Chapter 9: The Society’s Library

Focusing on Mandie, we get our first view of the world of Exorcists.

The screen of Mandie’s phone lit up the dark room with a moon-like glow and buzzed loudly against her small wooden bedside table. Mandie groggily sat up in bed and tossed back the covers. It couldn't have been time to get up yet, could it? She’d only just gone to bed. She glared at her phone --which still buzzed on the table like an angry swarm of forgotten bees--waiting for her eyes to focus on the bright screen in the darkness. 6:15. It was the right time. She shook off the comforting grip of sleep that begged for her to curl up back in her warm bed and silenced her phone.

She sighed thinking of the long day that lay ahead of her and pulled herself off of the soft sheets into the cold air of her room. She walked into her bathroom through the pitch black, only using her muscle memory to navigate the maze that was the book covered floor of her room. With a swift motion she flicked on the light and turned the water on in the shower. Once the water heated up she stepped into water, allowing the warm liquid to pour over her sore body.

The talons of sickness were still desperately clinging to her powers, threatening a loss of control. But, after yesterday, she knew she wouldn't have anymore problems. She didn't know how it had happened, but Nia had healed her the instant she’d been summoned by Alice back at the school. It was curious, normally a spirit sickness lasted a week or two, even with medicine. Nia had gotten rid of it after four days by simply being in the same room as Mandie for literal seconds. Then, if Mandie believed what she had seen, Nia had gone on to destroy three poltergeists -by herself- and healed burns from hellfire -which no spiritualist healer has been able to do yet.

Mandie scrubbed shampoo into her hair, frustrated with how little she'd been able to see the spirit do. She’d been summoned incompletely and was still able to pull off all three amazing feats, all without Mandie figuring out how.

Just who was this girl? There was no way in hell she was just some human that happened to die tragically and become a Summoning Spirit, she had too much skill for that. She had to’ve been an exorcist, that meant she'd be easy to find in the records. And with a first name and a general grasp of what her powers could do, Mandie wouldn't have any trouble tracking down her history. Mandie washed the shampoo out of her hair, relaxing as the warm, soapy water soothed the muscles along her back. For now, it didn't matter who Nia was exactly, she’d find out soon enough anyway, it only mattered that she kept a constant eye on her.

She quickly finished her shower and got herself dried off and dressed, it was a little after 6:30 by the time she was leaving her room. Mandie walked through the hallway, past her office, Chase and Jackson’s room, and the supply room, into the kitchen. She was greeted with the sight of Chase sipping coffee at the kitchen table, he was leaning back in his chair with his feet crossed on the table, another cup of coffee was placed at the seat across from him. She knew that Chase could see her, even if he was pretending like he couldn’t, so she made a show of looking at the clock, looking at him, back at the clock, then back at him. Still no reaction. She exhaled heavily, she didn’t want to deal with this today.

She walked over to Chase and slapped his feet, a small sign that they shouldn’t be on the table, then sat across from him and picked up the coffee.

“I didn’t think it was possible for you to be conscious at this time of day,” Mandie sipped the coffee and found it to her liking, but cold. How long had Chase been here waiting for her?

He smiled. “If you’re referring to the hellish hours of anytime before 11, I save it for when I really want to make a statement.”

Mandie held back a smile. “Let me rephrase then, why are you up?”

Chase took a slow sip of his coffee, putting off the response that Mandie already knew was coming. “You’re really going, aren’t you?” There was no mistaking the malice in his voice.

“You already know the answer to that question. So just spit it out already.”

“If they find out about Alice and Nia they’ll tag them just like they did me and Jackson. If that happens you’ll probably lose them forever.”

“I better make sure that they don’t find out about them then.”

“If you go there and dig around in old exorcist files they’re gonna know something is up. Especially if you start looking into current records to find out if Alice comes from a line of spiritualists.” Chase stared at his coffee, adamant to not make eye contact with Mandie.

The senior exorcist drained her coffee and stood. “I’m not going to look into Alice’s lineage, I’ve already got a lead on that. I’m going to see if at any point in history an extremely talented sixteen year old exorcist died horribly enough that her spirit would be completely ignored by the Fracture and left in the Midrealm to become a Summoning Spirit. Of course I don’t have to tell anyone that last part.”

