Chapter 23

Brielle shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Leighton laughed, though it was more a snort than actual laughter. “Welcome to riding the train with the rest of us, Brielle.” Then, his words encompassing all of us, he remarked, “I don’t know what is going on, but something sure as shit is, and we need to find out what, and how it’s even possible for two Darkmores’ to be in this period.”

Raising a hand, he pushed a wayward strand of hair out of his eyes, his uneasiness clear. “I’ve felt something changing for a little while now, but today, the small steps of the change I have been feeling, took a huge jump. I think, whatever is occurring, will end badly for all lifeform on this planet, and that includes every species as well. Whatever is happening, it is fucking powerful.”

“Ohhh, you mean like the characters in Scooby-doo and the Mystery Van figure out things?” Brielle smarted off.

This time, I cocked the eyebrow. “What is with the sarcastic comments, Bri?”

She just shrugged, shooting a sideways glance at Lielyn. *What the hell was with these two anyway*? I wondered, my eyes roaming from Brielle’s pinched face to Lielyn, then back to Brielle. I had never seen Brielle take such a disliking to someone. *Strange*.

Hours later, Leighton, me, Brielle, and, to my surprise and pleasure, Declan, were occupying the library. The remains of dried bread crusts and half-eaten sandwiches on paperplates were placed on end tables, as well did bags of chips, a jar of pickles, and a multitude of discarded cups and glasses.

At the sound of a book being slapped together and a frustrated sigh filling the air, I lifted my eyes from the voluminous book in my lap and gazed toward the source of the sound; Brielle.

“I don’t even know what the hell I am looking *for*!” Brielle complained.

“Anything that will explain this tremor in the time paradigm,” Declan explained.

“Tremor? More like a macroseism,” Leighton muttered.

Brielle scowled. “A what?”

“A fucking huge earthquake. You might say the mother one,” Legiton explained.

"Okay. And knowing this bit of scientific information helps me how?” Brielle questioned.

Leighton shook his head in frustration. “Just look for any mention of disturbance in time, or anything that involves unusual activity occuring that up to the time of its occurrence had thought to be impossible.”

“Thank you. I can do that,” Brielle claimed.

More time passed, with the occasional, “How about this?” being tossed out. After a dozen or more of those, Leighton finally got up and grabbed a pencil and paper, beginning to write down the ones that were deemed as promising and requiring further follow-up.

After one such incident, I asked, “Okay, so you’re writing these things down, Leighton, but how are they supposed to be further looked into?”
Brielle nodded agreement with my question.

Leighton glanced at Declan, and Declan shrugged.

Standing, Leighton walked over to a shelf of books, then pulling a book out, the shelf rotated inward.

Rising up out of the chair he had been sitting in, Declan walked over to me and held out his hand. “We’ll show you.”

As I grasped his outstretched hand, Declan pulled me to my feet, Brielle standing as well, followed us as we walked to the opened bookshelf.

After we entered the open space, where Leighton waited, Declan released my hand and I found myself gazing at stairs that appeared to be cut from the bedrock the house sat on, leading downward. As we began traveling down them, I found myself thankful the stairwell was well lit, as the steps were narrow and long.

When we finally reached the bottom, my mouth hung open and I gazed around me in wide-eyed wonder. “My, God,” I breathed, my voice coming out faint, for the stairs had led to an area that was moderately expansive, a cavern of sort; one divided into several spaces and design patterns.

Every section contained greenery, an assortment of shrubbery and vines that dotted about the place. Ivy spread long ropy tendrils up the walls as they reached upward toward the domed ceiling of the room within which we stood, while other sections of the cavern contained bursts of color created from the multitude of flowering plants that spread far and wide. Still yet, other forms of plant life wrapped tender loving arms around several large aquariums built into the stone walls. Unable to stop myself, I wandered deeper into the recesses of the cave, feeling a sense of standing within a period lost to man stole over me as I gazed at paintings and markings upon the cavern walls that contained deep, natural crevices that led into parts unknown, bringing about a desire within me to slip into the narrow passages and explore the mystery of what lay beyond them. Even as my mind boggled with what I was seeing, I couldn’t control the gasp of wonder, when following Leighton and Declan as they slipped within one of the mysterious crevices, I found myself in a room that contained millions and millions of books. What had been upstairs in the library was just a morsel compare to what I now gazed at.

“Okay, each thing I wrote down, has a source code. I’ll give each of you a code, which you will find above a section of books. Each section breaks down by the second number in the code, and each event will be within the book containing the last two numbers of the code on its spine. Once you find the book, we’ll go from there,” Leighton instructed.

Brielle, gazing at all the books, shook her head, then said, “You said, anything that involves unusual activity occuring that up to the time of its occurrence, had thought to be impossible, right?” At Leighton’s nod, she continued, “Then does the fact that I read Lielyn’s soul a month ago, and today when I read her, she carried a different one within her count as an occurrence thought to be impossible?”