Saturday in Everleigh-Marston University,

Genevieve sat at a table surrounded by books. The last four days, she had been going to the university's library and staying there for hours. History, folklore, fiction, religion, health, and wellness... She had checked through all of those sections. Like what happened with websites, the books available seemed to be filtered. Some authors had their names changed while some were even listed as unknown.

She also had finished all the homework Angela had sent her by email, tried the spells she had found on the internet and made tried different cheesecake recipes. Surprisingly, doing homework was a breeze with Faye's memories. Shockingly, none of the spells worked. As expected, all of the cheesecakes had been exquisite.

Oh, here comes another headache.

Genevieve's headache was almost unbearable, most likely because she had refused to follow the need to go find Axel or maybe because she had spent the last seven hours reading. She had gotten used to the pain, though. SNAFU, just like yesterday and the day before; she ignored it.

She was now reading collections of journals and old newspapers in the hopes that someone, anyone, had ever reported being from another world. Sadly, every single case she came across with ended up with the patient being diagnosed as mentally unstable and institutionalized.

Genevieve stifled a groan at the ridiculousness of the news article.

Richards explains that he fell down a rabbit hole in Caliddonia and made a new friend, who took him to this other dimension.

Genevieve scoffed. "Rabbit hole my ass." She buried her head in her arms as frustration threatened to take over her, again.

Someone cleared her throat. "Interesting."

Genevieve lifted her head, turned toward the owner of the voice and her breath got caught in her throat. Wow. In front of her stood one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen. What was it with this world and the abundance of attractive people?

The girl smiled and waved at Genevieve. "Hey! I'm Ananke Dione, but you can call me Ana."

Ananke? The name was familiar, but it was quite difficult to point out why. Ouch, how difficult was to think with a head that is about to burst. Genevieve winced and instead nodded at the girl with the bright smile. Ana was tall and thin. She had flawless dark skin, perfect white teeth, and dark brown eyes that, unlike Genevieve's real eyes, shone brightly.

"H-He"—Genevieve cleared her throat—"Hello, I'm Genevieve."

The girl pulled out the chair next to Genevieve and sat down. "French pronunciation, right?"

"Yeah, but whichever is easier for you is okay."

"Okay! Zhahn-vee-ev... Do you need help? I noticed you've been stuck in here the last couple of days." Ana's gaze traced the multiple piles of books and documents in front of her and Genevieve.

"I'm fine. Thank you."

The girl seemed kind, but she wasn't ever mentioned in any of the books and Genevieve didn't want to get closer to anyone. It wasn't like she was going to stick around.

Ana whined. "Oh, C'mon. I feel bad for you. Here, let me help you with this pile. What are we looking for?"

"I'm good. Don't worry."

"It would take you hours to read all this by yourself."

Genevieve eyed her before checking the time: 1808. Brianna gets out of work at 2030 today and it is already Saturday. Without help, there was no way she would finish reading all that by herself. It wasn't like she was particularly enjoying reading tiny letters in smelly old books, all with a raging headache. Help would be nice. She sighed.

"Okay. I'm looking for documented cases of people that allegedly traveled or came from different times or dimensions."

"Understood." Ana beamed and started reading through the journals. "I swear, once when I was a freshman, I spent a whole month in the library looking for one source I absolutely needed for a project."

Genevieve was focused on wading through the pages of a parapsychology journal that seemed promising, but still gave Ana a tiny fraction of her attention. "Why didn't you choose an easier project?"

Ana laughed. "Oh, dear. The easier way out is usually the less beneficial one. Thanks to my struggle that month, I have completely memorized the order of this library. I know more than most of the librarians. Now, I can help you find what you are looking for."

"Thank you." Genevieve had mumbled her answer without tearing her gaze from what she was reading.

"Have you heard the story of the farmer and the goddess?"

Ana sounded serious. Genevieve straightened up and paid attention pushing a small pinch of annoyance back. This seemed important, for some reason. "No."

Ana nodded and put her book down. "A long time ago, before all those technological advances we have today, there was a farmer whose crops had died after a long period of ruthless storms that flooded his lands. Amidst his desperation, he asked the most beautiful and caring goddess for a simple wish. He wished he could control the weather for a year—Just the weather in his lands."

Genevieve touched her chin with her right hand, thinking deeply. Out of so many wishes, he had asked for that. He could have asked for unlimited resources. That is what Genevieve would have asked in his situation. "That seems like a thoughtful wish."

"Really? Why?" Ana's eyes held amusement.

"Because he could have asked for wealth or power, instead he asked for something to save his poor crops."

"That is why the goddess granted his wish even though she knew that it wouldn't end well."

"Why is that?"

"The man could control the weather as he wanted. The sun shone on his lands every day while storms kept batting other lands. When he wanted a soft drizzle, the clouds obeyed. For a whole year, he decided what he thought his crops needed and nature complied. However..." Ana raised one finger and stared at Genevieve.

"However?" Genevieve tilted her head to the side.

"However, when the time for harvest came, he barely had anything to collect. Insects had devoured most of it. Desperate, again, he cursed the heavens for his fate and demanded answers."

"Did the goddess send pests to ruin the man's harvest?"

Ana shook her head no. "The goddess appeared before the man. When he asked her why that had happened, the goddess laughed. You asked for sunshine and rain when you considered them necessary and they were given to you, but you never, even once, asked the clouds to pour. You see, storms do much more than just destroy everything in their path. A little storm at the right times clean the plants and kill the insects that eat your crops. The goddess disappeared."

