Library of Rain

Immediately after Thirty-six put the book down, she felt something on her arm. Looking down, she saw a bulge under the skin of her forearm. The lump started moving. Thirty-six could feel the thing crawling under her skin up towards her shoulder. She yelped and tried to hit the bulge, but it started moving erratically as though it could see her actions. 

 

As she tried to crush the thing under her skin, she felt another tug, this time on her leg. Then she felt another and another. Soon, she had half a dozen things crawling around under her skin. Sometimes, they would send a sharp sting through her as they bit her beneath the skin.

 

Thirty-six fought valiantly to get rid of the things under her skin. Their movements made her feel unclean. She wished she could peel her skin off just to get rid of the invaders violating her. She began to draw blood as she scratched at her skin in desperation. Realizing that she was losing control, she collapsed to the ground.

 

Curling up in a ball on the floor next to the dropped coin book, Thirty-six quietly whimpered. Her mind swirled with fear and pain. Thirty-six wasn’t sure how long she lay there, but eventually, the terror began to fade, and she forced herself to think through the disgusting feelings.

 

Where did these things come from? How did they get inside me? She hadn’t seen any living thing in the library. They only started attacking me after I read the book. After my mental corruption rose. 

 

Thirty-six looked at the bulges under her skin. Was this all in her head? How could she tell? If it was in her head, then was it any less real?

 

Trying one last time to crush one of the things tormenting her, Thirty-six made herself uncurl and sit up. Closing her eyes, she wiped away her tears and started breathing slowly. Forcing herself to calm down, she felt her heart rate slow back to normal.

 

The sensation of the things was still there, sending the occasional lance of pain through her and leaving her feeling unclean, but Thirty-six was in control of herself. Gingerly picking up the coin book from the corner, she returned it to the shelf. 

 

Heading back to the room, Thirty-six kept her head down, trying not to so much as look at the books lest she raise her corruption. Making it back to the room, she fell into the bed and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

 

After waking, Thirty-six decided that what she had would have to be enough. She didn’t dare risk raising her corruption any further. After working her way back through the library, a feat made harder because the floor layout seemed to change slightly, she found her way back to the entry room.

 

Thirty-six checked that she had all three of her coins, two of which were bound with “Path of Wealth.” She held one of her bound coins in her hand and cracked the door open. She could see through to the room the keepers had made the children wait in. It was empty, and the candles on the walls were unlit. The only light came from under the other set of doors. 

 

Slipping out of the library, she gently closed the door behind her, ending the connection and returning it to a normal door once again. 

 

Slipping across the room, she pressed her ear to the doors to see if she could hear anything from the other side. It was all quiet. 

 

She tried to open the door, but it was still locked. Time to test out my new skill. Taking her silver coin, she knelt on the carpeted floor and slid the coin under the door. She was trying to get the coin to just make it to the other side but put too much force into it and sent the coin sliding until it hit something on the other side.

 

Thirty-six winced. Holding her breath, she waited a few seconds to hear if anyone was on the other side of the door, but there were no exclamations indicating that someone had seen or heard the coin.

 

Thirty-six reached out with her mind. She could feel two coins; one was to the coin in her coat pocket the other led somewhere else. She couldn’t so much as tell what direction it led, only that she could go to it.

 

Concentrating on this second coin, she felt her way to the indent of importance it made and connected herself to that place. The world collapsed in on itself, then expanded again, and Thirty-six was standing in a short carpeted hallway above a silver coin. 

 

The other end of the hallway opened up to a stage. Thirty-six could see a similar hallway on the other side of the stage with another door at its end. The stage itself had posts of all different shapes and sizes with iron rings to facilitate tying people up. Most were too large for children.

 

The walls of the hallway obscured her view of the room the stage looked out on for now. But there wasn’t any sound, and the lights were very dim. If Thirty-six hadn't lived most of her life in the dark, she might not have been able to see very clearly.

 

Thirty-six had expected to feel more disorientated or nauseous after moving through reality like that. But in truth, she felt great. She had even enjoyed the sensation.

 

Picking up her coin and refusing to swat at the lump on her leg, mocking her, Thirty-six, snuck to the edge of the hallway and peeked out into the room. The room had a dozen or so fancy tables with soft-looking chairs around them. There was a pair of double doors on the far side and two doors on each side close to the stage.  

