Eyes of White 2

NEW Chapter 8: Research Begins

Penelope watched, motionless, as her sister marched away. The Evil was whispering to her subconscious. It was still in her head, so she couldn't control herself, but it was a wonderful feeling that she'd missed.

Eventually, it left. She got up and walked to the 24-hour library, where the nice librarian often gave her cookies.

Marching right up to the front desk, she slammed her fist onto the table.

The old woman looked up. "Oh, hello, sweetheart. What would you like?"

"Where's the Warden's section?" Penelope demanded rudely.

The librarian rocked back in her chair, an amused look on her face. "What?"

"You heard me," Penelope said in a more controlled voice. "The Warden's section."

The librarian smiled. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow young troubletwisters into the Warden section."

Penelope rolled her eyes and showed the idiot woman what she could do. She morphed into over 100 different animals effortlessly, then returned back to her human form.

The librarian gaped and obediently reached for a lever. A clunk was heard from behind the desk. Penelope walked around it and spotted an open trapdoor. At the front, a rhyme that most troubletwisters and all Wardens knew was printed on a doormat:

Something growing,

Something read,

Something living,

Someone dead.

Penelope quietly slunk down the staircase, ignoring the sharp slam of the trapdoor above her, and, feet slapping on the ground, she crossed the room flicked on the light.

The lightbulbs were old and dusty. It looked like no troubletwister or Warden had been down here in years.

Penelope's fingers slowly ran over the leather-bound spines and ratty old leaflet-style books held together with binder rings. She reached the end of the single shelf and huffed in frustration, before realising that her finger was resting on the single book she was looking for: Wards of the World.

Tugging it free of the shelf, she took it back upstairs and, slowly, pounded three times on the trapdoor.

After about three seconds, Penelope glanced back. All of the books seemed so inviting. She could just take a peek in one, maybe two. She was a fast reader; the best at her old school in speed reading, and she could borrow everything she didn't read now. Besides, the trapdoor hadn't opened, and neither the sounds of the librarian's fingers clacking away on the computer, nor her clopping high heels were heard.

Penelope hurried back down to the shelves and methodically began reading every book.

She got halfway through the shelf before a part of her brain, the good part, flickered back to life.

"I killed my mother," she whispered to herself. "I killed my mother... and I enjoyed it. I had no trouble trying to kill my sister. And I ran away after it all. I've been treating Persephone ever since with hatred." A horrible thought occurred to her, causing her to begin bawling. "I can never go back!"

She buried her face in the book.

++You don't need them. We are your family now.++

"And you," Penelope whispered through a tear-stained voice. "You tricked me! You made me push away my family and convinced me they hated me, when really you don't care! You just want to rule the whole effing world! This - my trauma, my mother's death, this whole f***ing mess - it's all your f***ing fault! Get out of my head!"

++You can't live without us, Penelope. We have your soul.++

"Why don't you f***ing try me then!" Penelope murmured, before mentally attacking The Evil with all she had.

She had the element of surprise on her side, so she retrieved the glowing piece of light that was trapped in a cage.

Her soul returned to her, banishing The Evil from her body with a ++We'll be back! And when we are, you will willingly come running to us!++

"Shut up," Penelope murmured.

Then, in a louder voice, "What have I done?"