In the Darkness

Cold Shoulder

When her eyes opened at six in the morning, she sighed and shoved the covers off. The hopes that she might just sleep in had been dashed and she felt almost silly for thinking it could happen. The memories of the day before filled her mind and she sighed again. Derek had left around eight the following night and it had felt weird to have him go. She'd felt almost reluctant.

Ellie knew she wasn't back here to resume anything with Derek. The fact that he was helping her was wonderful and that they could stay in the same room with each other was something she was entirely grateful for. As she showered, she turned her focus on the library. Instead of snooping, she was going to do some research. Take some books out on the history of the town and on the library itself, if she could find anything. Considering the make-up of the town, she was sure some sappy local historian had written a book or two on every local "landmark" of the town.

It had been established in 1847, by whom, she couldn't remember. It had been a long time since she'd learned any of that in school. It was still pretty much an oasis, considering it was in a very rural area of Northern New York. There wasn't much city at all, unless you drove to Watertown or drove almost two and a half hours to Syracuse, which was the closest big city around. Foxwillow attracted people trying to get away, to find quiet from the noises of large towns and cities.

Ellie had liked it until she'd become a teenager, then she'd hated it. Resented it. There was a small movie theater, but it only had six rooms and often enough it wasn't chosen to showcase some of the more interesting movies that weren't extremely popular. So, you had to drive to Watertown and hope for the best. There weren't many fancy restaurants either, or things to do. You usually just had to make do and make things for yourself to do. She remembered resenting her parents for moving there and forcing her to live there.

Now, she could almost understand. Almost.

Within thirty minutes, she'd showered and brewed herself coffee. She felt good. Felt clean and determined. Ellie let herself think about what she hoped to find. Wondering what she'd find. She let herself shiver and was afraid. Life would be so much easier if for once, she wasn't afraid of boogeymen. Whomever they were.

She knew she must find out, and hope that she even could, what was in the basement. Who was in the basement. She hoped she had enough to do something with and this whole expedition was in hopes that they were still doing it, that she hadn't been the only one. Then she could give what she found to the cops, so that some justice could come out of this. The nightmares would go away. Maybe not right away, but knowing that they would, because in her mind she'd know.

Shaking her head, she stood and dumped the rest of her coffee down the bathroom sink and slid on a pair of flats and grabbed her purse. A trip to the library was in order.

It took only ten minutes to get to the library and find a parking spot. The library did look like a landmark, she thought as she got out of her car. It almost looked too fancy to belong in such a small town, it was two stories with a Dutch stone façade with Indiana limestone making up the rest. It looked almost like a government building, with the long rectangular body and the four columns in front, if the Dutch stone façade wasn't there.

Taking her eyes from the look of the building, she went inside and a thrust of cold air hit her in the face. She shivered and wished she'd thought to bring her sweater. Sighing, she headed towards the main desk in front. A young woman sat at the desk, bright red hair pulled back into a pony tail. Freckles dotted her nose and the tops of her cheeks and she had the prettiest blue eyes she'd ever seen. "Hi!" She said cheerfully as she set down whatever paperwork she was looking at. "What can I help you with?"

She had to think about it for a second. "I'm looking for information about the library."

Almost as if Ellie hadn't spoke, the girl made a quizzical face and said, "You look familiar to me somehow. Did you go to school here at some time?"

"Ah...yes. I graduated almost ten years ago."

Gone was the cheerful personality and her eyes narrowed. "So you're her?"

Ellie didn't know what to say. "I'm who?" She'd never been so confused. Who was this—

"Don't placate me, Eleanor Brosney." Her expression went into disgust. "Everyone knows what you did. So don't try to deny anything. I can't believe you even came back here."

It felt like a punch to the gut. The hell? It was like her brain was frozen.

"That's a little uncalled for, Melanie."

At the sound of his voice, her mind refocused and she realized that Derek was standing next to her. She didn't even realize when he'd followed her in.

"Just because you can't let her go after she'd abandoned you and practically rubbed your nose in it, doesn't mean it's uncalled for. It's the truth." She glared at him, her blue eyes turning the color of a thunderstorm, which was oddly apropos.

Derek's mouth clenched and Ellie looked away. This wasn't fair. Couldn't just once, she get some slack?

"Why don't you mind your own business? You don't even know what you're talking about. Let yourself be ignorant and caught up in town gossip without knowing the facts and see where it gets you besides being bitter."

Derek grabbed her hand and led her off to the stairs in the back, which went upstairs. She didn't know what to say or for that matter, how to say anything at all. She wasn't at all expecting that.

Sitting down in a chair at an empty desk, she blinked a couple of times, trying to focus on the present and finding that her mind wanted to slip into the past. She wasn't going to let it. Not now. She needed what sanity and courage she had to last her until she figured whatever it was she needed to figure out.

"I'm sorry about that, Ellie." He gave a frustrated sigh. "I've gotten to where I've tuned it out by now that I forgot they'd turn it on you. I just missed you. I was pulled in as you were going in and you didn't hear me."

She looked up at him and wanted to touch his face. The pain she'd brought to this man and that he was even here at all made her want to cry. "No...I'm sorry. You never deserved this. You don't deserve this. I'm so sorry Derek." Then she did cry and before she could put her face in her hands, he had knelt in front of her and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in and her cheek rested on his shoulder. "I never realized what I did would...that there would be such...she hated me, Derek. I caused her to hate me."