The look on Chase’s face grew brighter. “So it’ll just look like you’re doing normal research for an extreme haunting. Wait, didn’t we agree that she wasn’t a spiritualist in her past life?”

Mandie ignored the question and walked over to the main office space to grabbed her backpack off the couch. “I have no intentions of anyone finding out about Alice, which is why I’m doing this as quietly as I can.”

Chase followed her into the space, still carrying his coffee. “Well, that’s a relief. I don’t like it when officials start crawling around here.”

At least he wasn’t pressing her about the spiritualist thing, that was the real relief.

Mandie paused with one hand on the door handle, the other reaching for the duffle bag she had packed the night before. She turned back towards the blonde, “You do realize I’m one of those officials, right?”

He leaned against the kitchen door frame, a casual smile covered his face. “Oh, of course. But you’re a lot better than those other idiots.”

She picked up her bag and opened the door. “I’m glad you think so highly of me. In the meantime, I’ll be back Friday night,” she grabbed her keys and turned to leave when she remembered something that would certainly brighten Chase’s day. “Oh yeah, and you’re in charge of Gale while I’m gone.” That ought to make him happy.

“Man, you really know how to give someone everything they could ever ask for,” he smiled and waved goodbye as she walked out the front door and down the steps to the parking lot.

With that over, Mandie glanced down at her watch. 6:42. She’d be a little late, if she didn’t speed that was. She unlocked the car door and climbed into her old but reliable black sedan, threw her bags in the back, turned the key in the ignition and headed towards the airport--ignoring almost every speed limit along the way.

She couldn’t say she was excited to be heading back there, but at least she wouldn’t have to deal with the clean up of their most recent job. She pitied whoever had to meet with the school principle and explain all the damages in some ‘non-ghost-related’ way. She’d never been particularly good at that part of the job, but she didn’t even think Chase could make up enough excuses to cover all the damages.

Just going over the list in her head made her cringe. Normally it wasn’t too bad, a cracked window here, a broken tile there, maybe some slight flooding if they were super unlucky, all things that could easily be explained away. This however, was the worst Mandie had seen in a long time: twenty broken floor tiles, four shattered windows, two busted doors, three overhead light fixtures that no longer worked, scorch marks visible on walls, tiles, and ceilings alike, and a residual sense of dread emanating from the hallway that Mandie wasn’t sure she could do anything about. And that wasn’t even counting the damage the poltergeists had caused, though it was remarkably little compared to what Nia had done in the first few seconds after she had been summoned.

She wasn’t happy to be going back, but she would be happy to have answers. To her, sacrificing three long days to people she didn’t like in a place she would never feel comfortable was worth it. Assuming she found answers to Nia’s lineage that is. One too many times she’d gone back to research spirits and had come up empty. One too many times she’d been failed by their records. She just hoped. No, she prayed, that they had something, anything, concerning powers this uncontainable and raw.

She’d decided late last night that even the smallest sliver of information about the initial powers that were released when summoning cursed or connected spirits would be helpful. She’d have liked to toss out the possibility of Nia being either of those, but so little was known about their abilities that there was a highly likely chance that this was the case.

Even if she didn’t believe it. Even if she knew it couldn’t be true. She couldn’t abandon the possibility. Plenty of high class spiritualist families had thought that they too were too pure to be corrupted, only to have an heir cursed by the Fracture. The Doyer family was enough proof of that. So really, what could stop Alice from being cursed like them? Nothing.

That’s why Mandie couldn’t abandon the possibility. No matter how much she didn’t want to believe it, there just wasn’t enough known about the initial summonings of cursed or connect spirits for Mandie to compare Nia’s intense burst of magic with. The physical damage. The spiritual mayhem. The impossible abilities. It had all been documented by the Bastion when they had attempted summoning these types of spirits. But these anomalies had also been present when people from powerful families summoned their spirits. She just hadn’t seen enough documentations of these summonings to tell the difference. Alice could simply be a brilliant spiritualist in the making, or she could be cursed to slowly lose everything she cares about until the inevitable happens.

The best Mandie could hope for was an anomaly. A fluke. Some last resort.

She needed more information.

And she needed to keep convincing the others that Nia was a poltergeist, that there was no way she was anything else. It was a gamble, but it was for the better.

