The Time Capsule

Chapter 20: Library of Secrets

*Note from the Writer*: It is important that I emphasize from this point onward, you, the reader, will be thrust into these unforgiving worlds with no author. No author, you ask? How can that be the case when you are the one writing this story? No, dear reader. There is a difference between Author and Writer. The sooner you learn that, the better off we'll both be. The author has asked (and by asked, I mean made me sign a contract to not reveal her identity at all costs.) As my name is quite literally signed in blood now, we will proceed to the next chapter. When we last left our trio, they were stepping into another world. Strange how libraries operate, isn't it? Worlds within a world. What's that, you ask? Where is the real author? Oh. She's indisposed. 

*Note from the Writer ends.* 

....

Chapter 20: Library of Secrets

Angelica screamed as she fell through a seemingly endless tunnel of blue and white swirling light. She briefly wondered if she was still alive, if she had died the moment she had stepped through the door. But no, she decided. That would be too cliche. She still had to complete the Quest, this wasn't a literary class where the professor scrutinized every detail of her adventure. Sometimes, the curtains just wanted to be blue.And besides, if she were dead, she wouldn't hear Levi and Jillian screaming just as loud next to her. She also wouldn't have felt the crunching impact as she landed on the hard wood bloor. 

"Ow," Levi grunted, trying to get up. "I think this is it for me...let me know when Morgan is defeated..." 

Angelica looked up to see Jillian knee Levi in the chest, to which he groaned and sprung up quickly, knocking over a stand of books in the process. 

"Better?" asked Jillian.

"Loads," Levi glared at her. 

Angelica giggled softly and stood, brushing herself off. Her shirt was starting to get holes in it, the black fabric ripping across her chest. She needed a new outfit if she was going on an adventure with potential mud, rain and snow. Something strong, something that would last through wear and tear. And, she realized as her stomach rumbled, she needed food. 

"When's the last time you ate?" Levi asked, clearly thinking along the same lines. "Besides the fairy food, that stuff vanishes as soon as you eat it." 

"Days? Hours?" Angelica guessed, noticing Levi was looking increasingly furious. "What? Stop looking at me like that." 

"Days OR hours?" Levi growled. "You really don't have a grasp on the essentials, do you?" 

"You're one to talk," Angelica scoffed. 

Levi screwed up his face, looking like he was trying to think of a clever response to shut her down, but gave up and turned away when he couldn't think of one. Angelica went back to brushing off her clothes from the dust of the library floor. The building looked like it hadn't been disturbed for a very long time. In fact, as she got a good look at the hundreds and hundreds of books, they appeared to not have been moved for several hundred years. Each had a layer of dust caked on the cover. Tracks from sort of machine splayed in random patterns across the floor. 

"The abandoned library," Jillian said as she playfully spread her arm. "Good name for a book. Which, of course, would be a paradox because it's a book about a book." 

"Yeah, not so abandoned after all," called Levi from off to the side. 

He was shining a torch across the floor, scattering the dust in the beams. Angelica realized the sparkling blue wings had disappeared from his back, he had somehow changed into a black suit and looked, Angelica hated to admit it, rather handsome. The only splash of color in the room was Jillian's trendy outfit, illuminated by Angelica's torch as she made her way over. Levi and Jillian were both back to wearing human (if human was the word for it) clothes, perhaps to blend in with their new environments on the Quest, Angelica supposed. Angelica wished she had a mirror to see how much of a mess she was compared to them, as they could change their appearance magically at will. Her thoughts quickly slipped away at the sight of this new section of the floor that Levi's torch was sweeping over.