The light emitted by the small, yellow bulbs weren't enough to illuminate the library. Most of the aisles and shelves were veiled by the robe of darkness while the few others stayed half hidden in the shadows. The walls were painted dark brown with small, intricately designed holders holding the yellow lights, fitted at regular intervals from each other. Danielle felt like she had time-travelled to a different world, some two hundred years back.

The library was a L-shaped gigantic room with shelf after shelf stacked with hardcovers- some old, some young. She inhaled the musty smell that seemed to always linger in the air. The ambience of the library always soothed her. Filled with the promise of knowledge and an undertone of sacredness, the library always welcomed Danielle with open arms.

There was only one round table with small stools surrounding it; there was no table or bench in the other section of the library. Closing the door quietly behind her, she approached the round table in front of her. She riffled through the stacks of books in the middle of the table.

"Study materials," she hummed. Turning to her left, she entered the aisle for classic books. The top party which was way out of her reach, was shrouded mostly in darkness. She surveyed the spines of the books, none was the book she was looking for the book the line was from, at least the first part of the line.

She finished surveying the spines of the books that were visible but to no avail. She cursed herself for not bringing the torch. Looking around the table, she found nothing.

Deciding to check the librarian's desk, she headed towards the desk. She felt guilty checking the drawers but her curiosity was killing her. She found a lighter and a candle in one of them. Lighting the candle with the help of the lighter, she placed it on a holder which she found in another drawer. Heading back towards the shelf, she climbed the ladder leaning against it- one hand holding the ladder and the other holding the candle.

"This is how curiosity kills the cat," she murmured, bitterly. "Literally."

The light from the candle illuminated the spines of the book. Letting out a defeated sigh after a few minutes, Danielle climbed down the ladder. She moved on to the next shelf but to no avail. And then to the next, to the next, to next until there were no more shelves containing classic books left.

She huffed and sat on the floor, eyeing the white round intricately designed table in front of her. She was sure that it had been more than half an hour now, she wouldn't be surprised if it was nearing an hour.

"Maybe someone has already issued it," she thought out aloud. Suddenly, she spotted something under the table. The light from the candle illuminated the silhouette of a book. Picking up the candle holder, she walked towards the table. Kneeling she extended the candle under the table, in its light she saw an old, tattered book. Picking it up, she read the title under the candlelight: The Merchants of Venice.

She let out a laugh. She found the book she was looking for. Mentally cursing whoever had dropped the book under the table, she stood back up with a newfound enthusiasm. Putting it on the table and the candle holder beside it, she sat on a stool. Riffling through the pages quickly, she stopped at the page she was looking for.

On the margin of the page, in elegant handwriting, similar to the one she saw in 'The Pictures of Dorian Gray', was written another cryptic, if not ominous message-

True followers of Erebus- god of darkness,
but they don't produce Dies,
instead produces Metus, Miseria and Mors;
so beware of darkness.

Danielle gaped at the message. Unable to decipher its meaning, she slammed her head on the table. She read the message, again and that's when she noticed something. Some alphabets were underlined and the word 'darkness' was underlined twice. Danielle's eyes squinted.

"s-k-o-t-a-d-i," spelled out, Danielle. Then, in a more confused voice, she said, "Skotadi? What does the mean?"

She knew that Erebus was the Greek god of darkness and reading the message, she could decipher that Dies, Metus, Miseria and Mors were his children but what did they have to do with Skotadi?

She took the candle holder and headed towards the aisle for mythology. After procuring a book on Greek mythology and spending a long time struggling to find anything related to Erebus, she finally found it.

"Erebus was the primordial god of darkness and shadows and the son of Chaos," she read, aloud. "His union with her consort and sister, Nyx resulted in the birth of Querella- goddess of lamentation, Gratia- goddess of favour, Aether- god of light, Metus- god of fear, Mors- god of death, Hemera- goddess of day, Miseria- goddess of misery."

She stopped. She read the message, once more.

