Still, it sounded like an easy twenty bucks.
“All right, man. Show me where it is,” I said.
Alec walked past me and waved his hand for me to follow him. We went back past the lockers and down the hall towards the gymnasium at the far end of the building. The lights in the trophy cases were still on and I looked at the little golden statues of tennis players, gymnasts, and wrestlers that went as far back as the 1940s.
Alec cut right and I followed him down the wide hallway that ran between the science labs to the hallway with the English, history, and math classrooms. We went left and Alec picked up the pace.
“Just the auditorium is down this way,” I said.
Alec said nothing and turned right towards the auditorium. He then stopped at an unmarked door that I’d never even noticed before. He took a paper clip out of his pocket, pulled it into a straight line, and slid it into the keyhole. He jiggled the clip for a few seconds; there was a clicking sound and he turned the knob and opened the door.
“Come on,” he said and walked inside.
I walked through and my eyes went wide.
A staircase a good ten feet wide went down a tight corridor to a pair of doors held open by doorstops; beyond them was darkness.
“Jesus,” I said.
“Yep—it’s all down there. Now here’s the deal: at the far end of the library is a section on medieval history. Go down there, grab a book, and bring it back here.”
“And what about lights?” I asked.
“There’s a switch on the left wall when you walk in,” Alec said.
I bit my lip and stared into the darkness.
“OK,” I said. “Don’t run off.”
“Oh, I’ll be here,” Alec said, his voice a little higher than usual. I started to walk down the stairs and little spats of dust floated in the air as I hit each step.
It’d been a while since anyone came down here.
When I get a little past halfway down, the library came into view. There were three thin windows lining the top of the wall and some faint gray light crept through, but not enough to really show me anything. My foot hit the floor and I looked back up the stairs.
Alec stood there with his mouth in a straight line and his arms folded.
I turned back to the library and walked in.
As soon as my feet hit the carpet my body shivered. It was a good ten or fifteen degrees colder in here than the stairway had been. They must have kept the heat turned down in here—or maybe the vents were clogged with dust? Thanks to the light from the stairwell I saw the light switch on the wall and I walked up to it and flipped it on. Faint orange lights flickered on across the ceiling, lighting up the tops of the wooden bookcases like a hazy Halloween sunset. I could see now that the carpet was a dark gray color and that the dark-red wooden reading tables had thick, deep scratches and dents in them.
I’d liked it better when the lights were off.
The opposite end of the library looked like it was a good twenty or thirty yards from me and it was amazing that the shelves were still filled up with books.
“All right, there and back. No problem,” I said to myself and started walking.
The floor was hard, almost like the carpet had been laid over cement. My eyes started to adjust to the dim light and I gazed over the rows of three-level bookshelves as I went past them. American History, Earth Sciences, Fiction, Philosophy. And then, just after a row without a nameplate, was Medieval History.
I looked back to the library entrance and felt a bit of a cold sweat trickle down my chest. It seemed farther away than it should. Like the library had stretched itself out as I’d walked through it.
But that was silly. I was just a little weirded out from being in here.
When I went to the Medieval section I didn’t waste any time and grabbed the first book on the shelf.
The Hundred Years’ War
Good enough.
And then the lights went off.
I spun around, expecting to see Alec grinning by the light switch, but instead I saw the doors closed with only a bit of yellow light from the stairwell coming through the window.
The sharp smack of two books being slammed together echoed through the library as my heart nearly shot into my throat. I rubbed my hands over my arms as it felt like the temperature just dropped another five degrees; I could feel my skin turning into gooseflesh.
Just walk forward and get out of here.
I started to move towards the doors and in the corner of my eye a wisp of white light floated through the bookshelves.
I stopped and stared through the darkness. Dust particles floated in the thin gray light in front of the windows—that’s the only movement I saw.
But I was sure I’d seen something.
I took a step down the aisle and looked over the books. Strangely, none of them had any dust on them. I peered over the tops of the books into the next aisle but didn’t see anything.
Something gripped my collar and jerked my head away from the books. I blindly swatted at whatever it was but my hand just hit air. My collar was released and I spun my head around, but no one was there.
I stepped back from the shelf and my throat froze as a pair of ghostly skeletal hands shot
