The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 32

When Kyle took that first step and then another and another he was never more thankful for feet in his life. Sure they smelled, ached at times, and they looked stupid, but they were carrying him to his goal. He spun around excitedly to beam at his friends. They'd made it!

Before him lay another stack of books, but this time there was an archway built into it. Piles of books were stacked neatly around the arch which led to an inner room lined with more books. The corridor was complete. They'd made it through the time trial alive.

There was a chorus of triumphant We made its! in his head while the gang silently celebrated their victory. CJ ran over to a shelf and plucked a book from the stack at random to show them all it had a title on the spine. It wasn't in a language they understood but they'd defeated the libraries challenges and were now able to read the books.

Once inside the room Kyle marveled at the fantastical number of volumes, but when he looked up the gleeful look was wiped from his face. The sheer number of floors that soared up and up to well beyond where even his preternatural eyes could see was simply staggering.

When they viewed the library from outside it looked to only contain four or five floors, but he should have know better. A mystical library that held all knowledge would have had to be bigger. Kyle groaned in his head and thought guys look before pointing up.

Some of his friends were already looking, others looked up when he pointed and he got to experience his reaction to the nightmare they'd entered on their faces. How would they find it now? Even with the eye of Horus it could take them days, weeks or even months to locate. Who knew how far the building went.

Lauren held the eye of Horus up to her eye, while he crossed his fingers for good luck. Maybe they'd get lucky and it would be just a few floors up.

But when he saw the awed look on her face and she pointed way up, his hopes were dashed. With a collective sigh they started climbing. By the 100th floor the entire gang was done, spent, never mind that they were in peek physical condition, they just survived a deadly gauntlet now they were doing cardio.

I mean . . . COME ON!

What did his magical world have against elevators anyway?

If it wasn't for the interesting people they'd seen on the landings, and nodded silently at on the stairs on the way up, he would say this was the worst experience of his life, but can you say that when you pass a guy in a toga, and a Geisha in a Kimono and those wooden platform shoes, a medieval knight, and a woman wearing a futuristic neon color body suit. He lost count of the number of 'out of time' people they'd encountered. They were wildly entertaining to him, but it made him wonder what they must think of him and his motley crew. A bunch of soaking wet teens.

After half a dozen shocked stares they decided getting some cloths on Cam's fully naked body and Meg half naked one would be a good idea. Zach was good enough to offer Megan his hoody, it was so big on her that it nearly went down to her knees and CJ offered Cameron his button up shirt that he tied around his waist.

Everyone tried not to laugh when CJ pointed at Cam's crotch and thought: Dude keep the shirt.

But still they garnished attention from the occupants of the library, of course they would, they were a bunch of soaking wet teens, two of which were partially naked and barefoot.

When they collapsed on the 200th floor Lauren consulted the eye of Horus and afterward let her arm flop down uselessly beside her. She didn't even have the strength to tell them the bad news. No one really cared at the moment anyway. All they cared about was getting air into their oxygen deprived lungs. Marley was the only one unaffected by the endurance challenge they'd just been through.