Discern, Mosaic Chronicles Book One

Chapter Five

Things happened in a flurry. Probably freaked out by the strange power outage and the weird feeling in the room, people scrambled to get out of the apartment—grabbing coats and jackets as they left.

Nicole couldn't force herself to move. She watched as Austin threw a kitchen towel over the book, wrapped it up, put it in a grocery bag, and tied it off. He glanced up, met her eyes, and nodded to the bag.

Nicole understood—it was her responsibility to return it to Professor Coolidge, no matter how it had gotten here.

She crossed the distance between them, snatched up the bag, and held it tight to her chest, hoping the pages would stay shut. She turned—Lizzie was there with their things. The two of them left without another word. Nicole felt Austin's gaze on her the whole way out.

The girls parked as close to the museum as possible and jogged across the grass to the door nearest Professor Coolidge's lab.

"Please be there, oh, please be there," Nicole whispered to herself.

For the first time in a while, Lizzie was silent. She kept sending glances to her friend—worried looks that frustrated Nicole. How could Nicole defend herself if Lizzie wouldn't talk?

The museum was locked.

Nicole dropped her head against the glass, trying to control her breathing. What was she supposed to do now?

The heat from the book's binding had begun to seep through the bag and towel, warming her hands and arms. She cringed—she really did not want to take it home.

"Do you have his number?" Lizzie asked.

Nicole shook her head. "I don't." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for several seconds, then looked at her friend. "I'll just have to give it to him tomorrow." Regardless of how she felt, she couldn't leave it at the museum door or anywhere else.

Lizzie nodded and motioned for Nicole to follow her back to the car. As they were walking away, the lock clicked behind them and Coolidge called to them to return. "Sorry it took so long to get up here. I couldn't leave my lab right away."

Nicole's shoulders sagged with relief. "How'd you know to come check?"

"Austin called." Coolidge reached out, and Nicole passed him the sack. He opened it, removed the book, and crumpled the bag and kitchen towel, handing them back to Nicole. After flipping through the pages, he glanced up. "I don't want to worry you, but the book wasn't supposed to be in my office earlier when you were working with Toby."

Nicole's mouth popped open. "It was there? I didn't see it."

Coolidge didn't respond, and Nicole and Lizzie met eyes.

"What's going on?" Lizzie asked.

"I don't know." Coolidge shook his head. "Something isn't right—I've had this book in my possession for many years. It shouldn't be acting like this. It never has before."

Nicole frowned. "It's doing this on its own? Is that possible?"

Coolidge looked at her sharply. "I don't believe you're naïve enough not to know that this sort of thing, though rare, does occur." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I'll lock it in my office. Be careful on your way home."

***

Not surprisingly, Nicole didn't sleep much from there on out. Her dreams were riddled with power outages and possessed books.

Thank goodness the spiders were leaving her bed alone. They were still trying to take over her room, but she could handle that for the time being. She and Lizzie lined the room with traps each night. Every morning, without fail, the traps were full.