SIX Jessie

SIX

Jessie

When Jessie had first stepped into the library with a group of strange men, she knew right away that she had bit off more than she could chew. But the thought of not having to deal with Ravi Kumar again was so tempting that she said yes to this ridiculous dare. Ravi made her anxious. She felt her pulse race whenever he was near, and she was ... distracted. If doing a nerd-smackdown dare would get him off her back and out of her mind, then she'd do it. After it was over, she'd be able to focus on what was important.

That was her theory, anyway.

"How long am I supposed to stay in here?" she asked the group of spectators who held open the double doors.

The one who had delivered her beer said, "Let's start with five minutes."

"Okay," she said. She stood on her toes to see if she could spot Ravi in the back.

"He's probably outside finishing his phone call," the guy with the key card said. He tossed it back and forth, smacking the metal keys against the plastic card in his palm. "Don't worry. He'll be here in a minute. Why don't you go inside, and we'll start the clock?"

She looked through the doors into the darkness. The only light came from the stained-glass windows on the second floor. The long table in the center of the bottom floor was covered in dust, and the armchairs in the corner had white sheets draped over them. The balcony from the loft level was dark. In the shadows, she could see old cardboard boxes stacked in corners.

"Come on, freshman," one of the guys said from the back. "Are you committed to holding your ground as master nerd, or are you going to let Ravi win?"

"Hey," she snapped. "I will always be master nerd regardless of the study-room status."

A few of them laughed.

"Well?" Vik said. He reached out a hesitant hand to pat her on the shoulder. "Go on in. We'll shut the door and stand here waiting for you to finish."

Ever since he had given her a drink at the party, she'd had a bad feeling about this guy. His hair was slicked back and shiny with gel. He wore two polo shirts with both collars popped up at his throat. Why did he need to wear two polo shirts in the first place?

"Fine," she said. "Someone start the clock."

The guy standing next to Vik held up his phone with the timer on it. "Ready," he said.

Jessie took a deep breath and stepped into Davidson Tower for the first time. The air felt noticeably colder despite the warm early fall night. It was also quieter than the rest of the basement. She could no longer hear the hum of the air conditioning, the whir of the computers, or the soft tick of the wall clock inside the main library.

Before she could turn around, someone shut the door behind her. Then there was a series of laughter noises and the noticeable click of a lock.

Shit, shit, shit.

"Guys!" she called out. "That's not funny!"

The strangers who she'd come into the library with were already gone when she tried to open the doors. She pushed hard on the metal bar, but there was no give. Her heart began to pound as she realized way too late that she was stuck in Davidson Tower.

"Great," she said. Jessie faced the reading room and squared her shoulders. The light through the windows didn't cast the same warm glow that she was used to seeing during the day. Then she looked up at the turret-shaped ceiling, and her breath caught in her throat. It was like a kaleidoscope of color. She'd never been able to see the intricate design from the doors.

Jessie turned in a slow circle, staring up at the ceiling, and her fear faded like a negligible bruise that was in the back of her mind but no longer something that consumed her thoughts.

She believed in ghosts. She wasn't going to deny it. But she refused to be afraid here in this beautiful tower. If the legend was true and an Indian woman had died here, then Jessie would be respectful in this space.

And if it wasn't true? Well, she'd still appreciate the legends the tower inspired on campus.

Jessie scanned the walls on either side of the door to check for a light switch, but she couldn't find one. She turned on the flashlight on her phone. According to Vik and his friends, who had filled her in on the story, the fire had taken out half of the reading room and a portion of the basement level of the library, but by the next year, 1973, the administration had repaired most of the damage. Since then, very few students had used the tower, so the staff began to use the space for much-needed storage as they shifted into the digital age.

She would love to see if some of the furniture and books were still here from before the fire.

Jessie walked farther into the tower and then took a slow lap around the long table, separating herself from the tower doors. Her heart was still pounding, and she was aware of every single creak and whisper of noise. Her fingers trembled when she pulled back one of the sheets to reveal a gorgeous brown leather armchair.

