fandomhigh | Library (12/20/05)

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library

Library (12/20/05)

Janet ran towards the library. She'd overslept, and it looked like no one else had gotten it open yet. She flipped on the lights, unloaded the food from last night's shopping trip with Parker, made sure that no one but library staff could get to the food, and sat down to start eating while she finished up her Classics project.

Assortment of four French cheeses - Epoisses, Buche Chevre,
Chaource and Gruyere de Comte
4 pounds of Jumbo Shrimp with cocktail sauce
Mousse of Goose Liver pate', with black truffle mushrooms mixed in
Maine Lobster tails, with garlic butter
Russian Beluga, Sevruga, and Osetra caviar, with mini blinis and
creme fraiche
Blinis with raspberry preserves
French bread
Grapes
Pears
Granny Smith and Tulip apples
Belgian Chocolate truffles
Chocolate Marble Cheesecake
Maple Walnut fudge
Wine and champagne (hidden)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The library seems to spin around them, settling into a configuration that might be familiar to Xander; they're standing next to a long, dark table, with bookshelves on terraces to all sides. An office and a bookcage are also on their level.

The smell of chalkdust and cafeteria food hangs in the air. This is clearly a school library.

But not a quiet one; some shelves are in disorder or have even been tipped over, and a girl lies near the library desk, unmoving.

Xander didn't need more than a glance to recognise the figure on the floor by the desk, and only two heartbeats worth of memory to know there wasn't any point in walking over to her.

"Shit. Is this supposed to be real?" he asked, moving forward to the nearest fallen shelf even as he spoke. He braced his shoulder against it, not even sure who had ended up beneath it, but positive there was more chance to help whoever it was than the still, dark girl who lay near the desk.

Logan helped Xander move the shelf. "No idea. You know this place?"

"You could say that." Xander pointed down at the dark-haired male body, still half-covered by fallen books, revealed by the shifted shelving. "Could you grab that encyclopedia before it falls on my arm, by the way? It's already fractured in two places. It'd be cool if World Book didn't make three." He pointed to a thick book about to come crashing down from the top of the shelf to land on the fallen boy.

Logan tucked the book in his hands inside his jacked and grabbed the World Book just as it tipped over the edge, tossing it to the side. He stared down at the other Xander. "That's - uh - this really happened?"

Xander nodded, already looking around for the other set of shelves he knew had to have fallen nearby - even harder than the one that knocked him out, because he hadn't come away with head trauma.

"Couple years ago." He spotted a flash of red hair beneath a pile of scattered books, and breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't known he'd been holding in. The shelves above Willow were braced against each other, not about to crash down any further. "You could call it the aftermath of Angelus volume one.

"Guy likes to make an impression," Logan said, gesturing slightly with his left arm, still in a cast. "Your turf. Any idea how we get out?"

Yes, he was climbing bookshelves with his arm in a cast. Shush. It's nearly healed, anyway.

A bright, comforting light flickered in a room across the library from them.

"That's Giles' office," Xander said, pointing. "He's the librarian here. Not that he's here. I'm pretty sure Angelus is breaking his fingers at the moment." He shot a last glance back at his fallen self and friend, then beckoned Logan to follow him across towards the office. "But there's a certain kind of screwy library logic to it."

Inside the office, the boys will find everything as Xander remembered it - save one thing: an unfamiliar door leading out of the room, located inside an unlocked book cage.

"Well, that doesn't belong here," Xander said, pointing to the door. He poked his head into the cage. "And if there's a big sign above my head right now that says TRAP, please don't tell me. You'll spoil the surprise."

"Right," Logan said. "Because the cage in the library doesn't scream that out loud."

"Believe it or not, that part's supposed to be here. We had some mighty rowdy books. And the occasional ~~hyena-possession~~ werewolf."

"So, Fandom High not a big change, then," Logan muttered, and followed Xander through the door.

Ahead of them was a spacious, dark library. It was dimly lit, as everything before this had been at best, but clean and well-kept.

It was empty save for a thin, elderly woman whose resemblance to an underfed vulture was uncanny.

"You there. You boys! What are you doing here?" she snapped, adjusting her pince-nez.

Xander swallowed. "Looking for--" The answer we're reaching for is not 'porn,' Harris. You have in fact managed to come across another one of the few questions for which Porn Is Not The Answer. File it away with 'Do these jeans make my ass look big' and 'how do I escape from an army of zombies' and move on with your life. "--the Fandom High library? We seem to have got a little turned around, ma'am."

She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

"I know what you were doing. The only reason boys ever come into the library is to look at dirty, nasty pictures. Well, not here, you won't. Go on now! Get!" As if out of nowhere, she brandished a wand at them, and waved it threateningly.

Unfortunately, there is no exit visible to them.

However, if either of them were to check their cell phones, they would find that, for the first time during this little adventure, they're actually getting a very weak signal.

"We're clearly in the wrong section," Logan said. "Ma'am, if you could just point us to the proper place to look at dirty, nasty pictures, we'll be on our way."

Madam Pince continued to glare.

"Both of you, on your way now! Libraries are not the place for your disgusting little fantasies to play out. Go now! Shoo!"

She waved her wand, and sent a torrent of office supplies flying at them - paper, paperclips, quills, even a stray paperweight.

Unfortunately, an exit still hadn't made itself visible.

Xander threw up an arm to block the smaller projectiles, then yanked it down and just ducked as the paperweight came hurtling at him. "Great - all I need is two of me running around with broken arms!"

Logan ducked as a rather pointy quill flew his way. "Let's try this way," he said to Xander, and ducked behind a bookcase.

The objects continued to pelt them, following the boys around the bookcase, but strangely going nowhere near the books themselves.

"Don't you dare lay a single one of your filthy little fingers on any of my books!" Madam Pince cried after them.

"We're wearing gloves!" Xander shouted through a gap on the shelves between The Best Bestiary Ever and Wake Up And Smell The Muffins: Kitchenwitchery Made Easy.

"It doesn't matter - do you really think that your gloves make that much of a difference to books such as these?" she barked, staying out of their line of vision.

Having run out of things on her desk to bewitch, Madam Pince resorted to anything she might find around her small office. Two spoons came flying through the air straight Logan and Xander's heads.

"Spooooons!" Logan cried, and pulled Xander down. They hit the floor with an "oof". "We'd leave," Logan yelled, "if you'd just tell us which way to go!"

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