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I let up with the stare, still irritated that he shut my book. “Socially awkward or not, please don’t try to scare me.”

“I wasn’t!” His honest eyes disarmed me as he waved his hands. “It’s just where I ended up coming out.”

“Of an air-conditioning duct?” I glanced up, not seeing any. The rafters, open and exposed over the main part of the building, rose into the slope of the roof. The rest had been cordoned off as if a second story existed, but where we had been had no breaks in the ceiling…

“Of the book. I was diving, and it wandered off. Obviously, whoever changed this copy did something odd to it, transfiguration… There’s life force in it, so t—” He paused, staring at me with hopelessness gleaming in his eyes.

I glanced at my book, flipping back to the front cover with the strange instructions. “What?”

“Surely you’ve noticed…” He gestured around.

“I don’t get paid to notice anything. I’m not asking questions. I do the report listed inside the cover, put books away, and I’ve started digitizing the catalogue and searching for acceptable software to keep it up to date besides an…Excel database.” Whatever ookie spooky haunted as fuck shit going on in this hellhole could go right back to wherever it came from.

“So, it doesn’t faze you? How much do you know?” His brows furrowed, the gesture well suited to his face, as if he spent a lot of time doing it.

“Oh, no, it fazes me. I just don’t believe in it.” I studied his scrutinizing face. “Look, I’m getting big-boy money just out of college for sitting around doing menial work. The books want to change their contents? Sure. Books are fucking weird. The disembodied voices whispering about? Not my problem. I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“Religious?” His mouth hung open slightly, upper lip tilting unevenly just slightly at the edge to show more teeth on one side than the other. That thing people did when they’re thinking ew but trying not to say it.

“Eh.” I shrugged.

“Look, I know the Bible doesn—”

“Not Christian.” I wanted to end the topic there, because there were only three reactions to telling someone you were Jewish. Excessive interest, awkward, feigned politeness, or rabid-foaming-at-the-mouth hate. “But I don’t believe in any of this, and if I ignore it, it doesn’t bother me.”

A book thumped to the floor somewhere across the library. Something scuttled, pages scuffled, and a sharp screech pierced the silence.

“Yeah, not my problem.” I glanced down at my book, waiting for him to get the hint. I didn’t know, didn’t want to know, and would love for whatever it was to end. There was a logical explanation for all of it. If there wasn’t…I prayed it didn’t involve me.

“Buddhist? Atheist?” He tilted his head.

“It’s not work appropriate to talk about this stuff.” I turned my attention to the card catalogue and worked on checking one of the drawers, bypassing a card that looked rather like it had been splattered with blood.

The scuffling and screeching kept going, and I tried my best not to look up. “Squirrels getting rowdy today.”

He glanced away, body swaying hesitantly. “Fine. I’ll just… I gotta go break up a fight.”

Logically, squirrels made sense.

But squirrels were nowhere in my job description.

I glanced up in time to see Zeke traipsing off with a broom and a pair of thick leather gloves.

Several screeches and thwacks later, Zeke wove back through the stacks, holding a very tattered-up book that I decided the squirrels had made a nest of. Or maybe it was a casualty in his fight with them? He held it at arm’s length and disappeared into the mystery aisle.

Maybe I’d read some Greek tragedies tomorrow.

I reminded myself to call my mom and Syl. That would ease my mind.

Chapter Nine

Lex

My new mattress hadn’t been broken in yet, still stiff, and the stitches creaking in places as I wallowed in and huffed.

I lay in a bundle of my blankets, camera light on as I sat in messenger, streaming some awful B movie with Syl and Gio.

We weren’t watching. Never were, really.