Books of the Dead (9 page)

“Did you know about this?”

“A little, but I never paid attention to it. Ghost rumors are so common today, they don’t interest me.”

“So anyone can pretend and play a joke; that is possible, right? Maybe they are the ones who sent me the letter.” Merly looked up at Natalie expectantly.

“I am not ruling that out, but why would anyone want to scare you? You are hardly that popular.” Natalie looked like she regretted saying the last part.

Merly didn’t seem to mind as she had bigger problems to deal with and the popularity issue was not one of them.

“Did you tell anyone about this letter?” Natalie questioned further.

“I went to talk to Kelly yesterday about this, because she knew about the anonymous delivery of the previous packages, but Camille and Zoë were present when I went. It seemed that they were hiding something from me. I don’t know what, but I am sure they were reading something when I entered their room and immediately closed the book upon seeing me,” Merly said with an air of exasperation.

“Are you sure that you are not thinking too much into this?” Natalie asked trying to reason with Merly.

“No, something is not right, Natalie. I know it. Why did you ask me to meet you here today? What did you find out?”

“Not much, but it turns out that your Mr. Stevenson was indeed a student here at the university, but not many know about it, but I have my source. I believe that for some reason it’s a not much known fact.”

“But why is that? What is there to hide about it?”

‘‘You didn’t expect me to find everything in one day, did you? Looking into the past of one professor is not easy, and we have to be very careful about it. Do you know what might happen if this gets out? And moreover, your friend already knows that we are meeting.”

“One more thing, Mr. Stevenson knows something, too. Just don’t believe what you see always. Anyway, I have to go and you need to complete your assignment.” Natalie started to leave, but Merly called her back.

“Wait, what about Mr. Stevenson? I have known him for so long, and I am sure he has nothing to do with this. He has his own son to take care of and is too old to be a part of anything.” Merly defended Mr. Stevenson again like she always used to do.

Natalie was younger than Merly, but didn’t hesitate to point out a flaw in her as soon as she completed her sentence.

“You are so gullible, aren’t you? What do you know about Mr. Stevenson that makes you so sure about him? Is he that nice to you?”

“Yes, he is all the time,” Merly said feeling a sense of responsibility towards the librarian.

“Do you know that some have even heard him speaking to himself when there is no one around on a number of occasions? Or that he tried to run away from the university once and when he was caught, he acted as if someone was after him? Since then, he walks around the campus all frightened and shy, or the student who claimed to have seen the ghost in the library also claimed that Mr. Stevenson was perfectly calm and acted like it was a common occurrence, when the student himself was scared out of his life and swears to never set foot in the library again. He passed out from seeing her.”

“Not so clean himself, is your Mr. Stevenson?”

Merly was adamant and refused to believe what she heard. She calmly said, “Don’t speak about him like that and don’t judge me. I have known him for a long time. It’s true that he acts strange at times, but you are making him sound like the guilty party. How can he be? He was the one who told me about the argument between Nora and Mr. Summers the other day.”

“Then believe what you want. I simply informed you of what I know, and since I agreed to help you, I’ll try to find out about the letter you just received.” Then Natalie walked out of Merly’s sight.

“I don’t believe that Mr. Stevenson is guilty, not him,” Merly kept telling herself. When she turned back to leave, she saw that same girl again with those emerald green eyes standing behind her silently

“Do you need any help?” Merly asked.

The girl didn’t answer, but kept on looking. Merly knew most regulars in the library as she used to be there often, but didn’t recall seeing her other than that day, so she questioned her again.

“Are you new here? What is your name?”

But the girl who looked like she just entered her twenties stared back with no answer. Her lips gave away nothing and her eyes looked on blankly blocking Merly’s way.

“Can you move? I have to go, please,” Merly requested.

“Who is she?” Merly muttered under her breath when the girl still didn’t move, and it was getting late. She remembered leaving Zoë with the assignment and it was her responsibility to complete her part. Needing to leave, Merly reached near the girl to move past her. Merly’s hand brushed her for a brief second and it sent chills down her spine. Her skin was as cold as snow.

