Page 10

While Luc looked like the likeliest suspect, there was still so much we didn't know, like what exactly that thing—the Beast, as we now referred to it—was. The threat of the Beast seemed to hang over us like an impending storm, a storm that refused to start and just filled the air with its sickening electricity. We didn't know when it would strike next, so we couldn't sit around and do nothing for any longer.

However, that was easier said than done; we had no idea where to even begin... but the library seemed like a logical place to start.

This particular branch of the city library looked depressing as we pulled into its cramped parking lot. I was used to the University's well-funded and well-kept multi-floor monstrosity, and this small, dingy building seemed to be the exact opposite of that.

"Yuck," I muttered as I climbed out Polly's BMW. It looked like it had been painted bright blue many years ago, no doubt in an effort to look cheerful and enticing, but now it was so grimy the side of the building looked like a mural of storm clouds with only a few pockets of blue sky peeking out here and there. "Why are we here, again, instead of the downtown library?"

"I thought it would be less conspicuous if we went to more a remote branch," Polly said, as she led the way, her cast clunking against the shattered sidewalk. "Much less of a chance of someone seeing us."

"I guess that's a good idea," I said, dodging the cracks. "I mean, I can't exactly waltz into the campus library when all my professors think I'm bedridden with some plague."

"Precisely." Polly pulled open the door—it wobbled precariously on its hinges—and held it open for me. "Do you do a lot of library research for school?"

I paused on the threshold. "Yeah... Why?"

"Well, it's a good idea to split our research between the internet and books," she said, and then a wicked smile drew across her face. "And since you have more experience with books, then I think you should handle those while I peruse the Internet."

My mouth fell open. Book research was fine, but it would be way more difficult than using a computer. "You sneaky little—"

"Shh!" the librarian at the front desk hissed at us.

I dropped my voice. "Come on, that's not fair. You know how to use a Goddamn book."

"Yeah, but it's been years since I've done research with them... You're still in college. You do this regularly. It'll be much easier for you. Plus, moving around with this cast is hard." She winked at me and headed, without any difficulty, to the front desk.

"Oh yeah, I can really see that," I murmured as I followed after her.

She shushed me, and then her attitude changed, shifting into the slick demeanour she used at work. She smiled wide and beckoned the librarian over with a flirty wave.

"Excuse me, do you have computers I can use for Internet research?"

The older, heavyset man just peered at us through his thick framed glasses, unaffected by Polly's charms. "Yes, we do, but you can only use them for a half hour at a time," he said in deadpan.

Polly blinked at him for a moment, like she was confused. I didn't think she was used to having her charms fail. "Only half an hour?" she asked finally, her voice extra sweet. "Couldn't I use it for a bit longer? I need to do quite a bit of research."

"Sorry, but no. Everyone gets half an hour, and then you have to wait fifteen minutes between sessions. Those are the rules."

Though I could see her tense with irritation, Polly kept her smile firmly in place. "Alright then. Do I need to sign up or something, or can I just log in?"

He slid a small form and a pen towards her. "Please fill out the form, then I'll get you a keycode. And you should know, while you're using the computers, you're not allowed to download anything, or look at pornography."

Polly's professionalism slipped for a moment. "Do I look like I'm here to look at porn?" she said icily.

The librarian just looked at her, utterly serious. "You can never tell."

I had to stifle a giggle.

Muttering to herself, Polly quickly jotted down her information. She handed it back to the librarian, exchanging it for an even smaller slip of paper with a row of numbers on it.

"That's your keycode," the librarian said. "It will unlock a computer for you, and the system will automatically log you out when your half hour is up. The computers are just behind the dividing wall, near the reference computer."

Polly gave him a twitchy smile and walked away.

"Thanks," I whispered as I walked past, following after her again.

We passed through the security gate and behind the short dividing wall.

There was a cluster of small, worn desks, each topped with a bulky computer and monitor that looked like they had seen much better days.

Almost every station had a person seated at it, each clicking away at Facebook or Wikipedia, except for the one on the end.

Polly took the seat at the empty one, and I hovered over her shoulder for a moment.

"Oh my God," she breathed, staring at the huge computer before her.

"It's beige. I haven't seen a beige computer since I was in high school. Can this thing really connect to the Internet?" She reached out and took hold of the mouse and then barked out a laugh that drew the angry glares of the other patrons sitting next to her.

"What?" I hissed, embarrassed.

