Way Out

The man got back to whistling and randomly looking around. While Crescent stood there, not knowing what to do anymore.

There was no way she would be able to look around in the presence of that man. Especially when he was already quite curious about her.

She walked to the door and tried to pull it.

"If you don't know, it's locked." The man commented sweetly.

Crescent rolled her eyes, not wishing to reply to him. She took out a pin from her and tried to insert it from inside. She was sure it wouldn't be of any benefit, but still.

"If you don't know, it is a centuries-old method, wouldn't work for the security today." The voice again came from across the racks.

Crescent huffed but then stood up. Her eyes went across the racks. She couldn't see that person, so how was he able to notice her?

He must be still having a watch on her! Crescent reviewed, already disliking his stalking methods.

On the other hand, that man smiled in amusement. "You know you can steal for what you were here. I won't say a word."

Crescent ignored his words and instead began looking for a way out. There must be an emergency door. What if someday a fire broke out? There should be a way out!

She travelled rack by rack, examining the stone wall properly. Once in a while, she knocked on it, in case she would hear the hollow sound.

But that did not happen.

She was completely ignoring the shadow of the man who was following her every step. He was just two steps behind her.

"Would you stop?!" She ended up asking in the end. Her eyes raged.

That man stopped. "Only if you would stop."

Crescent looked at his carefree form and squinted her eyes. "You do know how to get out, don't you?" Also, coming to think of it, the door was locked from outside.

How did he get in?

She pointed out, "How did you get in?"

The man cocked his chin up, looking proud. "And Her Majesty finally got it right!" He announced and even clapped.

"Done with that?"

"No." He blinked and tilted his head for a millisecond.

"Do you study at this university?"

"Not at all."

"Then why are you here? Coming to think of it, it is getting strange that I bumped into you, out of anyone, here. And even last night, it had to be you, again out of all, whose car hit me."

He shook his head and pointed his finger in correction. "You landed on my b-"

"Car's bonnet." Crescent swiftly interrupted.

"Same thing." He shrugged.

"Stop trying to get away from the question."

"You know," The man took a step closer to her and leaned in, taking a prettily curled up strand of hair and twirling it, "I could say the same. You, out of all, landed out of nowhere and even today, out of all, it had to be you." He very calmly listed the points.

"Now say, who's appearing weirder?" He asked.

Crescent stared into his eyes, slowly raised her hand up and...snatched the strand of her hair from his hand.

"How do I get out?" She asked again.

"I don't want to." He leaned back and turned on his heels.

Crescent furrowed her brows and chuckled in humour. "Who even asked you to get out? Stay here for as long as you like. Just tell me how do I get out?"

"Why would I?" He walked away.

Crescent clenched her fists. She waited for a moment and gave it a thought. It was unlikely that he would stay here all night. At some point before morning, he would get out.

Till then, she could secretly pursue for what she was here. Crescent peeked through the small gap between the books. He was sitting, leaning against the wall, with his eyes closed.

She squinted her eyes. What a cunning man!

She knew that he was not here to sleep at the very least.

Anyways, her focus shifted to the titles of the books. What was in front of her was called 'The Oppression.'

She took and flipped a few pages. It was a modern history book. Crescent closed it back.

She, for another half an hour, just went through uncountable books, flipped a few pages and put them down.

These books were definitely the rare records of the historians, but they did not contain what she needed. Crescent wandered through one rack to another, ensuring to glimpse at that man every once in a while so that he wouldn't leave mysteriously.

However, he sat like that. No movement, nothing. His chest raised up and down at a regular pace.

He was really asleep.

She shook her head and went to the last rack. Crescent wouldn't say that she checked each and every book in the rack because it was nearly impossible.

There were more than a thousand books here!

But she did brush her fingers through almost all.

It was not a sealed assumption, but Crescent had another thought, which she ended up attending. What she concluded was that she might feel something in case she came across the book she was looking for.

Or the content she needed!

To gain what her aim was, Crescent had to know in depth what exactly occurred.

And she didn't believe that it wasn't recorded anywhere!

Either Crescent met someone who was there when all of that went downhill, or she was to find it in books.

"What are you doing?"

The voice right beside her almost gave her a heart attack. Holding her heart which was thumping hard against her chest, Crescent instantly turned around. "Are you insane or what? Stop hovering in my private space!"

"Alright, lady. Why do you look nervous though?" That man raised a brow and there...it was back.

That stupid arch at the corner of the lips.

Crescent looked into his eyes and he did not seem to really have any idea. There was even a little hint of grogginess.

She raised her chin up, "Since someone felt it was more important to slee-"

"Oh, you were missing me? You could have just said, darling."

"-sleep rather than getting out of here! I had to pass the time by reading books."

The man instantly believed her words, surprising to even Crescent. But since it was in her favour, she did not put too much thought into that.