Faded Threads Draft 1 - Chapter 2

 SELENE

CHAPTER 2

It was a white room with a purple trim, a twin bed, a dresser, and a closet. It was completely bare otherwise. I guess they didn't expect this to happen.

 She couldn't see much of the world outside the window, her vision of it was blurry. She caught sight of herself in a mirror. Pale white lines zigzagged on her face, forming patterns of cracked bisque. Suddenly, the white was replaced with a bright, glowing, violet, the same colour as her eyes, reminiscent of the cold, mended, unglazed porcelain. It faded, back to a pale white, barely visible on her skin.

She then noticed how dark it was, how her eyelids were drooping shut. I should sleep.

The next day they discovered she was perfectly healthy, save for being nearsighted, and her biological age was sixteen. They also decided she was to take up the role of librarian at Elena's school.

“Are we not being a bit fast?” Elena had asked.

Her parents just shrugged and told her it would otherwise raise suspicion.

Elena told her that she had someone to show her. “Go ahead,” she said. Elena appeared two minutes later, followed by a pair of blonde twins, a boy and a girl. “These are Orion and Lyra Lucero, my friends. Um…this is Selene…she's a relative, she's been living with different family members, and now with us,” Elena introduced.

“Why have you been moving?” Lyra asked her. It was a genuine question.

“Well, people get busy and don't always have the time to look after a sixteen year old girl,” Selene improvised.

The twins nodded. “Well, we were supposed to go out with Elena. So you're like…her sister?” Orion asked.

Selene shrugged. “I supposed you could say that. I won't delay you any longer, you can go.”

The three of them left.

She wandered around the house, and found a large shelf full of books. Books, which, as she opened and read, she loved. 

Mrs.Chandra was watching her with a smile. Selene looked up. She blinked. 

“You remind me of someone I know, buried in those books,” Mrs.Chandra told her.

“Um..Whom?”

“Hiroshi. Him,” she gestured to where her husband was. “Elena's like this too sometimes.”

Selene put the books back on their shelves, and wandered off again.

She knew how to do a few things, it seemed part of being an Animate. And all of those abilities were connected, somehow. She could sew, she could paint, she had a slightly unhealthy interest in books. I guess this is why I’m supposed to be a librarian, she mused.

The next morning, she found herself in the library of a school called River Heights. It was not directly a school library, it was a public library affiliated with the school. But they were in need of a librarian, and Selene was happy to fill that role. She said bye to Elena. Hopefully, she thought, as she walked into the library, HOPEFULLY people will be better to her. She had been told, by Elena, why she had manifested. What her schoolmates were like.

A black haired girl was trying to discreetly observe her. You're wasting your time, she thought, unimpressed.

It was a rather large library, containing records, stories, journals, old manuscripts, legal documents, and more. Orion and Lyra came in once to check on her, and to take out a maths practice book. She felt bad for them, they studied so much. That day, at three o' clock, she wrapped up, to hand the job over to the lady who worked the other shift.