There were boxes everywhere, some open, some not, some empty, others already broken down, folded and set aside, along with somewhat haphazardly growing piles of discarded shipping supplies. It was a mess, but the floor of the room had now been fully repaired, and looked good as new. Good as new, as in it looked original.
The repairs were finished two days ago, but had been left to settle. Next week, they should be getting the tables back that had been sent for repair, along with finally bringing in a few replacement tables and lamps from one of the library’s off-site storage units.
Today was the first day the library assistants were tasked with opening and re-shelving books. At the moment, the shelves in the room were not even a quarter full, and there were scattered groupings of books with a lot of space around them. The assistants were still working, and aside from the two boxes that they knew for sure were missing in action, they were also still waiting for Brecker’s Restorative Cleaners to finish and ship back, by his guess, a good quarter of the books. At least, boxes seemed to be arriving daily now… Not the two boxes that were still missing, though.
Smiling as the person he’d put in charge of the job, Archer Price, a library assistant who usually worked on the first floor, noticed him and approached. “Hey, Boss, we are about a quarter into the boxes, but I’m sure we’ll get them all opened today.”
Ollie eyed the growing stack of empty boxes and discarded packing materials for a moment, before deciding something. “I want you to save as much of the materials and boxes as you can. No point throwing away perfectly good shipping supplies. Most of the protective packaging can be folded down smaller and packed away in a few of the empty boxes. For unused boxes, cut the tape and fold them back down so they can be reused. Though, best to grab some cord and tie them up in bundles to make them easier to store.”
“Where should we store them?” the man asked.
He pursed his lips, thinking about the space they had left. “We should be able to fit most of it in the largest storage room on floor two.”
The man hesitated for some reason, before smirking and asking, “Not worried that Elias will accuse you of hoarding again?”
“How is it hoarding to save boxes and shipping materials that are specifically used for books?!” Ollie huffed. “If anything, Elias should praise me for the money saving venture, since we will eventually use it all!”
“Well then, that is what I’ll tell him if I happen to run into the man while trying to squirrel away your supplies.”
Squirrel?! The audacity!
“I-I do not squirrel things away! Have you forgotten I’m your boss?!” Ollie sputtered, as the others in the room laughed, before huffing, “You know what, I’m going to lunch. Keep working!” He turned and walked away with a hmph as the assistants continued to laugh.
“Iam not a hoarder!” Ollie huffed to himself as he slammed the front door of his home closed behind him.
And he wasn’t! He was acollector—there was a difference! And it wasn’t like he’d just bought things and made a pile. All his things were either displayed, or well-organized in ways that both preserved and took up the least amount of space without creating clutter. Ollie, in fact,hatedclutter. He wasn’t a neat freak, but he definitely couldn’t handle a mess for too long without getting a little twitchy.
Shaking his head, he walked into the kitchen and hesitated as he stood at the opening to the hall. What Ollie should do was…call the shipping company again and pressure them about the boxes. Yet…he really, really didn’t want to start the day with stupid.
Not that they were stupid, as it wasn’t nice to call people that, but like…COME ON!? He shouldn’t have to argue about why a package that was shipped that year couldn’t possibly have been delivered the year before!
Grimacing, he took a step and paused to look down at the brush of something cold against his leg.
A wide smile spread across his face as he spotted the ghost kitten. “Pumpkin!” he giggled while scooping her up.
Holding the kitten up in the air, he spun as she meowed. “Oh, my cutie baby, thank you so much for deciding for me. How could I possibly waste time on a call when you obviously need cuddles and playtime!”
Holding her to his chest, no longer bothered by the seeping cold that spread across his skin when he touched her, Ollie hurried to the secret library, where he happened to have left the old cat toys that were previously Red’s. Well…Red’s when he had faked being a kitten—ugh…good times…
His brow rose slightly when he found a basket where he’d last left things, the toys inside. “Huh…must have been Red…”
Settling on the floor, he gently placed Pumpkin down, as he grabbed the stick with a fake fish on a string, which she had seemed to like the most. Dangling the fish in front of her, he cooed as she attacked and started batting at it.
Ollie managed to play with her for about five minutes before his guilt at not being productive took over.
Dropping the toy back into the basket, he gave her one last scritch scratch, as he said, “Okay, time to work in some sort of capacity…”
But not phone call related, as he didn’t need to go that far, and he wasn’t feelingthatguilty.
Standing, he looked around the library before deciding to focus on witch hunters, as the more one knew, surely the lessafraid he’d be, right?Yeah…that's totally how that works, he thought sarcastically. He snorted and rolled his eyes.
Moving to the bookcase that happened to have ropes carved on the edges, almost in a way that looked like they were binding the shelves themselves. The words‘Witch Hunter’lit up above, as always, as he neared. Because he wasn’t actually looking for anything in particular, Ollie scanned the spines before picking a random book from the middle shelf. Medium-sized and bound in red leather, the book had theParables of the Righteous Huntwritten in English on the spine, which gave him hope that he wasn’t going to have to translate.
Smiling as he opened the cover and found a handwritten title page in English, he quickly sat down at the table. His smile widening on finding a table of contents, he briefly read through it before flipping to a chapter titled:Hunters and Their Abilities. Thankfully, the pages were numbered.
“Let’s see… ‘Hunters and Their Abilities. A fully integrated hunter is defined as one that has undertaken the final step to strip their humanity from their beings. For all they give up, they gain just as much, if not more.
“‘First, notably to those of finite living years, the stalling of the aging process, giving the individual a taste of false immortality. To be clear, while the aging process stops, it does not reverse previous age-related ailments, nor does it guarantee the individual will live long enough to enjoy their new ageless existence.’”