***

Mandie’s eyes slowly opened as the captain announced that their plane would soon be landing in Kansas City, the time was around 1:45 where they were landing and the weather was commented on only as being a ‘delightful December day’. Mandie waited, resting in her seat until she could make out individual people on the ground, then she pulled out her army green duffle bag from underneath the seat in front of her and dug around for her credentials. It took her a minute, but she finally managed to find her leather wallet in the front pocket seconds before the plane hit the ground.

She scooted out of her seat, thankful that no one had been placed next to her, grabbed her duffle bag from the the floor and pulled her backpack out from the overhead compartment. She waited for a moment as the plane landed and tried to ignore all the eyes that were looking at her. As soon as she felt safe walking on the taxiing plane she headed for the front, flashing her badge at any flight attendants that came up to her.

The second the plane stopped and doors were opened Mandie was off and headed towards the greeting center. She hadn’t told anyone she was coming, but undoubtedly someone would be there to pick her up, someone always was. She passed through the glass doors that separated the departure area from the greeting area and was surprised to see the hastily pulled back auburn hair and tall slender build of the Commander standing not far off in the back of the fidgeting crowd.

She couldn’t help but stop. Sure they were ‘friends’, but he’d never come to personally pick her up from the airport. Well, he had once, but that was only because of the severity of the situation. Every other time he’d just sent someone to pick her up.

Mandie pushed her way through the crowd of people waiting for their friends or family to walk through the glass doors, concerned about what may have happened to warrant him picking her up. Only to find him bright eyed and jovial as ever when she finally reached him.

“Mandie! Good to see you.” He exclaimed louder than necessary as she pushed through the last of the people in her way.

“Why are you here? What’s happened?” She demanded, not wanting to repeat the events of the last time he’d picked her up. He’d acted happy then too, only to drop the bombshell on her when they were alone in his car.

He tilted his head to the side, confusion covering his golden eyes. “Nothing’s happened.” He scowled playfully, “Does something bad need to happen every time I want to pick you up from the airport?”

She pulled back from him. “Well, if the last time is any indicator, then yes, something terrible needs to happen every time.”

“Well,” he sat thinking for a split second. “I guess you could say something bad happened.”

Mandie froze, waiting for the news. He’d tried to deny it, was it worse than last time? What could be worse than that? It had taken them months to sort through everything then, and even today they were still dealing with the aftershocks.

“They had me scheduled for a meeting today. But I really didn’t want to go. So I came up with some excuse to not go, which Caden yelled at me for because that meant that he had to go to the meeting as my second in command. So I had to assure him that I wasn’t just ditching because I hate meetings, which is when I noticed that you were headed here. So I told him I seriously had something important to do, considering you’re technically one of my Captains this wasn’t entirely a lie, and left to get you.”

Mandie was speechless. Honestly, she should’ve expected this from him. For being one of the strongest and most feared Commanders in the Society he was also one of the most relaxed and friendly guys she knew. On top of that, he hated the formal side of his position almost as much as she did. That didn’t stop her from being angry at him though.

“You should’ve let me know you were getting me,” she threw her duffle bag into his arms and walked past him .

He rushed to catch up with her through the gathering crowd at the arrivals gate. “I was going to message you, but by the time I got here your plane was landing, so I had to run to make sure I met you in time. Lest you think your poor spectacle of a boss forgot about you in your hour of need,” he joked as he caught up with the brisk pace she had set.

“You could hardly call this a hour of need.”

“Well you came here for something, so what do you need?”

She paused, stopping dead center of the door out to the garage. This was where she had to be careful. Despite her Commander’s complete willingness to bend Society rules and cover up secret information she couldn’t just go around telling him everything and expect nothing to get back to the heads of the order.

She turned to look at the Commander, she wanted to believe that he could help, but he still had an obligation that she couldn’t trust. “I’m just here for some information.”

A pained look passed through his flaxen irises, only to vanish the second it had appeared. Had she imagined it? He smiled and laughed. “Haven’t you learned by now that you’re just going to be disappointed by our library? It never has the information you need when you’re looking for it, but the second you leave the perfect book appears.”

Mandie moved out of the door as a family with two rowdy kids and four bags packed to the brim with luggage walked towards the entrance to the airport. “Well, what can I say, I’m a hopelessly optimistic. Besides, this will just be record digging, all I need are the right dates.”

“Right then, I guess we should get going. You seem to have a lot of work ahead of you for the next three days.” With that, he guided her to his silver BMW and they headed out towards the Society headquarters.

