The World Works in Wondrous Ways - on hold -

II

Avoid people. That was Nick Evan's policy when he walked around on campus. If there was a group of people, Nick swerved around them. This sometimes put Nick in odd places. Once, it put him squished between the two foot gap between two buildings.

It wasn't that he was scared of people, he just didn't like them. It's similar to if you don't like snakes; you're not scared of them, but you would go out of your way to avoid them.

Nick was heading to the library building. The library building had all the records, the security cameras, the attendance sheets. That's where he had to go to find Alyssa. So, he made the thirty minute walk from his last class to the main building. His brain worked to find anything else about the girl that would help him find her.

It was weird. The only sense of right or wrong he had ever felt in his entire life was when someone lost something. He never kept it, and he always returned it. He wasn't exactly sure what he was feeling when he needed to give someone something back, just that he was feeling. Nick didn't like it, but he couldn't resist the urge to return something that didn't belong to him.

Nick guessed his parents raised him well on one thing, at least.

He searched his mind for information, recalling the events on the bus. The words Alyssa Young scrawled across one of the straps on her backpack, like a child's. Nice. Now, he had full name and a grade. That should be enough to find her in the computer system.

He walked around another group of people before he finally made it to the building. It loomed over him, casting a dark shadow on the floor that encompassed his body. The cold air froze his lungs, refreshing, but leaving a lingering frost within his chest. The tips of his fingers were numb and frozen, his lips dry and chapped from the wind.

Large letters were spaced evenly across the top of the entrance, spelling out the word "library" in all capital letters. Nick paused as he took in the familiar sight. He used to visit this building everyday until just a few weeks ago. He was very fond of it. Nick found it simply wondrous how hundreds of thousands of worlds exist in just one building. Isn't it amazing?

The doors slid apart easily as he approached. The library looked impossibly bigger on the inside; isles of shelves lined the floor, the colorful spines of books popped out at Nick. The roof stretched upwards. The panes of glass in place of a solid roof gave the illusion of an open top. The building was tall enough to break through the afternoon fog, rays of sunshine beamed down onto Nick, warming his body.

He made his way up the flights of stairs. Noticing his bag would hit his leg repeatedly and often, he held a firm hand to the front of it, pressing it against the uncomfortable fabric of his jeans.

72... 73... 74... 75... He counted his steps as he approached the fifth floor landing. A blue sign was nailed to the wall stating that Nick did, in fact, make it to the fifth floor. Nick rushed to the end of the hall, turning left into a small room. The lack of noise inside the room settled into his brain as he shifted awkwardly in the doorway. The silence in there was louder than when he was in hallway. In the room, nothing but steady breathing and the clicking of computer keys. At least in the hall way, the noise echoed into a comfortable background noise.

Nevertheless, he stepped into the room. The toe of his shoe tapped against the marble floor, which was shiny, clean, and white, the exact color he imagined angel wings would be. The sound rebounded off the walls. Two of them were completely transparent, one letting him view the outside world, the other showing him the lobby of the library. He took a seat at one of the desks and placed his laptop on it. It was a slim laptop, bearing the logo of a once bitten apple, a small indent in the center. Lifting the top, the screen lit up instantly. Nick's fingers worked fast on the keyboard as he entered a series of codes.