The Nameless Hero (3 page)

The class got up from their tables and began moving through the stacks. Joey shot me a dirty look, but it seemed tame compared to the way the librarian was still glaring at me.

I stood from the table and quickly made my way between two tall rows of books. Sophie and Milton followed.

“Hey, wait up!” Milton called, power walking to catch up with me. “What’s the big hurry?”

I stopped when we reached an isolated corner of the library. Now that the librarian was out of sight, I realized how foolish I was acting. Was I actually running away from an old lady? In a library?

“Okay, so I guess we’re supposed to look through a few books,” Sophie said, glancing at the shelf beside us.

“I can’t believe Ms. McGirt wanted to have class
here
,” Milton said, grabbing a book at random. “There should be a law against teaching anything on the last day of school.”

Above the sound of their conversation, I could hear a noise from somewhere else in the library. A quiet, steady squeak.

“Do you hear that?” I asked.

“Hear
what
?”

I listened for the noise, but now it seemed to be gone. There was only the slight, distant murmur of voices and the low rumble of the air conditioner.

“Um—never mind,” I said. “Guess I’m just hearing things.”

I glanced at the table in front of me. There in the middle of the table was a book. It was odd. An instant earlier, I could’ve sworn there was nothing on the table. So now I was hearing things
and
seeing things.

At least school was nearly over. I obviously needed the break.

I picked up the book. When I opened it, something fell loose and landed on the table.

A slip of paper.

I took the slip between my fingers and stared down at the words printed across one side:

Pulling my eyes away from the words, I glanced up. Sophie was standing beside me, a very odd look on her face. She was holding a little white slip of paper too. And from where I was standing, I could just make out the exact same text printed on one side.

I had about a million questions pounding in my temples. Where did these notes keep coming from? Why was it that only Sophie and I were finding them?

Over the sound of these questions, I heard the noise again. The steady squeak. This time I was sure it wasn’t just in my head. Judging by the looks on Sophie’s and Milton’s faces, they heard it this time too.

The noise grew louder.
Squeeeaaak
.

It was getting closer.

A form appeared at the end of a row of books. The substitute librarian. She was pushing a cart of books with a loose wheel. When she spotted us, she brought the cart to a halt, and the squeaking stopped. Her head swiveled and she glared in our direction.

Her skin was a pale gray, the color of concrete. The hump on her back looked even worse than it had before, bulging from beneath her blouse. Where her eyes should’ve been,
there were dark pools of shadows sunken into her face. And I didn’t think that was red lipstick smeared around her mouth after all. It looked more like blood.

The librarian opened her mouth, and that was when I noticed her teeth. They were as sharp as daggers.

“Did you forget about an overdue book or something?” Milton asked me in a shaky voice. “ ’Cause the librarian looks seriously ticked off.”

“That’s not a librarian,” Sophie whispered. “She looks like a Cross-Species Hybrid Mutation. Part shark, part human. I saw something similar attack my dad a few months back. Just stay perfectly still. Mutants are drawn to sudden movements.”

“Perfectly still,” Milton repeated. “Got it.”

My heart pounded. A bead of sweat dripped down my cheek. But I followed Sophie’s advice, remaining frozen in place. And the thing is … it actually seemed to work. The mutant’s eyes began to wander, as if she’d lost track of us. She took a step to the side, glancing over her shoulder.

And then the bell rang. We must’ve been so wound up with tension that the sudden noise was like an eject button in our brains. The three of us jumped about ten feet into the air.

The mutant’s eyes snapped back to us. An instant later, she was roaring in our direction.

Of all the days to get mauled by a mutant librarian, why did it have to be the last day of school?

Kids were flooding the hallways and celebrating their new freedom, but Sophie, Milton, and I had something else to think about. The librarian surged toward us, gnashing her pointed teeth. She lifted the book cart off the ground and heaved it at Sophie.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I dove toward Sophie and collided with her a split second before the airborne book cart would have hit her. We both collapsed to the ground just as the cart crashed against the wall behind us.

The librarian howled in anger. Or maybe she was just hungry. It’s tough to tell with mutants.

