The Library

"Well, that was helpful," I said. The chill that had been lingering in the library vanished - it obviously hadn't done its job. I looked between Carter and Iris. I still was upset with Carter about getting us kicked out, but I was more concerned with the lack of answers we had gotten from our all too helpful host.

I looked down at the book Carter had gotten from the woman.

"The least we could have gotten was an explanation," I said. I went over to Carter's side. Maybe he was supposed to open the book. Maybe he wasn't. I honestly didn't care. I hated cryptic messages when they weren't coming from me, and I hated being treated like I was nothing.

I stole the book from Carter.

The last time we had ended up somewhere other than the library, Esther had opened up one of the books. So I followed in her footsteps: I opened up the book, flipped through the pages, and waited for the inevitable transportation to wherever was "important" for us to go - hopefully, that place would be where Esther and Elizabeth were.

Amy was already sick of Seattle. Well, not Seattle specifically. Mainly the weather. It rained so infrequently in Los Angeles that Amy had been excited about it at first. She was supposed to go to the University of Arizona, but had changed her mind at the last minute. All to follow a guy she'd only been with for less than a year.

Scott was in his own world, finishing a paper for class. Amy had finished her homework for the night. She listening to a Queen album on her Walkman, trying to rest, since her mom was supposed to come for a visit tomorrow and pass judgement on the state of their apartment and the fact that she was living with her boyfriend.

She and Scott had tentative plans to go out that night. It had been pouring earlier in the day and for the most part had stopped, but it still looked cold, wet, gray and nasty, and she was comfortable in her pajamas. Maybe they could still order takeout if she could tear him away from the new electronic typewriter that he loved so much.

Amy sat up, about to get his attention, when she thought she heard something coming from outside. They were on the ground level of the apartment, overlooking a small courtyard that Amy heard was nice in the summertime.

She opened the curtain and found she was staring at two men. Two men and a little... fairy? Sitting outside on the chairs the apartment complex kept out and were probably wet and gross, they were in a sorry state.

She didn't recognize these men, but maybe they'd gotten locked out and forgotten their key in their apartment? There was no way they could have gotten in if they weren't residents.

She tried to gesture for them to meet her in the hallway, but they didn't seem to understand. Finally she mouthed, "I'll meet you."

If anything, she hoped they would see the one and only door and figure it out.

"Scott, I'm going to be right back, okay?"

"Okay," he said barely audibly, without looking up. She threw her slippers on, grabbed her key and went to meet the men.

Skull was a godsdamned idiot, and Carter despised him. For Esther's sake, and in an effort to stay true to the librarian's intentions (not that they were clear, and not that he really liked them) he restrained himself.

They were sitting on a bench, and Carter was wearing even more absurd clothing again. He glanced down at his outfit, wholly disgusted. The fabric felt suffocating. It was some kind of jacket (if it could even be called that) that was a vibrant blue, with a purple and yellow triangle going down the chest. The pants were matching in color, with the same triangular shapes on the legs. The closest things he could compare his shoes to structurally were boots because of the laces, but they were not made of leather, or anything familiar.

He didn't want to admit that they felt comfortable, hideous as they were.

He looked up and around. They were in some kind of courtyard in the middle of what looked to be a string of street-dwellings. They'd been placed in chairs. There was Skull (who was thankfully, also dressed ridiculously), then him, and then Iris, on the arm of his chair.

The sky looked cloudy, and dark with the threat of rain. He lifted his hand over Iris, just in case there was any rainfall.

It was then that he noticed the woman in the window, trying to get their attention. He wasn't sure what she meant by "I'll meet you," when he read her lips, but he nodded like he understood, and got up to the only door that made sense to go to so he could meet her. He decided to lead the way before Skull rushed ahead and did or said something rash and stupid.

He gave a small nod of his head to invite Iris over and gave her a little smile.

We didn't end up where Esther and Elizabeth were.