Merly didn’t look back, because a part of her told her not to, and she walked fast to where Zoë was working on the assignment, and found her with her head down on the bench. She rushed towards her and called her name, but Zoë didn’t respond.

“Zoë” Merly called out her name again, this time more loudly.

Zoë looked up, but her eyes were bloodshot red. Merly stepped back, both scared and bewildered.

“Oh, no! This can’t be happening!” She started taking steps back without looking and hit someone on her way, but when she turned around to say her apologies, her eyes met the most horrifying pair of green eyes she had seen.

Merly put her hands on her mouth and saw a pair a sickly white hands reaching for her. She tried to move back again, but Zoë was blocking her way with a dead look on her face. She gave out a loud shriek when Zoë’s hand touched her and started shaking her, and Merly cast her eyes down.

“Merly! Merly! Wake up already!” Zoë was shaking her vigorously. “You dozed off after coming here; do you want to take a break? It is getting late, and you don’t seem fit to work. Do you want to head back and do the rest of this tomorrow?”

Zoë’s eyes looked the normal shade of gray and she was speaking in her usual soothing tone. The previous tensions between them were forgotten. Merly didn’t answer Zoë’s question immediately as the image of the girl still lingered in her head. She couldn’t reason why this girl whom she saw just few moments ago came in her dream and tried to reach for her. Merly turned her head and looked at each side of the room, but there was no one there except for them. She could see that Zoë was looking at her waiting for the answer.

Merly insisted on completing the assignment, “Let’s finish this. We have to present this tomorrow. I am sorry for dozing off; I am a little tired,” she explained.

“If you insist, then let’s do it,” Zoë said.

“So how far are you with the assignment?” Merly peeked at her paper.

“Just the first part. I got stuck. You were not here and I didn’t understand a few things.”

“Try the red book, page eleven.’’ Merly pointed out where the book with the red velvet cover was lying. The pages were yellow reflecting that it had passed several hands. Merly was still shaken by what happened earlier, and in her mind didn’t want to take reference from the book, but it was necessary at that moment and they needed to finish their assignment.

Zoë turned to page eleven and found several texts were underlined in red ink. There were also bracketed paragraphs and she started reading them. “The answers ... they are right here. It is as if someone has marked them for us,” Zoë exclaimed in utter joy, ‘‘… and this makes our work so much easier.”

Both girls hurried with their assignments. Each chapter they revised, and incidentally, all the answers lay in the books that were suggested to Merly. She was scared and overwhelmed at the same time. Both the feelings dominated her and she wanted nothing more, but to finish the assignment and get out of there.

An hour or so passed, when Zoë announced that she was hungry and wanted to go and grab a bite. “Would you like to go eat with me?” she asked.

“No, you just go ahead and I’ll just finish with the answers.” Merly motioned Zoë to go and take a break. She closed her notebook and decided to stretch a bit herself. She walked around for a bit and noticed there were a few students who were still there going through their books. One or two looked sleepy, and seeing them made Merly realize that she wanted to rest as well, but she had already missed one day and tomorrow she was supposed to submit her paper. Merly went back to her seat. Moments later, her hand found her pocket and she took out the folded letter. Who would want to meet me here today? And the day is almost getting over, she thought.

Merly however still nurtured the possibility that someone knew about her weakness and was just messing with her. However, the stolen books still didn’t make sense.

“Hey, are you done with the answers? Zoë tapped Merly from behind.

“Ah, it’s you. I am working on it,” Merly replied.

“Were you expecting someone else? Zoë questioned.

Merly fumbled, “No, why do you ask?”

“Because you seemed a little surprised. It might have been the old librarian,” Zoë mocked again.

“Zoë can you not say that? I am not very comfortable with that discussion right now,” Merly firmly said.

“And why are you so adamant to dismiss it solely?” Zoë questioned back. “It’s okay if you don’t want to agree with me on this, but you denying it won’t change the fact that you did see the old librarian, Merly, and thus it is certain that the rumors after all are more than just rumors.”

