Chapter 5 – Lilith Meredith – Holly Hayfield

Eating lunch with Val went miraculously well. It was almost as if we were friends. Up until the part where she casually threatened me, that is. She said if I failed to recruit Lilith then she’d ‘reeducate’ me, whatever that meant. That part she saved only for when we were finished eating.

Recruiting Lilith went from something I’d like to do, to something I had to do. Not that this would mean anything to Lilith. Lilith had little patience with me to begin with. She wouldn’t be more welcoming just because my neck was on the line. If anything, that was just assurance that I wouldn’t annoy her in the future. Needless to say this was going to be a touchy operation.

Speaking of touchy, one of Naomi’s girlfriends saw me leaving the library with Val. Hopefully she’d understand this meant I wasn’t joining her group. Something told me she wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘Something’ told me while I was at my locker between classes. Naomi came up from behind me and snatched my cell phone out of my hand. When she gave it back to me I noticed there was a new number in my contact list. I felt like an idiot for having my cell phone in plain sight. As I closed my locker I got a text.

“I’m not giving up that easily.” Naomi’s text read.

Now she had my phone number. I wasn’t sure what to think of that. My mind was focused on the Lilith situation. Val told me that Lilith was usually in the library after school. Did she live in the library? The way Val talked about her made it sound like she never left it. Also, how did Val learn so much about Lilith? Did she bully responses out of her as well? It was well within her capabilities. Maybe that was part of why Lilith was on Val’s student council shortlist.

The situation was stressful. It was stressful and dangerous. Yet, for some reason my personal curiosity was taking priority. The fact that Lilith was related to Judith Meredith was the most intriguing part. The fact that Lilith was attending a school for troubled girls built by her own relative was astounding. My question was if she attended solely because her relative built it? Or was Lilith like the rest of us ‘Troubled Girls’? It was hard to imagine anyone wanting to come to this school by choice. That left only the latter reason.

After thinking it over, only the first reason would give me some explanation as to why she acted so distant towards me. If she were here by her own volition then it was likely she kept herself at arm’s length from the actual ‘troubled girls’. I obviously didn’t fit the stereotypical role of ‘troubled girl’, at least not upfront. That likely wouldn’t mean a damn thing to her. After all, Val was the most courteous looking person I had ever met before I knew who she really was.

Coincidentally, the Meredith legacy came up during my final period, study hall. This study hall was a mess. The teacher was out of the room indefinitely. The girls more or less just did whatever they wanted. As far as I could see I was the only one goody two-shoes enough to study. Some girls were on their phone, some goofing around throwing paper planes, and a group of four girls were behind me talking about a certain school legend. It wasn’t my first time hearing it. It wasn’t an unusual topic at this school.

“I saw it! I saw it in the bathroom of the Old Science Wing!”

“You saw what, two of Naomi’s carpet-munchers going at it?”

“No, you dumbass! I saw the Killing Cat!”

“Yeah right, everyone says they see the Killing Cat at one point or another.”

“If you really did see it then that means you will die. Everyone that sees the Killing Cat dies! That’s why there have been so many suspicious deaths around this school. This place is haunted.”

“I can’t believe you believe in this crap. You probably just saw a stray cat that got in through one of the holes in the side of the school. They should really get this place repaired. We could have more than stray cats sneaking through here.”

“No! I’m telling you it was the real Killing Cat! It’s the same one that killed the school’s founder.”

“Oh yeah…? What color was it?”

“It was white with black spots!”

“That couldn’t be it then. The Killing Cat is supposed to be black with white spots.”

“I heard it was brown.”

“This is so stupid. Do you know how old the Killing Cat would have to be? You’re talking about a cat that was alive when my grandma was my age.”

“You don’t get it. The Killing Cat is a phantom. The school is being haunted. People go missing all the time.”

“People go missing because they get involved in the shady shit that goes on around here. There are no ghosts out here, only drug dealers and gangbangers. If you want to talk about something really scary then let’s talk about them.”

The girl saying she saw the Killing Cat kept trying to prove her case. The full mythology of the Killing Cat was unknown to me. From what people say, the cat had something to do with the death of Judith Meredith. This myth was interesting every time I heard it. As I listened to them talk I began drawing small house cats in my notebook. I tried drawing what such a cat might look like.

The theory of a stray cat sneaking into the school seemed the most realistic, but it was interesting to think about. Some of the hallways seemed so eerie when they were empty that I could almost believe the rumors. It felt like something supernatural could happen at this school. I was never one to believe in ghosts and paranormal activity before coming to this school. The haunting mix between wanna-be gothic exterior architecture and brutalist interior architecture made the school’s atmosphere seem larger than life.

