Day 137:

We were outside when the rain began. It felt like quarters were hitting our clothes and packs, each one connecting with flesh causing tiny welts.

The four store fronts we were next to did little to offer cover. The doors and windows were long boarded up, luck had it that the doors were built into the building providing alcoves that could fit us in groups.

Steven asked what we should do, he was being hit the most, barely fitting with his extra pack he carried for Marlene.

The world went white, lightning striking somewhere nearby.

Hector shouted pointing into the storm. Four white columns stood out in the dark between the twinkling rain.

When Steven asked how far, Marlene shouted too far. Jenny clung tighter to me as I turned to judge the distance.

It was far.

The sound of rain and leaves picked up as wind came blowing from the east.

I sheltered Jenny with my body the best I could with my face turned to the store to keep from begin hit. The world went white again.

In that flash I saw it. The thing that would help us get to the shelter that seemed so far away. Through the boards and passed the broken glass of the doorway was an umbrella hidden in the darkness.

The fabric tore as I pried it through the gap in the boards.

Marlene cried with joy as I pushed the button at the bottom and it unfurled above us.

Steven asked if it was big enough and it looked like it would work. In a tight ring we ran Hector leading us.

The umbrella didn’t last, halfway there the rain broke through the fabric. We picked up our pace. Steven screamed into the storm asking God why over and over again. Jenny and Marlene slipped up the steps as we ascended towards the pillars.

Hector stopped once he reached cover, but Jenny slipped once more. When I bent to grab her Marlene and Steven barreled into us. We all hit the wall of the building and crumbled into a pile of bodies and bags.

Jenny stared in wonder at the roof soaring high above us. Steven muttered to himself asking what this place was and what are the odds on the doors will opening. I tugged my hand into my sleeve and wiped hard at dirt encrusted onto a sign at the door.

‘Ravenhold Public Library’

Hector tried the door handles, they didn’t give. Marlene tried a smaller one with an ornate green knocker and the door opened inward.

Steven asked who would go first, Marlene pushed him in, the rest of us following after.

Another step took us into a round room with a vaulted dome ceiling. Painted stars dance across it drawing sighs from all of us.

How long, Steven asked. We all knew what he meant. How long since any of us had seen stars.

Jenny stepped into the center of the room, her pack tumbling down her tufted skirt. She had never seen stars. She had never seen a lot of things. She never would.

Steven slung her pack over his shoulder as Marlene took Jennys hand promising to show her more stars and more in the books they’d find for her as the three of them made their way through the stacks towards the children’s section.

Hector wandered off saying he’d take first watch. I turned, walking the opposite way of everyone else.

Dust stirred as I trailed my fingers beside me against the spines tucked neatly in place.

I made my nest amongst the ‘Historical Ravenhold Founders’ collection in a room with windows I can watch the roads from, and exits I could easily escape through if needed.

I found a portrait of a woman with short hair in a hooded robe. The case beneath it held seven lumps with multiple sides covered in the thinnest amount of dust. The placard beside the painting read:

‘Everything you need for a better future and success has already been written. - Thunder’

I wonder if she is right.

Will we find answers in this place?

Or is it…

In the days I’ve already written?