A Shade of Halloween Book 1

Chapter Four

Selena entered the library and went straight to the History section. Early twentieth century belief materials were arranged at the far back behind a cream-colored wall that almost completely obscured it from the rest of the library.

"Whose genius idea is it to keep spooky stuff in a concealed area?" She wondered.

Selena noticed the librarian at the History section had been changed. A geeky looking brunette with circular rimmed glasses sat behind the desk at the entrance where Rose used to sit.

"Perhaps, Rose has moved on with her career."

Selena glanced at the screen of her cellphone one last time before placing the device in her backpack. Alex still hadn't returned her call or replied to her text. She guessed he was really engrossed in whatever it was that kept him preoccupied and tried to move on with her day. She walked over to the huge bookshelves that lined the section's walls. A quick scan through the navigation sheet pasted beside the first bookshelf informed her of the right directions to get to the subjects she was interested in – Spiritual beliefs, Eugenics and African-American culture.

Selena's goal was to pick two texts from each belief area to study. That should give her a fair idea of the occurrences under each area at the time. She stuck with the plan until she arrived at the spiritual beliefs section. There were a ton of books with interesting titles, a good number of them piquing her interest. She made an exception for that belief area and picked out four books. She was making her way to a desk where she could read, when a book title caught her eye.

Selena Ryder (1881 – Unknown)

The first two words of the title was what caught her attention really. It was puzzling to see a book in that section with her full name as its title.

"What are the odds?"

Selena picked the book off the bookshelf before she noticed the rest of the title. "1881 – Unknown" immediately heightened her curiosity.

"Did that Selena Ryder disappear or something?"

Selena made her way to a desk as quickly as she could and set the books down. She had to make a decision. She could save the "Selena Ryder" book for later when she was done with the others or dive in immediately. Every rational cell in her brain urged her to keep the book for when she'd gotten some paragraphs down for her assignment at least, and so she went with that option.

As she researched and took notes from the other texts, her eyes occasionally glanced at the dark brown book cover with her name on it. Its color was eerily similar to the color of her hair. Keeping her curiosity on a leash was getting increasingly more difficult but she had to do it. Whatever was salvageable of her reputation in History class depended on it. She had to put in a good research paper submission and that was exactly what she was going to do.