Chapter 5
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"Good news is, I don't think it was there to hurt you."
The librarians and Eve had barely passed through the doorway when Stone started explaining his findings. He started off by telling them how the thing they just ran away from was actually completely harmless and probably in need of help. He then went into a spiral on the creature's history and how its presence in the lake is a good thing for the local environment. He was doing that thing he does when he gets too invested in a topic and loses the point he was trying to make. Every so often Jake would wince indicating that his headache was still present and causing discomfort. Baird shook her head, all she wanted was to grab him by the lips and pull him up to his bed.
"Stone, although I am very grateful that you found the identity of the creature, I am still upset that you didn't listen to me." She stood firmly in front of him, her arms folded across her chest. It was the stance she used when she was highly disappointed/annoyed with one of them for ignoring her instructions. "Did I or did I not, tell you to get some more bed rest?"
Jacob was trying to find pretty much anything else to look at as his shoulders sank. Biting his lower lip, he answered, "you did."
"And did I or did I not, ask you on multiple occasions to leave the research up to Jenkins?"
"Uh-huh."
"And did you lie to me a minute ago when I asked you whether your headache was still bothering you?"
His head shot up, shaking vigorously despite the pain. "No, I..."
"Yes, he did, Miss Baird." The caretaker interrupted with a sly grin on his face.
She shook her head again and walked over to the book sitting on the table. It was a very old looking handwritten journal bound in brown leather. It was overstuffed with pages that seemed to have been added over time. Some sketches were also included one of which depicted the lake monster they had just encountered.
"That's what we just saw." Jones pointed out from over her shoulder. "Is it really harmless?"
"According to the book, yes," Jenkins responded. Jake was still trying to avoid Eve's scolding gaze.
"Then why did the clipping book send us there?" Cassandra called out from behind her desk, she had just dropped off her bag that contained a large stack of newspaper articles and was relieved that the weight was off her shoulder.
The head librarian suddenly regained his confidence as he marched over to the table, heavy boots pounding on the annex floor. "I think it was letting us know that the creature needs our help. They don't normally come up to the surface unless something is wrong. We should probably check out the lake to see if the issue is under the water."
"Right." Eve slapped her hands together. "Jones and I will go diving in the lake to see what's up, Jenkins and Cass will stay up top in case we run into any trouble." Jake started to raise his hand. "And Stone will be staying here until his headache is gone."
"Woah, hold up, wait a minute." The thief called out waving his hands manically. "I'm not diving in some lake, I'm not that good a swimmer."
"Well, Jenkins and I don't know how to dive so that leaves you," Cassandra argued.
The two continued bickering over who should go with the guardian, shouting over the historian as he tried to get their attention. He had the solution to all their problems if they would only listen for once. He waved his arms for a bit and even stood on a chair, not that it made much of a difference. Eventually, he shouted over them, "I could do it."
The two librarians stopped in their tracks, soon nodding their heads in agreement.
Baird wasn't so easily convinced. "No, I already told you, you're staying put."
"Oh, come on," he whined. "I'm a great diver. I used to work as a lifeguard during the summer."
"Don't care. You're not going underwater with a fresh head injury." She started walking away, off to where they kept the diving equipment. Jake simply followed her like a lost puppy.
"But there is no one else."
"Then I'll go alone." She shrugged as she searched through the chaotic mess they called a storeroom.
"That's a big lake to search on your own. It'll take ages." He threw her a smile that simply dripped with southern charm. She never really brought it, but it was worth a try.
"I said no Jake."
"Well... technically I'm a grown man." She laughed at his use of 'technically.' "And I can make my own decisions, so I'm going." He pulled out a slightly smaller suit, and before she could protest, walked away from the guardian.
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Jake and Eve had been underwater for at least an hour. They were pretty sure they had found the problem and now they were looking for the cause. The issue was that seeing through all the pollution sitting at the bottom of the lake was practically impossible. Stone tapped his colleague on the shoulder and pointed upwards as a signal to swim up top and regroup.
"I think we need to split up so we can cover more ground," Jake announced as they breached the surface.
"No way. It's already a major risk you being down here, I'm not letting you go off on your own."
The librarian sighed rubbing his hand across his neck. "I'm fine, and were getting' nowhere carryin' on like this." He swam around in a quick circle before looking back at Eve. "We already did this area." He wafted his hand over the section they had just inspected. "So, you check out from here to the dock whilst I look over there." He pointed to the side of the lake that was covered in overgrown plants.
"Fine." Baird pulled on her mask and quickly dove under the water.
A few minutes later, Stone was wrestling his way through pondweed as it got tangled in between his legs. He was certain that he was heading in the right direction as visibility was getting worse the further he swam. His vision blurred for a moment and he could have sworn he saw a man calling out to him, but it was impossible, the man was wearing a tweed jacket and no breathing equipment. Whatever was polluting the lake must be causing him to have hallucinations. Jake blinked a couple of times to rid himself of the apparition, soon resorting to scrunching his eyes up whilst he convinced his brain that it wasn't real.
