I was able to get a job at the school library. The head librarian is a little cannier about the real world than I would have suspected. In fact, I think she may be a watcher… or might have been at some point. The first duty she assigned me was to watch the weird kids. At the time, I thought she was being tacky. As it turns out, that’s the name of their club.

Apparently, a group of students has assembled to watch, explore, investigate, research and discover—W.E.I.R.D. They are convinced of supernatural goings on at the school, and, despite the lack of bodily hygiene and sense, they’re right. Interestingly, the red-headed witch—Luc—was among their numbers. His date had dragged him into it. The cowboy was there too. His name is Jean, but he pronounces it John. I haven’t figured out why yet.

My sneaking skills were a little out of practice, so they noticed me sooner than I would have liked. They left the library, but they had been discussing the supernatural in Blackstone, and if I’m going to protect myself—and Lily—I need to know as much about that as possible. Not to mention I need to keep an eye on Luc to be sure he doesn’t start blabbing about me to his friends. The last thing I need is a group of students at Lily’s school trying to stake me. So, I tried to be subtle about following them. After all, the head librarian hadn’t been specific about how long to keep an eye on them. I’m really not cut out for normal work. It’s not in my blood… even before I died it wasn’t. If it weren’t for the librarians I used to work for allowing me to come and go as I pleased, I’d never have held a real job.

As it was, when they arrived at the dorm, there had been a murder. It seemed the WEIRD kids had been friends with the victim—one was his roommate. No one was being allowed in, so I decided to get some information. I started carrying on and crying in Italian—it’s close enough to Spanish—pretending the dead boy was my dear brother… or boyfriend. I don’t think the officer really knew, and I think I might have changed it a few times. At any rate, we were given more information than we should have been, and we followed the ambulance to the hospital. I was allowed to “visit” with the body. His death was obviously supernatural. Murder… I’ve started wondering if the police in town are in the know and somehow involved.

We needed to do some research, but I don’t have the sources or contacts in town. Fortunately, though, Luc keeps a traveling library in several trunks under his bed. As educated as he is, he has absolutely no people skills. I wonder if that’s how I come across… It’s been a long time since I’ve really dealt with anyone outside of my extended family… So, we went to the Rousseau room.

Ironically, Luc, Jean and I were the only ones that could really do any research. Jean it seems, actually knows French, and most of Luc’s tomes are in French. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn what we needed, then several large worms came in through the vents. Jean dispatched them easily—and angrily—enough. We were able to determine that the creature responsible was a Collector. It collects occult knowledge—from books and people’s heads. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to dispatch it.

Peter—the dead boy’s roommate—brought up the head librarian’s collection, and the WEIRD kids decided they’d better check it out. I was certain it was a bad idea, but I wanted to see what she had hidden away. If she is a watcher, it may be best if I just kidnap Lily and get out of town with her sooner rather than later. She’ll forgive me. Better her angry than at the center of the destruction of the world. Then again, I’m not sure if the prophecies about Blackstone are about the literal destruction of the world—which I find unlikely—or simply the bringing of hell to the world. The latter is certainly more plausible as a long-term goal. Demons do love big talk, but they also enjoy existing. With no world, it is rather hard to exist at all. Why bother coming here to begin with in that case?

As it turned out, Peter had an ulterior motive. He started trying to crack the code on the door—apparently for the second time. It wasn’t long before a tall figure in a black robe showed up, and that is never a good sign. I decided prudence was the better part of valor and let Jean deal with things as he saw fit. Not surprisingly, that meant a great deal of violence.

Luc and Jean are part of the Rousseau family incidentally. Not that it saved us from the Collector in a permanent fashion. Luc was able to exert his will on the amulet Peter had stolen from Ms. Kesterson’s private collection. It paused the Collector, but in the end, Ms. Kesterson—the head librarian—found us and demanded the amulet back. Apparently, when he and his dead roommate stole it, they inadvertently released the collector, and neither had the will to control it.

Ms. Kesterson believed me when I told her I’d been keeping an eye on the WEIRD kids for her. I think Jean is smarter than he lets people see. If nothing else, he’s more sensitive. He seemed fairly upset when the other WEIRD kids suggested he didn’t bring anything to the group. However, I think after saving their collective butts, he showed them that he brought exactly what they needed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 12:51 am and is filed under Episode 1.02, Ileana's Journals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.