They Live with You

Chapter four: Alex

Remind me to never trust Hannah with a boy again. Actually, I take that back. Hannah shouldn't be trusted by or with anyone. Well, that is unless you want to get arrested and thrown into a dungeon.

Okay, technically it wasn't a dungeon, but it was close enough. Dark and gloomy. Covered in spider webs and roaming roaches. The guards threw us in a cell about the size of a walk-in closet.
Hannah grunted. "Can you believe these guys?"
"Well, you kinda told him we were doing drugs." I said.
"So" She scoffed.
"Uh- hello, does the word illegal mean nothin' to you."  Sure that was a bit rude, but she didn't have to tell him the truth. After all, she's the best liar out there. It would've been easier to just lie her way out. But no, little miss innocent wants to tell the truth.

Speaking of Hannah, what the hell was she doing? Her fingers were wrapped around two of the bars as she twirled a few strands of her short black hair. I'm not sure why she was twirling her hair, but it seemed so out of place. Here we were stuck in a cell and she was twirling her hair almost as if waiting for her prince in shining armor to arrive. I never understood why she did the things she did. It was all so random, but I'm not going to lie, I was interested.

I slumped down to the same level as the floor and so did Hannah. "So, wanna play a game again?"
I didn't respond. I was so angry and I probably would've lost it if I said anything.
"Okay..." She said. "Look I'm sorry, but let's not forget you agreed to come with me."
I sighed "Oh wow, Hannah Ahmed always tryna blame me for everything."
"What- no I'm- ugh!" I not sure what that meant but after she said it, she turned her back against me.

We sat there in utter silence for about three hours or so, until he came. One of the guards unlocked the cell. "Follow me, the king wants to meet with you two." I stood straight up and offered Hannah a hand, but as expected she ignored me. I wanted to ask why this so-called 'king' wanted to meet with us, but the air was already filled with awkward silence so I figured against it. The guard led us to what looked like a courtroom with a massive throne dazzled in gold that stood in the middle. When we walked through the heavily coated gold doors, a boy was sitting on the throne. It was quite a sight. A literal child sitting on a king's throne. No not a king, a god.

The guard left and everything just got about a thousand times worse. The boy or 'king' cleared his throat and a high-pitched voice spoke. "What is this?" He asked holding out a note.

We leaned forward to read it. It said the same exact thing but this one was written specifically for him since it had the name Max, which I assume is his name. "I- I dunno what that is," Hannah said.
Then he glared at me like I was trouble. "What, it's not like we wrote it." I snapped.
"Well if you two  didn't, then who did?"
"How would we know?" I said.
He paused, almost to think when he said it. To be frank, I wasn't expecting it. Especially from him, but I heard it loud and clear. "You two may go to the library if you want." What! Where did that come from? "But-" oh gods I should've known this was coming. "I'm coming with."

"Wait, wha-I- why- huh?" Hannah stuttered.
"You read the note, I'm coming."
Wait a damn second. First, this guy wants us arrested and now he wants to accompany us to find illegal drugs. What the fudge was this?
"Come along," He said walking in the direction of what I assume was the library. Hannah and I exchanged glances, but I didn't feel like talking to her. I was still lost in absolute confusion, but somehow we ended up in this place. A library that was six stories in height and had just about every book out there, all in alphabetical order. The interior of the library was dimly lit. The books were all dull but it seemed fitting. Hannah stared in awe. I didn't know much about Hannah, but from the looks of it, I'm guessing she's a reader. Reading was fine, but it wasn't my favorite. She had this smile across her face and for a moment I forgot I was supposed to be mad at her.

Then she caught me staring. Oops. It probably her uncomfortable, so I stopped. Max stood foot against one of the shelves and I could see him smiling at Hannah.  He started blushing really hard. Hannah didn't seem to care though and instead ran to a section labeled fiction. She glided her finger over the spines of the books until she stopped at one and picked it up. "Alex, you have to read this book, it's literally the best book out the-" I guess she realized we weren't on talking terms.
I was going to ignore her, but the book looked quite intriguing.

It was the only one that wasn't colorless. It had two girls holding hands on the cover with a pink heart shape in between. It looked like one of those cheesy friendship novels my older sister used to obsess over.  Or at least I thought so. "Looks nice." I lied.
"Shut up Alex, you're the worst liar out there."
"How did you?" I forgot what I was going to say.
"I'm not dumb ya know" Was her response.
Then she started wandering off again to different aisles, searching for other books. Most of the books in the library appeared bland and boring. But then it happened.

"Hey, what's this?" Hannah asked from the other side of the library. I turned around and noticed a hole about the size of a door cropped out of the wall. Max and I walked toward Hannah.

He scrunched his eyebrows, "Hmm, wasn't there before?"
"When were you last here?" I questioned.
"A few minutes ago. I actually found the note here." I was still confused, but it was starting to make sense. Why he came. Something about that note was so convincing. But what exactly was it? "Hold on, I'm going to fetch a guard." He headed towards the door, looking back at the hole, stumbling over a misplaced book on his way. Except he never made it to the door.

Within a moment the luminous flames that kept the candles alive blew out. We were in complete darkness. I could feel my breathing intensify and my heart beat faster than ever before. I was never fond of the dark. Especially after what happened to-nevermind. I felt my way around, bumping into shelves and desks.
Then I heard a voice from behind.  "Alex!" A scream surged throughout the room. "Max! Or I guess king or whatever you want us to call ya." Okay that was definitely Hannah.

I turned around "Hannah, I'm right here!" I hollered.
"Ya cuz saying 'I'm right here' in the dark is just so helpful." She said.
"Yes I know, I'm just so helpful." I could sense her giving me the stink-eye or cussing me out in her head. "Wait Hannah, just stay in your palace, I'm coming."
"Okay." She said softly this time.
Slow and careful, I walked in the direction of her voice. I kept one hand over my head- protecting it, and the other I used to navigate my way to her. I ended up accidentally poking her shoulder, which she didn't seem to like much. "Sorry." I apologized.
She touches my face with her hands almost as if making sure it's me. "It's me alright."
She sighed in relief. "Wait, where's Max?"
"Max!" I called.
"H-here!" He yelled from afar.
I felt my way to Hannah's hand and she clutched onto mine. My eyes were slowly starting adjust to the darkness when I saw a small figure. "Max?" Hannah ran toward the figure, pulling me with her.
"Ya" and as soon as he said that the candles were lit once again. I don't know why, but the light was suddenly scarier than the darkness. Who was doing all this and why? Was it really Centa, or someone pretending to be the goddess?

Max looked between Hannah and I when I realized we were still holding hands. She let go of my hand. Than it hit me. The room we were in was smaller and didn't have any shelves. It was simply an empty room. There's no way this was the library. I didn't know what was happening-which was annoying, but I had a feeling someone had the answer to some, if not all my questions.