A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

1. A Flicker

N oble Vincent stared into the stark bright light of the morning that was filtering through his kitchen window and sighed. It was a sigh that seemed to just weigh down on his every limb.

He was tired—no, not tired, he was exhausted. Bone numbingly exhausted. But it wasn’t a physical thing, it was… It was all mental.

Noble looked around at his small kitchen with its blue cabinets, wooden ceiling, exposed beams, burnt terracotta tiled floors, and beige walls. How many years had it been now?

His brow pinched as he tried to remember, letting out a dark chuckle when he did. “Has it really been a hundred and fifty years?”

Fucking hell, a hundred and fifty years and still no end in sight, all because of what he had done. To himself, to others…

Sighing again, Noble opened the door to his pantry, and after sliding the back shelf into the wall, he undid the multiple deadbolts on the hidden cellar door.

The thud of his boots was loud in his ears as he descended the stairs, just as loud as the silence was once he’d reached the bottom. With wall to floor stone, the temperature was at least twenty degrees cooler there.

As Noble met the frightened yet defiant gaze of the woman he had gagged and chained to a thick stone chair—a chair stained with the blood of too many to count—the exhaustion became almost unbearable.

Humming happily, Oliver ‘Ollie’ Wisteria Cross pulled his long, copper, curly hair into a messy bun, while eyeing himself in his full-length antique mirror.

“Dressed and ready!” he chimed with a pleased laugh, as he pushed his rounded glasses up on his freckle-covered nose and looked over his outfit.

As dino education week continued, he once again geared his outfit to a select dinosaur, down to his piercings. With leaf studs in his upper two lobe piercings, and a small leaf hoop in his helix on the left, dangling from his lowest lobe piercings were cute little Stegosauruses—which all matched with the rest of his outfit.

His lightweight, long sleeved top was navy blue, and had green Stegosauruses scattered over it in a random pattern. The green corduroys he had on happened to have leaf-shaped pockets, while the rolled-up cuffs at the bottom were a fun leaf pattern. Clipped to them were matching green, leaf-covered suspenders. To tie the whole thing all together, he planned to pull on some navy boots.

Scooping up his cat, Red, he held him out in front of him as he asked, “What do you think?”

The black Bombay cat, with yellow eyes and white paws, stared at him for a moment, before letting out a monotone Meow, which he instantly decided was a compliment.

“Why, thank you, Red! I think so too!” he said with a giggle.

Setting his cat down, he gave him a few scratches before he spun away with a hum and left his bedroom. Ollie continued to hum as he walked through the short hallway, past walls that were filled with old pictures of both his family and various artworks he’d found depicting cats, and headed down the spiral staircase that exited into his personal library below. Red followed, the cat only a step behind.

Quickly walking through the mostly wooden room with navy blue accents, the bookshelves on every wall rising up with the spiraling staircase, Ollie went out the only doorway he could. Leaving behind his small private collection, he entered into a much longer hallway than the one above. Passing many closed doors, it eventually opened up into his kitchen.

Exposed wooden beams ran along the ceiling, with an antique, more gothic than not, chandelier hanging down above the space. His kitchen had dark stone walls and wooden floors, while the cabinetry was a weathered green color, and the countertops were wooden. The space wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t particularly large, only allowing him to fit a thick, rounded ornate table that sat four chairs.

Above the sink there was a rounded top window divided into three, in a way that screamed gothic revival, though he hadn’t yet figured out the exact date that the living quarters here had been renovated. He wasn’t sure he ever would, as there didn’t appear to be any paperwork left.

Moving over to one of the cabinets, he grabbed a can of wet cat food. Opening it, he dumped it into Red’s bowl before washing his hands and the can, then dropping it into the recycle bin underneath the sink.

Ollie giggled as the cat began to eat. Red made a sound that was close to ‘num num num’ every time he ate. It was adorable, and something that his father before him had also done, which again, adorable.

Briefly crouching down to give the cat’s black head a scritch scratch, he straightened back up and busied himself by making tea. After filling it with water, he turned the electric kettle on.

