Chapter Text
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THE TEENZONE: WHERE TEEN’S CAN BE KID’S
The girl stared at those words, and the drawing accompanying it. ICE-E, in a cutesy little headband. She considered her options for a moment. Then, she pulled out a permanent marker and drew on devil horns, dark eyes, and sharp teeth. Perfect. With one opponent down, she turned her focus to her real enemy: the books.
Dess Holiday did not want to be at the library.
She was not the biggest fan of reading (that stuff was for nerds like Asriel), and quite frankly did not want to be in a stuffy place like this. She already read enough for school; the bare minimum. But her mother had insisted she read more, and told her to check at least one book out on the way home. She didn’t like listening to her mom, but figured this would at least be something easy enough to fake--simply check out a book she didn’t care about, and never touch it.
So here she stood, staring blankly at shelves of books. She’d already checked the TeenZone, but had found its slogan to be too accurate. All the books there were embarrassingly low-level; there was no way she could pass that off to her mom. Now her eyes scanned the other shelves, looking for any titles that stood out.
“HEARTWARMER”
“A SONG OF DUST AND MAGIC”
“HOW TO CARE FOR A PET ROCK”
“STEVE”
…Nothing was doing it for her. She didn’t understand how anyone found a book that interested them, actually. A title, author, and some colors. That was all there was space for on the spine of a book. No one in their right mind would pick up every single one, just to read the blurb on the back. She stared at the books for another moment, before letting out a sigh. If she didn’t care, why couldn’t she just…
“Uh, Dess, are you having trouble?” Asked a voice from behind her. She turned to see a young man sitting at the library desk. A rabbit-like monster with blue ears… Oh, one of her classmates.
“Yeah, uh…” Dess glanced back at the bookshelves. “I can’t find any good books.”
“There’s more upstairs, too… Uh, but they’re mostly nonfiction, or guidebooks, or other things like that.”
“Sure, thanks.” Nonfiction didn’t sound appealing, but maybe she could find, like, a guitar book, or something. Carol just wanted her to read, right? Didn’t have to be a story. She headed towards the stairwell in the corner of the room.
“Oh, and uh, Dess-- could you tell Asriel he, uh…” The rabbit behind the counter tried to ask another question, but Dess hadn’t seemed to hear him. That, or she was just ignoring him. He slumped down on the desk as Dess disappeared up the stairs.
The second floor of the library wasn’t much of a floor at all, Dess noted. Just a small room, with two walls of bookshelves. It was a little cramped, even. She surveyed the books, hoping there might be something better here.
“HOW TO CARE FOR A HUMAN”
“A HISTORY OF HUMANS AND MONSTERS”
“A GUIDE TO MONSTER FUNERALS”
…They were about what she expected. This time, the titles weren’t confusing, just… boring. A bunch of boring books about boring things. Childcare, petcare, hair care, daycare. Nothing interesting, or even cool. She picked up a book at random, titled “Monsters of the World,” and started flipping through it.
…Yep, those sure were monsters, in the world.
“Fine, whatever,” she mumbled under her breath. She could just take this book, check it out, never read it, then return it in a week. She had been planning to from the start, of course. But she still hoped she could have found something less… horribly boring.
As if answering this request, a thud sounded behind her.
Dess nearly jumped in place, startled. She whipped her head around, expecting to see some new person who’d scurried in after her, but all she found was a book, sitting pages-down on the ground. Huh. Her gaze moved upwards, trying to see where it had fallen from, but there seemed to be no holes between the books…
Until, between two others, a dark black shape squeezed itself out of its book-shaped hiding spot, heading for the floor. It leaped down, landing on the fallen book with all the grace of…
Oh, it was a cat.
The cat—pitch black and quite big—hopped off the book, before turning its head up to look at Dess. Its eyes were large—one pink and one yellow, staring right into Dess’s own.
“How the hell did a cat…” Dess started to say, before the cat suddenly jumped toward her.
“Hey—! What the—“ she yelped as it scurried past her and down the stairs. She watched where it left for a moment, before scoffing and turning back. Stupid library.
With that, she turned her attention back to the book on the floor. She picked it up and looked it over, but soon found there wasn’t much to look at. It was a hardcover, old and worn down. The cover itself had nothing on it, just a simple black and gold coloring. That was normal for these old books, though, right? Dess vaguely recalled seeing some other books like that before. She turned it open to the first page, hoping to see a title there instead, but it had been torn out.
She checked the back cover. The last page. The second page. There was just… nothing. Weird. And… kind of cool.
She flipped to a random page halfway through, trying to see what kind of ancient secrets might be written…
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider”
…Nevermind, not cool.
Dess frantically flipped through the pages. Each one held a new nursery rhyme, bedtime story, classic fairytale. Kiddie stuff. Nothing cool. Just when she’d found something that might actually be interesting, too.
“Ugh, come on… is there really—“ she stopped, noticing something she hadn't before. A black ribbon, acting as a bookmark, tucked into a page near the back of the book. She flipped to the page, and found that it wasn’t much different from the others. A short poem on one side, and an illustration on the other. But the picture was… strange.
It seemed to show a beacon of light, bursting up from the ground. Or, out of the ground, maybe? She wasn’t sure. But as far as she could remember, she didn’t know a fairytale like this. She turned to the poem next, just a few lines without a title.
To strike and break the shadow’d seal
With concentrated force of will
A blade to pierce the earth below
And cross to where the darkness grows
With shuttered door the night flows free
As unlit eyes begin to see
Do not forget your brighten’d heart
To shine the way in world of dark
Something about these words felt… off. Different, somehow, from the rest of the stories in the book. Dess reread the poem in her head, trying to figure out what it might be. After a moment, it hit her.
This wasn’t a story, these were instructions.
A guide, on how to do… something. “Break the shadowed seal,” whatever that meant. It was like a warning, even. Some old tale told to children to keep them safe from scary things. Dess, on the other hand, quite enjoyed scary things.
Scary movies, dangerous sports, anything that could provide a quick thrill—that was the kind of stuff she loved. Recently, she’d taken to online rumors, as well. Cryptid proof, ICE-E sightings, summoning demons… it was fun. She knew none of it was real, but part of her wanted to believe it regardless. And, of course, it helped to not be completely cynical when her little sister came crying about a haunted pizza box.
But this—this weird, cryptic book—maybe this was something, too. A book that was actually marginally interesting. Something stupid to try with her friends. Good enough.
She walked back down the stairs and over to the counter where her classmate was still sitting.
“Found something,” she announced, slamming the book onto the desk. The rabbit monster looked it over wearily.
“This was… upstairs?” He asked, flipping the pages as if looking for something.
“Yeah? Where else would it be?”
“It just doesn’t have a, um… checkout card. I don’t think I’ve seen it before, either.”
“Well just write me down in your logs or whatever. I’ll bring it back next week.”
The rabbit hesitated, not sure if he was supposed to… then took out a book from behind the counter. He glanced up at Dess’s book again, before writing down “weird book” next to her name.
“Thanks, dude,” said Dess, turning to leave.
“Oh, wait, uh— Can you tell Asriel that How to Draw Dragons—“
Dess covered her ears and walked out the door.
“Nope, can’t hear you, sorry!” She called back, to her classmate’s dismay. She laughed to herself as the door closed behind her. It was just too funny not to return a book like that.
Before she left, though, she glanced around. It was that cat that dropped the book for her, but it was nowhere to be found now. She hadn’t heard of any stray cats wandering around town, so she’d wondered if someone might be nearby with it…
She shrugged, heading off for the Dreemurrs’ house.