 

The double doors looked like a good place to start looking for an exit. Thirty-six scampered over to them, taking a moment to try out one of the fancy chairs. It felt amazing, even better than her new bed. 

 

Thirty-six seriously considered trying to take one of these chairs with her; unfortunately, they were too bulky to sneak around with. So, with a soul-wrenching effort, she left it behind as she went to the doors.

 

Listening at the door for a moment, Thirty-six heard nothing, so she got on her knees to slide her coin under.

 

“...found the kid yet?”

 

A faint voice drifted under the door. 

 

Thirty-six looked around to make sure that the voice truly was coming from under the door.

 

“Stop complaining,” a second voice answered. The voices were getting stronger. “The kid can’t hide forever. She’ll come out looking for food soon. As long as we watch the entrances, she can’t escape.”

 

“How did they even let her get loose in the first place?”

 

“Dunno. All Uty would say is that the girl is creepy as sin, and she wouldn’t put anything past the freak.”

 

“Wait, wasn’t creepy the first thing in the description they gave us?” There was a defiant note of amusement at this.

 

“Yea. Creepy little girl with black hair, green eyes and freckles. I thought it was funny that they emphasized that she was creepy rather than her rare hair color. It makes ya wonder what’s wrong with her.”

 

“Maybe she has that 'I'm gunna kill you' look the girls at the tavern give me.”

 

“You deserve those looks.”

 

The men continued to banter and theorize about why Thirty-six was creepy as their voices faded away in the other direction. Thirty-six forced herself to listen to it all in case they gave any other helpful information on how she could escape. 

 

The happiness from trying out the fancy chair faded as they spoke. One comment in particular kept playing in her mind. ‘Makes ya wonder what’s wrong with her.’ Those words hurt more than Thirty-six wanted to admit. She felt broken, her value less than everyone else. Maybe if she wasn’t so creepy, the others would have played with her or at least let her join their conversations. 

 

Thirty-six took a deep breath, letting the bad emotions leave with her exhale. She needed to focus on escape. It sounded like the ground floor was being patrolled, and the exits watched. So, it was time to leave in a way they wouldn’t expect. It was time to find some stairs. 

 

Heading back to the stage, she tried the door on the opposite side from where she came in. It was unlocked. Heading through Thirty-six found herself in a large, mostly empty, store room. This was probably where items for auction were normally held. 

 

The only thing of interest was the stairs heading up. Thirty-six went straight for them. Wincing as her first step caused the wooden step to creak. After that, she tried to only step on the sides of the stairs close to the wall where the creaking was weakest. 

 

Thirty-six managed to take the stairs up three flights without running into anyone. The last flight was significantly narrower, as though they didn’t intend to take much traffic.  At its end was a thick oak door. Gingerly trying to open it, she found it locked. 

 

She slid her coin under so it would barely reach the other side of the door. The coin made a soft rasping sound as it slid across the wooden floor.

 

After listening for a moment, she warped to the coin. The room she ended up in was dark. The dim light from under the door was barely enough to dimly illuminate piles of things stacked against the round walls. The room smelled slightly dusty. This must be an attic storeroom.   

 

The thing that stood out to Thirty-six the most, though, was the sound. A muffled pattering sound; it calmed Thirty-six, even through the tension of trying to escape this place unnoticed. She tried to look for the sound but couldn't see anything that could be the cause.  

 

Walking deeper into the room, Thirty-six found what she was looking for: window shutters covering up a window and keeping out the weather. The soothing sound was coming from the other side. 

 

Fumbling a bit in the dark, she finally managed to unlatch the shutters and opened the window. For a moment, Thirty-six forgot to breathe. She knew what the sky looked like, but seeing it herself for the first time was an experience she doubted she would ever forget. The sky was mostly covered by dark silver clouds, occasionally illuminated by the light of several moons casting beams of silver down on the dark city below. However, the most captivating sight was the rain - countless water droplets falling freely yet surrounded by their own. Thirty-six wanted to be just like them, a part of something greater than herself and surrounded by family. In that moment, Thirty-six found a name that she felt fit her.

 

[Name: Rain

Age: 10

Mental corruption:...