Suddenly, a scaley hand grabbed his arm pulling him forward through the water. He couldn't see much, just a rush of bubbles coming off a silvery-blue blur. He soon realised that it was the creature leading him to the source of the problem, and a problem it was. Someone had fitted a pipe underground that headed straight to the lake. There was a dark sludge type substance leaking out of the pipe and coating the lakebed. The plants that were closest to the leak looked to be either dying or way past gone. If this was let to continue, eventually the whole lake would be dead. No plants, no fish, and the creature would lose its home.
The librarian swam closer to the pipe. It was quite large; in fact, he was pretty sure he could swim all the way up it if he so wished. He had a few test tubes in his bag just in case he needed to grab a sample of something. Jake was fishing around for one when a huge blob of black sludge shot down the tube and knocked his mask off. The impact caused him to breathe in harshly, but all he took in was water and the mystery substance. He was choking, his body fighting with the need for air and the want to cough up what was ingested. He couldn't even open his eyes for fear of whatever that stuff was blinding him. His body thrashed under the water, tugging on the guideline that led up to the others. By now they would know something was wrong but could do nothing to help. After a few more seconds of panic, Jake succumbed to the pull of unconsciousness.
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Jenkins had felt the tug on Jake's guideline. It wasn't the one pull to say he was coming up, or the two pulls to say he found something, this was a manic pulling of someone who was in trouble and couldn't get themselves out of it.
"Mr Jones, give Miss Baird's line a pull." His tone was sharp and his eyes never left the water where he'd last seen the librarian.
A pull in response let them know that Eve was coming back up and they hoped it would be soon as Jake's line stopped moving. In fact, the once taught wire was now slack and floating on the surface of the lake.
The guardian's head bobbed up from under the water and soon she called out. "Did Stone find something?"
"We're not sure. Mr Stone started pulling on his line as if he was in trouble, it lasted for about a minute and a half."
She was swimming as fast as she could toward the group. As she pulled herself onto dry land she asked, "then what happened?"
The caretaker shrugged. "The guideline stopped moving and then went slack as if it had been cut."
Baird gasped and was about to dive back in when a blue figure started to swim toward them. It was holding something in its arms. The setting sun glistened off its scales as it moved smoothly through the rippling water. The black mass that it held looked still and heavy, but it didn't seem to slow the figure down. As it got closer, they could see that it was the same creature from before and in its arms was their missing librarian.
At the edge of the lake, it carefully placed Jacob on the grassy bank. The creature waved its hands in the direction of his face trying to convey to the humans a message. They quickly realised that it was letting them know that Jake wasn't breathing and needed their help. Eve wiped the sludge from around his mouth and exhaled two large breaths into his lungs. She kept doing this for a long time but she never gave up hope. Her librarian wasn't going to die too soon like all the others, she was going to protect him and he was going to retire someday. After a minute of having Baird breathe for him, Stone flipped over and started coughing up piles of thick sludge.
"Mr Stone, rinse your mouth out with this but don't swallow. I'm certain you don't want to ingest this stuff."
The historian gargled the water before spitting it out. He repeated the process a few times before finally drinking some to clear out his throat.
"I found the problem." His voice was gritty and he started coughing again as soon as he spoke.
"I guess it has something to do with this stuff." Cassandra scooped up a large sample into a test tube.
Jake nodded and tried his best to speak again. "There's a pipe over by the weeds that's leakin' that stuff into the lake. It's killin' off the nature and if we don't stop it everything in the lake will die."
"How do we stop it?" Jones asked.
"Pretty simple actually," Eve replied and took her phone out of a nearby bag. "We call local law enforcement and tell them what we found, and they take it to the proper authorities. Dumping chemicals into a lake like this is definitely a crime, the kind that comes with some hefty fines for the perpetrators."
Jake turned and smiled at the creature. "We'll make sure your home gets fixed."
The creature grasped the librarian's hand firmly and held it towards what he assumed was its heart. It then lowered its head toward the others before sinking back into the water.
"Guess that means, thank you?" Jones chuckled to himself.
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Stone was shuffling around the kitchen. His hair lay flat on his head as it steadily dripped water down his neck and onto the fluffy blue robe he'd slipped into after his shower. Now that he was clean, he was desperate to get the taste of that mystery goo out of his mouth. He made himself a quick sandwich using some left-over chicken from the roast he made the day before. He hummed happily whilst kicking the fridge shut and grabbing his plate. Things were starting to get back to normal.
However, as he turned around a wave of dizziness crashed over Jake forcing him to catch himself on the table. His vision blurred, pulsing in and out. He tried to focus on the person in front of him, a tall man with messy brown hair and a slim frame. Jake squinted his eyes, begging them to clear up the image when a sharp pain brought him to his knees. He knelt, hunched over for a minute, groaning in pain, and when he looked back up, the man was gone.
