Asylum

Part 6

I stopped where I was again, and Crystal stopped as well. I heard her growl from where we were and flinched again. Crystal pushed me to keep walking, so I did. We walked past her, she gave us one of her infamous growls and I tried my best not to flinch.

Once we got past her, we were on our way to the, hopefully, peaceful library. Where I hope Crystal doesn't ask what was wrong. And where I can pray to find that one book I've heard about.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Crystal's P.O.V.

What was that about? Kelly stood up and glanced over at me. I saw the pleading in his eyes telling me not to ask. His face was blotched with red and dried tears laid on his cheeks. He took his sleeve and wiped his face clean and grabbed the book I held out for him.
................................................................................................................................................................

"Here we are," I whispered.

The whole walk there was silent, which is usually what we do, but it was different. This was a different type of silence, like a forced silence.

I had so many questions racing through my head, and I was going to ask, whether he likes it or not.

We sat at our usual spot. Kelly had gone in search of a book while I did the same. I was in search for "Alice in Wonderland", one of my favorite childhood stories that my mother used to read to me.

I ran my finger across the spines, leaving a line in the dust of all of the books. They seem as though they haven't properly been taken care of in a long time. I frowned at the thought, but kept on going until I found the book. 

As I walked through the aisles of shelves I kept peeking at Kelly, who had found a book and sat at a nearby table. I kept shaking my head at the possibilities that the hallway scene might've been coming from. 

I ran my finger over another row of books and admired all of the spines, the beautiful shades of blue, red and brown. A purple binding poked out between a red and black spine. It looked as though it was a newer book, or as new as you could get around here. 

I slid my finger along the spine and grabbed it. I weighed it in my hands. It was maybe no larger than my right hand but at least a few hundred pages. It felt as though it had a magical sense to it and emitted a purple like glow off of it. Perfect. I smiled and held it to my chest. 

The cover didn't have a title, but it was embellished with gold accents. I walked over to where Kelly was engrossed into his book. He heard me sit down and looked up to me. 

"Find your book?" I asked.

"No, not the one I wanted, but I found another one though," he sighed.

"So, about the hallway thing," I started.

"I'd rather not talk about it Crystal," he looked back at his book.

"But, if you don't say something about it, it's going to eat you alive."

"You act as though it isn't already. And again, I'd rather not talk about it," he gritted his teeth.

"I just want to know who Isabel is. And what happened to her."

He slammed his book shut and stood up abruptly. The loose strands of his hair fell around his face and his eyes were glossed with tears.

He started walking out of the library. I stood up as well and followed him. 

Once we were a few feet away from the library I asked. "What was that about Kelly?"

He didn't answer back.

"I just wanted to know who Isabel is and why you keep 'talking' to her so much. What happened to her?"

He stopped in his tracks and his back muscles tensed. The grip he held on his book tightened, he turned his head to look back at the ground beside him.

"If you want to know so bad. Isabel was my childhood sweetheart, my father killed her. That's why I don't talk about it," he let tears fall. "She's the only one who didn't call me a monster, she's the only one who understood. I begged of my father, but he wouldn't listen."