The Library's Final Aisle

Chapter 3

I could barely talk because I was so tired that day. I had gotten no sleep, and it was all because of Marnie's death. It must have been a dream. Besides, the fabric wasn't here anymore-

"Hey, freak, dropped this!" Uma cackled and thrust it right in my face. I was stunned and couldn't speak. I was still praying that it was just from one of my dresses, or something that belonged to Lily since she slept in the bed next to me.

"Uma, where's Marnie?" Annie muttered, curling her eyelashes finely.

"I don't know. Must've gone down early."

Uma, Annie and Lily were unphased. I was phased.

I threw on a harsh navy-blue skirt and a baggy white blouse. I needed as much space as I could to roam around today. I needed to go to the library as soon as possible.

Slipping on some clunky black regulation shoes, I paraded out of the dormitory. I was the first (or second, depending whether Marnie was alive or not) outside, and as I walked to the other side, I could very well see the sign that read on the library door: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Great. The must have closed it up for some sort of renovation. Now I was almost certain that this was murder.

Would Miss Eden announce that Marnie was killed? Was it really murder? Questions swam through my head like the flies that buzzed around her corpse, and I shivered. The last thing I wanted to think about was her dead body.

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I sat down in the hall twenty minutes later. It was busy and tense and hot, and I felt myself sweating a little bit.

I wasn't hungry. Especially because this morning it was charred-looking toast with nothing on it. Shuffling away from the others, I sat down warily on my own. But not for long.

Nadiya and Sally pulled out the chairs opposite from me. Nadiya's eyes seeped through her sockets and focused on my distraught face.

"Heather? Are you okay?"

"You look a bit upset," Sally said stoutly, her brows furrowing. I tried to speak, but no words came out. Sally was about to ask again but was interrupted by Miss Eden.

Clad in a check dress and had a sour look on her face, our head urgently announced that everyone was to come to the sitting room at once for an emergency delivery of news.

"Come on, Ethel, don't be so slow. Jo, don't try to pick your nose. Oliver, please stop plaguing Omar!" she said as we filed inside. I nervously perched on a back seat with Sally and Nadiya, knowing that the subject was Marnie. It was terrifying, waiting for Miss Eden to announce that Marnie was murdered and that she was hiring a constabulary to investigate. Surely that was the most logical conclusion?

After a great deal of waiting, she finally strutted inside, her red lips standing out from her now-pale skin. Her smooth hair looked greasy now and her warm eyes lost a touch of their colour. She looked like a sad China doll.

Sitting by her usual seat at the front, with Old Maria blowing her nose next to her, she spoke so softly that not even people at the front could hear her. She cleared her throat and repeated her words again.

"Hello, children. With my deepest concern, I am sad to tell you that our good friend Marnie is no longer with us."

The room was silent.

"She, for an unknown reason, went exploring the library in the middle of the night and split her head open on one of the bookshelves, and bled to death. That is the reason the library is closed until further notice. I'm so sorry to tell you this, my dears."