Standing there Ollie blankly stared out his kitchen window that looked out over the forested area behind his library. Well, house and library. He supposed most would consider where he lived an apartment or condo, instead of a house, as it was located above the Cross Heritage Private Library—his family’s library. Though, the library was all his, since Ollie was all that was left of said family. Something he was very well adjusted to by now, since they all died before he was born or while he was too young to remember them. Even if he did often wonder what it would be like to have them there with him. But it was hard to miss something he never had or experienced, though he could imagine well enough.

Ollie was drawn out of his musings as the kettle went off. Finishing making his tea, he quickly warmed up a couple of the homemade biscuits he’d made the other day, along with the leftover bacon.

Lathering the biscuits with strawberry jam, Ollie sat at his kitchen table eating breakfast,, once again staring out over the acre of forest that sat behind, and partly around his library. It was a beautiful day outside; not too cold, not too hot. But then, it was nearing the end of September, and he was in Massachusetts.

Meow!

He chuckled, glancing down as Red pawed his leg. “Yes, yes, I know it’s time for me to open the library. I’m finishing up now.”

He smiled. Ahh, what would he do without his personal alarm? Why set something electronic when his cat would rub against him, purring, or smack him in the face if he didn’t wake quickly enough?

Chuckling at the thought, he tossed the last bit of biscuit into his mouth before taking his morning vitamins and medicine with the last of his tea. Wiping his mouth, Ollie stood with his plate and cup in hand, and quickly set his dishes in the sink and tossed the napkin. Grabbing the water bottle he prepared last night from the fridge, he slipped it into his messenger bag, before hanging that, and his small vintage leather purse, across his body.

Heading out of his kitchen into the front hallway, Ollie pulled his navy boots from the rack and slipped them on before moving over to the large security panel to the right of the door. As always, he turned off the broad motion sensors and the door alarms, while leaving on the shatter ones for the glass cases and library windows.

Swiping the lanyard that held his hordes of keys off the hallway table, he pulled it on and unlocked his front door. Ollie quickly relocked it after Red walked out, before jogging down the stairs and repeating the process with the door that sat right of the bottom of the steps.

He swore, half his time was spent locking and unlocking doors…and turning lights on and off. Ollie eyed the large, dark hallway that the door opened up onto. He knew it would eventually lead into a semi-large, circular open space at the center of the third floor. Bookshelves lined the walls, and while there were open doorways and arches on the right wall of the hall, it was all solid to the left, as it was the outside of the Rare Books section, and there was only one way in. Well, there was an emergency window escape at the back…but only one door.

His library could easily be described as a large space that was filled with a horde of books, a lot of polished and sometimes carved wood, wooden floors, wooden ceilings, and arched windows, some of which were even stained-glass. Though there was oddly one single room, at the back of the Rare Books section, that had carpet. He didn’t know why, but it did.

Layout-wise, on each of the three full floors sat a semi-large, circular space at the center, with arching wooden ceilings. With four flights between each floor, the main stairs that sat by the center were disconnected, even if they were across from each other. There was also a continuous, less used stairway that was just around the corner from the door that led up to his living quarters. Which was the main reason he kept said door locked.

Branching off around the center were hallways and rooms, with the first floor having a wide set of stairs that led up from the double-door entrance of the library. There were also two side entrances, both of which were used as emergency exits that were opened during operational hours, but the one on the left side was an alternative, staff only entrance. While the one on the right was open to the public, and was also wheelchair accessible—with no stairs in the way.

Instead of open spaces, aside from a few particular sections, the Cross Heritage Private Library was maze-like, with many doorways and rooms, sometimes of different heights. Which meant, for those who were new, it was easy to get lost.

Turning back towards the door, he opened the metal box next to it. There were three rows of switches and two keyholes, one silver, one brass. Inserting a key into the first, Ollie swiped his hands up, flipping all of the switches, turning on the base lighting for every floor, before removing the key and pulling out an antique brass one. He inserted that key into the second matching lock and turned it to the right, smiling as he heard the elevators power back on in the distance.

“There,” he said with a smile while eyeing the now lit hallway, before giggling. “Library prep time!”

Ollie power walked down the hall towards the Rare Books section, which sat right of the circular space on that floor, though to his left right now. Smiling as he walked past the three vintage library elevators that were flushed against the curved outer wall of the circular space, and left of the double doors, he sorted through his keys grabbing the one he needed.