When class was over I headed to the library just as Val commanded. The thing was though, at this moment, I was doing this for myself. My curiosity was piqued. Now that I knew who to talk to about it I could pursue her. It wasn’t going to be easy though. I found Lilith working in the empty library as Val suggested. Lilith was pushing a book cart between bookshelves. She had her headset on as she worked diligently. I was about to ruin her day. Stepping lightly, I snuck up behind her and lowered her headphones down to her neck.

“Hello there.” I said.

She turned around quickly in shock. When she recognized that it was me her shock turned to anger. I already felt like she might try to bite me. I took a cautious step back.

“Did you not get the message clear enough before? I don’t want anything to do with you.”

“It’s not that. I…”

I glanced over at the fully loaded book cart she was pushing around. I looked back at her with a smile.

“I wanted to ask if I could help you.”

She eyed me suspiciously.

“No. Why? You don’t even know me.”

“I was planning to remedy that.”

“No. Go away. I’ll do this by myself, as usual.” She said.

She put her headset back on and pushed the cart along. She pushed the cart down one end of a bookshelf aisle. I stayed on her like a shadow. She pretended to not notice me following her and went on as if she were alone. As she began stocking books I stood close by her side. She continued to ignore my existence despite how close and personal I was. She could ignore me all she wanted, but I had learned a thing or two from Naomi by now.

It was cute seeing her stand on her toes while trying to put a book up on the top shelf. She was struggling with a particularly heavy book. Suddenly the demand for a taller student had spiked. Lilith had access to a free supply right next to her. The only question was would she be willing to ‘buy’ from this ‘seller’. Lilith turned her head to look at me, as if she were just expecting my help. She was still too proud to ask me.

I waited. This wasn’t something I experienced often since I wasn’t exactly tall myself. Lilith was just shorter. Aggravated, she huffed out a small sigh and sat the book in the empty area on the shelf beneath it. She’d have to come back to it later with the library step ladder. I decided to remedy that. Before she could walk away I picked up the book. She saw me grab it.

“I bet you don’t even know where to put that without my help.”

I, not being an idiot, slid the book right into place. She looked genuinely surprised.

“You must think very lowly of me if you believe I don’t know the Dewey decimal system.”

“Most girls at this school would’ve messed that up.”

“I don’t know about that. We all learn the system back in elementary school, right? It’d be hard to find a book in the library without it.”

“You say that like it’s something most people here would retain. It’s rare when someone comes into the library these days. When they do, they almost never find the book on their own. They always want me to look it up and take them to their book personally. Along the way they always bother with some stupid small talk about middle school tier fiction.”

“Is it possible they were using it as an excuse to talk to you? It’s not like you’d be forthcoming any other way.”

The dumbfounded expression on her face made me smile. The thought had never occurred to her. She was thinking about it now, wide-eyed. Then she turned away from me.

“Pfft, who would come in here just to talk to me?” She asked.

“I would.” I said.

“You’re a weirdo. You don’t count.” She said.

What a definitive answer. She continued into the next aisle and began putting books on their shelves. This time I took the initiative by grabbing books off the cart to help her. She went on ignoring my existence, but she couldn’t ignore the books. She couldn’t ignore the fact that this would have taken much longer without my help.

During one instance, our hands brushed together as we reached for the same book. She looked up at me angrily. I imagined a small dog angrily growling at me as it defended its territory. With that mental image in my head I let go of the book and let her put it away. It didn’t take us long to nearly finish the whole cart. Finally, she looked back at me and lowered her headset down to her neck.

“What do you want?” She asked.

Her voice was a mix of aggravation and genuine curiosity.

“I want to talk to you.”

“I told you I’m not going to be your friend. I’m not here to make friends.”

What a cliché line.

“That’s not what I came to talk about. I came here to talk about the school.”

“Oh…?”

“Val tells me that you’re related to Judith Meredith. I feel like if there is someone who knows the most about this school then it’s probably you.”

She looked into my eyes a moment, perhaps to gauge my level of seriousness. She looked down at the cart that only had a few books left on it and sighed.

“Alright, follow me.” She said.

She brought me over to the biographical section of the library. She told me to wait in place as she searched for a certain book. When she found it she had to slide it out carefully. The thing was raggedy and fragile. A puff of dust came out along with the book.

The book was so old and worn out that its cover was torn in places. There was just enough text available to guess the original title Wheel of Fortune style. It seemed to be called ‘The Life and Death of Judith Meredith’, although most of the title was torn out of place. The pages were aged, like parchment paper. The words they held were hardly legible.

“You want to know about the legend that surrounds this school? This is the place to start.”