Violet shifted suspiciously in her chair, hands rubbing together as her eyebrow was raised. She smirked wickedly as her eyes glided across the room before stopping at Naomi quietly reading a book by herself. Violet pointed to Naomi with two hands pressed together, both eyebrows raised and lips pressed together, somewhat impressed. She then looked back at me, her grin turning into something that sent shivers down my spine purely because I knew that she was planning something but didn't know what. The thoughts I had last night though, I had to get them out, "Hey." Jordan and Violet brought their full attention to me, "I have a question for you all." I could tell Naomi was paying attention as she leaned slightly towards my direction. "I... the evidence around the accusation and stuff was faulty, my alibi had no inconsistencies and nothing could've actually led to me being the guy who did... 'that'. This included how the girl went back on her previous testimony saying that I wasn't the guy in the first place. Yeah... all of that is well and good but... other than it being permanently on my record and people ignoring me in middle school, why has my overall reputation not... changed negatively. No matter what, my reputation would take a permanent nosedive right, this including the fact that it was public knowledge that I wasn't actually the perp or anything... this included with the fact that I believe that people knew even before then that I wasn't the guy so... why? Why has everything worked out so well? Is there something I'm missing here? Something people haven't told me and had managed to keep it hidden until now?"

Violet leaned back into her chair as Naomi put her book down, Naomi took a deep breath, "Uhh..." She sighed, "I... don't know. You're right to be suspicious of that and stuff especially since none of us here seems to care about something like that when... well, we should." Naomi pressed her lips together, "I don't know how to answer that, but let me give you an example."

"Hm?"

"There was a child rapist, an absolute scum of a man who had married to multiple younger women, and or housed them, making him technically a kidnapper as well. Everyone in that town hated him and one day, someone in the town had shot him, multiple in fact. Almost everyone in this town witnessed this event yet when police questioned them, they all unanimously agreed with each other, without speaking a word, that they hadn't seen anything. It's sort of like that, everyone agreed without saying anything, that we all think you did nothing wrong and we shouldn't treat you differently because the situation involved you."

"You didn't seem to feel this way before."

"I did, you were just being a cunt."

I stifled a laugh, "Right... but... another thing makes me wonder then."

"Hm?"

"The record... did what happen to that girl actually happen and was she forced and or convinced that it was me for a while... well," I shook my head, "I was a middle school student..." I clicked my tongue, "Fuck it! None of it makes sense, it doesn't matter anymore anyway!"

"Did you know the girl personally?"

"Yeah, I liked her before all this shit went down, but was never brave enough to go and actually pursue her, wasn't exactly obvious about it either. I helped a lot of people, poked my nose where I didn't belong a lot of the time. Maybe that irritated the shit out of her or something but even then..."

Jordan raised her hand, "Ummm... it's just best to leave something like this be. It's making me a bit uncomfortable."

"Sorry." I shook my head, "Yeah, you're right, its best to leave it be but I'll have to find some way to get that shit off my record."

"Never made sense why it was put there in the first place, the whole thing never became official in the first place."

"I suspect it had something to do with a restraining order or something, that's the only thing that makes sense."

"Hm... she left the town, right? Like, went to another state entirely?"

"I dunno," I shrugged, "None of my business anymore," I looked over to Jordan, "Sorry for continuing."

"It's fine."

Violet blew air out of her nose a couple of times before confidently standing up from her chair, a smile on her face, and arms crossed, "This is the type of stuff our club was made for!" She declared. Violet slammed her hands down on the table in front of her, "Alright, let's make this a side case!"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"A what?"

"We'll get back to this case once we get a solid lead, but for now, we gotta do a different case!"

I sighed, "Alright, indulge me," I shook my head, "Wait, wait, we have a case?"

"Yes, Savan my dear!"

"Wha-"

"It involves the most mental of gymnastics, the most..." She stopped herself, trying to think of more words, "Yeah!"

"What is it then?"

"Follow me!"

We were all dragged out from the clubroom and brought into a library off-campus. It simultaneously looked abandoned yet well kept, the inside filled with dust and tall shelves filled to the brim with books, all leathery hardcovers. Violet hobbled over to the front desk, plopping both of her arms onto the desk before leaning over it slightly. I leaned over as well, seeing a tall man cramped under a desk slowly clamber his way out from under it. "Umm... hi." He greeted us with a shaky grin, scratching the back of his head.