He stiffened for a split second, then relaxed. "You didn't cause anything, Ellie. People never knew why you left. Everyone of course just assumed you'd cheated on me with someone out of town, gotten pregnant and left."

It was Ellie's turn to stiffen. "...what?" Gone were the tears and instead her eyes filled with rage. "Excuse me? I got pregnant?"

Derek pulled back. "They said it made sense why you withdrew and then fled right around graduation time." Then he shook his head. "It's a small town, Ellie. I'm not saying it's right, but it's what it is. They need to find a reason for why things happen, even if they're the most absurd. I never believed any of it, I want you to know. Okay? I was just mad because whatever it was, you never shared it with me. I never hated you."

She felt deflated and confused. She didn't know what to feel anymore. "Okay."

There was a moment of silence before Derek spoke. "So...what was it that you were looking for?"

She looked up at him again. "Anything historical on the library. I don't know what I'm looking for yet. Like I mentioned yesterday, it's going to be kinda a note taking kinda day."

He nodded once and then he turned away and headed over to a corner. She followed him and there was a local history section. The lighting was dim in the corners and she had to squint at some of the titles. Ellie saw one titled "The History of Foxwillow Springs Library" and a second titled "The Beginning of Foxwillow Springs". "Creative titles I see." She mumbled as she pulled both from the shelf.

Derek continued to look, watched her briefly as she headed back to the table. The books were plain, the second one she'd grabbed, "The Beginning of Foxwillow Springs", was older than the first, a blue hardcover book with no sleeve. She decided to read that one first, out of curiosity.

She browsed through the first chapter, just an overview on what the book was about and then the book broke down into different parts of town. She skipped to the chapter on the library and began to read.

The Foxwillow Springs Public Library was constructed only a year after the establishment of the town. The town leaders were very focused on making sure the people of the town were very well educated and wanted to give them a shrine to learning. Even in 1849, the library was a big undertaking, especially for a small newly established town, but the town leaders were very adamant. It took nearly four years to complete, but it was the most beautiful building in town, made entirely of Indiana limestone with a small Dutch stone façade. It has a small porch with four stone columns.

It's two stories with two additional wings that were added in 1867 and 1873, due to needing additional space on the first floor, sending all reading materials to the second floor. Offices and work rooms were created on the first floor, including space for newspapers and magazines.

One would think that the importance of the library would've waned over the years, with new evolving technologies, but on the contrary, it has seemly become more important. Many questions into this fact have left us with unsatisfactory answers, leading us to believe that the library is just an extremely important vessel for learning. The mayor of Foxwillow Springs has even come as far as saying: "The library is very important to this town. It is the center, where knowledge and intelligence meet. Inside that building is where the people come together for the purpose of pushing the one's mind further.

Ellie looked up from her reading to see Derek had found a couple of books and sat across from her. "How's it going for you?"

"It looks like leaders of this town have had a hard on for this library since it's conception shortly after the town was established. There isn't really any evidence in here as to why, but I've only read a little bit so far. It makes me curious though why it's so important. I mean, everyone likes to pretend how important it is, but they don't usually mean it with such ferocity."

"We'll definitely have to pursue that angle. I wonder if we could actually find out why without having to be nosy."

Ellie looked across the table at the two books Derek had brought to the table. "What are those?"

"I decided to do something a little different. This first book is a collection of all mayors and town leaders since the beginning. I'm kinda curious to see if there's anything a little off about any of them and especially since you mentioned the weird fascination everyone seems to have with the library, I see I could bring in that angle too. I'm also looking at the town's history as a whole. I figured we can go from broad to specific and try that out. I don't want to leave anything out."

Ellie smiled and looked at him. "Thanks for helping me. I wouldn't have thought to do that."

Derek smiled back. "Well, it's nice to have a fresh mind to look at things."

"Also, thanks for being here. I never realized there would be...other obstacles."

A shadow flickered over Derek's eyes and they narrowed slightly as his jaw clenched. "It's not your fault. I hate that it was thrown in your face. For that, I'm sorry, but I am glad that I'm here too. For everything that has happened, I still care for you, Ellie."

Her throat was suddenly dry and it didn't matter how much she struggled to swallow, it was still dry. She almost wanted to cry, again. This was getting to be ridiculous, she thought as she ran a hand through her hair. "Thank you for that too. My mind is in overload right now. I never thought it would be this overwhelming coming back. Especially with you. I had figured you'd hate me, which you had every right to, but I didn't think you'd have forgiven me so quickly without so much work on my part. I had the optimism to hope you'd at least talk with me when I was done here."

"I never hated you, I was just mad because I wasn't included in what was wrong with you. I loved you more than words could say and we were in a relationship, a serious one. We're supposed to communicate with each other. I felt betrayed because you left and I wished you had trusted me enough to take me with you. I wanted to be there for you. Now...now that you're here and you've shared with me what happened, as much as you can remember, I want to be there for you now. For the rest...we'll just have to work on that together."

She smiled as she placed a piece of scrap paper into the book and closed it. "Now, I wished I had." She found she could swallow, and picked up her books. "We should probably get going. I didn't realize we'd been here so long. Do you want to come back to my room? We could study some more there, after we get some lunch, I think I just realized I'm starving."

A small smile lifted up the corner of his mouth and he gathered his books as well. "I have a better idea. Why don't you come over to my place. I can make us lunch and maybe we can talk some more. It could lead to another idea I just happened to think of."