Not too much later Brisa walked into the library, thinking that she might have left Emily's book in there. It was after school, so there weren't many students around. She approached the librarian's desk, but it was deserted.
Brisa waited a moment, but no one appeared. She leaned to her right to see into the open door of the library offices, but still saw no one.
She hesitated. Her ride didn't leave for another hour, but for how long could she stand around waiting for someone?
As she stood there, the library door clicked open and Mr. Lyons, the librarian, entered with a big stack of books. He walked over to the desk and set them down with a grunt, then saw Brisa. 'Hi. Do you need something?'
She jumped, startled. 'Oh! Uh, well… I think I left a book in here. I couldn't find it out there-' She gestured to the rest of the library- 'so I thought it might be back here somewhere.' She indicated the desk and offices.
'I need to run an errand, so…' Mr. Lyons paused, considering something. He shook his head. 'Go ahead and have a look around. I'll be back in a moment.'
'Thanks!' Brisa said. She walked around the desk and back into the offices. Mr. Lyons left, the door clicking shut behind him.
Brisa had never been in the library office before. She looked around at the old computers and shelves of books. The brown-eyed girl was trying to decide where to start when she heard a cat meow.
Confused, she whipped her head around, wondering if she'd really heard a meow when she saw a ginger cat sitting on the floor, its long tail swishing back and forth.
'Oh, hello!' Brisa exclaimed. She crouched down to its level and meowed back. It sounded surprisingly similar to the cat's.
The ginger cat blinked, then stood up and walked away.
'Hey! Where ya goin'?' Brisa waited but the cat didn't return, so she followed it around the bookcases. Turning the corner, she saw the cat sitting at the entrance to a hallway. It meowed when it saw her, then turned and walked down the hall.
Not really stopping to consider the fact that a cat was wandering freely around her school's library, Brisa followed it. The hall was long. There was a door here and there, but they were all closed. At the end of the hallway, it turned to the right. The cat waited for Brisa to catch up, then continued.
As Brisa rounded the corner, she saw that it ended abruptly in a door. The door was just slightly open, and she saw the cat's ginger tail disappear inside. She didn't really think about what she was doing; she just opened the door and was going to look inside. But she didn't get to see much more than empty blackness before she was pulled inside.
Brisa felt as though she was falling through nothingness. There were flashes of light, colours, and things. Nothing made any sense. All she could do was tuck her head and hope her landing wasn't too rough.
After an indistinguishable amount of time, Brisa suddenly hit a pile of soft fabric with a thump. Dazed, she lay there for a minute. She thought she saw a dark space above her, but it faded quickly. Was that where she had fallen through? Groaning, she shook her head to clear it and blinked. Unfortunately, that didn't' stop the lights swirling before her eyes.
The first thing Brisa noticed was that it was still dark, but not as dark as the strange place she'd fallen through. The pile of fabric felt like clothes. She could make out the shapes of objects around her, so there was some light coming from somewhere. Brisa sat up and saw a low bar of light in front of her: a door. She crawled forward. The floor felt like cool cement. She reached out and hit what felt and sounded like a wooden door; the hollow thump and shudder that promised space on the other side. Brisa felt around for a doorknob.
Finally she found a latch that undid itself easily. Not expecting it, the door swung open and Brisa fell out.
At first she was blinded by the sudden light, but then the 18-year-old saw that she was in a wide hallway, not unlike those at her school. She turned and saw that the room she'd left was full of racks of clothes- like her drama class's costume room. But the door swung shut.
'No, wait!' Brisa cried, reaching for the door. It was locked. She paused, then sat back on her feet. 'Where am I?' she wondered out loud.