"So, according to the writer, these followers of Erebus harm people and instil fear and causes misery and... death," Danielle summarised. "But whose death? Who was killed? And why should I keep a safe distance from darkness? What is Skotadi?"

She sat there, staring at the message, waiting for it to unravel its mysteries on its own by some miracle. Her mind was filled with so many questions and an unsolved riddle that she felt herself getting lost in the labyrinth of her mind. One thing she was sure of- this message wasn't another prank warning left on the pages; this talked about something sinister and twisted.

It could be talking about some kind of cult which worshipped Erebus and sacrificed people to please, Danielle thought. But then again, Erebus isn't perceived as a demonic figure who thirsts for blood.

Realising how late it was getting, she picked up the book on Greek mythology and returned it to its respective place. Blowing out the candle she put the candle and the holder from where she had found them. Tucking the copy of The Merchant Of Venice under her arm, she stood and took a step towards the exit when she saw the door opening, slowly.

Terror seized her. She scrambled for a place to hide. Moving swiftly but quietly in the nearest aisle, she moved towards the back where the dim yellow light couldn't reach. Covered by the darkness, she waited with bated breath that whoever had entered the library didn't come her way. She had her eyes strained ahead for any movement at the end of the aisle. Finally, she caught a glimpse of the newcomer. Dressed in a black cloak, the mysterious figure hurried to towards the other section of the library and soon, they were out of sight.

If Danielle wasn't so sure, she would have thought that the recent events were taking a toll on her and she was hallucinating. She counted down the seconds. After three minutes, when she was sure that the cloaked figure wasn't returning, she came out of the dark corner. For the millionth time today, her curiosity won again. Tiptoeing towards the other section of the library, she peeped around the corner but no one was there. Feeling a little relieved she walked further. She inspected every aisle and studied the dark corners intently for evidence of something living taking shelter there.

When she reached the end of the room and was facing a hard, cold wall with nothing but a floor-long painting from the Renaissance era hanging, a cold chill slithered down her spine. The cloaked figure had vanished into the thin air. But she was sure that they had been here for there was a strong citric smell lingering heavily in the air. The smell was fresh and choking.

Danielle didn't want to spend another moment in the library. The library at night was engulfed in mystery and slow creeping darkness- neither of which she ever wanted to encounter again.

'•'°'•'

Hurrying down the dark corridor with nothing but the sudden flashes of lightning lighting Danielle's path was doing nothing to calm her nerves. Sprinkles of icy cold water carried by the wind fell on her face and neck. The roaring of the thunder was loud in her ears but the sound of her own beating heart was louder still. Wracking her mind for a possible solution to the mysterious disappearance of the cloaked figure only intensified her fear.

Thankfully, her room was the first one after she turned the corner. With shaking hands, she unlatched the bolt and unlocked the door. Opening the door, she saw only darkness. A flash of lightning illuminated the room for a second. Arianna was present.

"Nice to see you hadn't actually run away." Arianna's scornful voice reached her ears.

Removing her hands from her eyes, Danielle looked at Arianna questioningly. "Why would I run away?"

Another lightning flashed outside the closed glass window and vaguely lit up the room and in the light, Danielle saw Arianna sitting on her bed wearing a blue furry pyjama with a book opened in her lap. Her black curls were messily put in a bun.

Walking towards her bedside table out of pure instinct, she grabbed the torch from one of the drawers and shone it directly on Arianna's face.

Now that Danielle observed her under the bright light, she saw the dark circles under Ariann's eyes. The shine her eyes held had been vanquished and was instead replaced by gloom.

Danielle kept the torch on the bed. The spotlight was still on Arianna's face.

Arianna's chapped lips moved. "I don't know. Maybe because you didn't get the role of Juliet."

"You know very well that I could have taken the role if I wanted to," Danielle sighed. She was exasperated by Arianna's antics. "But I told you, I don't want to play Juliet. That character doesn't appeal to me."

Arianna let out a laugh. "Of course, you could have. After all, you're the teacher's favourite."

"That doesn't sound like my fault," Danielle reasoned while getting out of her partially soaked-jacket.