"Wow," she whispered. The sound echoed around her, filling all the dark spaces.

Then she reached the iron railing of the spiral stairs leading up to the balcony. The boxes she'd seen in the shadows might have some interesting history. Jessie wondered if they contained books predating the fire.

"Just do it," she said aloud to the empty tower room. "Just go up there like the strong, capable woman you are."

Her pep talk needed work, but that didn't dampen her determination. She squared her shoulders again and ascended the spiral staircase to the second level. Her sneakered feet squeaked against the metal.

When she reached the top, she immediately saw a wide, squat desk taking up half the loft space. At least that's what it looked like under the covering. Behind the desk were the boxes stacked and covered in dust. They formed a wall, and each one had a faded label on the front. Jessie moved closer and flashed her phone over the labels.

"Oh my god."

1999.

1982.

1979.

1972.

That was the year of the fire. Jessie looked down at the doors to Davidson Tower, then back at the wall of books. This was probably her only chance.

She quickly moved the stacks of boxes until she got to the one she wanted at the bottom. Then she tugged the sheet off the desk to reveal a beautiful mahogany surface. On the left side, there was a dark burn mark that was dry and brittle, but the rest of it was perfectly intact. This was what the old desks in the library must've looked like, she thought as she put the box on top of it.

Just as she tore off the tape and lifted the flaps, there was a sound of banging from the bottom level as the doors flew open.

"Jessie! Jessie! Are you here?"

Jessie leaned over the balcony railing and waved. "I'm up here. There's no need to shout."

Ravi stood on the bottom floor, staring up at her.

There was a flutter. Some sort of a breeze probably from one of the vents in the ceiling.

"What are you doing?" he called out.

"I'm trying to win a competition for our study room, but I feel like your friends were just messing with me," she replied.

Even in the dim light, she could see the look of astonishment on his face. "Are you seriously calm right now after they locked you in here?"

"Someone was going to find me eventually." She didn't tell him that she thought he'd come to get her before any security could. There was no point in feeding his ego.

He held up a lanyard with a key card at the end. "I'm here to let you out. Come on."

"I need a minute," she said, then turned back to the box on the uncovered table.

Not wasting any more time and appreciating the fact that there was someone else in the tower with her, she pushed the box flaps back, then lifted her phone to better inspect the contents.

There were books, but not the normal reference kind that you would find in a university library. These were romance novels. Hardbacks of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bront?, and even an old, faded copy of a historical romance with the clinch cover.

"What are you doing?" Ravi asked.

Jessie hadn't even realized that he'd come up the stairs to stand over her. "This box is from the year the tower caught fire. I was curious to see if there was anything in here that would tell me about the legend. If it's real or fake."

"You're insane if you think you'll find something that someone already hasn't after fifty years. Jessie, who are you?"

She looked up and realized for the first time that his face was masked in anger. "What do you mean?"

He shoved his fingers through his hair. "I mean, what kind of person agrees to go with a strange group of guys to a library, and agrees to walk into the most haunted place on campus without a single iota of common sense?"

Jessie picked up the copy of Persuasion that sat at the top of the box and hugged it to her chest. "I don't know why you're judging me right now."

"Oh, what, the same way you judge me?"

She leaned back as if his words had struck her silent. Her instinct was to say no. She wanted to disagree with him on principle, but the truth was that he wasn't entirely wrong. She'd assumed he was a prick from the first moment she knew who he was. He hadn't helped change her opinion, of course, but her judgment was fully formed without his help.

"Look, it matters to me that I do well in college, okay? I don't have any backup options or safety net like you do. Working in the same place at the same time helps me do well."

She watched the frustration play across his face, the agitation in every ridged line of his body, as he shoved his fingers through his hair. "It's just a stupid study room!"

"If it was so stupid, then you wouldn't be fighting me for it, would you?" she replied evenly.

"You've had it for a month, and I've had it for two years. Imagine how I feel."

