I stayed where I was until my eyes began to adjust and the black receded to shades of grey, helped along by the dim light of the monitors. Flashlight beams cut swathes of visibility and bounced along as pairs headed toward their assigned locations. “Ready, Ballard?” Pierce asked. His voice was calm on the surface, but there was an undercurrent of excitement bubbling beneath it. “Ready as I’m gonna be,” I said as stoutly as I could. I was very glad to be paired up with him instead of someone I barely knew. We walked slowly and carefully in the direction of the main staircase. The circulation desk looked particularly creepy as the flashlight beams rippled across it. I had an unexpected flash of childhood memory of the phantom librarian from an old VHS tape of the movie Ghostbusters that I’d watched until it wouldn’t rewind anymore, and had to suppress a slightly hysterical giggle. Luckily, Pierce didn’t notice.