"You said you had a case for us?"

"Oh... you're that girl." His voice almost came out like a whisper as he continued scratching his head with one finger. "Yes..."

"Could you give us some details!?"

He cringed, "You're loud..." followed up with a sigh, "Yeah... well... there is this smell at the back there," He pointed to the back of the library. "I've called people to check it out but they couldn't find the source and gave up, even torn up the walls and such... it's in the basement, two shelves sitting on each side."

I shook my head after quickly scanning the room, "Why'd you think students would be any better?"

"I'm desperate..."

I shrugged, finding that to be a well enough answer, but it didn't exactly explain the eyes peeking out from some of the black spaces found between each of the books within the library. I tapped Jordan and Naomi's shoulders and pointed to the eyes, both of them nodding in affirmation. "Figures..."

"Hm?"

"Nah..." The eyes are weird but those ghosts are random, they could probably just appear anywhere to freak people out. I looked back over to the man, "Yeah, we'll handle it." I shift my jaw around, examing the library further. Violet almost sprinted straight to the basement door, but I managed to grab her shoulder just in time to stop her.

"What?" She turned to ask.

"Wait a bit, I'm thinking," I look to Naomi, "Rando thought..." I got close, whispering into her ear as quietly as I could. I could visibly see her cringe but I had no choice here, "That guy at the mall, who was he?"

"I don't know." She whispered back.

"Was he connected to something? It seemed like you were there for more than just the sights of the mall."

"Why are you bringing this up now?"

"I don't know, that's why I said it was random."

"I was looking into something, I don't know what it is but I got curious because of how suspicious the people involved were being but that's all I know... other than the fact that they are obviously malicious."

"Yeah... no kidding." I pat her on the shoulder and made my way down one of the small little hallways lined with books. I took out my phone, scrolling to a group chat we had made together, typing, [Jordan, you go to the door, I'm going to keep an eye on the librarian.]

[Jordan: Why what's up?]

[Violet: Hm?]

[Naomi: What's going on? Why are you typing in the chat?]

[I don't want him to hear. Just got a bad feeling."

Naomi and Jordan started a private chat almost immediately, inviting me to it, [Naomi: Is it because of the eyes?]

[Yeah, something is off about 'em, just go and take care of the door, I'll watch the librarian.]

[Jordan: Why are you so "on alert" about him?]

[Just do it.]

[Jordan: Alright, nothing I lose here.] I could hear Jordan calling Violet over. I walk back over to the librarian, seeing as he's still sitting at his desk. I sit down in a chair in front of him, a few feet away as Naomi also made her way to the back with the others. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Nothin', just waiting."

"Jesus!" Violet yelled, "That smell!" I could hear them swing the door open so I stood. The smell wafted over all the way to us.

"Holy shit!" I yelled as well, covering my nose with my shirt, stifling vomit in my throat. "What the fuck is that?"

"It's... the smell."

"And you said it was coming from your basement?"

"Yeah, I don't know... where it's coming from."

"Hey... do you know what that smells like?"

"No..."

"Well, here's the first question, how long have you owned this place, when did the smell start happening?"

"Uh..." I could hear him choking up, "I've owned this place as long as I could remember."

"Could anyone else enter the basement through any other methods?"

"N-" His brow furrowed.

"Hey! Violet!"

"What!?" I could tell that she had just gotten done vomiting by her exasperated tone.

"I solved the case."

"Wait! What!?" They shut the door loudly and rushed out to the lobby, the only one who wasn't there was Jordan, who I would expect to be still recovering from the smell. "What do you mean?"

The librarian grit his teeth, "Yeah... what do you mean."

"I mean, that we'll have the police investigate this place in due time... Naomi, call the police."

"Yeah, already on it." She dialed the number before I could even ask, phoned pressed against her ear.

"They'll see if you're involved with the smell or not."

The nervous demeanor from before had been thrown out the door by now, his eyes showing an empty husk. The librarian flipped over the desk and jumped over it in one swift motion, a weapon in hand. I didn't have enough time to think about what it was before I had already locked his arm in between both of mine, kicking his feet from under himself before flipping him over my shoulder, watching him collide and break the chairs he had landed on. It was a knife, his last-ditch effort which only grazed my arm. I had to wrestle it out of his hand but I managed to take it from him, throwing it to the side. He gasped for air, arms flailing slowly about in a daze.

"Woah..." Violet looked astounded.