,,Happy birthday to you/Happy birthday to you!/Happy birthday our dear Midariii!/ Happy birthday to you!”
Midari blew out the candles, clapping her hands like a little kid. Misaki offered to cut her the cake Mily had prepared for her.
While her brother was busy making sure that everyone got a slice, Midari opened her gifts.
She got some chemistry stuff from Mily and Saki, some stuff she claimed to have wanted for a long time. My sister gifted her a new lab coat (that was too big for her, she looked like a weird scientist ) since Midai kind of burned the last one. Erika gifted her a new headband, since she destroyed the one Midari had on the day with the fight. Misaki’s gift was special, since he actually built some kind of machine for her, but I didn’t quite understand the purpose of the invention. Even so, Midari was overjoyed. She yelled and hugged her brother, almost making him drop a plate he was going to hand Erika. From me she got some new substances she told me she was missing.
Midari was very pleased with her gifts, especially with her brothers and Lords. The kid gifted her a teddy bear her made himself and apologized for some kind of incident that took place a while before I arrived. Midari told him to shut up and to stop apologizing for it because, apparently, he would apologize for the same thing every year.
She got some cards and flowers from the companions (and with that I mean Wendy, Kevin and Edgar).
Then she noticed a gift she hadn’t opened yet. Midari counted and asked if someone had given her a second present. We all denied and Midari went ahead and opened it, despite Mily warning her not to.
,,But Mily!” she took something out of the box and shook it through the air for us to see ,,It’s a PlayStation!”
,,But who…” Mily tried to say but was instead interrupted by the mystery guest.
,,Happy birthday! And good day Misaki, how’s your life been?” Midari laughed at the sight.
,,No way! Haven’t seen you in a long time!” she reached out her hand for him to shake.
,,Mily, you know him. For everyone here that doesn’t, and oh, how can you not (?), this is Carter!”
,,Who?” Millie blurted out.
,,Allow me to introduce myself! I’m, as my friend here said, Carter! A fellow ghost.”
,,The only middle ranked ghost we know up until this point” Mily added. I don’t think she really liked the guy.
,,Well! How come you showed up? You never show up!” Midari exclaimed.
,,I know. But I wanted to gift you this so…”
,,Thanks!” Midari turned to us ,,we’re actually kind of related. He’s the son of an uncle of mine. But we aren’t technically related.”
,,Yeah, cuz someone’s adopted…” Misaki commented. He probably thought no one heard him.
,,At least they wanted me. Anyway, I see some new faces around here. Mind introducing yourselves?” For some reason I didn’t trust the guy.
,,Nice to meet you, I’m Luna and this is Millie, my sister” I pointed at myself then at her.
,,Oh? Another Mily? How do you guys know who is who?” he asked. Actually that was a very good question.
,,We manage…somehow. These are our companions” I then pointed at Wendy and Kevin and introduced them as Millie’s friends. I pointed at Edgar and introduced him as my friend.
,,Lovely. How do you all like the new ghost life?” he seemed a little too curious.
,,Very well…I guess” Millie replied this time.
,,Very good! Alright everyone, let’s continue this party! The birthday girl’s waiting!” he smiled at Midari and she clapped her hands again, jumping up and down. I swear I saw Mily smile at her actions.
The party did end soon, mainly because Midari wanted to try out her new gifts (a.k.a. creating a new bomb prototype with it). She dragged Misaki with her, making him join her, because she also wanted to show him her latest creation: a bomb that when it explodes, doesn’t only blow up stuff, but it also spreads paint, making the explosion look like a colorful cotton candy.
Millie went to her room, followed by her two friends. Wendy was constantly trying to convince Millie to draw her but Millie ignored her.
Mily stopped by to ask me if I wanted some of the remaining balloons to decorate my room, so I went back inside the living room to gather some.
,,Hey, Luna right?” Carter was still in there, also trying to steal balloons.
,,Yeah. Is there something wrong?” I asked, because he looked worried.
,,Kinda. I’ve got something for you” he opened a messenger bag that he left on a couch earlier.
He took an object from inside and presented it to me: an elegant quill pen, decorated with what seemed to be gold. The feather itself was red, giving the quill a very royal look. It was indeed very elegant and I couldn’t help but wish I owned that.