"I don't have to imagine, because time doesn't change the fact that being next to this tower makes me feel like I can focus on my work." Jessie knew she was right. They may not have had anything in common except for their specific quirk to have exactly what they needed in the library.

"Is it so important to you to get your way that you'd put yourself in danger, Jessie?" he asked. His voice softened.

She looked around the space, taking in the silence that blanketed them in secrets. She sighed, her shoulders drooping. "Fine. This was dumb. Coming here with your friends, who are total assholes by the way, wasn't one of my best decisions. But I figured why not? If it means I can be left alone to focus on my work, it's worth it. But I shouldn't have done this."

He held up his hands and took a step back making a clear you said it, not me gesture.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Let's go."

She dropped the book into the open box, closed the flaps, and went to put it back on the floor when she bumped into the leg of the table. There was a distinctive pop, and one of its small drawers slid open.

"That's weird," she mused, then went to push it back in, but it jammed.

"What is it?" Ravi asked.

"I don't know," Jessie said. "It's as if there is something behind it and the drawer is stuck." She straightened her dress and, with some maneuvering, got down on her knees, ignoring the dust that was starting to coat her outfit. She tilted her head to look under the table on the side where the scorch marks were visible. Then she heard Ravi pull the drawer open, and a hidden compartment on the back of the drawer dropped.

"Ravi?" she said, her voice high and thin. There was a ringing in her head, telling her that something important was happening. "There's a secret compartment."

"A secret compartment?"He dropped to his hands and knees next to her, his head close to hers as he tried to see under the desk. His shoulder pressed against hers, his scent consuming her senses as he ran a hand over the section that popped out from behind the drawer. It wiggled with the slightest pressure. "Holy shit," he said.

"We have to see what's inside," Jessie said. She turned to look at him, realizing how close their faces were.

He nodded, his breath brushing against her lips. "Let's take the drawer out."

"Okay," Jessie said, and scrambled to her feet. Her heart was pounding harder than it had when she first walked into Davidson Tower.

She ignored Ravi's stare. After taking a deep breath, she gripped the handle and pulled. When it refused to come out of its slot, she wiggled the drawer side to side.

"Here, let me try," Ravi said. He yanked hard on the drawer, then slammed a fist on the surface. The drawer popped out with ease.

"What the hell? How did you do that?"

Ravi put the empty drawer on the desk next to the box. "My grandfather had something like this at his house in India. The drawers always got stuck the same way."

"Good to know," she said. She took her phone and shined its light into the empty cavity. She almost expected to find nothing, but there, under the bright light, lay a book with yellowed and blackened edges.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and reached inside to pull it out. It was a hardcover, just like the ones in the box.

"Persuasion?" Ravi said, reading the cover over her shoulder.

"Yes, it's exactly the same as the one I was holding a minute ago, but this one feels different," Jessie said. "Heavier, for some reason." The cover also had a little give in the center. Just as Ravi held his phone up to shine the light down on the book, she slowly opened the cover.

Her breath caught.

"Oh my god," he whispered.

The book was hollowed out, and in the center was a stack of tightly packed letters. Persuasion wasn't a thick book, even though the volume she was holding looked like it was bigger than most. There had to be over fifty letters total, and a red ribbon keeping them all together. Jessie took the letters out of their compartment and flipped the stack over to read the front. In the corner on the right-hand side was the date.

March 5, 1972.

Jessie's fingers trembled as she pulled the ribbon to untie the letters. She put the book and the rest of the stack on the desk before she opened the slip of yellowed paper.

Dear Jaan.

Jaan, meaning "life" or "my life" in Hindi.

At the bottom of the letter, in clear black ink, was a signature.

Divya Das.

"Ravi?"

"I see it."

Jessie didn't hesitate. She folded the letter and placed it, along with the rest of the envelopes, inside the book she'd found. With a quick motion, she shoved the drawer back into the desk, and tucked the copy of Persuasion securely under one arm.

"Okay," she said. "Now I'm ready to go."