(Addie says /tuftp/)

Please don't die! This is one of my favorite lodges 🙂

Day 3, Part 12

Bushy Tail couldn’t sleep.

The day’s events and Peri’s statue turning had kept her awake, and so, trailing from her soft bed and out into the dim library, she decided to investigate things. 

She tip-toed by the front desk, empty and silent, before making a U-turn and going to the gap in the desk. She slid behind it, and began to pad silently over to the closed door. 

To be honest, BT was rather suspicious of Dewey, from what WildWolf had told the group this earlier today. All their destinies being written on books kept in Dewey’s room? That was just weird.

She quietly turned the knob, which was surprisingly unlocked, and opened it. There was a short hall, as WildWolf had described, and so Bushy Tail quietly closed the door and went to the next. This door was also unlocked, suspiciously, and so she slowly, every so slowly, opened the door. 

It was lit up only by a small lap on a nightstand by the bed. And on the bed was the slumbering form of Dewey herself. 

Bushy Tail froze, even though she’d known that she was, in fact, entering the librarian’s own room, but Dewey never even twitched. Thank goodness the doors were soundless. 

A scratching sound drew Bushy’s attention, and there in the faint light were the books. Five were closed. Ten open. And she knew one of those ten were hers. Recording her every move. She pursed her lips and fully stepped into the room, cracking the door behind her. 

She looked around, and she had to admit, she hadn’t a clue what, well, clue she was looking for to indicate anything against the cat-eared librarian. Her eyes shifted to a tall bookshelf, full of books. It seemed kind of funny since Dewey lived in an entire building of books, and basically owned all of those.

She quietly went over to the shelf, and read some of the spines.

Jason’s Story. Glory’s Story. Olivia’s Story. Story’s Tale.

These books were all people's stories. All of them. All six shelves were stuffed with them. And with a shiver of fear, Bushy Tail wondered if one day very soon, her story would be there too.

Her eye stayed on Story’s Tale. Something about that tugged a memory, something about what WildWolf had said… but she couldn’t think of it. The book was strange in itself too, sticking farther than all the others. Bushy reached up and pulled at the book, wanting it to come sliding out, but all it did was tilt forward more, and the whole shelf began to move.

BT jumped back, startled, as the shelf started to sink into the floor, and once the top of the shelf became the bottom, she could see that it seemed to be going to a whole other level. Taking a deep breath, Bushy stepped onto the top of the shelf as it continued to go under. Glancing back at the open door she’d entered, she fully disappeared under, and a tile slid into place above her, covering the hole. Only then did Bushy Tail realize that she’d cracked the door to a small slit.

~~~

They watched from behind the couch as Bushy Tail’s eyes fell beneath the floor, and then how the hole in the floor was filled by a piece of tile. They waited a full ten minutes before creeping forward and tapped the floor piece, waited until it slipped away, then lowered themselves into the darkness.

Dead: 5 (Moon Wolf, Cillian, Marin, Endless Parodies [Parody], Periwinkle [Peri])

Alive: 10 (CelineBurningBright [Celine], WildWolf, Hex, pangolin, Eclipse, Scuttles, Silver Crystal [Silver], Seadragon, Bushy Tail [BT, Bushy])

Yay!! New part!! il it sm! I’m so glad that you’re still making it 😀