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Post by misa on Dec 7, 2007 19:10:45 GMT
The smell, the silence, the shelves. It was all exactly as she had imagined, yet she knew nothing she had ever considered could have been this perfect.
The Grand Library. It's title did no justice.
Bookcases that reached the ceiling as far as the eye could see and every single one of them groaning with the weight of books. Glorious books. Misa's heart gave an ecstatic lurch as she thought of all those pages of information she had yet to read, all the wonderful stories she had yet to discover.
Every volume called out to her as she wondered down one of the many aisles, scanning titles.
City of Ember, The Dark is Rising, The Grapes of Wrath.
She ran her fingers lightly along the spine of each book and felt the supple leather beneath her touch.
Finally she stopped and slipped one from its rightful place, almost reverently. She weighed it up in her hands and inwardly smiled. Catcher in The Rye, perfect. An old favourite to get her started again.
Then Misa went in search of a secluded corner to have a calming read. She was convinced she'd found the perfect place - there appeared to be an alcove of sorts created by the joining of the shelves practically in the centre of the room but totally concealed at the same time. Hidden in plain view. Precisely what she was looking for.
Trouble was someone else was already there.
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Post by Macy Deltine on Dec 7, 2007 21:31:12 GMT
Macy flicked a page of her current read, It Can't Happen Here. It was a strange book, and wasn't the best written one, but it was a book none-the-less. She had sat in her favorite spot, a small alcove that overlooked the entire library. As she flicked another page, her icy fingerprints on the corners of the book, she heard somebody come near her. She glanced up, and realised that another girl had chosen that spot to read, but Macy had gotten there before her. She didn't want to turn her away, and moved over slightly.
"Hey, do you want to sit here?" She asked. She looked over at the book that she girl was holding. The Catcher in the Rye. One of the most influential books in Macy's life.
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Post by misa on Dec 8, 2007 11:18:00 GMT
"Oh, thanks," Misa said in a hushed voice, taking the proffered seat.
This girl, she looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps they had spoken on the way to class? Misa checked the title the girl was reading - It Can't Happen Here. Misa half-smiled.
"I'm sure Germany were saying that in 1924 too, and look what happened there." She commented evenly. The girl didn't reply for several moments and Misa began to settle with her book. It was stupid, of course she wouldn't want to talk, the poor girl had clearly been here for a quiet read and Misa was trying to start up conversation?
Was she ever going to get this right?
Well, at least she had her book. She opened the red leather cover and tried to plunge herself into the inviting depths of J.D Salinger's words. But, she couldn't. For some reason her eyes kept drifting away from the page to the girl beside her. She felt sure she knew her from somewhere else, not within Orchid Hill. How was that possible?
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Post by Macy Deltine on Dec 8, 2007 19:56:22 GMT
"The Catcher in the Rye?" Macy said, looking at the cover of the girl's book again. "I love that one. My ex-ish boyfriend gets called Holden, but he really isn't like him. He's got the 'I hate the world' thing, but he isn't crazy enough. My other friend, Steve, is more like that." She started babbling. "Oh, sorry, I just like the book." She said, looking back down to her book. "I'm Macy." She said, not realising. Why was she talking so much? She looked away, across the empty library, and back down to the book again.
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Post by misa on Dec 8, 2007 20:13:26 GMT
"Yes, it's one of my favourites too - the imagery is astounding. I'm afraid I don't know Holden or Steve, I'm new, you see. I'm Misa, by the way." Macy...the name wasn't familiar, but her face was definitely one Misa had seen before. But where?
"I'm sorry, I think I know you from somewhere but I can't recall..." Misa said when she realised she was staring again. Macy frowned slightly and with that little grimace Misa realised.
Macy was the girl.
"You..."
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Post by Macy Deltine on Dec 14, 2007 20:50:24 GMT
"Me?" Macy asked, laughing slightly at Misa who seemed to have realised something. "So, um, where were you before here?" She asked, trying to keep a conversation going. She loved the know people's stories, and in Orchid Hill, everyone had theirs.
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Post by misa on Dec 15, 2007 12:03:13 GMT
"I, um, I was-" Misa brain seemed to go into shock. She couldn't believe it, didn't dare believe it.
