Chapter 36
Kinsley
Chapter Thirty-Six
The library looked exactly the same covered in shadows as it looked in the middle of the day, but something still felt different. The small hairs stood up on the back of my neck as Cora opened the large wooden entrance door with her mother’s keys. The eight of us stepped inside, and the darkness closed around us. It didn’t feel right to be this easy to break into an institution, and yet here we were. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and looked around the empty hallway. Somehow, I liked it here even more this way. A thought about a book club for night owls held in the library in the dead of the night crossed my mind before I turned my attention back to my surroundings.
“So, we just go in and then out?” Cora whispered, hurrying after me, but her voice still echoed from the tall walls.
“Almost,” I replied. “We will watch the tape first. Then we leave.” She dipped her head.
“I will wait for you guys outside.” She glanced toward the door we came in. “I would feel better keeping an eye out for if anyone comes this way,” she explained, and Aaliyah pursed her lips.
“If Bob Marley was here, he could keep an eye out,” Kevin chimed in with a grin. “I trained him to alert me if someone was coming when I wanted to play games instead of doing my homework.” Connor snorted.
“If he was here, Kinsley would be the one staying behind,” he added, and I made a face at him.
“Who’s Bob Marley again?” Samantha asked, crossing her arms over her cherry-red top, and Kevin sucked in an insulted breath.
“His bird.” Thomas joined in the conversation from where he was leaning against the wall.
“He’s not just a bird,” Kevin said. “He’s a green-cheeked conure.” Braxton grimaced.
“I thought you had a big bird, like an ostrich,” he said, and Kevin widened his eyes.
“Why would I have an ostrich?” He frowned.
“Why wouldn’t you?” Braxton contradicted. “I bet he would be a better lookout than a parrot.” Kevin gasped.
“He’s not just?—”
“A parrot,” we said in unison, and he turned his eyes toward the ceiling.
“And why would Kinsley stay behind if,” Braxton looked at him authoritatively, “Bob Marley was here?” Kevin glanced at me.
I pressed my lips into a line, trying to find a way around the question.
“We have more important things to do than to talk about a bird.” Thomas pushed himself away from the wall, saving me from having to answer.
“He’s right, I will text you if anyone’s coming.” Cora handed the set of keys to Aaliyah and hurried back to the entrance.
“She’s freaked out by her mom finding out.” Aaliyah sighed the same time Braxton called after her:
“Use the group chat.”
“Does anyone know where they store the tapes?” I asked, and Samantha raised her hand.
“I do.” Every eye turned to her. “What? I worked here for a few weeks.” She pursed her red-painted lips. Then she turned to show us the way.
“I will be right by your side.” Braxton followed. “Oh wait, I forgot,” he added loudly, stopping, and we all froze as his voice echoed back from the walls of the library. “I brought matching caps,” he said, and I furrowed my brows. I think we all did, because Braxton made a dissatisfied face. “If someone sees us, the brim hides our face,” he explained, knocking on one of the baseball cap’s shields as he dragged them out of his black Spider-Man backpack.
“Wouldn’t a mask have been better, then?” Samantha asked, and Braxton turned his gaze toward the ceiling.
“Maybe,” he replied. “But this looks way cooler.”
Kevin shook his head. “Yeah, I’m not sure about that, Brax,” he answered, and Connor chuckled next to him.
“I like them,” he said, brushing over his blond curls.
I also kind of liked them. I loved baseball caps, especially on bad hair days.
“See. Don’t judge them just because they are from the souvenir shop. Desperate times call for desperate decisions,” Braxton said.
“Can we just move?” Thomas grumbled impatiently, grabbing a black cap out of Braxton’s hand with Coldwater est. 1823 embroidered on the front of it, and striding ahead. “I’m guessing it’s on the second floor,” he added without turning around, and Samantha nodded.
“I like it too,” Aaliyah agreed with Connor as she pulled a cap out of Braxton’s hand and placed it onto her braided hair.
Braxton gave us a knowing grin as we all placed a cap on our heads. The others went ahead but I looked around, back toward the entrance. I hoped Cora was all right out there.
“Are you coming?” I heard Connor call, and I turned to see him coming back down the stairs.
“Yeah.” He waited for me, and we made our way up to the second floor. “Don’t worry, I will be right by your side.” He mimicked Braxton, elbowing me in the side. Thomas was waiting for us at the top of the staircase, and—hell, Braxton was right; the dark shield did hide his face…and so did the shadows. He looked intimidating in a hot way, and my chest tightened. The three of us caught up to the others, and Samantha led us into another dark hallway before she suddenly stopped.
