The Five Dimensions Part 1: Shadow World

Chapter 44

Hailey guessed that her definition of entertaining was much more like Ash's than Alex's ― at least, if you left out horse-riding ― and Alex seemed to know that because he wasn't sure about where to take Hailey that would suffice as entertaining.

"We can go to town someday. We would now, but Paul and Ernest have taken the carriage and it is too far to go on foot," Alex explained. He was listing things to do. "There are entertainment rooms in the mansion of course, the art room and the music room but there is no physical activity you can do here besides horse-riding. I apologize if those things are not very appealing to you. Maybe you would like to take lengthy walks in the gardens or explore the maze. Although, it would be smart to have someone accompany you at that time, the hedges are quite high." Alex laughed, somewhat awkwardly. Nevertheless, the sound of his laugh was warm and contagious enough to force a smile out of Hailey too. "I am afraid there are not too many other options."

"What do you do?" Hailey was following Alex to what she guessed was the East side of the house. There was one hallway with a high ceiling and the walls set widely apart. There were much fewer doors than the hallway to which Hailey's bedroom was connected, and these doors had a much grander impression about them. There were two sets of double doors on each side and one at the very end. These were the biggest doors Hailey had seen anywhere in the house. They were only slightly smaller than the front doors. One of the doors was ajar and music was coming from it. The doors on the right side of the hall were both closed.

"I have some free time at the moment, but I have assignments for my internship I am working on." Alex stopped in front of the closed doors on the right. He didn't open them yet but turned to Hailey. "I do not think you will find the library very entertaining, however."

"That depends," Hailey started jokingly. "Do you have any good books?" She was very aware of the possibility of finding valuable information in those books, whether they were good or not.

A giddy smile appeared on Alex's face, and he looked excited. He put his hands on the doors and gave a light push so that they slowly and simultaneously opened. "I think you will find we have a great variety of books to choose from."

Hailey was struck dumb. There were rows and rows of bookcases all completely filled with books. There must've been thousands of books at least, maybe even a million. She had never seen so many books in her life.

Hailey couldn't stop her mouth from falling open.

§

The following days went by much faster than they would have done without Alex's help. That first time, when Alex introduced Hailey to the library, she stayed with him while he worked on his assignments, despite his repeated offer for her to go do something fun. She refused and browsed the books for the rest of the day. The silence was awkward at first but after getting to know each other better they learned how to enjoy being silent together. Alex occasionally helped Hailey find books but after a few more days in the library, she had the filing system memorized and could find interesting reading material on her own. Alex did research for his assignments and Hailey read about the Dimensions. The library had tall windows that let in a lot of light, making it a very nice place to spend her time. Sometimes Hailey's eyes wandered off to the gardens that she could see through the windows. She looked at the sun moving across the sky throughout the day and the trees gently moved in the wind.

They didn't just silently read though, they often talked. Alex and Hailey didn't usually discuss very emotional or heavy stuff ― they did come close a couple of times ― which was one of the things Hailey liked most about Alex. He wasn't complicated. Ash, however, was awfully complicated. Despite his continued absence.

He wasn't around much. She saw him at dinner, but they didn't talk. The most she got were some accidental glances. She thought the Team must've started up work again, but she had no idea what they were up to. Maybe they were trying to locate the Connected Soul in the Third Dimension, maybe they were planning to go to the other Dimensions. Hailey wanted him to talk to her so badly that she almost couldn't face seeing him at all. If it hadn't been for Alex, she would have been completely alone.