"You never worked for it." Arianna slammed her book closed. "She gave you all the roles on a silver platter and you greedily took it."

"Arianna, I had to audition too for my first role. I didn't just get it," Danielle replied, curtly.

"You're just an opportunist," scoffed Arianna.

"Find me someone who isn't," said Danielle, wryly. "If given an opportunity, which you can call partiality, I will take it."

"You thrived so long just because of pity," Arianna snarled. "Showered on you by other people."

Danielle stilled. "Don't." It was a warning for Arianna to stop, to not cross the line.

"What? You don't like it when people say the facts?" Arianna retaliated. "Tell me when did you get your first role, huh? After that incident because people pitied you."

"No," Danielle said, fiercely. Eyes ignited with anger. "You and I both know I deserved the role."

"You just used your mother's death to your advantage," Arianna accused. "Amaya was chosen to play Lady Macbeth but then, suddenly, she was replaced by you. Sounds suspicious. But then I learned that you told Mrs. Kashyap about your mother's demise. Doesn't sound like a coincidence to me."

"Amaya feel ill!" Danielle shouted. "I didn't tell her willingly. She told me that she would have loved to cast me as Lady Macbeth but Amaya fitted the role more perfectly than me. And then one thing led to another and then, she was asking me about my mother. What was I supposed to say? Huh? That she was happy and alive and breathing!"

Arianna snorted. "Amaya's illness sounds like one hell of a coincidence. Maybe... maybe you poisoned her."

Danielle let out a mirthless laughter. "That's a very interesting accusation. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?"

"Well, if you can use your mother's death to gain the teachers' pity, then poisoning someone must be a piece of cake to you. You must have been really glad when she died."

Danielle couldn't stop herself. Influenced by her rage, she grabbed Arianna's collar and pulled her up from her bed. With their faces inches apart and noses almost touching, Danielle gritted out, "Keep my mother out of this. Keep my mother's name out of your filthy mouth!" With this, she pushed Arianna back on her bed.

Arianna recovering from her initial shock, looked at Danielle, angrily. "Where were you?"

"That's none of your business," hissed Danielle, jabbing a finger in her way.

A sly smirk curled around Arianna's lips. "Did you take this opportunity- not electricity, no CCTV- to go warm a boy's bed?"

The sound of skin hitting against skin resonated loudly around the room. A fuming Danielle stood towering over Arianna with her hands still raised in a slap. Arianna's left hand was cradling her cheek which had turned red from the impact.

Grabbing a fistful of Arianna's hair and yanking it forward so that their faces were inches apart again. Danielle hissed, "how dare you."

In a sudden movement, she again slapped Arianna and yelled, "I wish you were dead! I wish you die! If I could, I would kill you! It would be my pleasure!"

"Of course, you would!" Arianna shouted back. Suddenly, she moved towards the door and opened it forcefully. A gust of cold wind swirled into the room, making Danielle shiver. Another flash of lightning lit up the otherwise black night and in that light, she saw Arianna's face. Her curly black hair had come undone and was now flying around her face. Fresh streaks of tears cascaded down her cheeks. Her eyes were veiled by anger and despair with a hint of hopelessness.

"And I would be equally honoured to rip that mask of deception from your face," choked out Arianna.

"Where are you going?" Danielle inquired, ignoring her statement.

"To hell." With that Arianna left, closing the door with a bang behind her. Once again, Danielle found herself standing alone in the darkness.

SANNAYA!

this was one hell of a chapter to write. i rewrote this so many times that at one point i thought i could never write it perfectly. i am hoping that the first part of the chapter isn't monotonous and bland and that i couldn't perfectly describe the library. fun fact (not really): everything you read till now was supposed to be in the first two chapters.

anyways, this chapter has been kinda of inspired by personal experiences- mainly that 'grabbing the collar' part. irl, i was arianna and my friend was dani and i still believe that she should have actually slapped me like dani did (dw we're good now)

btw, any guesses on who that cloaked figure was?

also, don't forget to vote and lemme know what you think in the comment section.