We ended up somewhere cold, and wet, and stupid. I didn't really care where we were, or what time it was supposed to be. The clothes Carter was wearing didn't look like they had the first time around, and they reminded me of clothes I had seen when Marissa Fittes had locked me away - forgotten - in the depths of her little agency. Not that I could put a year to it. Time worked differently in death, and it wasn't like they had given me a clock.

I looked down at my own clothes. They were disgusting, and not in the good sense of the word. A denim jacket on top of a buttoned blue shirt that almost looked like denim, faded jeans with rolled up cuffs, and bright white sneakers.

And all of it was soaked.

I got to my feet and headed towards the door after Carter.

I opened my mouth to say something - still not sure what - but then I remembered that Iris was sitting on the arm rest of Carter's chair. In the back of my mind, I vaguely remembered something I had seen as a kid: a pigeon stuck with me in an alley on a cold, wet day like this one. It had kept trying to fly, but it was never able to get off the ground.

Iris had wings, too.

They were a different kind of wing, but the same had to be true for hers, too. I returned to the chairs, grabbed Iris, and plopped her into one of my jacket's chest pockets. If she ducked her head down, whoever we were supposed to meet - I hadn't gotten a good look at the woman in the window - wouldn't be able to see her.

My first instinct when I arrive in this rainy place is to duck somewhere safe, like under a bush, but then it's too late. I'm not in the forest where the trees give me cover. I'm in a human-made city where they figured it was a good idea to rid themselves of the trees. Good for them, that is.

My wings are soaked through and I can't move. They drag down, heavy as the giant gown I wore for my coming-of-age ceremony. I fall to my knees. The weight is too much. Curse that woman, whoever she is. Couldn't she have thought at least to transport me somewhere safe enough for me to move?

The sounds of the rain fade around me and I hear my fast heartbeat. I think I'm exhaling too hard and fast and I try to slow them down, to actually breathe.

For a moment, I think that no one's aware of my immobility. Then Skull grabs me and slides me into his jacket pocket. Relief seeps through my panic. I finally let myself relax when I'm sitting, my body quaking. Never again. Never ever again.

I take a few calming breaths and gather myself together, carefully arranging myself and my waterlogged wings into a more comfortable position. I'm in a safer spot, I can now figure out how we're supposed to deal with the situation.

I glance over at Carter and try not to laugh. His outfit reminds me of a friend I had who enjoyed dressing up in the most vivid, and erm, interesting, patchwork tunics. Which reminds me...I'm wearing a now-soggy magenta suit with what feels like huge pads on my shoulders. I think the color's kind of pretty, but I know I must look ridiculous in it.

Have we jumped to another location or time in Esther's history? The fashion looks so different, I can't help but suspect that we have gone forward or backward in time.

"Thanks, Skull, for saving me there," I mutter. "I was so wet I couldn't move."

Amy went to meet the two men who had somehow ended up in the courtyard, and opened the door.

"Come on in, you must be soaked," she said. "Did you forget your key?"

She wondered what they were doing out there in the first place, but thought it best not to ask right now.

Carter smiled when the door was opened, and it took half a second for him to register what the woman said before he nodded.

"Oh. We didn't forget it," he said. "We lost it. No thanks to him-" he gestured over to Skull, but kept his smile, aiming to make it look light-hearted. "Thank you so much for getting the door for us. I was afraid we might get rained on again."

I managed to sneak a "you're welcome" back to Iris before the girl came to the door. Then a new conversation started, and I barely had a chance to get a word in before Carter came up with his own explanation.

An explanation that was more than a little irritating.

"Well, I wouldn't have 'lost' them if someone hadn't rushed me out the door," I said, shooting Carter a murderous look as I stepped inside.

I hadn't had any intention of pretending that Carter and I were sharing a flat together, but it looked like both the girl and Carter were hinting that I should. Fine. I could handle that. Lockwood and Co had shared a house, and I had technically shared Lucy's flat - even if I had been confined to wherever she put me down.

I could improvise this enough to keep throwing Carter under the bus.

Carter followed in behind, bowing his head a little to indicate that he let Skull go first as a favor, but he also noticed the look on the woman's face.

