Free Web NovelChapter 50: Dead Silence (II).
『"Everybody loves a good ghost story... right until the ghost starts telling one."』
The vision showed them the library decades ago. It was bright, populated, and alive with students.
There was the librarian. She moved between shelves, shushing students who spoke too loudly, protecting her beloved silence.
Then came the two boys.
They whispered, laughed, and disrupted the sacred quiet with their mischief. They also destroyed library property—ripping pages, spilling ink, throwing things when her back was turned.
Eggs. Always the eggs. Hurling them at her when she wasn’t looking, leaving sticky messes she had to clean.
Day after day, the boys never stopped. Relentless with their cruelty in the casual way children could be without fully understanding the harm they caused.
The vision showed her asking them to leave. Begging. Threatening. But nothing worked.
Until finally... she snapped.
The vision shifted, showing the awful moment in stark detail. She lost control and shoved one of the boys too hard, fueled by months of frustration. His head striking the corner of a heavy desk.
The other tried to run, but she chased him down the aisles. "No! Wait!" She screamed as she ran after him. "It was an accident!"
She caught up to the boy, grabbed a heavy book from the shelf and brought it down again and again and again while yelling, "it! was! an! accident!" until he stopped moving.
After that came silence. Real silence, for the first time in months.
Then horror and panic crashed over her from the realization of what she’d done. What she’d become.
She stumbled backward on shaky legs, away from the bodies. Away from the terrible thing she’d done.
Unfortunately, her foot landed on one of the broken eggs the boys had thrown earlier, and she slipped and fell.
Her neck hit the marble floor at exactly the wrong angle, and that was that.
Three deaths. All in one terrible afternoon. All bound together by violence and regret.
The vision ended, leaving them all rattled and shocked by what they had just witnessed through Sophia’s link.
Well, Hiro thought weakly, that escalated quickly.
Crazy bitch killed them, Naomi’s mental voice was hollow. She murdered two kids.
Not like she mean to, Sophia said quietly. The first was an accident. The second was panic.
She still killed them, Naomi insisted.
And then died herself, Ethan added. All three of them trapped here, reliving their worst day for decades.
Amara felt sick. Those boys, they were just kids. Cruel kids, yes, but they didn’t deserve death.
And the librarian... she’d just wanted quiet. Just wanted respect for her library. And it had cost her everything.
We need to free them, Amara said firmly.
How? Raj asked.
In case you haven’t noticed, they are too fast for us to hit, Naomi reminded them.
If they’re to fast for us to hit then we go after their remains, Sophia said. They’re bound here because their bodies were never found. Never given proper rest.
So we find them, Amara decided. And we set them free.
And how exactly do we do that? Hiro asked.
We burn their remains with salt, Sophia said mentally.
Naomi stared at her. Excuse me? Burn them with salt? This isn’t some TV show.
Hiro mentally laughed out loud. There you go with the salt again. Where did you hear that nonsense? Let me guess, some bargain-bin paranormal podcast?
Sophia’s mental voice turned deadly calm. Would you like to go back to being unable to communicate? Because I can absolutely remove both of you from the link, she thought finally.
Hiro immediately straightened despite still being on the floor. Oh, burn them with salt? I thought you said burn them with malt. Great plan. Love it.
Fine, Naomi conceded. We’ll search for bodies. Happy?
The librarian shrieked again, charging forward with her ruler raised.
Except, this time Amara was ready. She met the spectral ruler with Angel’s Bane, overcoming the paralysis through sheer will power and unleashing her Awakener energy.
The clash sent blue sparks exploding outward as ghost and Spirit Weapon locked together in a contest of strength. Then the librarian blinked away, repositioning behind them.
We need to distract them, Amara thought urgently.
Ethan, Raj and Hiro understood instantly and broke free of the paralysis as well by expelling their energy outward.
Let’s destroy some books. Ethan said with a grin as he sent spinning discs, slicing through shelves and cutting them down.
Hiro became a red blur, running through the upper level of the library at maximum speed, ripping through desks and sending books flying in his wake.
Sorry, ghost lady! Raj yelled with regret, grabbing an entire shelf and hurling it into another. The crash was spectacular and completely silent, which made it even more surreal.
Andre and Naomi joined in enthusiastically, destroying and freezing everything they set their sights on, creating chaos throughout the library.
The librarian shrieked, overwhelmed and distracted. When she went after one person, another was causing destruction elsewhere. She couldn’t protect everything at once.
Meanwhile, Amara closed her eyes and tightened her grip on Angel’s Bane. Where are the bodies? she thought, focusing her intent. Show me the truth.
With Intent Sight pushed deeper than ever before, she opened her eyes and they burned brighter. Her gaze swept through the library and she could see through everything like an X-ray.
Every object had a certain glow to it, an aura of existence surrounding it. But three things glowed brighter than everything else, beckoning to her like a beacon.
Found it. Basement archives. Northwest corner, Amara said mentally and the group bolted.
The ghosts threw everything they could at them. From flying books and tables to those damned acidic eggs. But the team kept running, weaving through obstacles, covering each other.
They moved down winding staircases until they got to the deepest level of the old library. Ahead of them was Hiro, already making it to the basement which was freezing cold.
The basement was a maze of storage rooms and collapsed corridors. Decades of neglect had left the structure unstable as walls crumbled with the slightest of tremors.