“Zoë, this proves nothing.” Merly was still sticking onto her theory of silly pranks by students who love keeping such rumors alive. Rumors add such spice to an otherwise drab college life. It provides the opportunity to be creative, it fuels the mischievous minds, tortures the gullible victims and satisfies the doers, and Merly refused to fall into their traps. She refused to be a part of their amusement. She needed to stop it and somehow prove that there was nothing called ghost or that the existence of the old lady librarian was simply a myth.

There were numerous pranksters in the university and the fact was not unknown to Merly. She deduced each problem in her head sitting there on her bench. She only needed to find out who was sending her the books, the letter or dressed as the librarian. A silly trick that was, and Merly laughed inside her head. She told herself that the incident with Nora going away might just be a coincidence and the energetic girl that she was must have found something interesting on her visit to someplace and has thus sent her the text message yesterday.

Mr. Summers might just be arguing with Nora and asking her to pay more attention in class and that being a student at the university was nothing to talk about. That Zoë, Kelly and Camille could just be developing some new hobby that they wanted to be secretive about or they would eventually tell her about it. Old Mr. Stevenson likes everyone to refer to him lately, might just be a sad victim of old age and she for her own self can always get medicines to get a better night sleep.

Merly thought that if her father was there, then he would have told her to buckle up and be stronger, because she has faced more difficult moments or might have to face much more in the future. She was being silly and Merly knew that. She was freaking out over little things and she didn’t need to. The only thing that bothered her was the missing books. That she could not figure out. However, thinking about that now was pointless for her. Merly reminded herself of the reason of being at the university, of her working so hard to become one of the top criminologists in the country, and the incidents in the past week had somehow derailed her on the way to her dreams. She was focusing on things that were not necessary; she was worrying herself to being sick. She cried at night, resorted to lies and now at every turn, she feared a ghost showing up. Merly was getting paranoid and tired. The lack of sleep prohibited her from concentrating during her classes.

This way, she would never be able to keep up with the grades that she had worked so relentlessly to achieve and all because of some old books, letters and a silly rumor. Logic and reasoning were Merly’s strong points and she decided to fully use them. The next day would be a new day and all of this would be in the past and Merly resolved to forget it.

Zoë waved a hand in front of her eyes and that broke Merly out of her trance. She looked much relaxed, but Zoë didn’t. “You were lost again, what were you thinking?”

Merly gave out a small laugh; she was indeed feeling lighthearted and relaxed after a long time, so she cheerfully answered, “I was thinking about what I should do tomorrow.”

“But tomorrow we have class and ….’’

Merly didn’t let Zoë complete her sentence, but instead gave her a mischievous wink and said, “Don’t state the obvious, Zoë, I meant after class”

“Something changed?” Zoë quizzed again.

Merly playfully said, “What do you think?”

Zoë checked her watch and they were fast approaching the night.

“Hey, Zoë,” Merly said. “I am finished with the assignment and I marked your portion, too, so let’s check out and head back. I am hungry.”

Merly seemed to have gotten rid of her anxiety and it reflected on her face, Zoë could see that. “All right, let me pack my things at least.” Both of them packed their stuff, checked out the book and headed out.

At that moment, it would have been impossible to say that these two girls were in a fight a few hours ago. Merly’s shoulders hung low and she was taking small steps for she was in no hurry to reach her room, though she was hungry. The cool air outside made her calm and composed. Zoë looked at her once or twice, then asked her to keep up the pace saying, “Didn’t you say that you were hungry?”

“I most certainly am, but the air is refreshing and I like it. Hey, do you want me to carry the books for you?’’ Merly volunteered.

Zoë was confused about Merly’s sudden change. Just hours ago, she was all crazed out, and now she was all quiet and unfazed by things around.

“No, I can carry them on my own.” They walked quietly for few steps, when Merly said, “Zoë, I am sorry about what happened in the library. It was truly unnecessary and uncalled for. You are my friend and I don’t know what happened between you and Natalie, so let me be clear that it was not intentional. She was just helping me with some information and that was nothing too important. But I shouldn’t have argued with you in front of her, which was not right of me to do, but be assured that I don’t think she’ll talk about it. Better yet, I will speak to her tomorrow, so is that all right with you?”