Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lucianne pushed the door to the school library, stepping inside and looking around.

Huh.

There was nobody around. She pursed her lips. She had been hoping there would at least be some students using the library since that would make any murderer less likely to strike, but apparently she did not have that luck. She sighed, but at that moment, the windows of the library rattled on its hinges.

She stared at the library windows. Droplets of water were fiercely pelting against the glass, and an invisible gust of wind was shaking the entire window back and forth. There was a thunderstorm outside. Maybe that was why the students did not want to visit. The sounds were eerie indeed and besides, it was night time already.

Shrugging, she strolled down the aisles, looking into each row to see if anyone was there. The lights above her flickered and she was at the end of the left column when she rounded the shelves to the right column, walking along it to check if anyone was hiding between the shelves. She walked, almost reaching the end when she halted.

Wait, what was that?

She backtracked a few steps, stopping at the end of one of the bookshelf aisles. In the middle of the aisle was a huge stack of books piled on top of each other. But they weren't haphazardly piled, they were neatly arranged so that it formed a circle of books.

Lucianne walked down the aisle to the circle of books. With one heavy push, she threw all the books to the side. Her hands continued pushing and pushing, until the books were all out of the way.

There was a section of carpet that was higher than the rest.

Lucianne touched her fingers to the edge of the carpet which was higher and yanked on it, but it didn't budge. She applied more pressure and pulled with all her strength, and the carpet separated from the ground in a puff of dust. She coughed, waving the dust away. Then she peeled the carpeting away.

To reveal a trapdoor. In the ground.

There were two doors and metal rings attached to either door. However, there was also a lock. Picking up a book she threw to the side, she held it high above her head before she brought the chunky hardcover down on the small lock. It took her several strikes before the lock broke apart in pieces. She picked it away and put her fingers through the two metal rings. Then she pulled.

There was a staircase down to some basement that had no light inside. All she could see were the top few steps, and everything else was plunged in darkness. Brushing the creases from her skirt, she got up and descended the stairs quickly until she reached the bottom.

Well, she could see absolutely nothing.

She removed her phone from her pocket and fumbled around with it. Tapping on it, she hit the button for the flashlight. The phone's light flashed on, but the moment she held it up in front of her, another person threw themselves at her roughly and she fell back onto the steps. The person raced up the stairs in a frenzy, escaping through the trapdoor. She climbed the stairs in a hurry, trying to stop the person but they attempted to close the trapdoors back on her.

Sticking her fingers through the gap between the trapdoors, a ray of light shone down into the darkness of the basement.

"Wait, I'm here to help you!"

The person only pressed harder into her fingers and she winced, sure that it would bruise, if not get fully severed. Thankfully, the person stopped whatever they were doing and absconded down the aisle. Lucianne reemerged from the trapdoors, standing at the top of it. She raced down the aisle, trying to find the person who escaped.

"Wait! I'm not them! My name is Lucianne!" she hollered out so loudly that she was sure anyone at the library could hear her.

No answer.

She panicked. She had no idea who she just let loose. They could be a victim, but they could also be someone dangerous. She stood still, trying to think about her next move until all the lights in the library suddenly went out at the same time lightning and thunder struck.

She held her phone flashlight up, directing it in every direction to catch the person who escaped. What if they left the school library already? She continued searching the dark library.

Her flashlight flickered.

She pointed the light at her face. It flickered again. She flipped her phone around and tapped on it.

Her battery was at 1%.

Fuck, she forgot to charge her phone! She tapped on it, trying to get it to unlock but the screen turned black, and the flashlight died with it. The dead brick rested heavily in her hands as she contemplated her next move.

She was in a dark place, with someone who had been trapped under the library, obviously against their will. That person was now escaped and in the same place as her. And nobody else was there who might be able to help her.

Yeah, she was fucked.

She closed her eyes, with one hand out and the blueprint of the library in her mind. Taking steps forward, she tried to feel for the door.

A chair scraping across the floor.

Lucianne jumped to the sound. She picked up her pace towards the library doors, and she heard a book falling to the ground. Her feet took small fast steps forwards, her heart thudding in her chest wildly.

In the next split second, she felt someone coming up to her fast with ill intent and she spun around, lifting an arm to shield herself. She felt a blade slash at her forearm as her blood dripped to the ground. She gasped in pain as she held onto her arm. Then she heard running footsteps.

A generator whirred on and the lights came back on. Lucianne looked down at herself. There was a deep gash on her forearm, a long laceration stretching across it. Blood was steadily pouring from it and she applied pressure onto it with her other hand.

Then she sped to the nearest wall and yanked hard on the lever for the siren.