Queen Of The Ventils

IV

It had been three weeks since the whole 'Archie-Got-Injured' band practice. We had been asking Douxie nonstop at school about what the ventilator meant. He said he couldn't tell us until Archie was better physically and mentally.

Since the encounter, he hadn't spoken a whole lot and limped around with a little wooden crutch. He hadn't left the bookshop, and we checked in on him every day, but nothing had changed. Hopefully, today would be different.

Right as the final bell rang, I ran out to meet Toby at the bike racks. He was texting somebody and looked up as I got closer to him. He grinned, tucked his phone in his back pocket, and waited for me to catch up with him. "You ready for band practice?"

"About that," I said, looking over my shoulders to make sure somebody wasn't listening in on our conversation. Mary Wang, the biggest gossip in the whole school, was hanging out with her best friend, Darci, by their lockers. If she wasn't paying attention to us, then we were basically in the clear.

"I was wondering if we could check on Archie after school today," I whispered. "Maybe ask him about the thing he saw." I spoke in a hushed tone, taking extra precautions to make sure nobody heard. If somebody overheard us, they would panic and then tell others and the whole town would then be in disarray. Maybe I was being a bit too cautious, but with huge gossipers like Mary around, anything she heard everybody heard, eventually.

"Well, I have great news for you, then," Toby smirked, pulling up his recent texts. "Douxie just asked me to meet him at GDT Arcane Books because Archie is finally talking again. He said Steve, Jim and Claire are already there and he's waiting for us."

"Thank Seklos he's okay," I said, a big weight lifted off my shoulders. The little feline was like a part of our group. He never left Douxie's side, and to see one without the other was like seeing a male deer without one of his antlers: It made no sense.

We hurried to the part of downtown where Douxie worked at the bookstore, GDT Arcane Books. It was a quaint little shop, with a navy blue paint job and gold trim. Inside, there were rows upon rows of books of various sizes and colors. When I opened the door, a little bell chimed from somewhere above me.

The place looked deserted, with dust particles visibly floating around in the sunlight streaming through the windows. The bookshelves stretched into the farthest reaches of the store, a labyrinth of knowledge someone could get lost in. To the left, I could see a small desk and cash register where people could buy their books or other little knick-knacks spontaneously scattered around the place.

Behind the register was a navy blue curtain that gave the employee's break room some privacy. At least, that's what everybody thought the room in the back was. The guys and I knew better. What it really was was like a cross between a teenager's garage band, and a medieval lord's mansion. It depended on what mood Douxie was in, and what Archie had been reading lately.

I stepped behind the desk, following Toby behind the curtain. Once we crossed the threshold into the break room, Toby headed straight for one of the bookshelves and started combing around for the book that would take us to the secret room.

The room was dark and kind of spooky, like a corridor in a medieval castle. The walls were lots of stone bricks cobbled together, and there was no natural light. Unlit, wax candles were scattered around the room and there were huge cobwebs everywhere, like a cheesy, second-rate Halloween store.

There were bookshelves made from a mysterious, dark wood, lining the walls and there were musty, old books littered everywhere. In the back, there was a long table, about waist-height, and littered with arcane artifacts. Like a tiny human skeleton with little wings, or a pair of satyr horns hanging on the wall.