She held up the mouse, showing me the bottom. "It... I-It has a roller ball!" she squeaked, struggling to contain her amusement, as she poked at it. "This thing should be in a museum."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. You're the one who 'claimed' using the computer, so you're going to have to deal with it. I'm going to go find some books."

"Alright, alright," she said, turning away to finally type in her keycode. The old keyboard made sharp clacking sounds as her fingers moved across it. "I'll come find you when my half-hour is up."

"Cool, see you in a bit."

The reference computer was nearby, perched on a tall table. It was even older than the others, and frustratingly slow, but after fighting with it for a bit I managed to get a decent list of books regarding the paranormal. After printing it out, I set out to find the right shelf.

The paranormal section was at the back of the library, and while it didn't look like it had been visited often, it was pretty well stocked. I dove right in, selecting a book from an extensive series called Night Creatures. But as I flipped through, I quickly realized it was just a collection of legends and the history behind them. It was more of a storybook than anything... not exactly useful.

I slid it back onto the shelf and grabbed another, this time a huge and heavy encyclopaedia on mythology.

It read like a dictionary, just pages and pages of definitions.

Since I didn't even know the name of what we were looking for, it wasn't much use either.

I flipped aimlessly through, hoping some word would jump out at me from the page.

"Hey," came a whisper, right next to my ear.

Startled, I let go of the massive tome, and it fell on my foot with a heavy whump. Pain rang out through my leg and a tiny, high pitched squeal escaped through my gritted teeth. I swung around, enraged.

Polly was standing behind me, her full lips were pressed together, like she was trying to contain her laughter. I didn't know how she managed to sneak up on me with that cast.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed. "It hasn't been half an hour already, has it?"

"No, I gave up early. That thing was ridiculously slow, and it had blocked all the sites about spells and demons. Even the Wikipedia articles!" She punctuated the sentence with a snort. "Useless. It'll be easier to just buy a new laptop on the way back to the hotel..."

It must be nice to be able to buy a brand new computer on a whim, I thought, but I said nothing about it.

Instead I just handed over the list I had gotten from the reference computer.

"Well, you might as well help me with the books then. Most of them are here, but there are a few scattered throughout the other sections."

Polly's eyes ran over the paper. "Right. Well, I'll go grab those then. How about you pick out the most interesting ones from here and take them to one of the tables?" She nodded over her shoulder, towards the round tables that sat between the shelves. "I'll meet you there once I find the rest."

I opened my mouth to agree, but Polly had already disappeared around the corner of the aisle. I went back to browsing the shelf for something useful.

Though there wasn't much that looked relevant, I still managed to collect a somewhat promising stack of books and haul them over to one of the garish orange-topped tables. I had just started half-heartedly skimming a book of legends about spirits and demons when Polly returned. She dropped a hefty stack down on the table with a loud slap that once again drew angry looks from those around us.

Ignoring them, she slid into the seat next to mine and leaned in close. "Did you even look at the titles of these before you added them to your list?"

I looked up from the book. "Not really... I just took everything they had, because I didn't know what we'd need."

"Well, you should've. I don't think some of these are going to be very useful." She pulled a thin paperback off the top of her pile and held it up.

The book looked like it as at least twenty years old; a woman with large, feathered hair and pastel makeup beamed out at us from the cover, cradling a surly-looking cat in her arms.

Glowing purple letters twisted across the front, spelling out its title: Crystal Healing for Cats.

"Good God," I muttered, entranced by the spectacle of it.

Polly sighed and placed the book back on top. "I brought back every book I could find, but the rest aren't much better."

The titles on the spines seemed to corroborate her story: A Fool's Guide to Your First Encounter with Faeries, Your Familiar and You, DIY Astral Projection, Sex with Spirits—

I stifled a laugh. "Sex with spirits?! Seriously?" I reached for the book, but Polly stopped my hand, shaking her head.

"Trust me, you don't want to read it unless you're prepared to be thoroughly disturbed."

Though I was still morbidly curious, I retracted my hand. "Why'd you bring it then?"

"I just brought everything that was on the list. But I have to say, it doesn't look good."

"No luck, then?"

"Nope," Polly said, leaning back. "How about you?"

I grimaced.

"I haven't had much luck either. These books—" I motioned to my own sizeable stacks before me, already separated into read and to?read, "—are just fiction, myths, and stories. And they're completely contradictory, even within the same culture." I tapped on a thin, cloth bound one that smelled like mould.

