11. New Day
R unning his hands over his outfit, Ollie took a deep breath, eyeing the front door.
“Today is a new day. No ghosts, no weird stuff, just books, and maybe some outside ‘fun’ .” He wrinkled his nose. Ollie couldn’t say he liked going outside much, but…it would be good for him!
Grabbing the folder off his kitchen table, he quickly turned the motion-sensored alarms off and unlocked his door, not bothering to lock it as he left. Red followed behind him as he jogged down the stairs and into the library. He didn’t bother with the lights, or with turning the elevators on, he just headed around the corner to the back stairwell.
As he reached the first floor, Ollie paused on stepping past the door to the stairs, due to him, one again, seeing a flicker of…something.
“No!” he gasped. “I saw nothing! There is, and was, nothing there!” Nodding in his pathetic denial, Ollie hurried to his office which was to the right of the stairs.
Unlocking his door, he shut it behind him, then sat down at his desk, staring blankly at the wall as he waited for Elias to arrive. The man had the door key and the alarm code…he could let himself in. There was no reason why Ollie needed to wait for him by the circulation desk, none at all. No reason for him to not either, but he wasn’t. Because Ollie was going to be…LAZY! Yes, he was going to be lazy today.
He certainly wasn’t avoiding waiting at the front, due to the many corners and places that people or things could hide, or due to there possibly being a ghost in his library! Nope, that was not his reason for hiding in his office.
Ollie sagged in his chair with a groan, but at a soft knock on his office door, he jerked up straight with a start.
Get it together, Ollie , he thought with an exasperated sigh.
Rubbing his face, he called out, “Come in!”
After waiting for a moment and nothing happened, he frowned. Standing, Ollie moved towards the door, but when he opened it, he found no one.
“He-hello?” he stuttered softly, staring out into the dark library hallways around him. Swallowing hard, Ollie slowly closed the door again.
Looking down at Red, who was lounging in the middle of the room, he begged, “Please, tell me it was you who made that sound?”
His cat eyed him blankly, before letting out a Meow.
“I’m going to…take that as a confession!” he chimed with false cheer.
Noble’s eyes snapped open with a groan at the incessant ringing of his phone. Growling, he snagged the thing off his nightstand and answered without checking the caller ID. “What?!” he snapped, his voice gravelly from sleep.
“ Wow, you sound like shit. Come down with something, Harbinger?”
His shoulders stiffened, and he sat up in bed as the voice instantly set him on edge. “What do you want, Unstable Pawn ?” he ground out, using only half of the stupid code name assigned to Mikael Novak. He’d die before calling the man Brilliant Pawn.
He hated the code names so much, almost as much as he hated the man currently on the other end of the phone. Today’s technology sure made being part of a secret murderous organization a test of patience. As every conversation that was not held in person now sounded completely moronic.
“ Well…being the good Pawn that I am, I finished off my latest assignment early, and am calling to tell you that I’ll soon be heading to your neck of the woods. Probably in a few weeks. Spectator gave me the heads up that we’ll be bonding on a joint task soon. Figured I might as well venture nearby. Spectator instructed me to tell you about that, and about me coming. For some reason, he thought that me just popping in would end in a few bullet holes. Fucking man worries more than a woman .”
While he tensed further, Noble said nothing.
After a stretch of silence, Mikael let out a barking laugh that was both grating yet…cruel sounding. As if the man couldn’t quite hide the monster that he was, even in his laughter.
“ Silence, why am I not surprised? ” Mikael snorted. “ You are never a letdown, my friend. Ah, but boy, would it have been fun to just show up at your house ? — ”
As rage at the idea of the man ever stepping foot in his space shoved aside his worry, a guttural hiss trailed out from the back of his throat.
“ You are such a prickly little bitch, you know that?! Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m not coming there! Your ‘space’ is safe. ”
He grunted in response, his anger was still too present for him to respond, but more than that, the panic was quickly returning.
“ See you soon, Harbinger. ”
He tossed his phone aside onto the bed when the line went dead.
“FUCK!” Noble let out a frustrated scream, rubbing his face roughly. “Ohh, just what I needed. Just what I FUCKING needed.”
He couldn’t trust that Mikael wouldn’t try to come here. The bastard lied as much as he breathed. And if he found out, the organization would too. No—if he came here, Noble would just kill him. The organization knew his boundaries. He’d kill him and…then what?
The higher ups wouldn’t care if he did. It wasn’t as if Mikael was well liked. But then what… What after?
That witch…he should kill her. He needed to kill her. She was…a witch… Even if they all weren’t bad, so what?! This new found conscience of his was pointless! Witches were…
Noble swallowed hard.
By the blessed Goddess, I am filled with terror. But I saw, clear as day. I saw him.
He flinched as the shaking, fear-filled words that were read by Ollie danced through his head. “Fuck, why?!”
Why did this even matter?! He’d killed too many to count, to even remember…
Hah…lies…there were so many lies that he told himself. Noble could see them…their faces…every single one.