Memories of the literally darkest time in her life flowed back and suddenly she was back there.
In the deprivation cell.
The smell of the putrid scum on the walls.
The monotonous drip of water resounding in her head. one, two, three...
Her eyes straining in the near darkness, trying to ready herself for their next visit.
Ken'ichi's laboured breathing somewhere to her right. four, five, six...
He wasn't going to last much longer - she could feel it.
Then a light was on, shining through the tiny barred window which she had presumed was blocked. It shocked her now hypersensitive eyes but she refused to close them, would she ever see light again? seven, eight, nine...
Through the tiny window she saw two brutish men carrying one fragile looking girl between them. She had pale blonde hair and an enormous bruise was growing on her forehead. Then she was gone from view and seconds later the light went out again. ten, eleven, twelve...
Misa didn't forget that girl, she couldn't. Because when her own screams were not echoing in her head and Ken'ichi had been taken, the girl's screams were.
Misa prayed for that girl, more times than she could count. She prayed that she would escape, if not in this world, to freedom in the next.
Then one day she had heard no more of the girl. thirteen, fourteen, fifteen...
Misa shook her head, snapping herself back to the here and now. She wasn't there anymore, she was in the library, she was safe...
"You made it." She whispered, hardly daring herself to speak, as though the girl before her, Macy, were made of smoke and would disappear at any given moment.
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Post by Macy Deltine on Jan 14, 2008 20:35:39 GMT
Macy smiled at Misa, not totally sure about what she was talking about. She sighed, and looked around the library. She noticed some other Academics come in, and were looking in the T section. She looked back at the girl who was sitting by her. It was so strange, she felt...familiar. She knew that they had never met before, but she could feel her, as if they had been through something together. Misa seemed to know her from somewhere, though, and Macy thought of it to be rude to ask where.
"Have you, um, read Return of the Native?" She asked, feeling slightly bad changing the subject. "Isn't it mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye? It's a good book, you know." She said, starting to fiddle with her hair, as she would do when she was nervous.
"Where do I know you from?" She kept asking herself. It wasn't her face that seemed familiar, either but her aura. There was something about her, but Macy couldn't put her finger on it.
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Post by misa on Jan 27, 2008 21:23:04 GMT
"Hmm? Oh, no, sorry, I mean, yes..." Misa blushed a colour that would have made her blood jealous. Macy clearly had no idea what she was talking about. Really, what was wrong with her? Just because she looked like the girl Misa remembered, she automatically assumed it had to be her. There were probably loads of girls round the area with that colour of pale, almost white, blonde hair - it was most likely the look traditional to the area.
"So have you been here a long time yourself?" Misa asked, trying to regain her verbal footing.
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Post by Macy Deltine on Jan 31, 2008 19:57:20 GMT
"Um, yeah. It's weird, it people have been joining the school all thoughout the year, but it's good like that, because in my old school, you had to go through a whole rig-ma-role to get in. Professor Hoodham is really good here, and lets you come, if he thinks that you need to be here." she said, smiling. "What powers do you have?" She asked, setting her book on her lap.
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Post by misa on Feb 4, 2008 14:29:27 GMT
"Yeah, it's really decent of him. I'm an earth elementalist, I can...diffuse, is that the word? I can diffuse my mind and project illusions, you? Misa asked, setting her book down, too.
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Post by Macy Deltine on Feb 4, 2008 20:12:11 GMT
"Um, I can control Ice, shape-shift and I have a pretty good memory. But it hasn't been too good, recently, I think I'm getting too distracted. And also, my friend keeps on electrocuting me, which can't be healthy." She said, giving a light laugh. "But projecing illusions sounds cool, it would come in handy, I suppose." She said, smiling. She looked over the library again, and saw that some people were leaving, but there was a steady amount of people still at the study desks. "Do you like the school?" She asked, the realising that it was rather out of the blue. Hopefully Misa wouldn't think that she was prying, or was crazy.
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Post by misa on Feb 5, 2008 15:38:43 GMT
Misa bit her tongue to prevent herself correcting Macy's impression that being capable of tampering with someone's mind could possibly be a positive thing and also to stop herself exclaiming that, No! She didn't like the school, she felt trapped, and everything was going to pot. Instead she settled for,
"It's different."
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