Ana smiled while resting her head on one hand and softly tapping on the table with the other one. "Don't you think that the same thing often happens to humans?"

"How so?"

"Humans want their lives to be all nice and pink, without worries or suffering. But, those storms in people's lives are what makes them stronger, deep, human... A life without any storm is like a book without conflict: plain and boring." Ana leaned toward Genevieve keeping eye contact.

By deliberately putting herself in Genevieve's space, she must have been seeking a reaction from Genevieve.

Genevieve grinned, not showing even the slightest hint of being uncomfortable. In reality, she wanted to push the stranger that was acting like they were friends. "Why are you telling me this?"

Ana smiled sheepishly and leaned back in her seat. "I have seen you frantically flip through pages of way too many books during these four days. Every day your eyes are puffy and red-rimmed. I don't think you have a cold. To be honest, I used to think that you were a junkie, until yesterday. I was looking a book for my history project and I heard you by mistake. You were sobbing in a corner of the library between the bookshelves."

Genevieve's cheeks heated up. Someone had seen her lose it. That had been one of the few times Genevieve had cried. It had been so incredibly infuriating to search and search for the smallest ray of hope for days and going back home empty-handed each time. She clenched her fists and took a deep breath, even now just thinking about her situation had her heart roaring in her chest, a lump burning her throat and tears flooding her eyes.

It was way easier before when she had her loved ones to support her in difficult times, but being all alone and stripped of her identity was excruciating. Whoever had brought her to this world had forgotten to mention that she would be waking up in a world full of people, so many people but none of the people she loved.

Genevieve has barely gotten any sleep since she has been waking up early to work out and go for runs around the block—not that she could get decent sleep anyway. The nightmares would not allow her to.

"Are you a freshman?" Ana subtly brushed Genevieve's arm.

Genevieve flinched and pulled her hand away. "I am a high school senior."

Ana arched an eyebrow and smiled. "See! You need my help! I can check books out for you once we find what you are looking for!"

"Let's keep reading, please. I need to be home by 8:50 PM and it is"—Genevieve glanced at her wristwatch—"6:46 PM already."

"Okay."

Ana slumped back in her chair. "I can't find anything useful in here. Now, I understand why you have been crying every day."

"Heeey..."

Genevieve fought the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips. Almost a week without proper human interaction and solitude had made her consider drawing a face on a volleyball, sadly she had found none in Faye's house. Talking to Brianna was also a nearly impossible feat. Both of them were too tired at nights to bother having a real conversation. Communicating through small talk and tired smiles had never been one of her favorite activities. It was nice to pretend she had an ally now.

"Let me do my magic. I'll get you that book! I promise!" Ana smiled widely as she stood up from her chair.

Almost forty-five minutes had passed and Genevieve had finished reading the articles and books on the table, but nothing was useful. Ana's "magic" was apparently unfruitful, because there were no signs of her. Five more minutes more were everything she was getting.

Eleven more minutes of not-so-patient waiting and still Ana had not come back. Genevieve sighed and stood up. I bet she left already. Time to go then. Genevieve began making her way to the door just as Ana ran back with an old book in her hands.

"I found it!" she whisper-shouted and then stopped in her tracks. Her smile turned into a frown. "You were going to leave!" Ana pouted and sat at the table. "C'mon, let me show you what I found."

Genevieve walked back and sat down next to Ana, who carefully opened the book. It was in cursive handwriting and its pages were yellow, crisp with age and stained in places with splatters of some dark liquid. Ugh, old book smell oozed from the book. Genevieve scrunched her nose and covered it with the back of her hand. Ana seemed unaffected by the smell.

They skimmed through its dusty and moldering pages. It was a diary dated from 1905 that belonged to a man called Arthur W. Harrington, who claimed to have died and heard a voice before waking up to this reality. It seemed promising.

The handwriting was very clear at the beginning of the book, but as they flipped through the pages, it became nervous, disorganized and unsteady. There were notes at the borders of the pages. In one part, the guy claimed that taking LSD helped him get back to his world at times.

LSD had been discovered in ninety forty-something. How could he have taken it?

Near the end of the book, there were references to a secret organization and their involvement in the government. He was being 'observed.' Then, he claimed to have found a witch capable of helping him. The last three pages were unreadable scrawls.

Genevieve leaned back in her chair and looked up. She rubbed her face with both hands and leaned against the table, sinking her face into her arms. Great, the only guy who seemed to have been in a situation similar to hers went mental. That or he was crazy from the beginning. Would she end up like this, though? The book wasn't useless. She could check what methods he had tried and avoid making the same mistakes. Also, there might be secrets hidden in that book.

"Genna?" Ana tugged at Genevieve's sleeve.

Genevieve straightened up. "Genna?" Nobody called her that.

"I like giving people nicknames. I'll check out the book for you. Let's go to Café tomorrow to celebrate that you finally found what you were looking for!" Ana grinned.

"Café?"

"You are not from here, are you?

"No... How did you know?"

"Everyone here knows what Café is. It is a very famous coffee shop near campus. I work there part-time. You'll love it!"

Oh, that Café. It had been mentioned in the second book briefly. My friends from college went to a coffee shop after class, but I stayed behind because just the smell of coffee makes me nauseous. Genevieve mentally scoffed. Nauseous? That was offensive.

Ana insisted on giving Genevieve a ride to her house, but she refused vehemently. They settled in exchanging numbers. Ana would wait for Genevieve on campus the following day and they would walk to Café.