Books & Questions are easy to come by

She smiles. “It’s been a while.”

“...i-it has been,” they sigh, but smile back

Leo looks to Lio, “Wh-Which one?”

Lio nods, “C’mon, I’ll show you,” and begins to lead Leo to the wall the demon had indicated. 

Leo looks along the wall when they get their, squinting some, “w-well there’s the panic room, a-and the l-locked one.”

He narrows his eyes, looking closely at the wall. “Can you sense anything back there?”

“I’m a m-medium not a m-metal detector,” They mutter, walking over the the wall and moving a wooden panel to the side, revealing a small door with nothing but a lock, “I-I’ve always gotten something from I-it.”

“Well, fuck me for asking,” he sighs. “What do you mean?” he crouches to examine the lock, and the door. 

“I-It’s felt off, the feeling I-I g-get in haunted h-houses,” They day, sighing and looking to Lio, “c-can you pick a lock? I-I’m sure I c-could learn but..”

“No, but I could try… Other methods,” he suggests, reluctantly, “If you’re okay with replacing the door, that is.” 

“I-I don’t like this d-door anyway, they say, taking 12 steps back.

Lio tears the door out of its frame with a crowbar. “You sure? There could be something dangerous on the other side, and… Well, you don’t look like much of a fighter.” 

“Y-yeah, but y-you die permanently,” they say, already moving in through the door, “I-I’m Fine.”

“Fuck, dude,” he mutters, squeezing in after them. 

They shrug, walking in and swearing, “I-it’s so dark…”

“One sec,” he says, pulling out an LED flashlight and flicking it on.

“I don’t think so,” Lio flicks the light in the direction Leo stares at. “Not this time. What is it?”

“…th-theres a book on the ground…” they say, stepping closer, “it’s… it looks o-odd… can your friend see it? Th-the thing around you?”

He glances warily at Leo, then his eyes drift to an empty space on his other side. “Yeah. Yeah, he can. What is it?”

Seeing them flinch, Lio stops in his tracks. “I feel… What?” he shines the flashlight on the spot Leo’s hand hovers over, examining it from a distance. “Are you saying…” he trails off.

“You’re… red? I d-don’t know…” they just, squint and stare, “I d-don’t like this.”

“…Red?” he mutters, confusedly. “Alright then,” he shrugs the thought out of his mind, and kneels a cautious distance away from Leo, pointing the light away from them. “Leo, are you okay?” 

“…I-I’m… I-I’ve got a headache,” they say, sighing and picking up the book in front of them, and Lio can see a slight shift in the air as they move it, “l-let’s bring this to the demon a-and.. g-get me some coffee.”

He curiously raises an eyebrow at the air the book supposedly was, “Alright, yeah. Let’s get you out of here,” he says, letting Leo take the lead. He follows closely enough behind to react if something happened to them. 

He crosses his arms, electing to watch from the sidelines. 

He briefly looks the ghost up and down. “Lio,” he introduces himself, rather reluctantly. “Pleasure to meet you too. And, I’m sure your son’ll be back up, soon enough.” 

There’s a twinge of a smile at the corner of his lips, and a quiet snicker. “So, I guess my work here is done?” he asks, getting Leo’s attention.

“Y-yeah… I’ll g-grab some money from th-the front desk,” they say, sighing

He gives Lord Tam a (unnoticeably forced) friendly smile, and debates whether or not he should follow Leo out of the break room.

“…a-are you sure?” They ask, a little confused as they pull out the amount, “th-that’s… not m-much.”

“…it’s… I-it’ll probably go away,” they say, sighing and handing him a handful of cash, “I-it’s just all spirits anyway.”

“Still, anything unusual should warrant at least a little concern,” he half-assedly counts the amount they give him, zipping it into a secure compartment in his backpack. “Just… take it easy for a while, I guess. Stay safe.”

“I w-will.. thank you. I’ll see y-you when you need any m-more research,” they say, laughing a little.

The hunter quite obviously hits his mark, getting a slightly annoyed look from the red eye’d demon in the room. “I wanted to ask a question.” The librarian, surprisingly, had already left the room by then.

Aurelio frowns, moving away defensively. “A friend,” he vaguely answers.

“Your friend is interesting.” It says, before sighing and looking to a wall, “the librarian didn’t ask if I knew where the thing, do you want to know?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’d like to know. But why didn’t you just tell them right off the bat?”

“They didn’t ask. They’re the type to ask.” It says, moving over to the opposite wall of the room, and leaning against it. “This way. Can’t get there.”

Aurelio follows the demon with a healthy amount of suspicion, and makes sure to discretely keep out of its arm’s reach. “What do you mean?” 

It glares at him a little, sighing, “Can’t leave the room.”

“You mean you can’t leave the room, or… Something else can’t leave a room?” Lio asks for clarification. 

“I’m stuck here. It’s over that way.” It says, pointing to the wall, “I don’t know if it can’t step out. I know I can’t.”

“Through there?” Lio asks, gesturing toward the wall. “Like, on the other side?” 

“Yes. There’s a lot of places in this library.”

“You mean what, like, hidden rooms?”

“The library has a lot of secrets.” The demon grins a little, “the librarian might know. They’re smart.”

“I should go get them, then,” Lio glances in the direction they last saw Leo. 

The demon nods, and Lio has to take about ten minutes to find Leo, who’s taking book by book off a shelf, methodically flipping through pages.