Amara said northwest corner, Ethan reminded them, keeping his shield up as books continued to fly.
There! Hiro spotted a maintenance room with a partially collapsed wall. The opening was just wide enough for someone to squeeze through.
He slipped inside and waved his flashlight around, illuminating the space. Then froze the moment he saw it.
Three skeletal remains huddled in the corner, where they’d been hidden for decades behind the collapsed wall.
Two of the skeletons were small—children, really. The third was clearly an adult. And beside them sat a rusted carton of fossilized eggs, the same brand as the ones being thrown.
Found them, Hiro confirmed mentally, staring at the remains with an expression caught between horror and pity.
Here. Sophia tossed him the bag of salt she’d brought, and Hiro poured it over the remains with shaking hands, covering every bone.
Around them was a forcefield keeping the ghosts at bay. The librarian pounded against it repeatedly with her ruler, each impact creating cracks that Ethan had to constantly repair.
So, anyone got a lighter or a match? Andre asked.
Hiro stared at the salt-covered corpses, then at the ghosts slowly breaking through Ethan’s weakening shield. Game over, man! Game over!
Naomi glared at Sophia. You brought salt but didn’t think to bring a lighter or match!?
Oh, I thought this was all crap according to you? Sophia fired back.
The boys joined in, throwing spectral eggs that sizzled against the barrier, eating away at its integrity and Ethan grunted. I can’t hold this much longer.
Lighter! Hiro shouted desperately. Anyone! Match, lighter, anything!
We don’t have time! Naomi looked around frantically.
Meanwhile, Amara stared at her hands, feeling Angel’s Bane pulse against her consciousness. The sword was trying to tell her something and her eyes narrowed with understanding.
Step aside Hiro, she said and walked over to the corpses, Angel’s Bane held firmly in both hands.
Amara? Ethan called, concerned while still holding back the ghosts.
She looked back at him, their eyes meeting. Trust me?
Always, he replied without hesitation. And right next to Sophia, Naomi rolled her eyes.
Amara took a deep breath, raising Angel’s Bane above the remains, and the temperature around them suddenly plummeted as her blade ignited with white flames.
In that moment, the ghosts stopped attacking. All three of them froze, staring at the burning blade.
Amara met the librarian’s eyes—no longer furious, but tired. So incredibly tired. In that gaze, Amara understood.
They weren’t angry anymore. They were just... trapped. Repeating the worst day of their existence over and over, unable to move on.
She drove Angel’s Bane downward, piercing through salt and bone that hissed and crackled as the corpses caught fire instantly.
She twisted the blade covered in white flames, and the remains ignited into a brilliant white light that filled the entire basement.
The ghosts went still. Then the boys looked at each other. Then at the librarian. And for the first time, all three smiled.
I’m sorry, Amara thought, though she didn’t know if the ghosts could hear her. For what happened. For how long you’ve been trapped. You deserved better. All three of you.
The librarian adjusted her glasses with a translucent hand, giving Amara the slightest nod of acknowledgment. Then mouthed two words in the silence: Thank you.
All three of them dissolved, breaking apart into starlike dust that drifted upward, fading into nothing. And with that, the oppressive silence lifted instantly.
Sound rushed back all at once and everyone gasped. The sound of their breathing and heartbeats, the creak of old wood, the crackle of dying flames. It felt so good to hear all of it again.
Amara stumbled, her legs giving out from exhaustion and the strain of whatever she’d just done with Angel’s Bane.
Fortunately, Ethan was there to catch her. "That was some trick."
"Yeah?" Amara chuckled breathlessly, leaning into his support. "Glad it worked. Wasn’t entirely sure it would."
Ethan looked down at her, grinning. "Let’s get the hell out of here before anything else decides to show up."
"Seconded," Hiro said, already moving toward the stairs.
"Definitely," Andre said, moving as well.
Behind them, the old library lights flickered on for the first time in decades and they all bolted away from the lost library.
They ran through the winding stairs, through the maze of shelves, past the circulation desk where the librarian had stood, and finally, out the door, which unlocked now, swinging open easily.
Outside in the corridor, safely away from the once haunted building, they finally stopped running.
"So..." Raj said once they’d all caught their breath. "...about that betting pool. Were those poltergeists, or...?"
Everyone turned to Raj with an eyebrow raised.
Hiro’s glare was especially menacing. Then he ran his hand down his face, exasperated. "Today can’t possibly get worse than this."
"There he goes jinxing shit again." Sophia sighed.
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AMARA MURRAY | The Sword
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Spirit Weapon: Angel’s Bane (Sword of Truth)
Rank: Dream Walker
Ascendant Sigil: ▮ (1 Bar - Right Ribs)
Abilities Unlocked:
┣ Lie Detection
┣ Blade Memory
┣ Shockwave Slash
┣ Intent Sight
┣ Adaptive Combat Evolution
┣ Selective Slash
┣ True/Truth Fire
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
Status: Exhausted, spiritually drained, quietly horrified
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SOPHIA DELGADO | The Helmet
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Spirit Weapon: Halohelm (Helmet of Victory)
Rank: Dream Walker
Ascendant Sigil: ▮ (1 Bar - Left Temple)
Abilities Unlocked:
┣ Telepathy
┣ Telekinesis
┣ Empathy
┣ Psychometry
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
Status: Smug, vindicated