His fabricated lie established them as residents of this building, and also implied him and Skull lived together. It was very likely that she thought they were a couple. The idea, of course, repulsed him, but he could only imagine how much more repulsed Skull would be.

This could be fun.

"Oh, please, dear," Carter chided. "You're always running late. If no one rushed you, you'd never get anywhere." He sent the woman a small smile and a roll of his eyes, paired with a small shrug. "At any rate, at least we're out of the rain now, thanks to you. What's your name? I'm Carter, this is Skull."

"I'm Amy," she said. "I think I heard Julie's on vacation though. Do you two want to wait in our place while I call the building?" Amy exhaled. "You know, it's so late, they might not get to you until morning, but we have a pull-out couch. And if you want to get out of those wet clothes, I'm sure my boyfriend would let you borrow some of his."

The two stared back at her blankly.

"We'll figure it out." She opened the door and saw Scott still clanking away at his typewriter. "Scott!" She yelled.

He looked up.

"This is Carter... and Skull."

Scott stared her for a minute. "Julie's on vacation," he said. "And it's too late to call the building." Amy could tell he knew where this was going, and didn't like it.

"Can they shower and borrow some of your clothes? And sleep on the pull-out couch?"

"I guess," he said. Amy approached Scott and gave him a kiss. He sighed and stood up, and came back moments later with two pairs of clean shirts and boxer shorts. He handed them to the guys.

"Well, if you two want to get in the shower, go ahead, and we'll get the bed ready," Amy said. "There's towels in there."

Things were quickly escalating, but Carter was glad that their story was convincing enough to get them in. He had a feeling the librarian placed them in this time period or memory very deliberately. Considering how they’d apparently messed things up before, she was probably very intentional to make sure they would start on the right foot. That was his assumption. So he had a feeling they were with Amy for a reason. Whoever she was, it had something to do with Esther.

That was about all he knew.

That, and that Amy was assuredly convinced him and Skull were a couple. He received the spare change of clothes (if you could call them that) with a gracious nod and took a second to process the rest.

Sharing a bed. Sharing a shower. Bathing together.

How far would he let this go to play along? (And how much could he get away with without pushing Skull to the breaking point and ruining their cover? He didn’t want to anger the beautiful librarian again.)

He turned to Skull, giving him a smug, suggestive, self-satisfied sort of grin.

“Thank you so much, Amy,” he said, turning to her. “I know how inconveniencing this must be. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help. I don’t want to be more of a burden than we already are.”

I was too shocked to get a word in through any of this.

It had taken me a moment to realize Carter had called me dear, and another set of them to realize the implications. Amy thought we were a couple. And Carter, instead of making it very clear that we weren't, had decided to go along with it.

The temperature dropped a few degrees.

Or, at least, it should have. I knew how my emotions influenced my powers. The room should have been colder by now, but it wasn't. I couldn't even get a decent ghost lock going on someone.

Don't tell me...

I glanced over at Carter and abruptly grabbed onto his arm. I kept trying to take over his body, but nothing happened - I just kept awkwardly standing there.

Internally, I started swearing a long string of Victorian swears that lose their meaning in the present day. Externally, I was shooting Carter looks that could have theoretically killed him if I had my powers working right.

"Yes," I said, jerking Carter's into my mine so it would look like the failed use of my powers was part of this stupid act Carter hadn't objected to, "thank you."

I looked over at Carter.

"Now come on, honey," I said - the word almost too sickeningly sweet as I hissed it - and brought him into the bathroom before he could get a word in. I made sure to speak nice and loud so our two hosts would think everything was all nice and perfect. "I feel disgusting after sitting outside for so long - I really need the shower. We can chat more with them later."

I closed the door softly behind us.

Then I turned to Carter, taking Iris out of my pocket and putting her on the back of the toilet.

"The next time I die, I'm personally haunting you," I whispered, jabbing him more than a little too hard in the chest with my finger. Who knew? If I was lucky, he'd get a bruise from it.