The Mailman

Chapter 7

Once Nikolas’ booming laughter seized completely, he reached out his left hand and with it he held onto the spiraling railing stair case on his left hand side. “You should watch your step, they can get pretty steep the further we descend from here.” I knitted my eyebrows in confusion, but I took his advice, as I too held onto the railing.

Each step seemed to get slippery, and even more steep as the the railing curved. At one point, Nikolas froze and began to kneel down with his left leg and smoothed out the surface of one of the railing’s pegged legs.

I knelt down next to him, in order to catch a closer glimpse towards what he was looking for.  Nikolas pursed his lips, and smacked them together. He then began to pull out a black leather glove from his back pocket, and place it on his right hand, he traced a few of the staircases’ legs with his fingertips before he curled a couple of his fingertips around the top of one of the leggings.

“Aha!” He exclaimed, when he found what he was looking for. Whatever it was, I had no clue. I was lost in every sense of the word,  he removed his curled fingertips from the leg and roamed his hand from the top of the leg to the bottom in one swipe. “Hold on tight.” He chuckled as he held onto the railing, and I quickly followed suit.

He was still laughing, when something shook up the library walls. I nearly fell over the railing when the staircase began to move. It swiveled to the left, and then to right in a swift shift before it connected with another staircase. I was trying my best not to fall but I couldn’t help myself from stumbling, and nearly tripping on the steps, as my body kept lunging forward and bumping into Nikolas’ back.

I held onto the railing as tightly as I could before it moved again. I had to crouch down and wrap one of my arms around the legs to prevent myself from falling. Nikolas must have come here often, since he hardly toppled over himself. He only tipped from side to side every now and then when the railing would clash and collide with another staircase.

 I kept my eyes shut throughout the entire time as Nikolas just stood straight, and waited patiently for the staircase to stop.  But it didn’t it kept going on, clashing, and colliding with others.  When I dared to peak through one eyelid, I couldn’t help but notice that Nikolas was crouching down and looked very focused at the top staircase that was slowly but quickly approaching. Making my heart only beat faster. “Alright, this is it Logan, when I jump you jump alright?” He winked at me when he inclined his neck back towards me,  I shook my head roughly at him.

No! He can just jump on his own. He sighed in irritation, and reached down for a split second to take a hold on my wrist before yanking me back up and pulling me closer to him. “Here it is!” I tried to push my body backwards, and resist his strength. But I couldn’t, he was too strong and too bold. His iron grasp was too much for my body to compete with.

Once the staircase finally pulled through and collided with the one that we were on, he grabbed onto me, and jumped to the other staircase before it could move again. My eyes closed throughout the entire jump, and I couldn’t open my eyes, even when our feet finally landed on the steps. “You can relax now Logan, we’re here.” I peered through my eyelids as they slowly opened. And in front of us was a huge bookcase filled with rusty old books.

Behind us, the staircases were still moving, and every so often they would crash and collide with each other making that loud bang noise that never failed to make me jump. I rushed forward in order to catch up with him. He grabbed one of the large ladders from the left side of the bookcase and aligned it in front of the shelves.

He began to climb up on the ladder until he reached the fifth step and reached forward to find the book he was looking for. Nikolas used his right index finger to trace off the titles, and smiled to himself when he found what he was looking for. He pulled it out, and tugged his ankles on either side of the ladder while he held the book in between his chin and his neck.

Nikolas slid down the ladder, and jumped off of it with a thud, as he waved the book in front of my face. “Found it!” He chirped, I rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms, I was getting annoyed with him already. All this for just one book? Out of all the others in this library? “I know you have a lot of questions, and this book will be able to help you.” I only scoffed, as I placed my hand on my right hip. “Did we really have to go through all that just to get a book?  Why couldn’t you just tell me all about this on your own, and why couldn’t Serge tell me this either?” I hissed.

My patience was growing thin, as I felt my insides churn in annoyance. “Calm down spitfire, its better if you read it from a book’s perspective. Besides, it’ll only be even more of a problem if we had to explain our world to you. I’m basically spoon feeding you all of this, without saying much. And that to me is a win win situation don’t you think?” I flipped him the bird before I snatched the book away from his hands and hooked it under my right arm. Nikolas smiled all pleased to himself, when he ruffled up my hair.

“Lets go back now, shall we?” I only nodded towards him eagerly.  But when he took a couple of steps forward, and tripped on himself he brought me down with him. The book that I had hooked under my arm, was now thrown elsewhere. While I kept my eyes closed shut as I waited for the weight of the impact but it never came. I peared one eyelid open, and then the other, and I was too shocked to even move from this compromising position.

I was on top of Nikolas.

As he was underneath me.

When our lips touched.