Lost Souls

The Library

Alice Cohn groaned. The library she was currently in stretched two floors high. Books of different kinds towered over her, stools and ladders leaned on shelves with short oak tables arranged neatly around them. Alice sat on a small stool near the corner of the library with her small backpack next to her, flipping through the different apps on her phone while people of all ages walked, ran and shuffled around the place near her.

"Hey."

She looked up to see her friend grinning at her. Diann was holding a large thick book. So big that you

couldn't even see her legs, even at the level Alice was sitting at. Alice rolled her eyes.

It was her friend's idea to check this place out, as it was a brand new public facility to their boring street. Nothing ever happens in their neighborhood except for shopping and everyday arguments.

Suddenly she felt like the air has been knocked out of her lungs as she looked up, surprised. Diann had apparently placed the overly-sized book onto her lap, staring at her friend in anticipation.

"Wait, you expect me to read this?" Alice stared at Diann incredulously like she just told her that World War Three was about to break out in five minutes. Diann nodded, her grin never faltered.

"It's a really good book you know. It talks about a young girl from the future going back into the past. There's a lot of adventure which I know you like - Hey don't give me that look!"

"What look?"
"You know. The one you always make when you think I'm crazy or something."

"I do not have a look like that!" Alice protested, pushing the book off her lap and onto the floor with a loud thud. Diann rolled her eyes and picked the book back up, stroking it as if it was damaged. Which it probably wasn't, considering how thick the cover was.

"Alice, please. For me?"

Alice huffed, snatching the book from her as she grumbled. Diann's smug look was not ignored.

As she skimmed through the pages of the book, Diann patted her friend's ginger hair and walked away. Her mission has been completed.

"What the heck? you can't even read the text, it's so tin- Diann?" Alice stopped squinting and looked up. She was so caught up in trying to read off the book that she hadn't even noticed her friend left. Groaning, she raised her hands in the air. Mumbling about traitors and loyalties, she closed the book and stood up.

Weaving through the tall shelves, Alice wished she hadn't decided to sit in the corner beforehand. Finding Diann in the vast library was going to be a bigger challenge than she thought.

Alice frowned and looked around her once more. Originally she wanted to give the book back as she didn't even know if Diann borrowed it for her or not, so she didn't want to leave it on a random table. But by now, Alice figured that her friend left the library completely, so she sat down on a nearby table and dropped both the book and her sack onto its surface.

While she was leaning down to get her headphones out of her orange backpack, a sudden gust of wind blew into her face. Yet when she looked up, she saw no windows next to her. Shrugging, she looked back down, but what she saw wasn't her backpack. Actually, her backpack was quite far now, and in its place was that cursed book.

Except it wasn't closed.

The huge book's pages kept flipping even though the wind just stopped. Alice stared at the book for a good long while, debating whether or not she should use energy to stand up and place the book back or if it would close by itself. Nah, She hoped it was the latter.

Unfortunately for her, the book decided to ignore her and continued to noisily flip back and forth through the pages. Alice groaned, rolling her eyes, she bent down to pick up the book.

Bad idea.

With a startled yelp, Alice tripped on her own foot and fell face first onto the book's pages. Well, at least it stopped.

Wait....

When did old book paper feel like cold harsh wind?