Pat felt very uncertain at this pronouncement and followed Zion at a distance as he walked away mumbling to himself.
“What’s going on, sweetheart?” Rachel had returned and she was walking towards them with a wide smile.
Shaken from his musings, Zion’s eyes lit up and he rushed for his wife. He picked her up by her narrow waist and lifted her into the air. She laughed loudly and smiled down into his glowing face. He lowered her slowly onto his chest and she embraced him. As they kissed deeply, Pat turned away.
Normally, he wasn’t a fan of PDA, but in this instance he understood it. If he could have kissed Justice that deeply he would have. This is why he had to look away. Love that pure was something he wished he still had. As time went on, he was becoming more convinced that this lonely new life would be his forever. That he would need to wake up every morning feeling empty or feeling like an unfinished song playing on repeat. He was always striving to get better every day, but just ended up feeling incomplete.
“I’m so glad you came home early. We were trying to figure out what happened.” Zion said to his wife after he had loved on her sufficiently. He explained to her what they had found and what they were theorizing. When he was done explaining, Rachel gazed at him wide-eyed and bit her lip. “What’s wrong?”
“I asked Harmony to clean up in here.” She said softly. She turned on her heel and rushed from the room. Before Zion and Pat talked to one another, Rachel was rushing back in, her white-blond hair falling out of her bun in stringy lines around her face. “She’s gone and so are her cleaning supplies.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
HARMONY COULD FEEL fear radiating through her torso like an exploding star. With every beat of her heart, her body burned and tingled, reminding her to run. After stumbling over more tree roots and slipping across slick areas on the ground, she finally arrived in a place that had more visibility. She glanced behind her and the creature was nowhere in sight. Slowing down, she took this opportunity to catch her breath.
As she did this, it occurred to her that the air didn’t smell good. The potent smell landed on her tongue first and made her spit on the ground. As she took a few more steadying breaths, she guessed that what she was smelling was a mix of sewage and rotting trees. To filter the air, she pulled her shirt collar up over her nose and mouth. Now that she could properly focus, she saw ahead of her a field covered with tall grasses. The sky was a gray canvas with barely any sunlight peeping through. Despite the dim light, she could see at the center of the field was a tall marble building with huge columns holding up the roof.
She approached the abandoned structure in the hopes that inside would give her some clue as to where she was. The rumbling was still sounding in the distance, but it seemed further away. It took longer than expected to reach the building. The staircase leading up to the front door had chunks missing from it and clods of dirt littered across what seemed to have been pure white marble. Cautiously, she navigated the staircase. One of the front doors was half hanging off its hinges and the other was still standing strong against the elements. Inside the contents of the interior spaces looked like they had been tipped upside down and scattered all over the floors. Animal feces, dust, dirt, and leaves mingled with piles of books. Even the marble staircase inside was covered in books of various sizes and even some old paintings.
Despite the sad nature of the place, it was beautiful to behold. Harmony wondered why anybody would need this many books. She also wondered who would have let it become destroyed this way. Upon inspection of one of the topmost books on a stack, she realized that most of these were so wet and damaged that it wouldn’t even be worth trying to preserve them.
She had never been much of a reader, but it was something that she had hoped to get into someday. Picking her way through the mess, she ended up in what must have been the office due to the desk, lamp, and file cabinets. Every piece of furniture was swimming in books as well. Through one of the broken windows, a breeze blew in and made the brown vines hanging from the sill shiver.
Harmony turned around and decided to explore the next floor instead. Up the magnificent stairs, she climbed until she was standing by the upstairs railing and gazing out at all the books. This place appeared to have been designed to be grand, but it had long ago given up any aspirations of staying that way. Every part of it was crumbling and little animals scurried around the place. It seemed like it could potentially be full of disease, pain, and books that used to hold the answers to important questions.
She ran a finger along the dusty railing, creating a mark she secretly hoped would give hope to others like her that something living had also been in this nearly lifeless library. She had been told stories of libraries that contained only books, but in her world, this was far from reality. Rarely were the books moved from shelves unless you were in the kid’s sections. The majority of people came to the library for free technology, music, and audiobooks. This place was a relic of the past and she was charmed by it.
The next room she entered had vastly tall ceilings that curved into a dome shape. One of the sections of the dome had crumbled long ago and curls of the persistent fog made its way through the gap. Bookshelves as tall as trees lined every wall and in the middle of the room were scattered tables. Some were still together and upright and others had been tipped over. The floors here were also littered with forgotten books and dried leaves.
The main difference in this room was the warmth of a living human being. A teenage girl was sitting in a far corner, head bent over her knobby knees and picking at her fingernails. Harmony didn’t want to scare her so she tried to wave to get her attention first. The girl was non-responsive and continued to gaze at her hands intently.
When Harmony took a step towards her, a loud crunch sounded, alerting the girl to her presence. She didn’t seem afraid but her wide brown eyes had a hunted look in them. Her hair was in multiple knots on her head that looked like a black crown. She was beautiful even though her face had scratches across its surface.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Harmony said quickly.
“Okay.” The girl responded. Her voice was empty of all feeling.
“Do you need help?” Harmony asked, even though she had no idea what she’d do if the girl said yes.
“You can’t help me.”
Harmony began to take more steps toward the girl. When she was only a few yards away she stopped because she could tell the girl was pushing herself even further into the corner.
“Probably not, but I can listen.” Harmony answered honestly.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That’s okay.” Harmony sat down in a mostly clean part of the floor in front of the girl and said, “I’m Harmony.”
“Lacey.” The girl said.
“That’s a beautiful name.”
Lacey shrugged and turned away.
“What is this place?” Harmony asked, changing the subject.
“Oblivion.” Lacey began picking at her nails again.
“That’s an odd name for a place.”
She turned back to Harmony with her soulless eyes and said, “That’s just what I call it.”
“Oh.” Harmony tried not to indicate how frightened she was by that. This girl had obviously been hurt by something but Harmony couldn’t figure out what. “Do you know how to leave this place?” Lacey shook her head. “Have you seen a woman with blond dreadlocks and a lot of tattoos?”
Lacey shook her head again. “I haven’t seen anybody here.”
“Okay.” Harmony bit her lip and began to think over her options. She had hoped Lacey would inform her of all the things about this place. It looked like this girl was going to be of no help whatsoever. “Thank you for your assistance.”
Harmony stood and the girl looked startled. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.” Harmony said uncomfortably. “I have to get out of here.”
“Can you take me?”
“Oh, well…sure.” Harmony was surprised by the request, but she couldn’t say no.
The girl stood and Harmony was stunned by her height. She must have been 6 feet tall at the very least. Her arms and legs were very skinny and every bone stuck out. Her clothes were disheveled and she noticed that beneath the jacket she wore, her tank top was ripped in two places. Catching her looking, Lacey pulled the jacket around her body and crossed her arms.
