Unwritten

Library of Dreams

When I wake, I sit in bed for ten minutes taking in all of the emotion I had felt yesterday evening. I feel grimy after all that crying. You can still see tear streaks from my eyeliner. I resort to taking a shower. Damon could walk into the spring room anytime he wanted though. I sit in bed a couple minutes longer wasting time, knowing Damon was still asleep and if I went now, he would not walk into the spring. I finally rise, despite the dread of leaving my new and improved fluffy bed.

I go to my closet, still in my large T-shirt and underwear, and pick out what I want to wear for the day. Damon walks in, the bedroom door slightly hitting the wall, as I am picking through my clothing. I am too late. Now I have to wait until he goes to sleep tonight. He throws rough towels at my face. "Oof." I catch the towels but throw them back.

"You need to shower." Damon orders. I pout and pick out comfy looking clothes from the closet instead of what I chose originally, a skin tight pair of leggings and a very tight black camisole.

The newly chosen pants have an army green color and the shirt is a light tan that complements the cargo pants. The material is soft and the shirt is baggy while the pants are semi tight because of the second lining on the inside of the pant legs. I grab some underwear and walk across the hallway to the spring reluctantly. Damon follows out of my room but down to the kitchen and out the front door. Shopping?

I undress and place my clean clothes on a carved out shelf in the wall near the door and my dirty clothes on the ground next to the water. I walk down the smooth rock steps into the pool of natural water. To my surprise, the water is lukewarm. The cave is lit by a large opening in the top of the ceiling,exposing the sky, still orange and pink. The sun must have just started to come up. I lay back and float for a couple of minutes in the water, letting it flow around me and clear my mind.

Stepping out to go to the shower head behind me, I notice a door open slightly. I cover myself with the extra large shirt that is on the ground and walk towards the door. There is no one in the room so I close the door but before I do, I recognize the smell of old books and newsprint. It must be a library.

I walk back to the shower head and finish washing. "Shit. I didn't get my towels." I don't want to walk out in the hallway and risk Damon seeing me but I can't put my clothes on while I'm wet. It's so uncomfortable. I trudge to the edge of the spring pool and sit with my legs in the water and wait for the rest of my body to dry off.

The creek of a door behind me interrupts my thoughts. I try to move to cover my chest but no matter how much I will it, my body doesn't cooperate. This happened the last time I- "HISSSSSSSS." Oh shit.

Damon? Help. I tried to fae whisper to Damon. There is a sudden pressure in my feet; it felt like I was running and my heart was beating a mile a minute. No, not me, Damon. Damon is running. I can feel it? I feel the beat of his feet and the imminence of the toad behind me.

I hear the pounding of Damon's feet coming down the hallway. The door swings open and smacks the rock wall behind it with force. Metal clinks to the floor. The door handle must have fallen off. Good. A weapon. There was more hissing and a flash of light before I could move to cover myself. I fall into the lukewarm water and shake with fear.

"Lily?" Damon walks to the edge of the pool. He was sporting a pair of black cargo shorts and a light blue V-neck T-shirt. Damon sits on his knees and waits for me to come up to him. I don't immediately. When I do come to the edge, I hold the rocks with one hand to stay still and cross over my chest with the other. "Are you okay? Did it touch you?" I don't think it touched me but I don't answer. Damon reaches towards my hand and I flinch away. I look up at him with an apologetic expression. I didn't mean to pull away. "I'm sorry." He stands up and walks out but comes back moments later with towels.

I dry off quickly and dress in the outfit I had picked earlier. The material fit snugly around my legs and waist and was loose and soft around my torso. I pick up all of my dirty clothes and carry them into my room to throw them in the closet basket.

The smell of bacon and syrup fills the air when I open my bedroom door. I follow it down the hallway into the kitchen.

The kitchen is brightly lit when I venture in. The food is sitting at the bar where we ate dinner last night. Damon was in the living room reading a book. "From the library?" Damon looks up at the sound of my voice as if just noticing me. He smiles softly.

"You saw? It was supposed to be a surprise. I was reading this morning. I must have left the door open." He got up and walked to the kitchen to get a cup.

"I didn't see it; I just recognized the smell of books." I mumble, embarrassed. Damon pours a cup of orange juice and hands it over the bar to me.

"We can go see it after you eat." He looks pointedly at the plate of food sitting on the wooden bar.

"I'm not hungry right now." He nods like he knew that already.

"I know but you need to." Damon walks back to his book in the living room while I eat. "I'm sorry about earlier." I shrug. "I shouldn't have touched you." I finish eating, wash the dishes and sit next to Damon. I lay my head on his shoulder; an intimate gesture.

"What are you reading?" I change the subject and I hear him sigh of relief.

"To Kill a Mockingbird." I close my eyes and lay there for a while. When I open them, I'm in my sanctuary.

I must have fallen asleep. Part of me wants to invite Damon but part of me still doesn't trust him. I sit in one of the many fields and think for a moment. I want to talk with him. If he wanted to kill me, he would have already.

I walk to my tree house and sit in the study. I think about Damon walking and and coming up the stairs to see me. A moment later, the study door opens and he walks in. "Hey." He leans against the door frame and looks at me. I smile. His company is comforting to me. A guitar appears in front of him. "Play me something?" I pick up the guitar and tune it. I look at it for a moment and realize it's not mine. "It's my old guitar; I don't ever play it." Damon laughs.

I play hallelujah and think of Lance, my baby brother, while I sing. When I'm done, Damon tells me we have to wake up so he can show me the library. So I tell him to leave and follow suit.

The library is huge! There are three floors, each floor has a ladder to reach the top shelf. There is a reading room on the first floor in the middle of the room. On the second and third floor there are books lining the walls and a small walkway along the walls with one stairway connecting the three floors. It looks like something out of a movie.

Some books looked new, some looked old. "There are specified areas for each genre. If you read the plaque on the shelf you are looking at you will find what genre they are." Damon speaks behind me as I stare in amazement. I walk up to one of the shelves and read the plague; it says fiction. I pick up one of the books. "The only condition to using the library is to always remember where you got the book from. It is in a specific order and must remain so. Also we don't have a librarian so.." I nod at Damon, who chuckled at my childish expressions, and ran to one of the desks in the center to get a pen and paper.

I write down what shelf it was on, "E4." and the number of books it is away from the left divider between D4 and E4. "Thank you so much." I hug Damon but let go quickly realizing how close we are and how fast my heart was beating. "I'm going to go to my room to read." I say nervously, and practically ran out of the room.

I run all the way down the hall to my room and throw myself on the bed. I sit in bed and read until it is time for dinner. Damon knocks before he comes into my room. "Dinner is ready. You need to eat tonight to be up early tomorrow; we have training. How is your book?" He smiles at me still reading the last few pages.

"I love it. I think there is a sequel to it. Do you think you have it?" I ask curiously.

"We may or may not. I will look tonight if you tell me what it's called. If we don't have it, I will send someone for it." I tell him the name of the sequel after looking on the last page for the title.

He leaves my room and I get up to follow. He had piled up my plate with mashed potatoes and grilled chicken. The chicken was seasoned with garlic salt and a marinade that Damon had made earlier that day. I eat everything, clean my dishes and scurry to my room to go to bed, tired from the day of reading.