The Girl and Her Lost Souls

Chapter Sixteen

           

ALEX

THE LIBRARY has been quiet. I know libraries are supposed to be quiet, but this one is more silent than usual. Only one kid is sitting in the back where the non-fiction section is. It looks like he's studying but he's just texting behind a book. The librarian isn't paying attention. She's too busy printing out flyers to put on the walls inside the school. The creepy guy that used to be the librarian is scanning the shelves and glancing at the kid on the floor every few minutes. There were a few students who came in now and then to pick a book off the shelf and check them out. Some of them came in to pay what they owed for turning in their books late.

By now, I've realized that Amelia must be with Jaime. Her friends looked like they didn't sleep at all last night when I saw them this morning. Alayne seemed like she had been crying most of the time. I stopped by in one of the classes and her friend, Tom, had been staring at his paper but not marking it whatsoever. He was so spaced out that the teacher made him go home early.

Everybody in the school was talking about Amelia's disappearance. I noticed plenty of students sticking close to each other and not going anywhere without a person of authority. I heard a few of them talking about how their parents won't let them stay at home by their selves or go anywhere without their parents. They didn't realize that the people who kidnapped my brother and Amelia wanted nothing to do with them. The panic these people have caused is repulsive.

"What's your name?" I ask, leaning over to where the creepy guy is.

"Gary. Gary Balewash. I never asked for yours. Do you mind?" he asks.

"Alex. Alex Danure. Gary, can you tell me how to attach myself to someone?"

"It's simple. You close your eyes, and you wish for the persons energy that you want to gravitate towards. I did it back when I first died and went to re-visit my wife. She was scared to death when I managed to knock over a vase."

I grimace at the thought of him terrorizing his wife. "So, you just close your eyes and wish for the person?" I ask.

"No. Okay, well yes but you remember their energy. We're spirits, and we must connect with somebody's soul in order to gravitate to them. When you were with whoever you're trying to connect with, did you feel their soul? Could you tell when they were holding something back? Could you literally feel when they scared or happy? If so, you've got yourself a portal from where you are now, and straight to where they are," he says, with a twinkle in his eye.

"I could feel when she was scared. She never really felt happy."

Amelia always felt sad. There was no happiness there.

"Well if you can feel her emotions and you feel them strongly, then that's a pretty good connection. Who is this person you want to go see? They can't hear us." His face turns into a sad expression like I didn't already know that most people can't hear us.

"She can hear me. She's been helping me with some things. The only problem is, she hasn't come back to school. It's been two days since anybody has heard from her. I think I may have sent her into a death trap. If I can somehow find her, maybe I can help," I say, my voice cracking on the word death.

Gary looks at me with a sympathetic expression. "Are you sure she was alive if she could hear you? Some spirits don't know they're dead. If people are talking about her, it could mean that she died a few days ago and you're confused on what you're hearing."

"I know she's alive. After all those textbooks you read on spirits, you never heard of a necromancer?" I ask.

"No. A necromancer? Care to explain?"