***

The library was always like this. Dusty with a hint of chalk, no matter how much the records keepers insisted they cleaned the place. The dust settled on books, floated in the air through the golden light that poured in through the arched windows, glinted in the candlelights at night, and covered the bookshelves so that it was always easy to tell what volumes had been moved recently. The musty smell of old paper and damp wood floated pleasantly on the air and scrolls, books, and papers were crammed into any space that they would fit. Yet somehow everything was perfectly organized and fairly simple to find. The floor was covered with old, beautifully patterned Persian rugs that added comfort and coziness to the room. Thought somehow they escaped the touch of the unavoidable dust and always remained vibrantly coloured.

Mandie had been sitting at one of the creaky mahogany tables that were spread out just a bit too far apart in the middle of the library for hours. Already the tabletop was covered with genealogy books and scrolls dating all the way back to the first exorcists in Japan, some of the pages she hadn’t touched in a while had collected their customary thin layer of dust.

So far she hadn’t found anything useful along the lines of family trees, but it was still just her first day looking. About an hour back she thought she had found a prominent line that could explain Nia’s immense burst of power, but when she got to the end she found that both a heirs of that family were still alive and running a prominent spiritualist reserve in Japan. After that small failure, she’d lost her motivation to look any further that night and had just been staring at the same records until the sun had set.

“You’re not going to learn anything by just staring blankly at the paper you know.” The smooth voice had shocked Mandie so much that she had almost tossed the book she was holding open in her lap. She really did hate how the few people with the ability to sneak up on her always managed to do so when she was lost in thought.

“I’m not trying to learn right now, Sebastian,” she growled as she turned to face the blue eyed and fluffy haired exorcist. “I’m trying to think.”

“Well you don’t seem to be doing a particularly good job at that either, considering you haven’t moved in the past thirty minutes I’ve been wondering through this place,” he said as he slid into the seat across from her, his emotionless eyes scanning over all the papers lain out on the table.

“Well, it’s hard to concentrate with all the noise you’ve been making,” sure she hadn’t actually heard him, but she didn’t want him knowing that.

Sebastian stared at her for a second, then slowly blinked and brushed the pecan coloured hair out of his eyes. He knew she was lying, but it had been worth a shot. “What are you doing looking at these old records anyway?”

“I came across a spirit on my most recent job, I was pretty concerned with the power she wielded so I came here to see if I could find anything.” It wasn’t technically a lie, though it definitely wasn’t the full truth.

He nodded understandingly. “And for some reason you believe that this spirit was from,” he squinted at the book that sat directly in front of her, “Ancient Japan.” He looked at her questioningly.

She had to admit, she didn’t quite know how to explain this one away, so she just shrugged. “Seemed like as good a place to start as any.”

He grabbed a scrap piece of paper that Mandie had been taking small notes on, pulled out a pen from his navy trench coat, and scribbled something at the top. “Well, when you’re ready to start actually looking into the spirit you encountered I would suggest checking out these first,” he hopped out of the seat and handed the paper to Mandie. “The librarian can help you find them, she knows where they all are.”

Mandie glanced over the titles as the exorcist walked away. Academy Graduation Records 1901-2000, Academy Graduation Records 2001-Present, Bastion Files QRX9-QRX23, Fracture Curses and Cruxes, Wessler’s Guide to Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena 3rd edition, and Things that go Bump in the Night.

Wasn’t that last one a children’s book? It didn’t matter. How did he know? She looked around, he couldn’t be gone already, he had just left! She quickly closed the books and stacked the papers in a somewhat orderly fashion then dashed out of the library after him.

She ran past the old library at the entrance, who barked that she should be more civilized in a place of learning, and managed to catch a glimpse of a long navy coat through the entrance. She burst through the doors a second after and saw the exorcist almost almost a hundred meters away from her. How was he moving so fast?

She sprinted after him, the cold air burning in her lungs and her legs aching with not being used for the past three hours. She managed to catch up with him right before he disappeared inside the main building. “Sebastian!”

He turned around with a look of confusion covering his face, his eyes still emotionless. “I don’t think I can help you anymore than I already have.”

She slowed to a stop in front of him then roughly pulled him around the side of the building, not in a mood to have people seeing or overhearing their conversation. Once she had caught her breath, and composed her thoughts she spoke. “What the hell is this?” She demanded, holding the paper in front of his face. Well, she hadn’t meant to be that direct.

