Alex, Chapter IV

Chapter IV

Planet Bae, Hidden Galaxy

 

Me and Mage had eaten our breakfast in silence. It dawned on me that I must have been one of the first people she talked to, if not the very first.

 

We had gone to an area near the front of the building, on the ground level floor. It was a large, store-like room. Mage helped me find a violet paint for my walls and deep blackish-red bed sheets.

 

We carried everything to the counter and a boy in all black came out of the side room.

Mage pulled a silver card with a black "B" emblazoned on one side and the Greek letter "beta" on the other. She handed it to the boy, who swiped the card and handed it back. No words were exchanged.

 

As we walked out, I asked what happened. "My credit card I used is for Betas only. We earn credit on it by doing certain tasks, like missions on a game. Do missions to get money; do tasks to get credit. The harder the task, the bigger the pay-off.

 

"Why didn’t that kid speak? He didn’t tell you how much it was."

 

"He’s a psychic. They always send him out because most people think I’m deaf, or a mute. I just don’t talk to anyone so they’ll leave me alone."

 

So we walked back to my room carrying the stuff. We passed a bunch of people, but none of them spoke to us.

Once in the room, we set it all down. I was surprised the door was made already and Ricky had left. I had been looking forward to meeting him.

 

Together, we pulled everything into the center of the room and began to paint. The can said we only needed one layer and to wait a full twenty four hours for it to dry. We finished completely in a few hours and went back to the cafeteria to eat, only to come back after seeing it was already closed. Not feeling like doing much else, we hung out in Mage’s room and talked.

 

A while later I finally got us on an interesting topic.

 

"So what do you guys do in your spare time?" I asked.

 

"That depends. Sometimes we do tasks, or we go down to the Rec. Room. I usually go to the Library and read. It’s one of the few places that we have 24-7 access."

 

"How about we go someplace? The Library would be perfect."

 

Mage looked up at me; she didn’t move her head because she was leaning against my shoulder.

 

"You actually want to go to the Library? You do realize it’s just books, right?"

 

"Great! I love to read."

 

So, grabbing my map that Ricky had left me, Mage and I began to walk through the maze of hallways. We were about halfway there when I heard a shout and turned to see what happened. Mage grabbed my arm, but it was too late.

 

A large ball of fire hurtled itself down the hallway at me. I couldn’t jump out of the way, so I shut my eyes tight and focused my power.

 

A brick wall barely made it into existence when the fireball hit it. It was still intangible when the fireball had touched it, so a couple tiny sparks passed through, but it had become solid before anymore passed through. My wall spanned the height and width of the hallway, protecting me and Mage from any further attack, but making it impossible to see our attacker.

 

Shaken, we hurried to the library and I only absorbed the wall once we were safely inside.

 

 

"Who could it have been?" I asked Mage as I scanned the giant shelves of the enormous bookcases.

 

The library was the size of a college, including the entire campus and buildings. It was a dark place, lit by numerous neon lights in the glass floor and ceiling. Some places were brightly lit and others were shrouded in shadow.

 

"It could have been hundreds of people, that’s the problem. Jeez, this cart is heavy," Mage said, pushing the black cart after me. The upper level of the cart was my books and the bottom, which had twice as many books, was hers. "It could have been Nova, or even my brother. Or they could’ve hired someone to do it. Or it could’ve been just a random attack."

 

"Mage, can you read this? I don’t know a lot of Vrak," I handed her a thick black book with red Vrak writing and a golden lock picture on the cover.

 

"It says Vrak and English Translator, 1412 edition. But, isn’t it weird that they attacked us like that?" She handed me back the book and I put it on the shelf. I grabbed one labeled Enhancer and threw it on my pile. We had sixteen books. We could leave now.

 

"It is weird. Perhaps they just meant to scare us. Come on, I’ll check out eight, you check out eight." She nodded and we headed down the aisle to the front desk.

 

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but every three aisles, a pair of golden eyes watched us, following us to the front desk. The eyes were shrouded in the shadows, in the aisle on the opposite side of the bookcases. Once we got near the light though, it ran off. I shivered, but kept walking. I tried to forget about what could have golden eyes and lived in an ancient Library deep underground.

 

We checked out the books using the scanner and entered our names into a machine. We threw the books back into the cart and pushed it through the swinging library doors.

 

It was late and the main lights were turned off in the hallways. The red lights turned on due to motion sensors. We both pushed the cart as hard as we could to move it along in an easy silence.

I looked up only to see if it was our turn that was coming up. Mage noticed that I froze in mid-step. "What’s wrong?" she asked nervously.

 

I tried to speak, but couldn’t, so I pointed directly ahead of us.

 

Two golden eyes slowly walked towards us, moving silently and without activating the motion sensors. It moved in complete darkness, eyes glowing.

 

Mage looked and screamed.