Library Time

Jill had never wanted to be a criminal. She was a straight-A student, a loyal friend, a behaving daughter. Still, her path had led her to an unfortunate life of crime. How tragic.

“Would you shut up? I’m eleven, in a library. Not a murderer in some crappy motel room. You should be glad for that, too, because you’d be my first victim if I was.”

“Alright, alright! Such aggressiveness.”

Despite being in sixth grade, Jill had already developed the mannerisms of a war-hardened veteran, somebody with nothing left to lose-

“Oh, how I wish I could lose you!”

Randy’s dramatic narration was stopped at this point, as he chose to run from the raised hand of his friend instead of risk getting hit by it. Both children thought it was a good choice.

Where they differed in decision-making was the fact that they were in the library at all. Randy wasn’t very keen on getting caught trespassing, and Jill was too keen on getting her book. She was the most determined stick of a girl that Randy had ever seen.

“Would you hurry up?” He was getting antsy. Just like Jill, he was a good kid, and wasn’t very experienced in the art of breaking and entering.

“We aren’t breaking anything, Rand. We’re just getting the book and leaving everything else as it is.” She peered around a bookshelf with her flashlight, half expecting some ghoul or monster- or even scarier, the librarian- to pop out from behind it. Her nonchalance at the whole situation was faked. Done well enough to fool her friend but not herself.

“Well, what are you waiting for then?” He turned his head left to right, then left again. His nerves were stacked as high as the unshelved books behind the turn-in desk and he wasn’t interested in stacking them any higher. “Jillian if you don’t find that thing in the next five minutes I’m leaving without you. A night without a story is better than a night in jail.”

The threat was empty, they both knew it. The kids hadn’t left each other's side since the third grade and there was no way either of them was going to do it then. Best friends are like that.

“You and your goldfish memory. What happened to being elephants?”

“Hush up, I’ll find it eventually. We’d be out of here a lot quicker if you’d help.”

Randy, in typical Randy fashion, shook his head and crossed his arms. “It’s your mess. I’m just here for the moral support.” As much as he wanted to leave, he would not give in. Stubbornness was in his blood.

Unfortunately, pure determination was in Jill’s and she was not going to leave the library until she found what she was looking for. “It’s here somewhere, I know that.”

“Oh wow, somewhere? That really narrows it down then, doesn’t it?”

“Shut your trap.”

Randy took a book from its spot on the shelf and flipped through it. “How do we know someone didn’t think, ‘this looks interesting’ and took it?” He put the book back. “I mean, it could be anywhere!”

“It’s not anywhere, it’s here.” She flung her arms around. “Somewhere. I know it is. Besides, I thought you were supposed to be an optimist? When did that change?”

“When my best friend dragged me to the library at two am, therefore incriminating not only herself, but me too. I guess the thought of spending my days with a bunch of murderers kinda ruins my outlook on life.”

“Hey, you don't know, maybe they’re all in there for breaking into libraries too. Maybe they murdered someone in a library, just like I’m about to-”

She stopped as the bang of a door echoed throughout the room. The kids shared a wide-eyed, pale-faced look with each other, then snapped back to the origin of the noise.

Big footsteps could be heard on the marble near the checkout. A loud cough made them jump. More footsteps.

Jill held onto Randy’s arm as they cowered behind a bookshelf. They were a good way away from the window, closer to whoever was inside with them. There were two options: run for the window and hope for the best, or sneak past the person and go through the front door.

No words were said, but the choice was clear in their expressions.

Jill held up a hand. Five. Their breathing was uneven and loud as they prepared. Four. Were the footsteps getting louder? Three. They were definitely getting louder. Two-

Without the signal for one, the kids sprinted past the bookshelves and tables. Their sneakers hitting the carpet sounded louder than a sonic boom as they went. They had nearly gotten three-fourths of the way when they were forced to hide behind the nonfiction shelf.

“Hey, who’s there?” The voice sounded closer than was comfortable, and just as panicked as the children felt. “Who’s there?”

Jill had half the mind to shout back, “no one!”, but her fear was smarter than her mouth. Instead, she looked around wildly for any other means of escape. Her eyes fell upon a small, black book during her scan, with a maze-like engraving on the cover. Randy saw it too.

“Jill, no.”

She met his eyes, gave a guilty grin, and crept slowly towards the table it was resting on.

Randy reached out to stop her but he was too slow. “Jill!” He hissed. “Get back here!”

She was too far now to go back. At a painfully slow pace, she edged her arm upwards and felt around the surface of the table until she found what she was looking for. Her fingers wrapped around the pages and pulled them down to where she was squatting. She could see the window from there.

She nodded her head towards the opening and started crouch-jogging toward it. Randy, as terrified as he was, reluctantly followed.

The voice was farther away, yet louder in its questions. “Who’s there?” and “Who are you?” were the most common type.

The chair from when Jill and Randy had first jumped through was still by the window, and in a state of frightened adrenaline, the kids climbed up and out. They didn’t stop running until they thought their lungs would give out.

“Well that was fun, wasn’t it?” Jill’s voice was still high-pitched and shaky. She looked to Randy, an apologetic look in her eyes. “I’d recommend that experience to anyone, wouldn’t you?”

“Never,” Randy said through pants. “Going anywhere....with you...again.”

Doubled over and close to fainting, the kids laughed. They both knew it was a lie.