I was surprised when Alex actually stood up and told me we were headed out now. I shook my head at his offer to carry the chest, instead handing him my messenger bag and slinging the chest over my own body. That was one thing I wouldn't let anyone else handle. The things I possessed...

For sure Alex hadn't seen everything, he'd mostly been looking at the books. Which was fine, I wasn't ready to explain how I'd obtained most of the things I had in there. I could be pretty shady, though.

Alex had been right, it WAS a long walk. We went all the way up to the seventh floor, across from a disturbingly uncertain picture of someone teaching trolls how to dance. I had followed Alex to the end of the hall and he suddenly turned around, heading back the other way. Not sure, I slowly followed him, thinking he had gotten lost. Then he turned around AGAIN, but this time stopping in front of a door that had not previously been there.

"Huh," I said. "This reminds me of something I read once, but I can't place it." I scratched at my head in confusion.

I followed him through the door, there was no seating in the room except...a loveseat...I sighed loud enough that he probably heard and went to sit down, trying really hard to ignore the fact that we would have to sit next to each other. I set the chest down on the floor next to my feet, draping the strap over my legs.

"So, uh...what did you want to wait to tell me?" I asked. He had sounded...almost miserable but dark at the same time. Almost scary. But curiosity had gotten the better of me, so here I was.