The cart was lying in a pile of spilled books behind me. I grabbed it and hurled it with all my strength at the
librarian. At the same moment, I felt a jolt of energy blasting in my veins. Spontaneous combustion coursed through my entire body, turning the cart into a blazing tornado of metal and books.

The cart exploded, and the librarian collapsed to the ground, moaning.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that Sophie’s Gyft had just kicked in. Her power of superstrength came with a side effect that was tough to miss. Her skin was glowing brightly, making her look like a human lightbulb.

“Look out!” she screamed.

The librarian was already on her feet again. Part of her blouse had been burned away, revealing a silvery shark’s fin jutting from her spine. So that was why she’d looked so hunched. It wasn’t bad posture. Her shark side was poking through.

“RRAAAAARGHHH!” the mutant roared, lunging toward me. I would’ve ended up shark meat if it weren’t for Sophie. She grabbed hold of a bookshelf that was nearly twice her height and heaved it over her shoulder like it weighed nothing.

“Joshua!” she screamed. “DUCK!”

I dropped to my knees. Books flew everywhere as Sophie swung the shelf like a baseball bat. A whoosh of air swept over my head, and then a loud
craaack
reverberated in my ears. The shelf connected with the librarian, sending her spinning through the air. She collided with a wall and landed on the ground in a heap of books.

Ordinarily this kind of commotion would’ve sent dozens
of kids and teachers running to investigate what had just happened. But right then the rest of the school was too occupied with the start of summer.

Sophie helped me to my feet. Her skin was glowing so brightly that it burned my eyes to look directly at her.

“Any idea why a mutant librarian is trying to kill us?” Milton asked.

“No clue,” I said. “Whatever’s going on, those notes must’ve been from someone who knew this was gonna happen.”

“But that’s impossible,” Sophie said. “How could a note inside a book—”

She stopped speaking when a fierce growl ripped through the room. The librarian was glaring at us with her dark eyes. She rose from the pile of charred books and debris, baring her razor-sharp teeth. All the damage we’d inflicted had only made her angrier.

I wasn’t sure how much longer we could hold out. We needed another strategy. I caught sight of the row of windows lining the wall.

“I might have an idea,” I said to Sophie and Milton. “Just stay here.”

“Why? What’re you—”

Before they could say any more, I set off toward the window. On the way, I grabbed a red book off the shelf and flapped it above my head.

“Here, sharkey-sharkey!” I called.

The librarian stopped stalking toward Sophie and Milton. Now she was staring at me.

This substitute librarian is capable of inflicting some serious pain—and not just with late fees
.

“GROOGGG?” she said.

“Ooh, real scary.” I took my place in front of the windows. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

The monstrous woman responded with a noise—half scream, half roar—that vibrated in my bones. Note to self: never taunt a mutant.

She set off toward me, her silver fin cutting through the air like a knife. Every muscle of my body wanted to get out of there, but I stood my ground, baiting her with the book.

In my mind, I repeated Sophie’s advice from earlier.
Mutants are drawn to sudden movements
. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be testing out her hypothesis with my life, but at least it seemed to be working. The flapping red encyclopedia in my hands was driving the librarian wild. She ripped across the room, a gray blur of gnashing teeth that got closer and closer with each heartbeat.

“Run, Joshua!” Milton screamed. “Get out of there!”

Not yet
, I told myself.
Not quite yet
.

The mutant’s jaws opened wide. She launched into the air.

I dove sideways and hit the ground just as the librarian went sailing through the window. There was the sound of glass shattering. Then she was gone.

“Well, that was a nice way to spend our last day of school,” Milton said.

The three of us were gathered at the broken window, looking down at the parking lot below. The librarian was gone. Although Principal Sloane probably wasn’t going to be happy when he saw the mutant-shaped dent in the hood of his car.

“What’s that?” Milton pointed at the windowsill. Two cream-white envelopes were lying there side by side. One had my name written on it. The other had Sophie’s.

I was positive they hadn’t been there a moment earlier.

I grabbed hold of the envelope with my name, and Sophie took hers. Pressing my finger beneath the seal, I tore it open.

Inside was a slip of paper. It was exactly the same size as those I’d found earlier in the day, but this one had more written on it. My hands still trembling from everything we’d just been through, I stared down at the words.