“This is it.” She motioned at a plain wooden door, and Aaliyah hurried ahead, the keys clattering in her hand.
We all stepped aside, giving her space as she tried each and every key from the big keychain, but none of them fit.
“Great.” Connor sighed, looking around.
“Let me try something.” Samantha stepped to the door, pulling a pin out of her hair. She leaned down, and I heard a click before she turned the doorknob and opened the door. We all looked at her with our brows raised, but she just shrugged. “What?” she asked. “My brother used to lock me out all the time.” She stepped into the room, putting the pin back into her auburn hair.
Aaliyah and Braxton followed her right before Connor and Kevin, leaving me and Thomas as the last ones to cross the threshold. I glanced up at him from the corner of my eye, pressing my lips into a thin line.
“Stop staring.” He glanced down at my lips before turning his head back ahead. “I lack self-control lately,” he added, and I hid a smile, readjusting the black cap on my head.
“Does anyone know how these things work?” Kevin asked, lifting a cassette out of a box.
I finally looked around the small room we ended up in. There were multiple cassettes on the shelves and big boxes everywhere labeled with the same word, tapes. Each and every one of them had a date written on them.
“We need a VCR player.” Braxton looked around the room.
“A what?” Aaliyah furrowed her brows.
“A videocassette recorder,” Samantha explained, and Aaliyah made a face.
“Right,” she said, but it was written on her face that she had no idea what they were talking about.
“Here.” Thomas pulled off a big dusty box with a picture of an old VCR on it from one of the upper shelves.
“Does it work?” Braxton asked, walking closer, and Thomas flashed him a bored look before putting the box down close to an old computer.
“I have the exact amount of information as you do,” he replied, and Braxton closed his mouth.
“Right.” He brushed over his cap before opening the lid of the box and pulling the VCR out. “Now let B work his magic,” he muttered to himself, and I chuckled, earning a wink from him, and Thomas shook his head.
Braxton pulled out a bunch of old cables from the box and started to plug them into both the computer and the VCR.
“Has anyone found the tape yet?” Aaliyah asked, and Kevin raised his tattooed arm.
“Here,” he said, handing it to Thomas.
“Got it.” Braxton straightened after a few minutes and turned around. “These hands,” he stopped between me and Samantha and dropped his arms around our necks, “are—” he wanted to continue, but Thomas cut him off with a glare.
“Will be broken if you leave them where they are now,” he said in a low voice before placing the cassette into the VCR, and I felt a warm, squishy feeling in my stomach.
I shared a look with Braxton while Samantha slid out from under his arm.
“Your boyfriend is scary,” he whispered, dropping his hands.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I replied, and he raised an eyebrow at me.
“I’m still glad he didn’t let me finish. I was about to suggest a threesome,” he joked, and Samantha stepped farther away from him.
“I don’t think you will win her over this way.”
Braxton shrugged. “You might be right.” He snapped his fingers. “But I will still try it,” he added, and I nodded.
Braxton should donate from his self-confidence.
“And I’m just kidding.” He lowered his voice, as if it was a big secret he was sharing. “Every group needs a comedian. A funny sidekick.” He elbowed me, and I chuckled, which he reacted to with a look that said See.
The word loading suddenly appeared on the computer, and we stepped closer to where the others stood. The screen changed, and the library’s main room came into view. Thomas clicked on something, and the film sped up.
We were around two p.m. on the tape when Thomas stopped the clip, and we all held our breath back as we watched a woman walk through the door. Lizzie was recognizable even on an old black-and-white tape, and we watched her hurry toward the smaller room with the computers in it.
“Fuck,” Thomas muttered. “That will be on another tape.”
We all moved at the same time. With this many unorganized tapes, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. I already flipped through at least twenty tapes when Aaliyah shrieked.
“I got it,” she called, pushing herself up and raising a cassette. “I got it.”
We all gathered back around the monitor, and Thomas switched the two cassettes out before searching for the moment his mother walked into the other room. We were now seeing the exact same room where we read the interview the other day. The door opened and Lizzie stepped in. She hurried to one of the tables and sat down in front of the computer. She had her back to us, but the screen was still visible.
“What is she doing?” Connor leaned closer.
“Can’t you zoom in?” Samantha asked.
Thomas shook his head. “On this old shit? No, I can’t.”
I glanced at Braxton.
“I could take it home and try some things out,” he offered, and Thomas got the cassette out of the VCR.
“How much time would it take?” he asked, handing it to Braxton, who shrugged.
“I will get it ready for tomorrow.” He grinned with mischief in his eyes. “Just for you.” He winked.
Thomas lifted a brow. “Thanks,” he replied, and that was the fourth time I had ever heard him say that word.