Valerie Gray has never been more interested in the supernatural than studying World War II. Recently, she had found out about a forbidden legend about the cave of mysteries—the Lair of the Ouroboros. Valerie has been since researching all about the cave. Though almost all of her efforts were wasted on finding nothing but just mere fairytale stories of the cave, she had a feeling that she knows the cave was real. It might’ve been eerie and dangerous, but nevertheless Valerie still wanted to find out the truth about the cave bound by secrets.
Of course, she could only do that if she managed to pass her academic scores at least above the passing mark. Or else who knows what her family has in store for her. But all Valerie really cared about by now was the cave and her burning curiosity to learn more about it.
During calculus, she had been spending most of the lesson time to think about what to do next in her research on the Lair of the Ouroboros. To her surprise, the teacher hadn’t been noticing her daydreaming the entire class. But even so, she still has her homework.
In lunch, she had been daydreaming about the same thing, trying to come up with conclusions and making up stories to fill in the gap on certain parts of the story which was unconfirmed about the cave. To be honest, she was quite antisocial. Never had she made much friends in this school other than a few but no less than ten. Valerie prefers a small circle of friends anyway, to prevent some unnecessary statements from others who might think that she was a freak. It was obvious that she was seen as a freak since she always does nothing but research on the unknown elements save for her schoolwork.
Valerie finished her lunch meal quickly. After putting away her lunchbox, she stood up promptly on her feet. She felt full, since she ate in quick succession, which probably wasn’t going to be beneficial for her digestion. She had heard rumors that if you eat too fast, you would gain weight. Most girls won’t want that of course, not even Valerie. But she had no choice since she was almost late for her next class. The reason? Well, she was caught up in an “investigation”.
“Tell us, are you a witch or not?” a young man said. He was tall and lean, unlike the two other boys at his side, with one of them being quite obese and one being quite skinny.
“No,” Valerie gave a curt reply, and went off to mind in her own business. She left the canteen quickly in no less than a forty second walk back to her classroom. Honestly, have these young men have no respect for private matters? Come to think of it, Valerie has never told of her research to anyone other than her parents, who’ve had considered letting her consult to a psychologist because of her odd behavior.
But Valerie couldn’t care less. Her parents were only a nuisance to her research, and she wasn’t going to let a pair of supposedly caring parents to ruin her research and all the notes she made. At some point, she might’ve even wanted to leave her family to explore the unknown. She wished that, but somehow her wishes were never granted in her life save for her outgoing requests for her mother and father. She blamed karma mostly, but she doesn’t really believe that since she has done nothing wrong. Or maybe she did. What if she had offended her ancestors by checking long lost stories they were meant to conceal? What if the gods were angry at her for doing unnecessary research on sacred knowledge? Valerie doesn’t know where her luck comes from, but for one thing she is most certain of, is that no one can stop her from delving into the depths of mystery.
After her next class—which was English, her next lesson was Geography, but their teacher took a leave which led to a substitute teacher coming in to teach. Using this free time, Valerie decided to find her next source of information at the library. The library provided computers free for students to use and research information during their free time—Eris was a regular customer at the library. Since she has a liking for mystery and fantasy novels to such an extent that she would borrow at least one once a week, the librarian had started calling her a “bookworm”. It was quite true that she was a bookworm.
Quietly tracing her footsteps along the hallway—to not disturb the other students in their lessons, Valerie found her way into the library and pushed open its tempered glass door. The librarian greeted her with a smirk.
“Why hello, Miss Bookworm,” the librarian teased. The librarian was a short woman in her senior years. Her skin was loose and face was saggy, but it matched her warming personality. Her attire wasn’t much, just a simple shawl over a dress. Valerie’s appearance wasn’t much either since she wears the school uniform like all students do.
“Hello, Miss Fartley,” Valerie shot back with a look that shallowly bullies innocents. They’ve known each other for almost three years by now since her enrollment into this school. Often, the librarian makes jokes about most things old people wouldn’t find interesting, like how the old depended on Nokia cellphones instead of buying modern smartphones like the Iphone. The librarian’s real name was written on her nametag: “Ms. Janet Bartley.”
It was fitting name indeed for such a wise and kind woman to be here working in a library. But like every human on this Earth, flaws were an unavoidable fact. And here she was now, Valerie Kylie Gray, thinking about the unknown while having a small chat with the librarian. She still couldn’t take all the thoughts of mysterious legends and myths off her mind—not like she could in a million years anyway—and bid the librarian an end to their conversation. Valerie approached to the computers in the library, and unfortunately for her. . .
The computers were under repair.
Oh how her luck has led to this moment. Just the right time to make her think of other things now that she has to return to class and deal with the raucousness of the students. Looking at the librarian, she gave her a glance, then set her gaze back onto the computers under maintenance. She sulked mentally, and walked out of the library before the librarian had told her that she’d forgotten to tell her that the computers were on repairs.
Walking through the hallways, she continued to think about how much she has done up until now about the Lair of the Ouroboros and how much of the story she has managed to collect.
Her mind was set on the very thing that most intrigued her, until a sudden throbbing on the back of her skull shot through her. The pain of each shocking pulse sent her nerves on edge. Then before she could do anything about it, she had already passed out.
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