He looked over the list like her had never seen it before. “Well, it looks like a list of books to me, very helpful ones at that,” he tried to turn to leave, but Mandie grabbed his arm and shoved him into the side wall, making it clear that he shouldn’t move.

“Why are you telling me to look at these books specifically?” If he knew who exactly she was looking for who else knew? She’d only been here a few hours, no one should’ve been able to figure it out that quickly.

Sebastian rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the wall. “Because I figured they’d help you in your search for whatever dead exorcists it is that you’re looking for.”

“Who says I’m looking for an exorcist?”

“The genealogy records. You only pull those out when you think someone is an exorcists or documented spiritualist.”

He had a point, the records were a dead give away. But most of the titles on his list had no reason being their. She’d never said she was looking for anyone current, but the location of her job could’ve given that away. But the last four?

“Alright, I see your point there. But what about Fracture Curses and Cruxes and Wessler’s Guide to Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena?”

He fixed her with the cold gaze of someone who has nothing to lose, she just glared back at him. He sighed. “Have you already forgotten? You mentioned that you were ‘pretty concerned with the power’ the spirit controlled. So, putting that together with the records you were looking at, I assumed that you may be dealing with an anomaly in the Fracture or a Cursed Spirit in general. Maybe even a Connector, but I feel like the Society would have known by now if another Connector was summoned. Anyway, those two books are the only ones in our library with large amounts of accurate information about Fracture anomalies.”

“And the Bastion Files? You know those are classified to the level of Commander, right? There’s no way I would be able to look at those.”

His gaze instantly hardened, “Cut the crap Mandie. You and I both know that you have ways to reading files far above your own classification level, just as I know you know that I have my own ways of doing the same thing.”

He was right, Mandie had been reading books classified to the rank of Commander ever since she started working as a Captain five years ago. Just as she was sure Sebastian had been doing the same ever since he started working with the Seers. But what about the last one. A children’s book? Really? Was he trying to get and something? “And the last one?”

“It’s a good book, I suggest you check it out. Now if that’s all, I’ll be on my way. You’ve made me late for a meeting.” With that, he slipped between Mandie’s fingers before she had a chance to grab his arm and stalked off towards the front of the building. She was tempted to follow him, but was sure she wouldn’t be able to without him knowing. She could’ve gone back to the library to do some more research, but she’d need the Commander’s approval to move forward if Sebastian was right. She was also pretty sure that the night library would be mad at her for running and leaving a mess in the library. She’d have to wait till the morning to go back, so she might as well visit the Commander now.

Mandie glanced down at her watch, it was late enough now that there was still a slight chance of him being in his office instead of roaming around the grounds or gone on a job. She shoved her hands in her pockets and set a brisk pace towards the Officer’s Building.

It only took her a few minutes to reach the other side of the lawn, slip in through the front entrance, and find the room she was searching for. Before she knew it she was standing outside his room about to knock when she heard something strange. Voices, raised voices at that, coming through the door. She knew she should knock. She knew she shouldn’t listen to what was being said. But, against her better judgment, she lowered the presence of her energy and leaned against the door.

“You have got to be kidding me!” The harsh voice rang out, only slightly distorted by the heavy wooden barrier. Mandie knew that voice anywhere, it belonged to Caden Statson, her Commander’s second in command. “It’s been years, but I’m supposed to fly out there and look into it because you have a hunch.”

“I feel like you should know to trust my hunches by now. When have they ever been wrong before?” The Commander asked in return, sounding more exhausted than usual.

“I do! But it’s been years! I’ve looked, and looked, and looked, following each of your hunches, and I’ve found nothing. I thought we had agreed that it was a lost cause!”

“You may have settled on that decision on your own but you need to look at the big picture, Caden!”

“Oh yeah, and what big picture is that?”

“This concerned your daughter, or had you forgotten that?”

Silence.

The quiet persisted for ages, until it was overcome by the sound of heavy leather boots and the turning of the door handle. Mandie stepped back from the entrance. Did Caden know she was there? She’d probably be in a load of trouble if either of them knew she had overheard everything. She scanned the hall for hiding places, but Caden threw open the door and stormed out before she had a chance to move. If he had seen her he didn’t show it, which she was pretty happy about considering he looked like he was about to burst with range.

