The Host of Hyperion

Chapter 7 - Elisabeth

δεμι.

demi

What the hell did that even mean? It wasn't apart of any of the languages I had skimmed over or studied. Kennedy didn't recognize it either.

"Special Language?" I asked, as Kennedy pulled out her phone to search for the meaning yet again.

She shook her phone, her brows furrowed in anger.

"Damn thing," she muttered, leaning back in her chair, a frustrated groan following her statement, "It won't work all of a sudden."

The screen glitched and sparked as she roughly cast it to the floor of our dorm the evening after the incident.

"What about those two men? Phil and Tony? They said something about a 'mistress', right? I pressed, looking hard at our dorm frame, scanning every inch of the mahogany surface as if it held the answers we were looking for.

"Yeah. When those weird sounds stopped, they said she was 'done'. What does that mean.

I huffed, shrugging my shoulders in response to her question and turned my gaze to the notebook laying across my lap. Words were scrawled across its pages in black ink, with bright red zig-zagging its way across them, denying anything they had to say. All except one sentence, where the red ink circled around the other piece of ink, clashing together and broadcasting the words:

They are trying to steal the kids in the West Wing

I sighed, thinking hard.

"It's easier to find the name than those men. They could've been anywhere at anytime today. We didn't see them," I murmured into my hand, which currently held my head propped up, my other hand tapping my pen furiously against the notebook's surface.

That's when Kennedy shot to her feet, as if she had been tazed or shocked.

"Crikey!" she cried, making me jump and drop my pen.

I looked at her in bewilderment.

"What is it?" I demanded, leaning forward in anticipation.

"That's it!" she paced to the other end of the room, towards the window and looked out, "Load of tosh, waiting for it to fall into our palms, when...yes...when we can find it ourselves!"

I blinked, my mind clearly not following her train of thought, it was too fast for me to hop on.

"What do you mean?"

"The library, Elisabeth!" she spun around on her heels to face me, "The library with language records!"

I stared at her for a couple of seconds. Then her words finally processed in my brain.

"That's brilliant Kennedy!"

She smiled smugly.

"Well then? Let's go!"

Lateness of the hour forgotten, she raced out the door in her pajamas.

"Wait! Kennedy, aren't you forgetting something?" I raised my eyebrows, gesturing to her current attire.

She froze and her face reddened as she looked down at her pajamas.

"Let's go-as soon as I change."

I smiled and laughed slightly.

"Alright sounds like a plan."

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By the time we had arrived at the library, it was well past 10 pm, the lights around the campus casting ghostly shadows onto the buildings and the sidewalks.

"Blimey," Kennedy muttered, now sporting proper jeans and a shirt, "As if this place couldn't get any worse."

I nodded in agreement, drawing my red flannel closer around my body.

The library had high arching walls, and like the rest of the buildings on campus, was sumptuously garbed with rich woods and plush chairs. Kennedy raised her eyebrows at the golden lighting casted by the stained glass lamps.

"Good God," she murmured, "There must be thousands of bookshelves."

"I wouldn't say you were wrong on that one," I said while glancing around at the looming bookshelves and numerous books that lay lined in neat rows above them.

"Let's try to see if there are labels on the shelves so we can find the language books faster," I suggested while walking over to the bookshelf.

"Okay." Kennedy nodded.

I examined the mahogany bookshelf looking for a sign when I saw a small piece of paper sloppily taped to the outside of the bookshelf saying:

All language books have been removed due to severe owner damage to their pages

"Did you find anything?" Kennedy called, up to her neck in heavy volumes of geography.

I stared at the note and inwardly groaned

"Unfortunately, yes. They knew we were coming." I said regretfully, ripping off the little note in frustration. Yet another dead end.

"Don't throw a paddy." Kennedy said calmly, "We haven't hit rock bottom yet."

"Yeah... I guess you're right..." I sighed and walked back to the entryway to the library.

There was suddenly a small echo of a book falling. The sounds of footsteps.

Bump. -ump-ump-ump-ump

Kennedy looked at me.

"Somebody's following us." she hissed.

I looked at her and crept back towards the shelf and slowly crept over to where the book had fallen. I peered into the aisleway and saw a small book laying in the middle of the aisle. I walked over and picked up the book and flipped it over to see the title:

Greek Letters and Sayings For Beginners

"Greek?" Kennedy sounded perplexed.

"I wonder who that was..." I trailed off, glancing nervously around the library.

"Whoever it was just gave me a blinding idea." Kennedy said excitedly, "What if those words that we saw, were Greek?"

My eyes widened slightly, "That would make some sense, but don't you think it would be too convenient that the only language book available in the library is the book that we needed?"

"Load of tosh." Kennedy said dismissively, "Have you ever heard of the words 'fate'? Maybe this little handbook will tell us what that flag means. You don't want to take what seems like the only thing that makes sense because of a superstition?"

I shook my head, "No, we're going to take it. It just seems a little nerve- wracking, that's all."

She smiled slowly.

"You're starting to make sense, Askeland. Let's compare the two back at our dorm." she said, grinning.

"Alright, let's head back," I said, smiling slightly and turned to head back to the entryway. I couldn't shake the feeling of unease though. Whoever gave us the book must have seen the flag that had been hoisted above the Dorm and knows what we're up to.

The question was, who was it?

End of chapter seven