2 Chapter Two: Apparently Serial Killers Don’t Like Horror Movies

All three of them were utterly confused. Valerie had gone on a rant about how one of the librarians was a serial killer, and how she managed to escape and whatnot. But the girl was speaking so fast that Luke had to ask her to take a breath before she continued.

"Valerie, calm down. You're a stuttering mess." Garrison placed his hand atop hers and waited for her to slow down and gather her thoughts.

They all stood there for a few moments before she spoke again. "Okay. I feel a little better now, so I'll start from the beginning."

"Go for it. We're listening." Luke encouraged her to tell her story.

"Alright. So I was looking for the dictionary, right? And this librarian comes up to me and asks if I need help. And of course I didn't, I knew well where the book was. But you guys know how I feel about refusing help. So I let her lead me to the shelf. And the next thing I know, she's holding a switchblade to my neck."

"Wow. That's...scary." He couldn't mask his surprise. Almost getting murdered in the library? Not the most fun way to spend your after-school hours.

"I know, right!" Valerie exclaimed. "Anyways, so she starts whispering about how I was supposed to be her seventh kill this week, and at this point I was really freaking out, so I decided to use some small talk to distract her. I asked her if she liked horror movies, considering y'know, she's a serial killer."

"Mhm…" Luke said.

"And so I guess she doesn't," Valerie replied. "Because she got really pissed and started digging the blade in deeper. Now I'm, like, really desperate, so I start rambling about my favorite movies. And I guess my annoying tendencies to ramble actually paid off because she let me go, saying 'I was too much of an annoying brat.' So yeah, that's pretty much what happened."

Garrison and Luke fell into stunned silence. Never had they known a serial killer worked here. And Garrison had a feeling they weren't going to be safe for a while.

"Okay...but are you sure you're serious, Valerie? Cause I'd rather not have us all end up in trouble with the police for some elaborate prank." Luke glanced at her skeptically, an eyebrow raised.

"Seriously, Luke?! Why would I lie?" Valerie yelled indignantly, her face betraying the hurt she was probably trying to mask.

"Look, Valerie has no reason to lie." He felt the urge to stand up for his closest friend, knowing she rarely ever had ulterior motives.

"If she was lying, do you think she'd be this panicked? Luke, you've known her longer than I have, and I've never seen her this scared. I don't know if you ever have, but you've got to realize the fact this could be way more serious than a prank."

He waited for Luke to think about the possibility before they came up with a plan. "Fine," The other boy said. "I don't fully believe you, but I won't dismiss everything just yet."

'At least now, we have something under control.' Garrison thought. That thought evaporated when he saw Valerie look over her shoulder and tense up noticeably before turning back to them.

"Er...you guys?" "Yeah?" Luke asked.

"I may have forgotten to mention...she said if she saw me again, she'd kill me for sure. And she's in the aisle right behind me."

"Here we go again…maybe we should start running?" Luke murmured hesitantly.

"I think that's a good idea." Garrison whispered in reply. By then, Valerie was already fidgeting like crazy and she grabbed their wrists, dashing frantically through the shelves.

"Dios mios," he heard her mutter under her breath. She turned to Garrison and told him, "Look, if I don't make it out of this alive, I-"

"Shut up, Valerie. We're going to live. We're going to be okay. Let's just keep running." The girl gave a short nod in response and kept going, until she stopped at a nondescript door.

He pushed the door open to reveal a dark room, seemingly empty and silent. They ran inside and shut the door behind them, crouching behind shelves and desks. "I think we're safe," Luke mouthed to the other two.

"Luke! You jinxed us!" Valerie whispered, before her head swiveled from side to side, her whole stance vigilant. After a few minutes, everything fell silent, and they all were able to relax a little more.

Garrison let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, leaning his head against the wall. Just when he was about to suggest they find an exit, a gold sheen of light peeked out from one of the vents.

"Hey," he nudged Valerie's shoulder, pointing towards the light. "Look. I wonder what that is."

"You think we should explore it?" She asked warily. "Well, it's better than getting murdered." Garrison replied.

"Luke, look up at the vent." Valerie said to the other boy. He tilted his head up to see the little light, and when he looked at Garrison and Valerie, another silent agreement came into effect.

They were going to explore whatever was in there. Because if anything, golden light had to be good, right?

"So uh, how exactly are we supposed to get up there?" Luke asked. "Granted we even fit inside the vent of course."

"Uh," Garrison said. "The vent seems decently wide, so I don't think fitting inside would be much of a problem. And we have a bunch of shelves around us. Just a little bit of rearrangement, and we should be able to get up there pretty easily."

The other boy stared at him with amused wonder. "How did you figure that out?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes you just have to pay attention to your surroundings, you know? Cause you can always use them to your advantage."

"Huh," Valerie muttered. "Interesting. Let's get started, then."

She stood up from her hiding spot and walked over to a shelf, sweeping off all the books that were on it. Putting all her weight into one side, Valerie only managed to budge it about two feet.

"Er, Luke? You mind helping, please?" Luke headed over to her and also started to push, but even with both their combined efforts, the shelf didn't move much more.

They both turned to Garrison, and the boy felt a bit awkward with their eyes on him. But he walked over and together, they all were able to push the shelf as close as they could to the glowing vent.

"Who's the best at climbing here?" Luke asked. And before he took the next breath, Valerie was already placing her hands and feet on the shelves and moving upward.

"Ah..never mind."

Eventually she made it up there. And that was when they ran into another roadblock. "You guys!" She hissed, looking down at them.

"How am I supposed to take this off? I don't have a screwdriver!" The boys stilled into silence. Yeah, they really had not thought their escape plan through.

It was quiet for a few moments as they all collectively scanned the room until Luke pointed his chin to the left of them.

"Look. There's a toolbox. Must be something in there we can use to pry the metal off." Garrison walked over to the toolbox and dug through it until he pulled out a small screwdriver with a yellow handle.

"Here, see if this works," He threw it up at Valerie, who nearly dropped it, and then started grumbling about how you shouldn't throw sharp objects at people!

Fortunately, it got the job done. The metal guard fell to the ground with a loud clang and Valerie climbed inside, waving her hand behind her.

"Agh, it's bright in here. Feels like I'm staring straight into a spotlight." Soon enough, she called for the other two to join her and so Garrison waited as Luke went up the bookshelf next.

"Garrison, your turn!" Luke yelled from inside the cramped vent. If he was going to be honest, he slightly regretted pointing the thing out and suggesting they explore.

Not because of the golden light. But mostly because of the fact that he was going to break his back if he tried to bend over and crawl through that.

He went through with it anyway. Climbing the bookshelf and praying he didn't fall and hit his head, he finally made it to the little vent. Now this was where Garrison knew he was going to regret his choice.

Squeezing through the passage was really painful and cramped at first. Eventually, it felt like it widened as he went through, though that was most likely his imagination. He made it to the light at the end of the tunnel, and almost laughed remembering the old saying to not go towards the light.

'Eh. Who really listens to those anyways?'

The tunnel ended abruptly, and so Garrison had to jump to the ground in front of him, which looked like hardwood, but was carved with glowing runes.

He didn't have time to think about it though, because he barely managed to stick the landing and tripped, stumbling forward a little.

"You okay?" He heard Valerie next to him. When he looked up, her walnut eyes were staring down at him with a little bit of concern.

He gave a thumbs up and smiled ironically before getting up from the ground and really taking a look at his surroundings.

"What the hell?" He had to ask. Because he'd never seen anything like this.

"Hello, Makta. And welcome to the Eternal Library."