Jenny, Lilly and Artemis slowly tip toed down the foot of the stairs. For once Lilly was glad she was barefoot- or paw- whatever. She hardly made a sound. Jenny found herself getting very protective of her two friends, as she held their hands with her between them. Lilly did have a point; she had to do something. She was the magic girl, and it became her responsibility. Still she didn't want to hurt anyone. But until they understood what this creature was, they couldn't do much.
It was darker upstairs, so coming back down where it was lighter was a little more comforting. The shelf that Lilly had knocked over was restored upright, and all the books back into place. Artemis looked a bit closer, and noted with some surprise it was all done in perfect alphabetical order. It would have taken a normal person far longer to achieve that.
They tiptoed along the carpet, until...
... there she was. The ghost, made of a strange ethereal light, was sitting at the front desk. It seemed to be just waiting...
"Maybe we could ask it to let us go?" Asked Artemis hopefully, her voice a little on edge.
Jenny tensed at that. It would mean 'approaching' it... dare they? "Let's try," said the magic girl. She was eager to find a non-confrontational way out of this.
Together the three of them approached the ghost. Lilly couldn't look at its eyes. If she looked at its face, what would she see? Her imagination was going wild at the thought now, thanks to her now very immature mind. With a side glance she saw her friends were daring to look. Slowly she too followed their gaze.
The ghost seemed female, and at the moment looking very quietly at.. nothing. It had curious ghostly glasses. That struck Lilly... why would a ghost need glasses? She was ethereal and see through. It was hard to tell where her clothes ended and started, the way they flickered in the darkness. The three children were breathing hard, not quite believing what was in front of them.
"Hello..." Jenny said carefully.
The ghost looked at the three children with sudden attention shaking its head. It still seemed to be annoyed with them, as it gestured to a corner in the library.
The three girls could feel a sudden 'pull' in that direction, like a rope tugging on their bodies.
"Ah! Screamed Lilly. "Let me go!"
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh... And suddenly, all was quiet again....
The force didn't seem to be hurting them exactly. It was pushing them though, with some sense of urgency. If they walked with the force, it didn't hurt... but trying to pull away was as if a grip was keeping them from moving too far away. An invisible touch of a person on all of them, and it was very frightening.
Finally the strange force let them all go.
They were now in the children's section of the library. Colourful characters were all around them. In the shadowy darkness, it looked so eerie. As if they were about to pop out of the posters.
"I think it put us in the girl section," Said Artemis with confusion.
"It wants us to... borrow stuff from here maybe?" Lilly asked considering her earlier theory as she glanced around at the incredibly girly looking books. While it wasn't really a 'girl' section, it certainly had that appearance. A lot of the books had pink binders and seemed to be the kind of book only little girls would read. Fairy tales, romance, it was all here. It made Lilly in particular feel very nervous. She wasn't sure if she would even like those books.
"I guess it doesn't hurt to try borrowing a book..." said Artemis capitulating in the end to Lilly's theory. It was still a crazy idea to her.
The three girls each took a random book, and rather warily returned to the front desk. They also glanced at some of the motivational posters. Those who used to run the library were quite keen on getting children to read... was the ghost following these poster sayings as literal rules? What if they didn't comply to these 'rules'?
The ghost didn't even move, as each book's cover just suddenly opened itself. The sound of an invisible stamp hit the pages, and the books seemed to glow making the girls wince.
Return... before the due date... or face a penalty.
