Page 89 of Visions of Darkness

He increased our pace, and he hurried me to the passenger side of his car, where he urged me into the seat.

Our bags were already stowed in the back.

He rose, straightening to his full, intimidating height, and I felt the crash of aggression blister through the cold as he glared over the top of the car at the man who remained in the same spot halfway across the lot.

Then Pax slammed my door shut. One second later, he was in his seat, starting the car, and whipping out of the dirt lot.

While my fingertips dug into the door as I watched out the passenger window with wide eyes as we flew by the malevolence that oozed back.

Chapter Twenty-One

Aria

We’d been traveling for almost five hours when we hit the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Think it’d be worthwhile to hit a library here, yeah? See if we can dig anything up?” Pax asked. “Why don’t you see if there’s one right off the freeway?”

He had another phone, one that was much more modern than the brick he’d given me earlier, this one also unassociated with his name.

I gave him a nod as I took his phone and made the search. “In three exits, there’s one that’s about five minutes away.”

Pax’s nod was sharp, his attention keen, never letting down his guard. He took the third exit and wound through the city, following the directions.

Pax pulled into the small parking lot of the library, located on the side of the two-story redbrick building, and I looked up at it, too afraid to hope that we might find any answers inside.

“We’re going to discover something in there. I can feel it,” he said as he pushed the button to kill the engine. “Let’s get in there and see what we can find.”

Doubt swarmed in my consciousness. “Have you ever searched before?”

Pax sighed. “Once or twice, but I didn’t go deep. Just some stupid searches that never produced anything. You?”

My head shook. “No. I was always too concerned with trying to convince my parents that I wasn’t crazy to take the chance.”

The fierce lines of his expression softened. “You’re not. This is real. You’re real. Don’t ever fucking be ashamed of it.”

As soon as he said it, he quickly clicked his door open, and he was around the car and at my side by the time I was opening mine. He kept a protective hand at the small of my back as he led me around the front of the building, forever on guard as we moved.

A bell jingled overhead as Pax swept open the door, and he stood aside for me to enter ahead of him.

Inside, it felt more like a used bookstore than a library. Racks of shelves stretched out from every wall, signs tacked to their ends indicating genres. Books bound in every color lined the shelves—old, cloth-covered hardbacks and worn, dingy paperbacks. There were random couches and seating areas scattered about, and a woman was working the checkout desk in front.

I guessed she was probably in her sixties, and she wore her black hair streaked with gray cropped close to her head.

She recoiled when she lifted her attention from the person she was checking out, so startled she took two steps back and banged into the shelf behind her. I wondered if those reactions would ever cease to sting.

Pax tugged at my elbow, urging me to move. “This way.”

We followed the signs that guided us through the library to the stairs at the far back. They led to a large open loft that overlooked the main floor below. We ascended, and there, the walls were lined with shelves. But in the middle was a bunch of long tables, and against the far wall was a group of four dated computers.

As far as I could tell, there wasn’t anyone else up there. A slow quiet clung to the air, the only sound the distant shuffle and the murmured voices below.

Pax went directly for the back wall. He pulled up an extra chair in front of a computer, and we both sat.

“Do you think these things still actually work?” He seemed more than skeptical when he poked at a key. The screen bloomed to life, though, and he didn’t hesitate to click onto the internet.

One second later, we were looking at a search bar.

We both just stared as uncertainty bristled around us.

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