Even if one witch was saved, then what? He’d kill a few more while he was with Mikael?! What difference would saving one make? He was damned, no matter who he saved now…
Noble wanted… He wanted…out. He let out a shuddered breath. “God, I want out.”
But he wasn’t sure he could walk away now… No one would dare to say that a hundred and fifty years of bloodshed wasn’t enough repayment for what they claimed they’d done for him. But there would be questions, ones he likely couldn’t lie during.
Could he really give it up? Give up the bloodshed? As much as he claimed to hate it, part of him didn’t… There was no way he could have done all that he had done while hating it. But could he save one witch and make it past the review?
And if he did…then he’d be…what? Free? Hah… Free to live his life with no consequences to his actions, beyond the memories that taunted him. No job, no hobbies, no likes…no dislikes… Just the ghosts of his crimes in his head, while his thirst for blood crept its way back in without an outlet. A fitting life for a murdering bastard.
What a joke…
Ollie was reaching his limit. He wasn’t sure if what had happened the day before was making him more irritable than normal, but he was pretty much done. And Elias was failing to realize that he had been done during the previous conversation they had. If the man had, he likely wouldn’t have found a way to bring the idiotic subject back up again.
“Elias, I will not debate this again,” Ollie said firmly, as he stared up at the taller brown-haired man, who had just angrily stood from his chair.
“One of these days, you are going to take things too far, and you will have no funds left to make up for how deep you go into the red!” the man snapped, his British accent thick and on display.
Ollie knew that it wasn’t that Elias hated the program. Though the man disliked most of the social programs Ollie set up, as usually none of them brought much profit. If there was one thing Elias Ashford hated, it was the mere thought of anything affecting their profit line. Something Ollie had the privilege of not caring about, due to the vast wealth he’d inherited…
It was true that they ran on a very thin profit line, and some months they did go into the red, due to the various programs he had decided to hold, but by the end of the year, they ALWAYS managed to be in the green.
“Elias, if the Drag Queen Storytime turns away ‘customers’, they weren’t the type of people I would have wanted here in the first place. This is a private library that runs mostly on my family’s vast wealth, along with several other generous donors. Donors that I do not need, as I could very easily run this place on the savings my godfather set up for me, without even touching a dime of my inheritance, mind you. Nothing I do will set us so far into the red that we’d shut down. I could keep this place as my own private library, never turn the lights off, while keeping everyone else out, and I would still be able to pay all of the bills until I was on my deathbed!”
“You—”
“NO! Enough! You do this every time I try to start a program that is less than conservative in values or money. But get this through your thick head, I will not be held or controlled by the ‘moral’ convictions of others.
“In case you forgot, I’m literally bisexual. My butt would still be stuck in the damn closet if I did. Aside from me, many members of our staff are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Some are very vulnerable members at that.
“Beyond me, if Drag Queen Storytime is enough to set off whoever you are worried about, then you know they sure as hell would think Fleur LaGarde just existing as a trans woman was an affront to them. And if you think I would do anything to make her, or any of my staff, who I deeply care for, feel unsafe in my library, you are out of your ever-loving mind.
“The way I see it, you have two choices: either this stops now, or it’s time you find yourself a new job. This is not a threat. I’m done having these conversations. I hired you to be my assistant director, controlling my actions is not part of that job description.”
Elias’ eyes widened. “I…” The man cleared his throat. “I wasn’t…trying…”
“Who are the people you think the program will turn away? And then explain to me, a queer man, why I should be less than I am, and not support the things that I believe in, just so THEY will still come into MY library?”
The man grimaced. “I…I’m sorry. I overstepped. I didn’t fully consider what I was suggesting.”
He sighed and took a deep breath. “Don’t bring it up again. And remember this in the future. You can warn me about our budget, warn me that we are nearing the red in any given month, but I do not want to ever be warned again that my actions may anger people who likely already see me as subhuman.”
“Understood,” Elias said solemnly. “I will take more care in my actions and words from now on.”
Taking another deep breath, he pushed aside the negative emotions and smiled. “I’m not saying be anyone other than who you are, Elias. Just remember who I am, and don’t try to force me to be someone I’m not.”
“Sorry again.” The man slowly smiled. “Would…I happen to have a lecture waiting for me from Jahla, come tomorrow?”
Ollie giggled. “You know it! Don’t you dare try to avoid it.”
“I have to at least try.” Elias chuckled.
“You’ll fail.”
“Never said anything about succeeding, just that I’d try.”
“Point made.” He snorted, then checked his watch. “It’s nearing noon, so I think this is a good stopping point, though we were pretty much done anyway.”
Elias stood, nodding. “If there is anything else you can think of, drop me an email, or tell me tomorrow.”
“Right!” Ollie popped up out of his chair. “I’ll walk you out.”
He planned to eat out today, so…might as well. Ollie grabbed his small crossbody purse that held his wallet, and a few other small things, and slipped it on before waving Elias forward.