,,Look I was going to give this to your companion, the Edgar guy. But he’s not here, so I’m giving it to you.”
,,Where did you get this beauty from?” I asked while taking the quill and holding it, careful though, because I didn’t want to ruin it.
,,A few days ago, as I was walking through the forest I noticed a lady. She accidentally dropped this and I thought I could sell it…”
,,And don’t tell me there’s a ghost black market or something like that…”
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,,There is…anyway, I wanted to sell it there, but something told me to bring it here. Must have been instinct. It basically told me to bring it to your companion. I don’t know what you’ll do with it but please don’t sell it.”
,,How could I sell this? I’ll keep it. Maybe write something with it. Thanks!” I thanked him, trying to be polite. I couldn’t wait to bring it back to Edgar.
,,Well then” he picked up a purple balloon ,,I’ll bring my housemate a gift.”
,,Your housemate likes purple?”
,,VERY much. That guy could basically get married to the color purple.” We laughed and then he left.
,,Edgar! Edgar!” I was searching for him, because I wanted to show him my new possession.
,,Luna, quiet please” Mily scolded me as she left Saki’s room ,,someone is trying to sleep here.”
,,Oh Mily! Have you seen Edgar?” I asked, because they left at the same time.
,,No. Luna…” she looked at the quill I was holding with a horrified expression ,,Luna where on earth did you get that?!”
,,The quill?” I asked, not knowing why she was so shocked ,,Carter gave it to me! Isn’t it pretty?”
,,And where did HE get that?!” she yelled, despite telling me not to do so a few moments ago.
,,Well he said he took it from this lady…but he wanted to give it to Edgar, so I was bringing it to him…”
,,You fucked up. That’s all I’ve got to say” Mily declared ,,Alright, go, give it to Edgar.”
I did as told, wondering why she was so angry. Yet I couldn’t find Edgar anywhere. Starting to panic I went back to Mily, who said she hadn’t seen him either. And with that, the search began.
It had been around three days and there was still no sign of him. I was worried sick and I noticed that Millie was as well, for some reason. Edgar couldn’t have possibly left the school. I mean, he did leave once, but that was because Mily did him some favors. Still, she did not want to ever perform the spell again, the same with the spell that made me visible for Millie. Because the spells were basically fighting against the curse and that took a whole lot of energy out of both Mily and Saki. No one knew at the time, but Saki had entered the coma-like state when Mily was helping Edgar exit the school, so she didn’t want to do it again, in fear that her friend might never wake up again.
That’s why we were shocked when Edgar disappeared. No one knew where he could have possibly disappeared to.
One day, I think it was May, as I was eating cereal in the kitchen and watching Mily practice her spells, Midari stormed in with a cup of coffee in the right hand and the teddy bear she got from Lord in the other one.
,,Mily, your crazy librarian woman is in the school yard. She was staring at me.” Mily looked very uninterested in the whole situation.
,,You can go tell her that I’m not it the mood for her today. I’ve got better things to do.”
,,Okay!” Midari left and I followed her, because I also wanted to see what she was talking about. Crazy librarian lady? Weren’t these so called librarians Mily’s belief? But Midari told me that they don’t exist.
,,Hey!” Midari shouted through an open window that a certain student (it was Monday) left open ,,HEY YOU THERE! The lady with a weird hat!”
In the middle of the yard there stood a pretty woman, with fancy clothing. The moment she heard Midari she looked up at us. Even from the distance her eyes were noticeable, as they were golden, the same shade as the quill.
,,Yes! Listen lady, Mily said that she isn’t in the mood for you today! So come back tomorrow or… never!” Midari stuck her tongue out at her. The woman looked very unimpressed. She mumbled something and then, as a teacher walked in front of her, she disappeared.
,,Now that was weird” I told Midari and she agreed. Midari had placed her teddy on the floor so she picked it up, but she noticed an envelope next to it. She picked that up as well and brought it straight to Mily.
Dearest residents of this school,
You have something that belongs to me and I would be most grateful if you’d return it, peacefully, of course. I’ll return your friend if you do so.”
