Below

“Do you think the stories are true? Don’t you want to find out?” She asked.

I didn’t but sometimes when you love someone, any semblance of self-preservation goes out the window.

            The stories started a long time ago, whispers that there was something lurking underneath the town library. A monster? Ghosts? Honestly, it depends on who you ask, but anybody would be foolish to say there wasn’t something weird happening at the library. Sometimes people walk out of the front door with a look of pure trepidation. Other times with inordinate sadness. A few years ago, a girl apparently went missing after she snuck in at night. So why I decided it would be a good idea to do just that, I’ll never know. 

            “If I get banned from the library, I’m breaking up with you,” I said.

            “Oh hush, how much does that even matter in the grand scheme of things?”

            “Probably more to me than it does to you, now please hurry up.”

            We were standing at the back door, my back pressed against the cool glass. Corrine was attempting to pick the lock, her dark curly hair blowing in her face. She’s wearing what she likes to call her “super-spy outfit” a.k.a. a black long sleeve top and black jeans. I looked out into the parking lot and beyond, following the cracks of the pavement and kicked a few pebbles that were by my foot. The lone SUV in the parking lot stood starkly against its background. A bright, shiny silver against a mosaic of dark greens and black. The woods behind the parking lot were menacing. If you stare too long it almost looks like it's growing, mutating. A forest that could swallow you whole if you let it, and maybe if you don’t. I was just about ready to let the woods do their bidding when I heard a click to my left.

            “Yes! Got it, thanks Tik Tok”, said Corrine

            “Tik Tok? I thought you said you looked it up on YouTube,” I retorted.

            “Yeah, so here’s the thing, I saw it on Tik Tok like a month ago, but I thought it sounded better if I said I watched a YouTube video before this”. Corrine looked at me through her eyelashes and gave me a sheepish smile. 

            I smirked at her, “You will be the death of me, Corrine Bridger”.

            “Maybe so, but honestly you should be thanking me, you looked like you were on the verge of a breakdown a minute ago”.

            She was right, but I nearly always looked on the verge of a breakdown, so I didn’t put too much stock into her saving grace. 

Corrine pulled me inside, her hand around my wrist, closing the door softly behind her. I looked around. There were still a few lights on, rendering our flashlights useless. But light was good, light was safer. Then again, it also makes it easier for somebody to see us sneaking around. The books towered above our heads, sitting on metal shelves. Thousands of books lined up like soldiers, waiting for us to take one wrong step, make one mistake before they would topple on our heads.

“Babe, you’re doing your weird staring thing again,” said Corrine.

The placid expression I tried to force my face into was evidently not as seamless as I thought. Not surprising, but I knew Corrine would do whatever it took to at least make me smile. I chose not to respond to her, instead resigning myself to pick at my lips, my sweater wrapped around my hands. Corrinne made about five terrible dad jokes before I finally cracked a smile. Now, we were free to continue on our journey.

Last night, Corrine managed to get her hands on a map of a library, how I don’t know, and I felt it best not to ask. She pulled out now, laying it flat on a study table as if she was in charge of a heist and was assigning everybody their roles. She squinted at it for a moment before pulling out a pen from her pocket.

“Okay, so the only restricted area in this building is the basement, so that’s where we have to go,” she said, then began tracing an elaborate path through the building— Fiction to True Crime, Young Adult to Reference to the basement door. The path she traced looked like my four-year-old nephew’s latest art project. I knew the library better than Corrine did, but this was her adventure and I, a reluctant participant. The thing I found the most hilarious was that the basement door was actually directly to our right, well within view. But what kind of midnight adventure would this be if it weren’t as complicated as possible. Never mind the fact that the longer we stayed here, the higher the chance somebody would catch us. 

So back and forth across the library we went, pretending as if it were a maze. Corrine had to frequently wait for me to catch up as I lagged behind her, shuffling my feet and picking my lip. At long last, we were right back where we started, at the basement door. It wasn’t anything special, wooden, pale blue, and barely standing out against the cream walls surrounding it. The only thing that made the door noticeable was the big red ‘X’ on it and a peeling, yellowed piece of paper that said, ‘DO NOT ENTER RESTRICTED AREA’. I hate breaking rules, but at this point I was praying that the door wasn’t locked so that we could go in and get this over with. 

Some god was listening because the door opened with nothing more than a small shove from Corrine. Whatever lay beyond the door was nearly pitch black. At least our flashlights would come in handy now. Corrine grabbed my hand and started inching her way through the door, flashlight in hand. I don’t know if I felt relieved or more scared now that it seemed fear finally decided to snake its way through her body. She looked at me, nodded, and we slowly made our way down the stairs, each step creaking below our feet. 

            As soon as our feet hit the floor at the bottom, I began searching for a light switch, running my hand across the wall to my left. My hand hit something hard and plastic and I switched the light on.

            Before us stood, well, a room. Not a thing abnormal about it, save the chairs stacked against the far wall that appeared to be from the last century, maybe even before then. Corrine walked to the middle of the room, arms swinging wide around her. She looked up and said, “this isn’t fair, there was supposed to be something here.”

            “What are you talking about? There are chairs against the wall, that is literally the definition of something”

            She gave me a mean look then her face softened into a pout, “But all the stories, all the things that people said, the missing girl. It can’t all mean nothing.”

            “Sometimes stories are just stories. Also, has anybody ever actually confirmed the story about the missing girl?”

            Despite my reluctance to even be here, I also found myself disappointed. I think maybe part of me was so scared because I thought we would find something. I joined Corrine in the middle of the room, and we sat down, enjoying the silence around us.

            “I’m sorry this wasn’t what you expected,” I said, rubbing her hand between mine, but she wasn’t listening. She was staring at something, concentrating hard. It almost reminded me of one of my looks. Abruptly, Corrine stood up and moved towards the wall in front of us. She ran her hand along something the shape of a large rectangle. After doing this for a minute or so, she pushed the wall in, and it swung open. A secret door. 

She glanced back at me, a smile creeping on her face. I shook my head, finding myself smiling as well. She was already halfway through the door, her right hand behind her. I stood up and grabbed her hand, following her into the dark room.