Hunting and the Hunted

Maude was sitting in her same study cubicle on the fourth floor of the Lester Library. The building was buzzing with anxious students, flirtatious couples and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. It was exam season and Maude was preparing for her last final of the semester. Maude whispered to her flatmate beside her, “Hey Georgie! Do you want to take a break and go book hunting?” “No, I still have to finish this chapter before I do anything. I’ll go next time”, Georgie said reluctantly and puckered her bottom lip out. Book hunting is something Maude has done since her first year at University. When she gets overwhelmed or needs a break she heads into the stacks and tries to find the oldest book in the section. She looks out for spines with regal colourings with notes of gold, page discolouring and dye patterns. So far, her best find has been a copy of the Magna Carta from 1892.

As she browsed through the books near the washrooms she heard soft moans three or four shelves over. When she went to investigate it was just a couple of first years trying to cross off something from their bucket lists. However, right above them she noticed a thick book that looked like it could surpass the Magna Carta in years on the top shelf. She politely passed the young couple and proceeded to grab the unusually heavy book and headed to a more secluded area.

Once alone she examined the outside of the book. It was entitled, “Wealth of Evil” with no author noted, odd… She excitedly proceeded to open the book, but what happened next was not expected.

Georgie noticed her phone screen light up from the corner of her eye. It was a message from Maude, “Could you meet me in row R on the 5th floor?” She quickly closed her book and ran up the stairs, two at a time. When Georgie got to row R she saw Maude holding what looked like a hollowed out book with thousands of dollars worth of bills and a small black book inside. She immediately rushed toward Maude who looked a bit paler than normal. They placed the book on the floor. Georgie immediately grabbed the money and started counting while Maude grabbed the black book and flipped through. The book was full of handwritten poems with small illustrations on the side. Maude was reading a sweet poem about loving someone who could never love anyone as much as they loved school when Georgie shout whispered “twenty thousand dollars!”. None of this made sense to either of the girls. Maude continued to look through the book for clues about who the owner could be. Georgie was now right beside her looking through the notebook as well. They both noticed the poems and illustrations starting to get much darker the further they got in the book. The final page just had 3 lines on it, no drawings just something that looked like blood droplets on the top left corner of the page.

Money is the object of all evil.

Money can change a man into a monster.

Monsters are coming.

At the very moment they finished reading both girls saw something pass the row of books they were sitting in. They looked at one another and immediately knew they had to take this to the student desk on the first floor. Maude and Georgie worked quickly to stuff everything back in the book. They rushed through the first several rows, then the lights started to flicker. Maude looked between the shelves of Row E and D and noticed a set of bright yellow eyes staring her down. Her heart rate accelerated exponentially. Clearly Georgie did not see because she was pulling her along by her hand. By the time they had made it to the first staircase that would take them right down to library reception the lights had fully gone out on the 5th floor. Maude kept turning to look over her shoulder, this made Georgie even more nervous. They opened the door to the staircase and those bright yellow eyes were right in front of them.

It was days before the missing persons report hit the local papers and news stations. Maude Chambers and Georgie Cunningham Missing. The girls were last seen on the 5th floor of the Lester library on the 14th of March and their belongings were found in the 4th floor study cubicles. If you have any information about their whereabouts please contact the University or local police.