"That one says you can bind the dead to do your bidding if you give the devil your virginity, but this one—" I jostled the one that was sitting open nearby, "—is very adamant that you can't affect the spirits of the dead at all, because they're on a completely different astral plane."

"Both of those sound like utter crap," Polly groaned, going limp and drooping over the back of her chair.

"I don't even know anymore..." I flipped the open book closed and fought back the sudden prickling of frustrated tears. "What a waste of time!"

Suddenly Polly lurched forward and slapped her hands down on the table. "Well, no sense on moping in this hole anymore!" she announced.

The people around us turned to glare again. They caught her eye this time, and she returned a heavy stare as if daring them to challenge her; they all chose to shrink back, and return to their own books as if nothing had happened.

Smiling triumphantly, she yanked me up from my seat and dragged me away, just leaving our stack of books at the table. "Let's go buy me a computer!"

?

As Polly played with her new laptop next to me, I prodded listlessly at the tablet, poking around the garish site before me; apparently the lady who had written Crystal Healing for Cats also had an extensive web presence, even if her site looked like it had been frozen in time, circa 1995.

Even though I knew I wasn't going to find what I needed here, I kept browsing just for the sake of amusement, entranced by the sheer amount of animated cat GIFs.

Truth was, I was avoiding returning to the list of Google search results. My previous searches had turned up nothing useful, and I was now on the eighth page of results for "psychic animal spells" with similar results. The things Google returned seemed to be getting worse and worse.

But after reading through the initial steps to cleanse a cat's psychic energy—most of the instructions were about holding the cat down—I couldn't take it anymore.

I knew I couldn't avoid it any longer. With an exasperated sigh, I tapped the browser's back button several times, quickly retracing my steps through the gaudy site, and returned to the refreshing white of Google.

Google's list of blue links stretched out before me, but I couldn't bring myself to choose another one, just knowing I was just going to be disappointed again.

As my finger hovered in mid-air, dangling in indecision, something caught my eye.

On the far right was the usual stack of ads, something I generally ignored, but because of my previous searches, the ads were now a list of psychics who offered services in my area.

The second ad in particular stood out, because I recognized the address included in the description.

It was my address.

Or, at least, most of it.

Only the suite letter was different, a B instead of my A.

.

.

My neighbour's suite.

Luc's suite.

Momentarily dumbfounded by the fact he was advertising online, it took a moment before an idea dawned on me. "Hey, Polly..."

"Yeah?" There was an excited light in Polly's eyes when she looked up from the silver laptop perched on her knees. "Did you find something?"

"Not exactly," I replied, stalling, trying to think of a good way to phrase this. "In fact, my results have been pretty much a bust. But I did find a list of psychics in the area..."

"Is Luc on it?"

"Yeah, but—"

She didn't wait for me to finish. She plopped her new laptop on her bed, and shuffled over to mine. Her face fell as she looked at my screen. "...That's just a list of ads, Rach."

"I know that. What I'm trying to say is it got me thinking..."

Polly looked sceptical, her left eyebrow arching into the red curls that tumbled across her forehead, but remained silent, allowing me to explain.

"We're not having a lot of luck finding any information, right? Since we don't know anything about any of this, how can we tell the truth from the bullshit?" To emphasize my point, I quickly tapped the forward button on the browser, and took us back to the Crystal Healing for Cats site.

"There's too much crap out there, there's no way we're going to be able to sift through it all. What we need is an expert opinion. Someone who knows this stuff."

"So... you want to talk to the Crystal Cat Lady?" Polly asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What? No! I was just using her as an example of—" I shook off the change in subject before I got distracted. "Well, not her, but I was thinking that we should talk to another psychic."

Polly's lip curled in disgust. "Seriously?"

"Well, if Luc is behind this, like you believe, then he can't possibly be the only one. There's got to be other real psychics. And one of them might be able to tell us what's going on, maybe even how to put a stop to it."

The light returned to Polly's eyes as it dawned on her. "Good thinking, Rach!" She smacked me hard on my shoulder. "But, wait... do you really think the psychics who advertise on Google are going to be legit?"

"Luc's advertising there, isn't he? And you're convinced he's legitimately behind this."

Polly narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, obviously still torn.

"Alright," she finally said. "We'll check out the local psychics. What do we have to lose?"

"Just our lives," I joked darkly.

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