riley would rather it was her who had the nightmares. Abby didn't deserve them. And she was still crying, holding onto Riley's shirt. 

Riley figured it was probably one of the bad ones. Even if she asked what it was, though, her sister probably wouldn't tell her what had happened in it. Maybe she wouldn't even remember. Riley sighed. "You wanna sleep in my room tonight?"

Abby shook her head. It was clear that she wasn't getting up from that bed. "You want me to sleep here?" Riley asked.

Slowly, her sister nodded. Riley shifted and pulled the covers over both her and her Abby. She wished sometimes that she could protect her sister from all of the bad things that were out there, but for now all she could do was coax her into falling back asleep.

The next day was Saturday, Riley got Judy to drop her, Emmy and Abby off at the library before taking Sean to one of his games. She figured it was up to her to cheer her sister up after the incident that had happened the night before.

Tuscan Library, which sat right in the middle of town on a busy intersection, had five stories and big floor-to-ceiling windows. 

As soon as Riley, Emmy and Abby arrived, they headed for the kids section, which was on the fourth floor. The windows near the tables that they normally sat at overlooked the park near the library. A river ran under the bridge, which was behind a fountain that stood in the middle of a circular walkway.

Abby grabbed a Highlights magazine and headed for the beanbag chair by the window, while Emmy went for the computers. Riley started to follow, but stopped when she saw a book that was part of a series she'd been reading. She grabbed it and sat down near the elevators, which were right next to the teen room. 

Riley hadn't been inside the teen room before. It was basically just another part of the kid's section, but plenty of people had told her before that some of the books in there weren't appropriate for her. 

When Riley went inside, a few kids sitting in front of the computers looked up at her before going back to what they were doing. That was when she saw the little kid walking around the room. He almost seemed to be gliding, and he stopped behind the chair of a boy that looked about Nate's age. 

The little kid's eyes widened, and the older kid turned around and glared at him. "What are you looking at?"

The kid smiled and moved away, stopping when he saw Riley. "Hi!" he said loudly, a little too loudly. Several more people turned around to stare at him. When he was heading toward her, he turned and fell forward

 Riley smiled, but only because the kid didn't appear to be hurt. He just started laughing and looked up at Riley he stood. He showed her the bottom of his shoe, which had a small wheel on the sole. "Shhh. It's a wheely. Don't tell anyone, cuz they're not really allowed in here," he said.