Welcome to Tuesday Tales! This week's word prompt is “white”. We are back with Dani in my new Sci-Fi story.
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Despite the eerie glow that emitted from the lamps in the library the evening previous, the darkness of night did a bang up job hiding the mess that was left behind. Two or three desks laid on their tops. Bright yellow caution tape surrounded a couple of splintered bookshelves. Books were scattered around them on the floor in all sorts of disjointed positions. Their white pages fanned out of them, causing a sudden rush of panic in Dani’s soul. The written word was important to her. Why hadn’t someone cleaned this up yet?
The concern was replaced with that all too familiar rush of ice in her veins. Here it was. The moment of truth. She glanced around her at the patrons actively avoiding the mess. There were police officers jotting in notebooks and taking photos of the destruction.
She bit back a sigh of relief. Good. None of them were pointing at her and ripping out a pair of handcuffs from wherever they kept them so they could arrest her. She hurried her steps to the information desk.
Elise gave her a smile as she approached. Good. It was even more assurance that she was off the hook.
She swallowed hard to free her voice. Then she struggled to speak. “Good morning. What happened here?”
Elise motioned towards the debris. “Good morning to you, too. You mean all this? Some drunk broke in and trashed the place last night. He was passed out on the floor when the police arrived. He swears it was aliens. From what I heard, he was messed up enough that the cops suspect he had drugs in his system along with the alcohol.”
Dani glanced down at her hand. It was shaking enough to be noticeable. She gripped onto the desktop to make it stop. “I’m surprised security didn’t see it on the camera.”
“That’s just it. The cameras were blacked out. Matt and Eric were on their lunch break and said they didn’t hear a thing. I mean seriously. How do you miss a drunk leveling the main floor of the library? Honestly.”
“He was inebriated and managed to black out the cameras.”
Elise looked up at her from the books she was inspecting then rolled her eyes. “I wish I could say this was the first time this happened. Unfortunately, it’s not.”