Opening the three locks, he pulled the doors open and set the doorstops, before making sure that the sensors built into the walls just past it were on. The last thing he wanted was for one of those to fail. There were way too many expensive books inside to risk that.

After rushing back to check the two doors at the very rear of the section, he left the area quickly. Because beyond those, there were only two other doors in there; the one before the stairway that led up to the public fourth floor with the Newspaper and Material Archives, and the one at the top of the fifth, which held the Old Book Archives.

The research librarian, Fleur LaGarde, who oversaw the fourth floor archive, would get that one when she arrived. As for the fifth, that one usually remained locked, as use of it was by appointment only.

The door he just unlocked should have been the only one he needed to open, but Ollie knew that it probably wasn’t. He never really understood how doors that they never closed somehow managed to end up locked, but they did.

It was an overly used practical joke, pulled by...likely multiple staff members. He didn't know who was doing it, but whomever it was, they had been working there for as long as he'd been running the place, and had yet to tire of the joke in all of those seven years. They would only do it on the third floor, but…

Well, honestly, Ollie was both confused and slightly concerned as they always managed to do it AFTER his final walk through of the night. And the security cameras seemed to skip the moments. The doors just go from open to closed. He wasn’t sure how they edited themselves out of the footage, but they were dedicated, that was for sure. Dedicated to annoying him. At least he had a master key for those.

Moving past the central information desk, he started walking through the floor, sighing as he came across his first “shouldn’t be locked” door. Quickly opening it, he walked on, but came to a stop by the next open doorway when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Something pale had moved. He wasn’t sure what, as it had just been a flicker of…something.

Staring into the room to his right, he eyed the tall bookshelves, table, chairs, and lamp. While not all of the rooms had shelves that went high enough to need a ladder, this one did.

Frowning, he stepped into the room, glancing from left to right. It was one of the smaller rooms, so it wasn’t as if anyone, or any animal, had a place to hide. Yet, he would have sworn…

Shaking his head at what must have been a trick of light against his glasses, he continued on. Ollie had unlocked ten more doors by the time he finished. Once done, he headed downstairs.

Stepping onto the second floor, he quickly walked the distance across to the stairway that led down to the first floor. When, once again, there was this flicker of white, drawing his attention.

Ollie stood at the top of the stairs, staring down the hallway off to his left, scanning over the bookshelves and open doorways, but he saw…nothing. He could have sworn he…

Well, he wasn’t sure exactly what he’d seen, as it had been too fast to really tell. If he saw anything at all, that was.

“Hello?” Ollie called out. He listened, but just heard the creaks of the building, the running of electricity, his own breathing, and?—

Meow!

Ollie jumped at the sound. Clutching his chest as his heart raced, he laughed, looking down at Red. “Yes, yes, I’m moving! Far be it for me to risk delaying your many, many pets.”

Shaking his head, he went to the first floor.

Humming to himself, Ollie moved behind the large antique circulation desk near the center. The sides of the desk were carved to look like bookshelves, and it curved around, forming half of an octagonal shape. While the desks that sat in the center of the floors above were half octagonal shaped as well, they did not have carvings on them.

After flipping the switch built into the desk to turn the lights on above, he headed to his office, which was at the rear of the library on the ground floor, while Red wandered off.

On reaching his office, he unlocked the door, leaving it open as he entered. Setting his messenger bag and purse on his desk, his eyes were drawn to his latest acquisition, which sat closed and nestled in the built-in book cradle, in the tall, medium sized table that was podium-like in height.

“Ahh…look at it… Just waiting for me to crack it open.” He let out a giddy giggle. Rushing into the open doorway that sat right of his desk and led to a small bathroom, Ollie tucked his keys in his shirt and thoroughly washed his hands, then just as thoroughly dried them before running over to the table.

Licking his lips, his hands shook with excitement as he slowly opened the book. The smell of old paper and leather had him shuddering in delight.

He held back the urge to run his hands over the pages, as there was no point subjecting it to more oil than was necessary. Being over two hundred years old, the volume was pristine for its age.

His fingers lightly and carefully plucked at the edge of the title page?—

Meow !

Ollie jumped, his eyes going wide in horror at the harrowing sound that came as he did—the sound of paper tearing. Staring at the now torn title page, Ollie let out a cry of anguish.