Elizabeth, the head librarian
Mily read the letter out loud for us to hear. She then sighed, squeezing the paper. Mily chanted something and the paper started to burn, leaving nothing behind but ashes.
,,Oh well, funny way to start the day” Millie tried to joke again, as she was called in the kitchen for a council meeting (the whole council being Mily).
,,We fucked up, we really fucked up this time” Mily was panicking. Saki tried to calm her down, but she simply wouldn’t.
,,Mily, did that woman, Elizabeth or whatever, take Edgar?” Millie decided to ask, despite looking scared.
,,Yeah. She’d like the quill back, because it belongs to her.”
,,Can’t she buy another one?” Wendy was annoyed with the whole situation.
,,If they’d sell quills like that one in every marketplace…”
,,Anyway! How do we get Edgar back? That’s our main focus!” I reminded them.
,,Don’t you want to find out what the librarians are?” Millie questioned me.
,,I mean…yeah…What are they Mily?” The witch took a deep breath (she couldn’t actually breathe but the action looked like that) and then started.
,,The librarians are a group that control this whole universe. They use special quills and books to write people’s lives, people’s destinies. Meaning that they probably wrote this very conversation we’re having. Though it’s hard to control us, because we are just projections of souls, souls of people that used to live. They mainly control the physical body, which we don’t have. Yes, they create someone’s souls but they don’t have any power over it.”
,,Allow me to see if I got this correctly” Millie interrupted her ,,They could control, say, the action of dancing. I mean, they could make you dance. But they won’t be able to control your thoughts? Like you could still think: I don’t want to dance!”
,,Kinda, yeah. Continuing, they wrote the very existence of the universe. The Elizabeth woman is the so called “head librarian”, meaning she controls everything. The others help her out, they create living creatures, but they don’t have absolute power like the head librarian. Elizabeth uses that quill to write and she needs it back.”
,,So then, let’s give it back. Won’t it be easier like that?” Kevin suggested.
,,No, it won’t. The quill still holds an amount of Elizabeth’s power. We could use that power to write something, meaning we could revive ourselves. Carter mentioned that he wanted to give Edgar the feather, that means that Edgar is the one who will be able to write with it.”
,,That’s probably why Elizabeth kidnapped him. But why wasn’t she able to get it back? If she kidnapped Edgar, that means she was here! So she would have easily taken it back!” Millie observed.
,,Not really. You see, Elizabeth isn’t really into magic. I put a spell on the feather, so no one will be able to touch it without dying.”
,,I thought Elizabeth was a goddess” I assumed.
,,No” Mily enlightened me ,,Elizabeth is a human. She has that thing…she’s immortal but if she were to get hurt, she would die. And then a new head librarian would be chosen. And the other two…”
,,But how are we going to get Edgar back?” Midari asked, hoping that Mily would provide a proper answer.
,,I don’t know…”
,,You know what?” I got up from my seat ,,I’ll fight this Elizabeth lady. She can’t be that tough. Plus her power’s gone.”
,,Luna, with or without power, librarians are dangerous!” Mily severely stated.
,,And? Your point being?” I angrily questioned.
,,You can’t mess with one!” she yelled ,,Last time someone angered them…”
,,I. Don’t. Care!” I shouted back, not letting my guard down. I could see Millie nervously fidgeting and I decided I should try to calm down.
,,They’ll make you disappear! You’ll turn into nothingness!” Mily tried to convince me.
,,If that’s what it takes to bring my companion back! I’ll face anything! I can fight! Stop looking at me like I’m some weakling!”
,,I never said that! I’m trying to warn you! Edgar could fight as well, but they still managed to kidnap him!” Next to her my sister started shaking.
,,Stop it already! I’ll find a way to bring back Edgar! And KEEP the quill!”
,,Luna…stop it! Your sister is crying!” Midari warned me. Millie had placed both her hands on top of her ears so that she could not hear the shouting anymore. Ever since she got bullied, Millie didn’t like fights. She would break down if the people around her were to shout or to fight. The day with the fight she was also shaking and crying, that’s why she jumped on Mily, to make it stop.
,,Luna, we’ll work trough this, together. We’ll find a way, TOGETHER” Mily signaled me to sit down and so I did.
,,But first, a little something about Edgar…”