Mandie cautiously looked into the room and found the Commander sitting at his desk looking out the window, his back to the door. She knocked quietly, “Commander?”

He didn’t move to acknowledge her, but something changed in the energy of the room that told her he was listening. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a request.”

“If it’s about what you just heard, I’m afraid it’s classified.”

“No, I was just going to ask if you could get me some things from the Library…” The overwhelming power in the room lightened, then quickly disappeared, the Commander turned to face her with his usual jovial smile on his face.

“Of course, anything you need,” He hopped out of his chair and strode into the hall before Mandie could get another word out, almost like he’d been looking for any excuse to leave. She followed him through the Officers Building back out into the cold winter night, within minutes they had reached the library. Mandie cautiously followed the Commander into the building, and was relieved to find that the night library was nowhere to be seen.

“What are you looking for?” He asked as she followed him through the overcrowded bookshelves to the restricted section of the library.
“Bastion Files QRX9-QRX23.”

His hand stopped on the door to the restricted area. “QRX9-23?” He turned to look at her, “what do you want with those?”

“I’m doing some research, Sebastian told me these files might help.” What was in these files that was setting him so on edge? Normally he’d get her anything she asked for, what was different with these. Sure, they were Bastion files, but it wouldn’t’ve been the first time she’d looked into their records.

He looked shocked. “Sebastian told you to look at these files?”

She nodded, and pulled out the paper. “Yeah, those are the exact ones.” She showed him Sebastian’s list, “see?”

The Commander bit his lip and ran a hand through his long auburn hair. “I can get you files nine and twenty three, but QXR10-22 are classified…”

Mandie paused for a moment, she didn’t quite understand what he was getting at. “Everything in this section is classified, that’s why it’s called the restricted section.”

“Well, yes, but these are more classified. You’re not even supposed to know these exist. Hell, I’m not even allowed to take them out of this room and you know how high up I am,” he looked at her apologetically. “I wish I could help, but these nothing I can do.”

She wasn’t supposed to know about these? Then how did Sebastian know about them? They were the same level after all, and they both worked for the same Commander. The only way Sebastian could’ve seen those files would’ve been if the Commander had showed them to him. Something wasn’t adding up here, but she could tell from the skeptical look in the Commander’s eyes that she should press the issue any further.

She smiled. “I understand, thanks anyway.”

“I can still get you QRX9 and 23, if you would like?” Despite the offer she could tell from the restrictive tone in his voice that he didn’t want her looking at those filed either.

“It’s fine. I should be getting to bed anyway, it's pretty late.”

“Right, well, sorry again,” he turned and headed towards the entrance, but he was no more than ten steps away when he stopped and turned back. “Make sure you eat something before going to bed, alright?”

“Yeah, will do,” she called after him, pretending to be distracted by a book on a nearby shelf. The Commander turned and left without another word.

She remained where she was, perusing the titles of the books until she could no longer sense the Commander’s energy in or around the library. She quickly focused her energy and sensed out the library, making sure that she was the only one still inside. The night librarian had returned to her position by the entrance, but other than that the building was completely empty. She should be safe.

She walked over to the door to the restricted and section and tried the handle. Locked. Shocker. She quickly focused all of her energy on the door. There had to some sort of magical seal on it. How else would Commanders be able to open it anytime they pleased?

If there was a seal then Mandie should be able to break it. She wasn’t the most powerful exorcist around, but her level of energy control was almost unrivaled within the Society. Given enough time she could break almost any magical seal she could think of. She just hoped she had enough time to crack this door. Her energy wavered around the door, she quickly grabbed onto the irregularity.

She twisted her power around the door, slowly pulling the seal on the door into the visible spectrum. A dull glowing circle formed in the center of the door and, as Mandie pulled on more of her powers,  lines of symbols became more distinct within the glow. Once Mandie felt a slight pull on her energy she let go and closed her eyes.

There was a bright flash of white light and the smell of burnt wood filled her nose. Mandie uncovered her eyes and fanned away the small amount of smoke as she looked at the door. The symbols which had been barely visible before were burned into the door.

It was time to get to work.

Author's Note

New Edit: Not sure I actually changed much here???
What did you think of Sebastian?
Please feel free to comment on any problems you see or any ideas you have :)